scholarly journals Can the ‘Learn in peace, educate without violence’ intervention in Cote d’Ivoire reduce teacher violence? Development of a theory of change and formative evaluation results

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. e044645
Author(s):  
Karen Devries ◽  
Manuela Balliet ◽  
Kerrie Thornhill ◽  
Louise Knight ◽  
Fanny Procureur ◽  
...  

ObjectivesTo gather evidence on whether a brief intervention (Apprendre en paix et éduquer sans violence, developed by the Ivorian Ministry of Education and Graines de Paix) to promote peace in primary schools by reducing teacher violence perpetration and improving pedagogical techniques was acceptable to teachers and affected change in intermediate outcomes.DesignMixed-methods formative research.SettingPrimary schools in Tonkpi region, Cote d’Ivoire.Participants160 teachers participating in the peace training, surveyed three times during implementation; qualitative in-depth interviews with 19 teachers and teacher-counsellors.InterventionsLearn in peace, educate without violence–a brief intervention with primary school teachers designed to promote peace in primary schools.OutcomesFor survey data, we generated composite measures of intermediate outcomes (teachers’ awareness of consequences of violence, self-efficacy in applying positive classroom management methods, acceptance of physical discipline practices in school) and used random intercept linear mixed-effects models to compare responses over time. Qualitative research included open-ended questions about acceptability and perceived need for such an intervention. A framework analysis was undertaken.ResultsFour-months post-training (vs pretraining), teachers had higher self-efficacy in applying positive classroom management methods (pre-mean=26.1; post-mean=27.5; p<0.001) and borderline lower acceptance of physical discipline practices (premean=4.2; postmean=3.6; p=0.10). We found no change in teacher awareness of the consequences of violence. Qualitatively, teachers found the intervention acceptable and understandable, perceiving it as useful because it provided methods for non-violent discipline. Teachers had mixed views about whether the techniques improved classroom dynamics.ConclusionsData suggest that the intervention is acceptable and leads to change in intermediate outcomes for teachers. Further evaluation in a randomised controlled trial is warranted.

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (53) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Anisa Rahmadani ◽  
Farida Kurniawati

Introduction.  The numbers of students with special needs studying in regular classes is increasing every year. This increase has consequences for teachers, who must manage classrooms to meet the students’ diverse needs and characteristics. The contributing factor to successful inclusive education is teachers’ self-efficacy in practicing it. Successful implementation of inclusive education, on the other hand, classroom management can be viewed as performance influenced by the extent to which teachers are involved in their work, that is, teachers’ “engagement.” Method.  This quantitative correlational study aimed to determine whether teachers’ engagement mediates self-efficacy in inclusive practice and classroom management. A total of 242 inclusive primary school teachers in DKI Jakarta-Indonesia, completed three self-report questionnaires. Results.  Teachers’ engagement significantly acts as mediator in the correlation between teachers’ self-efficacy and their classroom management. Discussion and Conclusion.  Using motivational process in the job-demand model, results show that teachers’ self-efficacy functions as a personal resource in implementing inclusive education. This means that teachers’ self-efficacy conducted by teachers first raises the condition of the teacher involved in the role of work, before finally influencing the extent to which the teacher managed the classroom. Therefore that overall student, including students with special needs, get the optimal educational benefits.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serge Ayekoe ◽  
Christin Lang ◽  
Gnamien Sylvain Traoré ◽  
Jürg Utzinger ◽  
Markus Gerber ◽  
...  

Background. Physical activity is known to improve health and cognitive function in children. Yet, in Côte d’Ivoire, physical education (PE) receives little attention in the current school curricula due to insufficient time allocation, lack of fresh-up training for teachers, as well as insufficient governmental financial contribution towards school infrastructure, materials and sport facilities. Objective. In the frame of the implementation of a randomized-controlled trial, in which we will examine the effects of a school-based physical activity and multi-micronutrient supplementation intervention on primary school children in Côte d’Ivoire, we carried out a situational analyses of PE in eight randomly selected public primary schools in Taabo, Côte d’Ivoire, from November 2019 to March 2020 in advance. Methods. First, the study comprised a systematic observation of the school environment. Second, guided interviews were conducted with the Inspection of the Ministry of National Education of Taabo, and the general inspectorate of national education in charge of PE and sport at Abidjan. The primary focus in these interviews was placed on primary school organization, training of teachers, time allocated to PE in the official schedule, as well as monitoring and evaluation of the PE curriculum. Third, eight focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with 40 teachers and 8 school principals focusing on the PE program, teacher`s perception and motivation towards teaching PA. Fourth, we carried out cost analysis to estimate the required financial resources for basic school infrastructure (sport fields), teacher salary and consumables, sport materials and equipment, which are required to meet minimal standards for implementing quality PE at public primary schools in rural Côte d’Ivoire. Last, we implemented a participatory dialog with an educational inspector, school teachers and principals to improve the situation of PE in Taabo. FGD transcriptions were transferred to MAXQDA for analysis. Results. In line with the national curricula, teachers perceive PE to be important for children’s motor and social learning. Despite this importance, PE remains a neglected school subject. The main reasons stated were (i) significant reduction of PE lessons per week in favour of academic subjects, (ii) lack of training, (iii) insufficient sports facilities and equipment, and (iv) absence of an evaluation guideline on how to grade a child`s PE performance. Our financial appraisal reveals that a minimum investment of FCFA 2’710’000 (~ US $ 5’000) per school is needed to establish a basic infrastructure at each school and to empower teachers to conduct standardised and quality PE in this area.Discussion. The promotion of PE is currently not a key educational target in Côte d’Ivoire. Thus, the neglected importance at national level perpetuates the marginalized status of PE. Overall, teachers claim that the lack of support in a setting without proper facilities, equipment, and personal skills hampers their motivation to implement PE. Conclusion. In order to initiate a change to the current situation, evidence on the overall health benefits and academic performance of regular physical activity among primary school children is urgently needed to highlight the importance of this neglected school subject to education authorities


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Rassidy Oyeniran

In Côte d’Ivoire, the situation of women in positions of power remains a sensitive and controversial issue. Women are mostly subjected to preconceptions that place them in challenging situations. The study sought to explore the experiences of women primary school principals, and to examine the hindrances that these women leaders encounter. Using mixed method approach, 11 women principals were purposefully sampled from the research field comprised of 11 primary schools located in Abidjan. The questionnaire and the semi-structured interview were utilized as tools to gather data. Findings revealed that women principals have hidden talents and competencies, as they perform in an ethical manner using the transformational style of leadership. Yet, as showed in the results, women principals experience a number of challenges and hurdles that stand in their pathways or occur when performing their leadership roles. The current study advocates getting rid of unnecessary and harmful prejudices that prevent women from moving up in order to allow them to express their inner potential. Besides, this study suggests a critical way of thinking with a view to promoting women in educational leadership positions. There is a need to empower women not only by bridging the gap that exists between men and women, but also for the welfare of students, especially those with special needs, because every schoolchild regardless his or her family background has the right to succeed in his or her learning process according to the principle of equity, universally recognized.


Author(s):  
Parfait K. Kouamé ◽  
Anaïs Galli ◽  
Maryna Peter ◽  
Georg Loss ◽  
Diarassouba Wassa ◽  
...  

In rural settings of Côte d’Ivoire, access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) at schools is often lacking. The purpose of this study was to assess the availability, quality, and use of WASH infrastructure in schools in the south-central part of Côte d’Ivoire, and to determine the hygiene practices of schoolchildren. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 20 primary schools with (n = 10) or without (n = 10) direct access to drinking water. The survey was comprised of a questionnaire directed at schoolchildren aged 8–17 years, an assessment of the WASH infrastructure, and the testing of drinking water samples for Escherichia coli and total coliforms. Overall, 771 schoolchildren were enrolled in the study. One out of four children (24.9%) reported that they used available toilets. Among those children not using toilets, more than half (57.5%) reported that they practised open defecation. Drinking water infrastructure was limited in most schools because of poor storage tanks, the low flow of water, or broken wells. All drinking water samples (n = 18) tested positive for total coliforms and 15 (83.3%) tested positive for E. coli. The lack of WASH infrastructures in primary schools in the south-central part of Côte d’Ivoire, in combination with poor hygiene practices, might govern disease transmission and absenteeism at school, especially among females.


Author(s):  
Shoichi Matsumura

Abstract Although the teaching of English to primary school children has been rapidly growing in many English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) countries around the world, a shortage of specialist teachers remains a persistent challenge. Consequently, non-specialists, such as homeroom teachers initially trained as generalists, are more often required to teach English. The present study, focusing on 304 non-specialist teachers serving in Japan’s public primary schools, was designed to explore their perceived self-efficacy for teaching English, and to examine the impact of teacher characteristics (i.e., their perceived English proficiency, English-teaching experience, and appraisals of collaboration with native English-speaking teachers) on their level of self-efficacy. A multiple regression analysis revealed that the collaboration variable was more influential than the proficiency variable and that there was no significant relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and teaching experience. Moreover, integration of these results and teachers’ comments in the open-ended question suggested that they functioned most effectively in student engagement by playing roles unique to non-specialist teachers and that they perceived team teaching to be more beneficial in classroom management than solo teaching. Implications for in-service training are discussed to support non-specialist teachers in primary English education.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1177-1203
Author(s):  
Hüseyin Aslan ◽  
Semanur Alpaslan

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the coping strategies used by the class teachers and the self-efficacy perceptions. The research has been conducted in relational survey method. The universe of the research is composed of class teachers working in the primary schools in the provincial centers of Samsun in the academic year of 2018- 2019. In the study, has been used ”the scale of determining strategies used by pre-school teachers against undesired behaviors in classroom management, developed by Keleş (2015) and teacher self-efficacy scale prepared by Çapa, Çakıroğlu and Sarıkaya (2005). The research was carried out with the participation of 528 classroom teachers. The data collection tool consists of three parts. For statistical analysis, ”SPSS 24.0 for Windows“ was used. Descriptive statistics, mann whitney u test, kruskal wallis h test and correlation analysis has been used to analyze the data. As a result of the study, it is found that classroom teachers are generally “indecisive” in coping with unwanted behaviors, and self-efficacy belief levels11 were “quite sufficient” for the whole scale. In addition, it was determined that teachers with high self-efficacy mostly used reality therapy / control model in coping with undesirable behaviors, and at least the safest discipline model and social discipline model were used. Therefore, there is a significant relationship between classroom teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and methods used to deal with unwanted behaviors. Methods used by teachers to deal with unwanted behaviors; There were significant differences between marital status, educational status, professional seniority and service duration in the institution. On the other hand, it was concluded that there was no significant difference according to gender variable. While teachers' self-efficacy beliefs differed significantly according to gender, professional seniority; It was concluded that there was no significant difference between marital status, educational status and service duration variables in the institution. ​Extended English summary is in the end of Full Text PDF (TURKISH) file.   Özet Bu araştırma, sınıf öğretmenlerinin karşılaştıkları istenmeyen öğrenci davranışlarına karşı kullandıkları baş etme yöntemleri ile öz yeterlilik algıları arasındaki ilişkiyi belirlemek amacıyla yapılmıştır. Araştırma ilişkisel tarama modelinde gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırmanın evrenini, 2018-2019 eğitim-öğretim yılında, Samsun ili merkez ilçelerindeki ilkokullarda görev yapan 1481 sınıf öğretmeni oluşturmaktadır Araştırmanın örneklemini ise evren içerisinden rastgele örnekleme yöntemiyle seçilmiş olan 528 sınıf öğretmeninden meydana gelmektedir. Araştırmada veri toplama amacıyla Keleş (2015) tarafından geliştirilen “Okul Öncesi Öğretmenlerinin Sınıf Yönetiminde İstenmeyen Davranışlara Karşı Kullandığı Stratejileri Belirleme Ölçeği” ve Türkçe için geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması Çapa, Çakıroğlu ve Sarıkaya  (2005)  tarafından yapılan  “Öğretmen Öz Yeterlilik Ölçeği” kullanılmıştır. İstatistiksel çözümlemelerde “SPSS 24.0 for Windows” paket programı kullanılmıştır. Araştırma verilerinin analizinde betimsel istatistikler, Mann-Whitney-U testi ve Kruskal Wallis testi ile korelasyon analizleri kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda, sınıf öğretmenlerinin istenmeyen davranışlarla  orta  düzeyde başettikleri, öz yeterlilik inanç boyutu bakımından ise öğretmenler kendilerini “oldukça” düzeyinde başarılı görmüşlerdir. Ayrıca öz yeterliliği yüksek olan öğretmenlerin istenmeyen davranışlarla baş etmede en çok gerçeklik terapisi/kontrol modelini kullandıkları, en az ise güvengen disiplin modelini ve sosyal disiplin modelini kullandıkları belirlenmiştir. Dolayısıyla sınıf öğretmenlerinin istenmeyen davranışlarla baş etmede kullandıkları yöntemler ile öz yeterlilik inançları arasında anlamlı bir ilişki olduğu görülmüştür. Öğretmenlerin istenmeyen davranışlarla baş etmede kullandıkları yöntemler; medeni durum, eğitim durumu, mesleki kıdem ve kurumdaki hizmet süresine göre anlamlı farklılık gösterirken; cinsiyet değişkenine göre anlamlı bir farklılık göstermediği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Öğretmenlerin öz yeterlilik inançları; cinsiyet, mesleki kıdeme göre anlamlı farklılık gösterirken; medeni durum, eğitim durumu ve kurumdaki hizmet süresi değişkenlerine göre anlamlı bir farklılık göstermediği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasodhara Bhattacharya ◽  
Fabrice Tanoh ◽  
Shamina Shaheen ◽  
Kaja Jasinska

Child labor disrupts education, but there is scant research on the reciprocal relationship: education disrupting child labor. We examined the link between school quality and child cocoa agricultural labor in a sample of 2168 fifth-grade children from forty-one primary-schools in rural Côte d’Ivoire. Children attending a higher quality school were less likely to work on a cocoa plantation. Specifically, quality infrastructure and teaching materials were associated with reduced cocoa labor, but not with domestic and economic work. Against the backdrop of a global focus on improving education quality, and 2021 being the International Year of Elimination of Child Labor, we suggest that investments in quality education may serve the dual purpose of reducing child labor alongside improving children’s learning outcomes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-374
Author(s):  
A. Yao ◽  
A. Hué ◽  
J. Danho ◽  
P. Koffi-Dago ◽  
M. Sanogo ◽  
...  

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