Participatory action research for school improvement : the Kwithu project

Author / Creator

Wamba, Nathalis G. author

Available as

Online

Summary

In August 2012, the author was awarded a grant to travel to Malawi where he conducted a school improvement project. After a teacher at Kwithu, a community-based organisation in Luwinga serving orph...

In August 2012, the author was awarded a grant to travel to Malawi where he conducted a school improvement project. After a teacher at Kwithu, a community-based organisation in Luwinga serving orphans and vulnerable children, administered an English diagnostic test to a random group of 40 seventh and eighth graders (boys and girls) and discovered that they could hardly read or write, he initiated a participatory action research project involving the school stakeholders, to identify causes for the low academic achievement of children in Luwinga. This case provides an account of the participatory action research method used for the project and sheds light on the process of mobilisation, the intergroup dynamics, the challenges of participation, the researcher's cultural limitations, and the political context within which the Luwinga schools operate.

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