- Title
- Girls and secondary education in rural Tanzania: perceptions, obstacles, and future possibilities
- Creator
- Iddy, Hassan
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- For many years in Tanzania girls have been under-represented in secondary schools, despite notable efforts by the government through established educational programmes and reforms. Reports indicate that there are many girls who are not enrolled in secondary schools, and some who manage to enrol but fail to complete their studies, while the majority of those who manage to stay to the end perform poorly in examinations compared to boys. Using the perspectives of people living in a rural community, this study explores the possible reasons for girls’ low enrolments, high dropout rates and poor performance in community secondary schools in rural Tanzania. The qualitative research approach using the ethnographic research design was employed to capture the lived experiences of girls and women in one rural village in Tanzania. A total of 28 participants were included in the study, including in-school girls and boys, out-of-school girls, teachers, a headmaster, parents, religious leaders, a Village Executive Officer (VEO) and a District Educational Officer (DEO). The information was collected using observations, interviews, field notes, photographs and document review. African feminisms and Indigenous Standpoint Theory (IST) were used to guide the conduct of the study and the interpretation of the data. This study identifies that, although some people still perceive girls’ secondary education negatively, there are some glimmers of hope and changing attitudes among community members regarding educating girls in secondary schools. The findings further indicate that there are tensions and conflicted perspectives. Some of the participants struggle to reconcile new emerging beliefs about girls’ education with existing cultural and familial practices. The findings also reveal that male teachers abuse their power as educators by engaging in sexual relations with school girls. Despite this abuse of power by the male teachers, it was observed that they were still protected from sexually assaulting young school girls by the headmaster and government officials. Abusive behaviours against girls from adult males and school boys, domestic chores, shortages of female role models, the patriarchal system, the culture and poverty were also found to adversely affect girls’ secondary schooling. The study concludes that, to mitigate the observed challenges, a holistic approach is needed involving all stakeholders in girls’ secondary education. Some recommendations are presented on how to improve the situation.
- Subject
- girls' secondary education; African feminisms; indigenous standpoint theory; Tanzania
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1393710
- Identifier
- uon:33598
- Rights
- Copyright 2018 Hassan Iddy
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
- Hits: 1354
- Visitors: 3203
- Downloads: 2030
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 7 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 90 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |