A school closer to home: using mealtimes to foster language development, improve girls' nutrition and align home and school in rural Kenya and Zambia

Lead Research Organisation: Aston University
Department Name: College of Health and Life Sciences

Abstract

We develop a new way to address educational disadvantage in rural Africa, through a collaboration between academics from Kenya, Zambia and the UK, teachers, families and community groups. The connection between home and school is key to sustainable education: (i) parents must recognise the school's priorities if they are to support their child's continuing education, (ii) teachers need to understand their pupils' home environment so they can build on positive home experiences and (iii) schools must build on children's existing skills and knowledge and fit with their goal of a successful life in their community. There is currently a serious disconnect between home and school in Africa and this is exacerbated in rural Kenya and Zambia by the predominance of non-local teachers who often don't speak pupils' native languages. We aim to connect home and school learning by targeting Early Childhood Education and Development programmes (ECDE; age 4 - 6). Unlike primary and secondary schools, ECDE centres recruit teachers from the local community. The relationship between parents and teachers is closest in ECDE settings, providing a crucial opportunity to build bridges between home and school. It is also a critical opportunity for mitigating early disadvantages for girls and empowering females in leadership roles since ECDE teachers are predominantly female. We prioritise language and nutrition as fundamental to all later learning, and aim to (i) identify positive practices in the home that benefit early language development and nutrition and (ii) to work together with ECDE teachers as researchers to empower them to develop teacher and parent networks to share best practice in school and at home. We target mealtimes for our observations of behaviour and language since they are a particularly rich time for social interaction, and the focus on eating gives an authentic setting for natural communication. Our objectives are (i) to measure home and school mealtime behaviour and language to identify practices that are most crucial for raising the quality of language children are exposed to (e.g., whether adults and children sit together; whether they have a television) (ii) to observe eating behaviours in the home, assess the extent to which girls' eat less food, or less nutritious foods, and identify practices that raise levels of female nutrition (e.g., girls may eat more if they share food as a family, rather than when girls and women eat separately) (iii) to work together with our teacher-researchers and community advisors to co-develop a teacher-network and parent outreach programme, based on evidence from objectives 1 and 2. The aim is to raise awareness and share practices that increase the quality of language children are exposed to at home and in school and raise levels of female nutrition, motivated by evidence of gender inequalities. Objective 3 will be achieved firstly by working together to identify key messages that are culturally appropriate and achievable (e.g., switch the TV off before eating at home; encourage teachers to sit together with pupils when eating in ECDE centres). Second, by working together in practitioner networks, guidance will be developed to inform a parent outreach programme to be shared with well-established groups in the community. The network will also provide a platform for teachers to conduct their own research, share research findings and discuss best practice. Importantly, it will provide a vital link to teachers in primary and secondary education, to develop continuity in children's education. Finally, the evidence base we provide through objectives 1 and 2, and the networks created in objective 3 provide a powerful basis for contributing to the development of the new ECDE curriculum in Kenya and to lobby for similar priorities in Zambia.

Planned Impact

Who will benefit: Children, families, health practitioners, education practitioners (e.g., ECDE, primary and secondary teachers; speech and language therapists), local government (e.g., the department for Early Childhood Education), national government (Ministries of Health for Kenya and Zambia, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for Kenya and the Ministry of General Education for Zambia), and Public Bodies involved in disseminating evidence and guidelines for language development and nutrition nationally (e.g., Kenya Medical and Educational Training; Kenya Female Advisory Organisation) and globally (the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, Save the Children and the Borgen Project).
How will they benefit: The teacher-researchers we work with will benefit from training in research methods and support to continue their own research via practitioner networks (objective 3). The teachers, community workers, health professionals and other educational practitioners (e.g., speech and language therapists) will benefit from joining the practitioner networks which will provide a mutually supportive group in which practitioners can share research findings and discuss best practice. They also provide a platform for different services (health, education) and different levels of education (ECDE, primary and secondary school teachers) to coordinate to provide a consistent culturally-appropriate and child-centred approach to education and health. Families and children will benefit from participating in Objectives 1 and 2 because participation will foster a closer relationship between teachers and parents which is known to benefit children's learning. Families and children will also benefit from our parent outreach programme, which aims to share easy-to-implement ways to increase the quality of language children are exposed to and raise the levels of girls' nutrition. Heads of ECDE centres, and local government will benefit from evidence-based advice on good practice which will enhance the delivery of the ECDE curriculum and increase levels of parent engagement. National governments, public bodies and global stakeholders will benefit from knowledge of simple evidence-based messages that have been tested in rural African communities.
How do we ensure they benefit: Teacher-researchers will receive research training from us and we will support them to develop practitioner networks as part of Objective 3. These networks will provide a platform for teachers and other health and education practitioners to coordinate to increase continuity in children's education and provide a route to feed into the development of the new competency based curriculum of the Kenyan government which requires a learning nexus between school and home, and a platform to lobby for similar priorities in Zambia. The parent outreach programme will be developed through these networks, promoted via our contacts in well-established community groups, and its success evaluated as part of the project. Our research team and advisory committee will meet at crucial points during the development of the project to maximise the potential impact of the research, and relevance to local priorities and context. We will hold 4 practitioner workshops to extend the reach of our impact to community, health and education practitioners outside the ECDE centres we already work with and to enable these practitioners to feed into our future research plans and the development of networks and parent outreach. Research summaries, workshops and policy briefs will be publicised to local government and local and national public bodies. Policy briefs at the end of the project will be publicised to all local, national and global stakeholders, including research outcomes and an evaluation of our practitioner networks and parent outreach programme.
 
Description Our original objectives are complete although dissemination and impact are still in progress. Some of the data we collected as part of our original plan has led to new unexpected discoveries. Specifically, we have used our data on family diets and nutritional analysis of these foods in combination with questionnaire data from families about changes they had made to foods given to their children due to the pandemic. We found that most of our participating families had to make changes to the food they provided their children, either due to reduced household budgets, and/or a rise in the cost of some foods, poorer access to the market places, and/or poorer availability of foods. Fortunately, we found that our participating children were mostly of a healthy weight for their height and age, there were some important micronutrients lacking from the diets of these children over the time-period of our project. Although the Kenyan government aimed to limit food insecurity by auditing the supply and prices of food staples and prioritising vulnerable families, our empirical data showed that food access and availability were still impacted for some rural families. In particular, our participating families reported that they had reduced intake of fruits, tomatoes, meats and sugar due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For more perishable foods, such as fruits and tomatoes, the reduction is likely to have been caused by limited availability and increased prices. In contrast, although meats and sugar were still readily available, these were reduced in response to tighter food budgets. Over half the participants had inadequate niacin intakes, which may partly reflect the lack of meat intake in most of their diets. Inadequate calcium intakes were also noted, which could be a result of low dairy intakes; whilst every child consumed a little milk every day in tea, they did not have other forms of dairy in their diet. Our findings provide some insight into some of the immediate implications of the pandemic, highlighting which types of foods tend to be reduced when hardship occurs.
Exploitation Route Our current findings (above) may be taken into consideration in future studies of food-related relief procedures during crises, in particular how such events may exacerbate food availability and access in rural communities. The impact from our remaining objectives remains in progress, and we are following the impact plan outlined in Objective 3 and currently delivering this through our engagement with the local communities and our advisory teams in Kenya and Zambia.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Education

Healthcare

URL https://www.hometoschool.info/
 
Description We are continuing to work together with academics from Kenya, Zambia and UK, teachers, families and community groups. The following impacts are ongoing: we prioritise language and nutrition as fundamental to all later learning, and aim to (i) identify positive practices in the home that benefit early language development and nutrition and (ii) to work together with ECDE teachers as researchers to empower them to develop teacher and parent networks to share best practice in school and at home. The evidence base we will provide, and the networks we create provide a powerful basis for contributing to the development of the new Early Childhood Education curriculum in Kenya and to lobby for similar priorities in Zambia.
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Education
Impact Types Societal

 
Description Building character strength: Using a Phenomenological approach to explore how children 4-8 years are taught gratitude in home and school settings among indigenous Kenyan Turkana and Ethiopian Amhara
Amount $99,967 (USD)
Organisation Templeton World Charity Foundation 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country Bahamas
Start 02/2024 
End 02/2026
 
Description Forgiveness and reconciliation rituals: Pathways for depolarization for adolescents in rural Kenya, Cameroon and Ethiopia
Amount $249,714 (USD)
Funding ID 31580 
Organisation Templeton World Charity Foundation 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country Bahamas
Start 08/2023 
End 08/2025
 
Description Home to School International Project Team 
Organisation Kisii University
Country Kenya 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Dr. Laura Shapiro (Aston University) was principal investigator on the joint project with University of Zambia (lead: Dr. Haatembo Mooya) and Kisii University (Lead: Dr. Pamela Wadende) and University of Sheffield (lead: Dr. Danielle Matthews). Dr. Laura Shapiro was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the project. Aston University managed the finances and collaboration agreements were made between all parties. Aston University employed Dr. Henriette Zeidler and Dr. Megan Jarman as post-doctoral Researchers responsible for Kenya fieldwork and nutrition data analysis respectively. Dr. Megan Jarman took a lectureship at Aston in 2022 and Dr. Jeofrey Mtemeri was employed as Post-doctoral researcher by Aston using funds from the project. Dr. Jeofrey Mtemeri supported qualitative analysis and dissemination of our data.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Haatembo Mooya is the co-Investigator and Zambia lead for ESRC-GCRF project and Dr. Barnabas Simatende is the named PDRA on this project. Dr. Simatende led on relationship building, recruitment, data collection, community engagement for the Zambia site, overseen by Dr. Mooya, with local Research Assistants recruited from their budget. Together they contributed to publications arising from the project (see Outputs). Dr. Pamela Wadende is the co-Investigator and Kenya lead for the project, working together with Dr. Grace Koteng. They worked together with Dr. Henriette Zeidler (Aston University PDRA) on community engagement, relationship building, recruitment, data collection, overseen by Dr. Wadende, with local Research Assistants recruited from their budget. Dr. Danielle Matthews is a co-investigator and Sheffield lead, responsible for contributing to design and analysis of language measures.
Impact Academic papers listed in the Outputs section (all outputs related to this award arise from this collaboration). Interdisciplinary: Psychology (Aston, University of Zambia, University of Sheffield) Education (Kisii University) Health and Nutrition (Aston)
Start Year 2020
 
Description Home to School International Project Team 
Organisation University of Sheffield
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Dr. Laura Shapiro (Aston University) was principal investigator on the joint project with University of Zambia (lead: Dr. Haatembo Mooya) and Kisii University (Lead: Dr. Pamela Wadende) and University of Sheffield (lead: Dr. Danielle Matthews). Dr. Laura Shapiro was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the project. Aston University managed the finances and collaboration agreements were made between all parties. Aston University employed Dr. Henriette Zeidler and Dr. Megan Jarman as post-doctoral Researchers responsible for Kenya fieldwork and nutrition data analysis respectively. Dr. Megan Jarman took a lectureship at Aston in 2022 and Dr. Jeofrey Mtemeri was employed as Post-doctoral researcher by Aston using funds from the project. Dr. Jeofrey Mtemeri supported qualitative analysis and dissemination of our data.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Haatembo Mooya is the co-Investigator and Zambia lead for ESRC-GCRF project and Dr. Barnabas Simatende is the named PDRA on this project. Dr. Simatende led on relationship building, recruitment, data collection, community engagement for the Zambia site, overseen by Dr. Mooya, with local Research Assistants recruited from their budget. Together they contributed to publications arising from the project (see Outputs). Dr. Pamela Wadende is the co-Investigator and Kenya lead for the project, working together with Dr. Grace Koteng. They worked together with Dr. Henriette Zeidler (Aston University PDRA) on community engagement, relationship building, recruitment, data collection, overseen by Dr. Wadende, with local Research Assistants recruited from their budget. Dr. Danielle Matthews is a co-investigator and Sheffield lead, responsible for contributing to design and analysis of language measures.
Impact Academic papers listed in the Outputs section (all outputs related to this award arise from this collaboration). Interdisciplinary: Psychology (Aston, University of Zambia, University of Sheffield) Education (Kisii University) Health and Nutrition (Aston)
Start Year 2020
 
Description Home to School International Project Team 
Organisation University of Zambia
Country Zambia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Dr. Laura Shapiro (Aston University) was principal investigator on the joint project with University of Zambia (lead: Dr. Haatembo Mooya) and Kisii University (Lead: Dr. Pamela Wadende) and University of Sheffield (lead: Dr. Danielle Matthews). Dr. Laura Shapiro was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the project. Aston University managed the finances and collaboration agreements were made between all parties. Aston University employed Dr. Henriette Zeidler and Dr. Megan Jarman as post-doctoral Researchers responsible for Kenya fieldwork and nutrition data analysis respectively. Dr. Megan Jarman took a lectureship at Aston in 2022 and Dr. Jeofrey Mtemeri was employed as Post-doctoral researcher by Aston using funds from the project. Dr. Jeofrey Mtemeri supported qualitative analysis and dissemination of our data.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Haatembo Mooya is the co-Investigator and Zambia lead for ESRC-GCRF project and Dr. Barnabas Simatende is the named PDRA on this project. Dr. Simatende led on relationship building, recruitment, data collection, community engagement for the Zambia site, overseen by Dr. Mooya, with local Research Assistants recruited from their budget. Together they contributed to publications arising from the project (see Outputs). Dr. Pamela Wadende is the co-Investigator and Kenya lead for the project, working together with Dr. Grace Koteng. They worked together with Dr. Henriette Zeidler (Aston University PDRA) on community engagement, relationship building, recruitment, data collection, overseen by Dr. Wadende, with local Research Assistants recruited from their budget. Dr. Danielle Matthews is a co-investigator and Sheffield lead, responsible for contributing to design and analysis of language measures.
Impact Academic papers listed in the Outputs section (all outputs related to this award arise from this collaboration). Interdisciplinary: Psychology (Aston, University of Zambia, University of Sheffield) Education (Kisii University) Health and Nutrition (Aston)
Start Year 2020
 
Description Live Presentation and Panels shared live with public online by Aston University, via You Tube Channel 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Dr Laura Shapiro, Dr Pamela Wadende and Patrick Njoroge (Edutab) discuss how families bridge the distance between home and school in rural Africa. This pre-recorded session follows on from the IHN molecules to minds public lecture 'From gobbledygook to goblins: how does a child learn to crack the written code?'
https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/hls/ihn/updates-events
These Lectures were organised by Aston's Institute for Health and Neurodevelopment and made available online to stream live or watch later, targeted at anyone interested in our education-related work including academics, teachers, parents and young people themselves. Over 500 people are subscribed to Aston Originals and each film gained > 200 views.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023
URL https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/hls/ihn/updates-events/bridging-gap-between-home-and-school
 
Description Teacher, Parent and Advisory Group Workshops and Meetings 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Researcher-Teacher workshops delivered at participating schools in Livingstone district, Zambia and at participating schools in Nanyuki, Kenya. Teacher-Family workshops with the early years teachers from the schools above, together with participating parents. Meeting with advisors and community leaders. Delivered prior to the research - to train teachers on data collection methods, to introduce all interest-groups to the project and gain feedback prior to project commencing and quarterly thereafter.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020,2021,2022,2023
 
Description UNESCO invited contribution to: Pedagogical innovations for improving early and foundational learning as part of Expert Meeting on the Learning Sciences 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Invited contribution by Dr. Pamela Wadende to UNESCO meeting of experts on the Learning Sciences on 25-26 October 2023 in Paris. The meeting aimed to further the recommendations of the 2022 Transforming Education Summit and the United Nations Secretary General Vision Statement on Transforming Education. The meeting explored the role that Learning Sciences and the networks associated with these interdisciplinary areas of study could play to support inclusive, quality, and holistic learning and the work of the SDG 4 High-Level Steering Committee (HLSC)'s Functional Area 1 on evidence-based policy formulation and implementation.
Dr. Wadende spoke as part of a session on Pedagogical innovations for improving early and foundational learning. She spoke about our UKRI-GCRF project and her other related projects which demonstrates the role of indigenous care and motivation practices as transition strategy into formal school tasks.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://glhconnect.unesco.org/unesco-expert-meeting-learning-sciences