DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY

A school closer to home: using mealtimes to foster language development, improve girls' nutrition and align home and school in rural Kenya and Zambia

Project disclaimer

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Description

We develop a new way to address educational disadvantage in rural Africa, through a collaboration between academics from Kenya, Zambia and the UK, teachers, families and community groups. The connection between home and school is key to sustainable education: (i) parents must recognise the school's priorities if they are to support their child's continuing education, (ii) teachers need to understand their pupils' home environment so they can build on positive home experiences and (iii) schools must build on children's existing skills and knowledge and fit with their goal of a successful life in their community. There is currently a serious disconnect between home and school in Africa and this is exacerbated in rural Kenya and Zambia by the predominance of non-local teachers who often don't speak pupils' native languages. We aim to connect home and school learning by targeting Early Childhood Education and Development programmes (ECDE; age 4 - 6). Unlike primary and secondary schools, ECDE centres recruit teachers from the local community. The relationship between parents and teachers is closest in ECDE settings, providing a crucial opportunity to build bridges between home and school. It is also a critical opportunity for mitigating early disadvantages for girls and empowering females in leadership roles since ECDE teachers are predominantly female. We prioritise language and nutrition as fundamental to all later learning, and aim to (i) identify positive practices in the home that benefit early language development and nutrition and (ii) to work together with ECDE teachers as researchers to empower them to develop teacher and parent networks to share best practice in school and at home. We target mealtimes for our observations of behaviour and language since they are a particularly rich time for social interaction, and the focus on eating gives an authentic setting for natural communication. Our objectives are (i) to measure home and school mealtime behaviour and language to identify practices that are most crucial for raising the quality of language children are exposed to (e.g., whether adults and children sit together; whether they have a television) (ii) to observe eating behaviours in the home, assess the extent to which girls' eat less food, or less nutritious foods, and identify practices that raise levels of female nutrition (e.g., girls may eat more if they share food as a family, rather than when girls and women eat separately) (iii) to work together with our teacher-researchers and community advisors to co-develop a teacher-network and parent outreach programme, based on evidence from objectives 1 and 2. The aim is to raise awareness and share practices that increase the quality of language children are exposed to at home and in school and raise levels of female nutrition, motivated by evidence of gender inequalities. Objective 3 will be achieved firstly by working together to identify key messages that are culturally appropriate and achievable (e.g., switch the TV off before eating at home; encourage teachers to sit together with pupils when eating in ECDE centres). Second, by working together in practitioner networks, guidance will be developed to inform a parent outreach programme to be shared with well-established groups in the community. The network will also provide a platform for teachers to conduct their own research, share research findings and discuss best practice. Importantly, it will provide a vital link to teachers in primary and secondary education, to develop continuity in children's education. Finally, the evidence base we provide through objectives 1 and 2, and the networks created in objective 3 provide a powerful basis for contributing to the development of the new ECDE curriculum in Kenya and to lobby for similar priorities in Zambia.

Objectives

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.

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Location

The country, countries or regions that benefit from this Programme.

Kenya, Zambia

Disclaimer: Country borders do not necessarily reflect the UK Government's official position.