“In my voice”: girls and education in Kenya and Zambia

Submission note: A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Educational Studies, Faculty of Education, La Trobe University, Bundoora.

This qualitative study investigates the education of girls in two school communities located in an urban area of Kenya and a rural town in Zambia. Voice is central to the conceptualisation of this thesis, and the location of the researcher in this inquiry, in aiming to find an approach that listens, reflects and respects the words of the girls, as well as the researcher’s own positions throughout the course of the dissertation. Much has been written about the importance of educating girls, particularly in the African continent, but little has been heard from the mouths of the girls who have been the objects of research and policy. In attempting to fill this gap in knowledge, a series of interviews was conducted in 2007 with 30 girls and 30 boys in Grades 2, 5 and 8 in their respective school locations in Kenya and Zambia. The girls spoke of themes of family, school, the future, self, trust and gender roles.Their voices were placed in the context of broader themes of education, post colonialism, gender and feminism, identity, and negotiation. All of the children expressed an unequivocal enjoyment of going to school, whilst trust in their teachers, and a desire to extend their educational journeys rated highly. A unique finding of the research was that mothers were trusted, but mothers and female care givers work, both domestic and economic, was not necessarily valued. This suggests that gender roles, as seen in the context of the researched locations, need to be considered in more depth to understand the complexities of the worlds of African children. Differences are also shown between the geographical locations, age groups and genders with respect to the understanding of gender roles. In order to prioritise the girls’ voices it was found that the research was best approached through a narrative inquiry methodology.