Why Her Work Is Innovative in Education
Vanessa is innovating in education by placing psychosocial and emotional skills at the heart of learning, helping students develop confidence, empathy, resilience, and critical thinking alongside academic success.
The Challenge
- In France, a strong focus on academic performance fuels stress, anxiety, and disengagement among students, while teachers face growing pressure and burnout.
- Although social and emotional learning (SEL) is recognized internationally as essential, in France it remains underdeveloped, unevenly accessible, and largely limited to privileged settings.
The Innovative Strategy
- Vanessa founded ScholaVie with a clear theory of change: changing teachers changes students. The organization trains full teams of education professionals, teachers, school leaders, counselors, nurses, and trainers, through a rigorous, research-based methodology that combines in-person training, an open-access digital platform, and ready-to-use pedagogical tools.
- In parallel, Vanessa works directly with ministries, researchers, and policymakers to integrate SEL into national teacher training, curricula, and education policy.
The Impact
- More than 18,000 education professionals trained
- Collaborates with 23 of France’s 30 educational districts (académies).
- The organization works with different education stakeholders to help educators integrate social and emotional learning into everyday practice and drive systemic change in the French education system
Why is Vanessa Duchatelle a strong match for the Unlock Education Partnership?
Aligned with Unlock Education’s age priorities
Supports early childhood (0–6) and primary education (6–12) by strengthening educators’ capacity to embed SEL at the most formative stages of children’s development.
Addresses a systemic education challenge
Tackles student disengagement, stress, and inequality by strengthening social and emotional learning in a system heavily focused on academic performance.
Positions SEL as a foundation for resilience
Embeds social and emotional learning as a core component of education to help children develop the skills needed to become resilient and engaged citizens.
Drives system-level change
Works directly with ministries, education authorities, and academic districts to integrate SEL into teacher training, school culture, and public policy.