Pupils’ perspectives on how counselling promotes the development of social and emotional learning competencies: A hermeneutic phenomenological study at a school in Zambia

Elita Mvula and Daniel Ndhlovu

African Educational Research Journal
Published: October 20 2026
Volume 14, Issue 4
Pages 833-844
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23503814

Abstract

The study explored how pupils at a private secondary school in Lusaka District, Zambia, understood the role of counselling in developing their social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies. Attention was given to five areas, namely self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. The research adopted a hermeneutic phenomenological design within a constructivist paradigm. Purposive sampling and individual interviews were used with 10 Grade 12 pupils, and the interviews were semi-structured. Non-participant observation and document analysis were used as methodological triangulation. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data, drawing on van Manen’s four lifeworld existentials of lived body, lived space, lived time and lived relation. Pupils said that counselling gave them a space to reflect on their feelings, manage their reactions and understand the emotions of others. They also mentioned that they were able to build better relationships with the people around them and think more carefully about decisions in their daily lives. The results indicate that counsellors are important in supporting pupils' SEL skills in secondary school. The implications for school counselling practice, counselling policy and future research are discussed in the discussion and conclusion.

Keywords: Counselling, hermeneutic phenomenology, pupils’ perspectives, social–emotional learning, Zambia.

Full Text PDF

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0