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Pedagogical practices in non-formal adult literacy classes in Zambia

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Abstract

In Zambia, adult literacy education is mainly provided in the form of non-formal literacy classes, with a general emphasis on the economic purpose of alleviating poverty. The aim is to increase the number of skilled citizens who are literate. Exploring (1) the pedagogical practices used in this context and (2) facilitators’ choices of certain teaching–learning methods, this article presents a study which was conducted in Katete District in Eastern Zambia. It involved two literacy programmes; one run by the Government of Zambia’s Department of Community Development; and the other run by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Tikondane. The research was framed by international standards of both adult learning and non-formal learning pedagogies. In this qualitative case study, the participants comprised 9 literacy managers (5 female, 4 male), 12 facilitators (8 female, 4 male) and 78 adult learners (56 female, 22 male). Data were collected through interviews, observations and focus group discussions. Observing that both programmes’ literacy classes were dominated by the teacher-centred lecture method, the researchers found that lecture-based instruction, when applied in a participatory manner, is capable of producing considerable learning gains. However, the authors contend that many learners would have benefited more from a learner-centred approach. Another finding was that the majority of the facilitators based their pedagogical decisions on their perception of the adult learners as illiterate and ignorant. Consequently, the facilitators saw their role as a mandate to eliminate illiteracy and ignorance. In sum, the authors conclude that the pedagogical practices applied in the two literacy programmes fell short of international pedagogical standards of both adult learning and non-formal learning.

Résumé

Pratiques pédagogiques dans les cours non formels d’alphabétisation pour adultes en Zambie – L’alphabétisation des adultes en Zambie est essentiellement dispensée sous la forme de cours non formels, poursuivant généralement le but économique de réduire la pauvreté. L’objectif consiste à accroître le nombre de citoyens qualifiés et lettrés. Cet article explore d’une part les pratiques pédagogiques appliquées dans ce contexte, d’autre part les choix des animateurs pour certaines méthodes d’enseignement et d’apprentissage. L’article présente ainsi une étude menée dans le district Katete dans l’est de la Zambie portant sur deux programmes d’alphabétisation, l’un mené par le ministère du développement communautaire du gouvernement zambien, le second par une organisation non gouvernementale (ONG) appelée Tikondane. L’étude était encadrée par les normes internationales établies pour les pédagogies tant d’apprentissage des adultes que d’éducation non formelle. Dans une étude de cas qualitative, les participants comptaient 9 gestionnaires d’alphabétisation (5 femmes, 4 hommes), 12 personnels d’animation (8 femmes, 4 hommes) et 78 apprenants adultes (56 femmes, 22 hommes). Les données ont été collectées via des interviews, observations et discussions de groupe. Ayant observé que les activités d’alphabétisation étaient dans les deux programmes dominées par la méthode du cours magistral centrée sur l‘enseignant, les chercheurs ont constaté qu’un cours magistral de base dispensé sous une forme participative pouvait entraîner une progression considérable de l’apprentissage. Néanmoins, les auteurs soutiennent que de nombreux apprenants auraient tiré davantage profit d’une approche centrée sur l’apprenant. Autre conclusion : la majorité des animatrices fondaient leurs décisions pédagogiques sur la perception selon laquelle les apprenants adultes seraient illettrés et ignorants. Elles considéraient par conséquent leur rôle comme une mission d’éliminer l’analphabétisme et l’ignorance. Enfin, les auteurs concluent que les pratiques pédagogiques appliquées dans les deux programmes d’alphabétisation n’atteignent pas les normes pédagogiques internationales tant pour l’apprentissage des adultes que pour l’éducation non formelle.

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Notes

  1. Zambia currently has 46 living languages. Of these, 37 are indigenous and 9 (including the official language English) are non-indigenous (Eberhard et al. 2019). The educational languages of Katete District in Eastern Zambia are Cicewa and English.

  2. All names are pseudonyms to protect the privacy of our respondents. We translated all of the statements presented here into English for the purposes of this article.

  3. Tikondane had two literacy classes. One was purely conducted in Cicewa and the other was in principle English language literacy. The learners were learning from Cicewa (their local and familiar language) to English. The explanations were to a larger extent in Cicewa, but the idea was for them to learn how to speak the English language. In other words, lessons were both in Cicewa and English languages for ease of understanding.

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  1. School of Education, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia

    Noah Kenny Sichula

  2. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Gerhard Genis

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Sichula, N.K., Genis, G. Pedagogical practices in non-formal adult literacy classes in Zambia. Int Rev Educ 65, 879–903 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-019-09808-y

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