Examining northern Namibian teachers' impressions of the effects of violence, gender, disability, and poverty on young children's development: School-based countermeasures

Abstract

A donor-funde d basic education support project in Namibia equipped grade one teachers in the northern district, mostly Owambo-and Kavangopopulated and widely affected by relatively recent warfare in the region, with teachers' guides, posters, and materials for lessons, while also training teachers and introducing them to the basic practices of continuous assessment. Evaluative research assessed the ef cacy of training and surveyed teachers' experiences with using continuous assessment by means of classroom observations , teacher interviews, and focus groups. As an extension of the construct of continuous assessment of cognitive ability, preliminary qualitativ e interview probes inquired about teachers' awareness of and ability to assess the potential impact of gender and disabilit y on classroom performance and also their ability to assess the psychosocial problems of learners whose classroom behaviors may be affected by exposure to trauma in the home, village, and/or extended environment. The ndings of this educational anthropolog y study mainly re ected the teachers' description s of the educational effects of trauma-related psychosocial factors on children; their perceptions of the effects of gender, disability , and the region's poverty; and the ameliorative effects of school-based countermeasures. Crosscultura l and policy implications are explored and discussed.