Becoming‘brilliant’: Generationing education and development in rural Sierra Leone

Abstract

This paper explores the generationing of education and development in five villages in Northern Sierra Leone. Understood as ‘fields’ governed by power dynamics, we consider how the interactive ‘fields’ of generation, education and development coalesce, re/structuring adult and child ‘being’ and ‘doing’. We explore the tensions that arise between transformation and preservation in the field in light of wider social, cultural and economic change, and the negotiation of the generational contract in contexts of high risk and inter-dependency.

Under the Mango Tree: Photovoice With Primary School Children in Rural Sierra Leone

“…During the discussion of taking this photo, a girl, Isa explained that this is her sister who dropped out from school due to pregnancy and who helps her to study at home. This explanation itself provides rich data and a fertile ground for further exploration of girls’ and women’s everyday life in the community including early pregnancies, barriers for pregnant girls to attend school, as well as about literacy dynamics at home (Devine et al, 2021a, 2021b). But the picture itself also represents a teenager who works (in this case sells small agriculture produce – what can be read from the pan on her head) which tells another story about the incidence of child work, sources of income suitable for women and gendered labour division.

Figure 5.My sister dropped out from school (a photo taken by a girl, Isatu).

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“…In addition, other more participatory methods were also used to deepen insights and provide children with the opportunity to express their opinions freely, in verbal and nonverbal ways. This was especially important given the cultural context where children are not used to expressing their individual opinions (Devine, Bolotta, et al, 2021). During the first year of data collection, we conducted drawing exercises with children and organised children-led village tours.…”

“…While this might be linked to their younger age, it was undoubtedly also connected with the general antipathy/disapproval of children expressing their views within the existing social and cultural context. Sierra Leone is a gerontocracy (Bolten, 2012), where children have traditionally been placed at the bottom of the social hierarchy (Devine, Samonova, et al, 2021). The younger children are, the less voice they have.…”

“…This created a polyphonic multilevel narrative of various perceptions of this phenomenon by various relevant actors. For example, in this stage of the analysis, we can see voices of children who are flogged regularly, voices of teachers who claim that corporal punishment is not used anymore in schools as well as voices of parents and elders in families who argue that corporal punishment is needed to help children to stay ‘on the right track’ (Devine, Samonova, et al, 2021).…”

Developing a Social Evolutionary Measure of Child and Adolescent Hedonic and Eudaimonic Wellbeing in Rural Sierra Leone

“…The qualitative focus group investigation informed the final set of wellbeing measurement items that we piloted in the pilot-study post-test. The final set of items were also informed by our ethnographic study (Devine et al, 2021) where one researcher spent approximately 16 weeks in each of two case study communities interviewing children, their parents and grandparents as well as village elders. The quantitative development and testing of the measure took place across the evaluation pilot-study (testing initial items in the pre-test, then testing a refined set of items in the post-test) and in the first wave of the main study.…”