Conditional cash transfers and improved education quality: A political search for the policy link

Conditional Cash Transfer programs (CCTs) provide cash to poor families upon the fulfillment of conditions related to the education of their children. Even though CCTs have been increasingly expected to improve educational attainment – besides their proven impact on greater enrollment and attendance, it is not clear whether they have had any impact on education policies. In order to explore that, this article builds upon a comparative study of three programs: Opportunity NYC, Subsidios Condicionados a la Asistencia Escolar (Colombia), and Bolsa Famila (Brazil). The article concludes that, when it comes to policy-making, the link between CCTs and education policies has been weak, contrary to high international expectations.     

Education and poverty reduction in Tanzania

This paper reviews research on the returns to education in Tanzania, both financial and non-financial, and considers whether these returns translate into poverty reduction. It looks at reasons why achievement of high primary enrolment rates in the past did not lead to the realisation of the associated developmental outcomes, considering factors both within and beyond the education system. Achieving mass access at the expense of quality appears to have had a negative impact on equality. The poverty reduction potential of current programmes to develop the primary and secondary education systems are discussed in the light of past experience.     

Early childhood education for all: a mixed-methods study of the global policy agenda in Tanzania

This study considers the extent to which access to basic education and student learning outcomes have become more equalized or more disparate in Tanzania following the implementation of the international Education for All (EFA) initiative, and whether early childhood education access and performance follow similar patterns. To answer these questions, we apply a mixed-methods research design, which includes a longitudinal analysis of changes in educational opportunity and a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of key education policy documents in Tanzania. Findings from our quantitative analysis suggest that social inequality is persistent across time and consistent across access and learning outcomes at the early childhood and basic education levels. The implication is that, to date, the EFA agenda has only served to reproduce social inequalities in Tanzania, with the exception of increased opportunity for girls. These results align with CDA findings assessing the global and national policy discourse, which find educational inequalities to be prioritized in language but not adequately in final targets and strategies. Given the resiliency of such education inequalities, it would appear that policy capable of removing social barriers to educational opportunity requires more attention to specific at-risk student populations.     

Using a social justice framework to assess educational quality in Tanzanian schools

This paper uses a social justice framework to assess the educational quality of over 100 primary and secondary schools surveyed in northern Tanzania from 2009 to 2011. Significant shortages of teachers, infrastructure, and teaching resources were observed in all government schools. National test exam scores for secondary school students highlighted the growing inequities between private and public schools as a learning environment. Although Tanzania has made some progress, severely under-resourced schools and dismal exam scores raise questions about the quality of education offered. This paper calls for a radical transformation of the current curriculum, strategies, and accountability systems.     

The educational attainment of orphans in high HIV countries in sub-Saharan Africa: An update

Twenty years ago, it was widely expected that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa would lead to a severe deterioration in the educational outcomes among a rapidly expanding orphan population. This article reviews the extent to which this happened by analysing recent national household survey evidence from five high HIV prevalence countries, namely Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The main findings are that while some orphans continue to be educationally disadvantaged in some countries, the overall sizes of already quite small enrolment and educational attainment differentials between orphans and non-orphans have not significantly increased in any of these countries. The main reasons for this are the overall decline in the orphan population (due to the mass availability of life-prolonging anti-retro viral medication), free primary education, lower levels of absolute poverty, and targeted support of various kinds for orphans by governments and NGOs.     

Family sources of educational gender inequality in rural China: A critical assessment

In this paper, we investigate the gender gap in education in rural northwest China. We first discuss parental perceptions of abilities and appropriate roles for girls and boys; parental concerns about old-age support; and parental perceptions of different labor market outcomes for girls’ and boys’ education. We then investigate gender disparities in investments in children, children's performance at school, and children's subsequent attainment. We analyze a survey of 9–12-year-old children and their families conducted in rural Gansu Province in the year 2000, along with follow-up information about subsequent educational attainment collected 7 years later. We complement our main analysis with two illustrative case studies of rural families drawn from 11 months of fieldwork conducted in rural Gansu between 2003 and 2005 by the second author.     

Confronting poverty and educational inequalities: Madrasas as a strategy for contesting dominant literacy in rural Bangladesh

In a context of globalisation and the rapid expansion of low-paid ‘global’ jobs, formal schooling is no longer perceived as contributing to the acquisition of skills that are appropriate or even relevant to active engagement with the new opportunities. Based on empirical material from a village in Bangladesh, this paper explores the role of madrasa education in challenging the dominant paradigm of learning embedded in formal secular schooling. Despite charges of low quality and traditionalism, local narratives reveal how madrasa learning is used to negotiate and transform inequalities, both in material and social terms. Madrasa education is cheaper, and addresses issues of poverty, but the narratives also emphasise learning the Arabic language, seen to facilitate male overseas migration to the Gulf countries, a channel for upward social and economic mobility. In a context of global competition that supports individualism, a focus on character and morality as represented through an Islamic identity, alongside communitarian values, is seen as important for maintaining a degree of social cohesion and is hence socially valued. Reading and reciting the Quran are also viewed as essential traits for a woman, enabling her to appropriately socialise her children in the absence of her migrant husband. One finds here a simultaneous process of contestation and resistance, seeking successful occupational trajectories and social recognition for men, while at the same time contributing to the reproduction of gendered inequalities.     

后脱贫时代民族地区教育扶贫的困境与优化策略

教育是促进民族地区经济社会发展与个体生活质量改善的重要力量。在后脱贫时代,探求民族地区教育扶贫现状有助于优化教育的社会功能与民生功能。民族地区教育扶贫面临与经济社会发展欠协调、民族文化内生力量被忽略、民生改善主体性待提升等现实困境。民族地区教育扶贫的困境源于教育扶贫目标窄化、教育扶贫制度不健全、学校教育职能单一、地方课程开发与实施不力。注重教育扶贫的民生价值取向,转变教育扶贫政策重心,优化学校教育类型结构,加强培养民族成员的文化主体性,是推进民族地区教育扶贫的现实策略。     

Predicting Participation in Environmental Education by Teachers in Coastal Regions of Tanzania

Theories of responsible environmental behavior (REB) have most often been applied in developed countries and to direct forms of REB such as recycling and conserving water. This study applied a model of REB to a developing country setting in Tanzania based in part on variables from a Hungerford and Volk (1990) Hungerford, H. R. and Volk, T. L. 1990. Changing learner behavior through EE. Journal of Environmental Education, 21: 8–21. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar] model and targeting an indirect form of behavior: teaching environmental education (EE) to youth. A quantitative survey was developed and administered to 397 teachers from schools in coastal regions of the country. Regression analyses revealed a sequential model in which entry level variables predicted ownership variables, and ownership variables predicted empowerment variables. In addition, cognitive variables were particularly strong in predicting behavioral intent compared to affective variables.     

The cultural politics of constructivist pedagogies: Teacher education reform in the United Republic of Tanzania

This article examines recent educational reforms in Tanzania by looking at the cultural politics of pedagogical change in secondary and teacher education. It presents an ethnography of a teachers college founded on the principles of social constructivism in a country where formalistic, teacher-centered pedagogy is the norm. Using data collected through a year of participant observation, it argues that the cultural, economic, and political dimensions of teachers’ practice need to be considered alongside efforts to reform the country's educational system. It offers contingent constructivism as an alternative to the international consensus on a single model of excellent teaching.     

How children living in poor areas of Dar Es Salaam,Tanzania perceive their own multiple intelligences

This study was carried out with 1,857 poor children from 17 schools, living in low-income areas of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. All children took the ‘Student Multiple Intelligences Profile’ (SMIP) questionnaire as part of a bigger project that gathered data around concepts and beliefs of talent. This paper sets out two aims, first to investigate the structural representation of the self perceived multiple intelligences for this set of children and second to discuss how the best fit model might reflect children’s culture and their school experiences. After carrying out exploratory factor analysis, a four factor first order model was shown to have a good fit. A higher order factor solution was investigated owing to the correlation of two latent constructs. In order to provide some insight into the multiple intelligences construct the relationship between the SMIP items, student test outcomes and attitudes to learning were examined. The item groupings were explored through African cultural beliefs around intelligences indigenous to African communities.     

Topographies of power: a critical historical geography of schooling in Tanzania

This article builds a case for critical historical geography in comparative education to examine how, over time, the social production of space contributes to educational disparity. It draws on Gupta and Ferguson's contrasting concepts of the ‘power of topography’ and the ‘topography of power’ and Lefebvre's tripartite theory of space to explore space–time relationships at multiple scales in Tanzania. Data come from primary and secondary historical texts about the Kilimanjaro Region as well as a longitudinal study carried out between 2000 and 2012 in two districts in the region. The analysis shows how advantage and disadvantage are differentially distributed over time and space, revealing the enduring interconnections of geography, history, and political power in postcolonial states and the importance of multi-scalar comparative research in comparative education.     

The influence of family wealth on the educational attainments of youths in Thailand

This paper investigates the relative role of family wealth and other family characteristics in determining schooling decisions. Instead of employing a common approach that focuses on certain education levels, an alternative method is proposed that allows a study of the entire schooling attainment distribution for youths in different wealth quartiles. Even without access to a direct measure of scholastic ability, the study finds that differences in the “long-run” family factors perceived to be important in shaping cognitive ability account for the bulk of inequality in schooling attainment in the 1991 youth cohort. However, a decline in the relative importance of family backgrounds is observed in later cohorts. The surge in the relative importance of family wealth on college enrollment could be caused by either the increasing cost of college education or by the relatively rich and academically less able individuals taking a larger share of recent increases in college enrollment.     

A critical review on studies of relationship education in the gender equity education of Taiwan: 10 years and beyond

With discourse analyses, this paper attempts to review the research development of relationship education in Taiwan for nearly a decade after the Gender Equity Education Act was announced in 2004, including the research topics generated, the knowledge accumulated, and the results achieved. This paper focuses not only on how the power and impacts of the academic institutions evolves through the production process of knowledge from the research, but also on how the gender perspectives are placed or filled into the discourses. Tracking and reflecting on the discourses and the development of relationship education researches in Taiwan, this paper aims to examine the interwoven effects and influences that social cultures, structures, and institutional power play on the knowledge production and research development of relationship education. The trajectory of Taiwanese experience illustrates a good example for policy making and legislative initiatives in legislative procedures in regard to certain gender knowledge and subjects. It is essential to utilize and coordinate the national resources and academic institutions with further awareness for the direction and promotion of gender knowledge in order for the education and research to root, grow, and prosper.     

In-betweenness in moving images: six experimental tactics of video-ethnography to narrate South Asian immigrant girls’ subjectivities

ABSTRACT

After exploring the interactions between moving image-based art practices and anthropology in recent decades, and the permeable membranes in ethnographic research, we will describe six tactics of video-ethnography used to create experimental narratives with a group of South Asian immigrant girls. Positioned in feminist critical poststructuralism, postcolonial theory and film theory, the research gives visibility to how the participants construct their identities when attending secondary school in Catalonia. Learning from artists like Ursula Biemann and Trinh T. Minh-ha, we have experimented with visual modes of producing cultural knowledge, with the aim of narrating migrant subjectivities and difference through moving images. Specifically, we focus on the production of stories through video-ethnographic research, based on the contributions of Michel de Certeau, who describes tactics as mobile, situated and fluid. In the end, this video-ethnographic research has experimented with reflexivity, ‘facing’, re-framing, in-betweenness, the interval, and spectatorship as tactics of narrating ‘otherness’     

Motives,barriers, and ways of communicating in mother-daughter sexuality communication: a qualitative study of college women in Tanzania

In Tanzania, young women aged 15–24 are at high risk for HIV and nearly half (45%) of women experience pregnancy or childbirth before age 19. The HIV epidemic has motivated many parents to overcome cultural taboos and talk with their children about sexuality, but few studies in Tanzania have examined how young adults perceive these discussions. In-depth interviews with 31 Tanzanian college women (ages 18–25) reveal how they make sense of sexuality messages from mothers that are sometimes vague, admonishing and fear-based. Participants identified how mothers focused on the health, educational and social consequences of premarital sex and emphasised the avoidance of men as a strategy to maintain virginity. Mothers avoided providing specific information about safer-sex practices, or strategies to negotiate romantic relationships, sexual pressures or sexual desires. Findings offer insight into how relational and cultural contexts influence mothers’ sexual socialisation and can inform education and intervention approaches that consider the changing cultural landscape. Future qualitative research with mothers is recommended to develop programmes that are more responsive to mothers’ and daughters’ needs.     

The social and educational impacts of the first national Down Syndrome support group in the UAE

Although there is a fairly extensive literature on social and educational inclusion of individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) in many countries, very little is produced on the life and education of such individuals in the United Arab Emirates. There is an apparent lack of societal interest in the quality of lives of people with DS. The condition of DS is nearly a taboo subject in this part of the world. With only a handful of pupils with DS included in regular schools, and with many myths and misconceptions surrounding the syndrome and individuals, particularly children with the syndrome, the first ever national support group for individuals with DS, their families and their carers was formed in late 2004 in the United Arab Emirates. This paper examines and evaluates the social and educational impact of the support group. The study particularly focuses on the role of such group in promoting social inclusion and inclusion of pupils with DS in regular schools in the UAE. Members (mainly parents of individuals with DS) of the newly-established group participated in two interviews six months apart and the researcher observed group meetings, recorded activities and events over the same period. Views of individuals with DS on the effects and the activities of the group were also gathered through semi-structured interviews.
Participants reported significant benefits from participating in the group, particularly in the areas of promoting social acceptance for individuals with DS. The study found that the group also helped in eliminating and correcting some of the myths surrounding the syndrome and played a role in promoting social and educational inclusion of such individuals. The study ends with a discussion of the findings and recommendations for future practice.     

Participative planning of environmental education activities: experiences from tree planting project at a teacher training college in Tanzania

Engaging local actors in Environmental Education activities seems to be an important condition for environmental sustainability. Lack of common purpose among local and external researchers constrains the engagement. Following these insights, we implemented a participatory action research project related to tree planting as part of creating an Environmental Education programme at Ilonga Teacher Training College, surrounding primary schools and villages. The purpose of the initial phase of the project was to contextualize an action plan as a strategy to engage local actors in the change process from the beginning of the project. The research questions were: How can we engage local actors in participatory action research addressing resource constraints for EE; and what are the results of the participatory planning process? To answer these questions, we mapped environmental resources and challenges in the chosen area. Thereafter, we organized an empowerment process through Focus Group Discussions and a workshop discussing the challenges and opportunities available for successful implementation of the project. These discussions formed the foundation for creating a plan for implementing the EE project. In this paper, we present the results of the planning strategies, and discuss factors contributing to the success of the initial phase of the project. We found that stakeholders’ trust and sense of project coherence were key motivating factors for the development of a collaborative planning process and learning through initial actions.     

A comparison of the menstruation and education experiences of girls in Tanzania,Ghana, Cambodia and Ethiopia

The barriers to menstrual hygiene management faced by adolescent schoolgirls in low-income countries are gaining interest at practice and policy levels. The challenges include inadequate water, sanitation and disposal facilities for the management of menses with privacy and dignity, and insufficient guidance to help girls feel confident in attending school during menses. The studies described here aimed to examine how menarche impacts the lives of schoolgirls in three low-income countries (Ghana, Cambodia and Ethiopia). The focus included girls’ school participation; their relationship with parents, teachers and peers; their evolving sanitation and hygiene needs; their understanding of cultural issues and taboos around menses; and what education, if any, they received prior to and during puberty. This comparative analysis was aimed at identifying similarities between the three countries that would enable the adaptation to each context of a training book on menstruation issues for girls, which was developed from a previous study conducted in Tanzania. In all three countries, participatory activities were utilised with girls and results were analysed using grounded theory. Findings included: similarities regarding the importance of culture in perpetuating negative attitudes towards menstruation, limited provision of health information and insufficient facilities within schools. Differences were revealed regarding menstrual myths, parent–child dynamics, sources of guidance and student–teacher relations. There is a critical knowledge gap around menstruation and girls’ education in these contexts that must be addressed to ensure that girls experience a positive menarche and can manage menstrual hygiene.