Degree Name
MA in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management
First Advisor
Paul LeVasseur
Abstract
The orphans and vulnerable children of northern Tanzania are offered a unique opportunity of education if selected to attend Peace House Secondary School. The school selects the most needy of this ostracized demographic and offers high quality education by focusing on student-centered techniques.
This study investigates the expectations between students and teachers using ethnographic methods carried out in 2010 and 2011, including student-wide survey, classroom observations and interviews with both teachers and students. Student perspective was intentionally of particular focus in data collection.
The study found that expectations which were shared by all participants revolve around passing exams. Students are additionally expected to respect teachers, which was explained from the backdrop of passing the tests. Many challenges for students to reach these expectations were expressed by all participants. They include language barriers, maturing feeling towards romantic relationships and being able to apply what they learn.
Discourse, however, rose when discussing additional expectations on teachers. Students voiced concerns of fairness, role modeling and whole-person support from teachers. Students, even though they appreciate teachers, have high expectations which are largely unmet.
What started as an inquiry of expectations leads to simultaneously answering the question ‘to what extent does Peace House accomplish their mission’. This leads to an analysis of the Peace House system as it relates to development, pedagogy and humanity. This study high-lights how one relatively young organization with high expectations is implementing low levels of change but struggles to manifest its large mission to its potential. Is paradise lost, found or simply being created?
Disciplines
Curriculum and Social Inquiry | Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Sociology | Inequality and Stratification
Recommended Citation
Bee, Kelli, "Paradise Lost, Found Or Created? Expectations Between Teachers And Vulnerable Children: Case Study On Peace House Secondary School, Northern Tanzania" (2011). Capstone Collection. 2453.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/capstones/2453
Included in
Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons