Matthew Hirshberg, PhD, focuses on mediation-based interventions (MBIs) that promote social-emotional competencies, mental health, and well-being in educational contexts. Matt’s interests lie in the interactions between teacher and student outcomes, whether strengthening teacher well-being supports effective teaching and promotes student development, the structure of social-emotional competencies across development but particularly during adolescence, and the role that developmentally and contextually appropriate MBIs might play in improving academic/professional, social, and mental health outcomes in students and teachers. As a former classroom teacher (and student), Matt holds the deep conviction that education can be a powerful lever to improve individual and societal outcomes, but only when the education of qualities like awareness, generosity and compassion are allotted the same importance as the education of academic skills. Matt hopes that his research will raise awareness of the importance of these and other qualities, and by doing so, help educational systems move towards a more humane and holistic model of schooling.
