Navigating transitions to adulthood through secondary education: aspirations and the value of education for Tanzanian girls

Abstract

A rapidly increasing proportion of youth in developing countries pursue their transition to adulthood through post-compulsory education. Studies on the role of formal education in youth transitions tend to focus on the structural constraints to successful transitions and less attention is given to the voices and reflections of young people, particularly inschool youth. Qualitative data gathered among 100 female students enrolled in the third year of lower secondary school depict the educational aspirations and future orientation of Tanzanian girls. The focus of the analysis is on how girls see the value of secondary education in their transition to adulthood. Students' future-oriented assessment of their education and the value they attach to it illustrate why girls pursue schooling beyond primary level despite the meagre opportunities for higher education and employment. The findings demonstrate that girls want to study to develop themselves, to advance in life and to help others. Besides the instrumental value of education, students emphasise the intrinsic value of being educated. Supporting the 2 aspirations of youth by providing feasible skills and strategies is a challenge to education systems. Student perspectives provide valuable insights into the discussion on the role of secondary education in youth transitions.

The significance of student voice: female students’ interpretations of failure in Tanzanian secondary education

“…For students who aim to proceed to upper secondary education (Form 5 and 6) the Form 4 examinations form a bottleneck i . Transitions from primary to secondary and from lower to upper secondary education are critical stages for girls, in particular, and the dropout rates of girls in secondary education are higher than those of boys (Okkolin, Lehtomäki and Bhalalusesa 2010;Posti-Ahokas and Palojoki 2013). A significant proportion of students in secondary schools are over-aged due to repetition and drop-out caused by financial constraints within families and the school system and the low quality of education provision ii (e.g.…”

‘School is the Foundation of Everything’: Master- and Counter-narratives in Lower Secondary School Pupils’ Stories About the Importance of Schooling and Education

“…Overall, however, studies do not support a simplistic narrative in which young people merely strive for the formal competences needed to access the labour market. Research finds that young people see education as important for personal growth (Spruyt et al, 2014), as well as societal development (Posti-Ahokas & Palojoki, 2014). When young people narrate their educational journeys, relationships to place-bound factors such as family (Butler & Muir, 2017), social relations, local spaces and labour markets (Rönnlund et al, 2018) seem to be important.…”

‘Not All of Us Can Be Nurses’: Proposing and Resisting Entrepreneurship Education in Rural Lesotho

“…Doxic aspirations are ‘dominant norms about worthy futures’ (p. 236) circulating through media and policy discourse. Education systems reproduce doxic discourses of modernisation and progress (Ames, 2013), of ‘education–opportunity–mobility’ (Froerer, 2012), of adulthoods defined by paid employment (Posti-Ahokas and Palojoki, 2014), of the ‘backwardness’ of rural communities and of farming as a sign of failure (Morarji, 2014). The universal desirability of modern futures and possibility of realising them through hard work are taken as common sense.…”