A capability pedagogy for excluded youth: Fostering recognition and imagining alternative futures

Abstract

Out-of-school youth are often characterized as at risk, idle, or troublemakers and are essentially excluded from being citizens of their societies. In Tanzania and Uganda, where this study took place, youth who have not completed their secondary education are excluded from further education and formal work and are often not considered members of their community. This article puts forward capabilities and capability-enhancing pedagogies for formal and non-formal education settings that aim to foster greater inclusion and equality for such youth. Drawing on a 5-year study of youth in Tanzania and Uganda, the article identifies two capabilities, recognition and imagining alternative futures, that can be fostered through educational practices. Educational practices that change unjust social structures and relations are described, illustrating how they go beyond both capabilities that are individually focused, and critical pedagogy’s emphasis on raising awareness of social injustices, but not necessarily resulting in social changes.

Reframing Life Skills: From an Individualistic to a Relational Transformative Approach

“…This relational perspective was also evident in the youth's lives in the studies in East Africa and India that I led (Arur & DeJaeghere, 2019;DeJaeghere, 2019b). For instance, these life skills programs taught young women to be self-confident in their skills so that they could be employed or earn a livelihood.…”

“…As community members learned more about the youth, they saw them in new ways and valued them and their contributions. In sum, they regarded the youth as a person with value and esteem (DeJaeghere, 2019a(DeJaeghere, , 2019b.…”

Philosophical Reflections on Child Poverty and Education

“…At the same time, education itself can be one of the ways in which possibilities for social change can be imagined. A number of accounts using the capability approach to analyse educational relationships highlight this (e.g., De Jaeghere 2021 ; Walker et al 2022 ; Unterhalter et al 2022 ). While not discounting the importance of achieving functionings pertaining to, e.g., literacy and numeracy, the approach suggests instead a much broader conception of education, one more akin to promoting the full functionings pertaining to local, national, and global citizenship and the capacity to reflect on one’s values and goals and those of the surrounding society.…”

A capabilitarian approach to decolonising curriculum

“…Epistemic justice was not considered. DeJaeghere (2021: 100, this journal) usefully explores capability ideas but in relation to excluded secondary school youth in Tanzania and Uganda, nonetheless helpfully pointing out that capabilities involve more than knowledge and skills but are rather ‘the real opportunity sets that an individual can consider and/or act on to achieve her valued wellbeing’ (in this case though decolonising curriculum and pedagogy).…”

“…This approach is then explored in more detail through the lens of epistemic justice and epistemic capabilities and proposes an aspirational capabilitarian praxis going forward. The paper builds on DeJaeghere (2021) in this journal but takes it in the direction of specifically epistemic justice capabilities in higher education, which has implications for how we might want students to learn (the pedagogical arrangements), what they learn (curriculum), and the corresponding ethical obligation this incurs for university teachers to contribute to student self-formation (Marginson, 2022) towards better futures, and to expanding students’ capabilities.…”