Evaluating education interventions in Rwanda and South Africa, 2014-2017

Sayed, Yusuf and Salmon, Thomas (2020). Evaluating education interventions in Rwanda and South Africa, 2014-2017. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-853103

This research seeks to answer the question: To what extent do education and peacebuilding interventions promote teacher agency and capacity to build peace and reduce inequalities? The study is aimed at understanding the conditions under which education policies and programmes focused on teachers can promote peace, and mitigate and reduce violence with a view to identifying measures and processes that can increase the effectiveness of such programmes in conflict-affected situations. The research seeks to critically evaluate a series of programmes aimed at improving and enhancing the peacebuilding role of teachers through a multi-scalar, mixed method study that seeks to link the everyday practices of teachers in conflict affected contexts with the local, national and global actors and factors that shape their practices and behaviour.
South Africa and Rwanda have been selected because both countries have emerged peacefully out of intense and violent conflict in the 1990s and now have more than two decades of post-conflict experience to draw from. Secondly, they have been important sites for a range of post-conflict interventions in the education sector, and in particular on teacher related interventions. Thirdly, they allow for a comparison of similar interventions across two countries, which since 1994 have put in place important policy interventions to promote peace and social cohesion which warrant close scrutiny. Fourthly, both countries enable examination of the complex interrelationship between inequality and peace and social cohesion in education.
The overarching aim of the study is to understand education policy interventions that have enabled teachers to become active agents of peacebuilding in post-conflict countries and that may inform future interventions. These objectives are achieved through an empirically grounded evaluation of the nature, implementation, and impact of programmes that are designed to support teachers as peace-builders in schools in post-conflict contexts. The project looks specifically at policies and programmes focusing on teachers, found in both South Africa and Rwanda, including those related to 1) Teacher training 2) Teacher recruitment, deployment and management 3) Curriculum and textbook reform.
Research includes a political economy analysis of the context of these interventions in each country in order to critically embed the research in the local context, and draws upon a realist evaluation approach (Pawson, 2005).
The research team comprises an internationally diverse and interdisciplinary team of experts from the UK, South Africa, and Rwanda with expertise in teacher education, peacebuilding and conflict studies. The research team also worked closely with UNICEF in order to maximise, local, national and global impact and build knowledge and capacity in this important field.

Data description (abstract)

Dataset resulting from a mixed-methods evaluation of education initiatives in Rwanda and South Africa, providing context-sensitive insights on the efficacy of education peacebuilding innovations in these countries. The main research question was to what extent education peacebuilding interventions in countries promote teacher agency and capacity to build peace and reduce inequalities.

Empirical data was collected through one-to-one interviews with diverse education and peacebuilding stakeholders, semi structured interviews, focus groups, documentary and policy reviews, quantitative surveys of teachers, learners and student teachers, and textbook and curriculum analysis. Research was conducted in partnership with local academics and institutions in Rwanda and South Africa. Fieldwork took place across multiple sites in each country and included rural and urban locations.

Throughout the research process, from conception to completion, the research teams in each country engaged with a wide range of national and international stakeholders, including: international agencies, national government officials, INGOs, NGOs and civil society organisations, practitioners within peacebuilding interventions, in-service and pre-service teacher education providers, teachers, teacher educators and students, teacher associations and teacher unions, academics and research institutions.

The research explored six inter-related themes: (1) global and national policy contexts framing teachers’ work; (2) teacher recruitment, deployment and management; (3) curriculum and textbook reform; (4) teacher professional development (initial and continuing); (5) teacher accountability and trust; (6) teacher pedagogy.

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