re-introducing life-skills education and … life-skills education and value clarification in ......

Colloque international Éducation, Violences, Conflits et Perspectives de Paix en Afrique

Yaoundé, 6 au 10 mars 2006

RE-INTRODUCING LIFE-SKILLS EDUCATION AND VALUE CLARIFICATION IN THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Sven Coppens

Sven Coppens Regional Learning Advisor Plan WARO – West Africa Regional Office

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Re-intr odu cing life-skills educati on and value clarif icati on in the learning envir onment: the r ole of learner- and value-centered

methodologies in the preventi on of conflic t and vi olence in scho ol and o ut-of-scho ol learning envir onments.

Sven Coppens Regional Learning Advisor

Plan West Africa Regional Office [email protected]

0 Contents

0 Contents___________________________________________________________ 1

1 Introduction _______________________________________________________ 2 2 Methodological outline_______________________________________________ 5

3 Life-skills education as clarifying value systems___________________________ 6 4 Life skills and Moral Development: Piaget, Kohlberg and Gilligan ___________ 7

4.1 Jean Piaget ___________________________________________________________7 4.2 Lawrence Kohlberg____________________________________________________8 4.3 Carol Gilligan ________________________________________________________9 4.4 To conclude … ________________________________________________________9

5 Main approaches to values education as part of life-skills education _________ 11 6 Field examples ____________________________________________________ 13

6.1 Child-to-child: action learning revisited __________________________________13 6.2 Philosophy for/with Children: value clarification at its best __________________15 6.3 Girls’ and youth clubs: action learning enlarged ___________________________16

7 Conclusions_______________________________________________________ 18 8 Bibliography ______________________________________________________ 18


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1 Introduction In the contemporary process of developing educational systems in Africa, one may ask the question in what way children’s learning outcomes and the efficiency of the entire learning system are measured. On a global scale, in international educational targets, the scope of evaluating educational outcomes is in practice often limited to the levels of numeric and literacy skills the children or youth acquire at the end of a learning or schooling cycle. Secondly, often only the mere fact is observed whether children or young people are enrolled and retained in the educational system that is being organized for them as beneficiaries. Qualitative and process related objectives are less frequent. This limited scope of evaluating learning efficiency and school effectiveness is demonstrated clearly in the “Education for All”-goals. One may even argue that the EFA-goals are actually responsible for this narrow view. In the EFA-discourse, the different goals have long been perceived as being monolithically independent objectives for different age categories instead of integrative principles to obtain throughout all cycles of life. Only recently there emerged an ongoing movement of actors advocating for a more inclusive approach, caused by a realization that the EFA-goals – in particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – will not be attained by 2015, as illustrated by the ongoing monitoring of progress towards EFA accomplishment. Life-skills education thereby in practice becomes attributed as an aspect of educational programs for “young people and adults” (reference is made to EFA goal 3). Because of the demographic and socio-economic constituency of ‘youth’ in the majority of countries in development in Africa, life-skills are then narrowly defined as vocational training and functional literacy and numeric training programs. Consequentially, life-skills education in its broad sense, e.g. as learning to live a happy life; as learning to coping in life; as learning to be a driving actor of one’s own development; is not perceived as a priority in (basic) education. It may be argued that in situations of conflict, post-conflict and violence, as an individual or as a group being able to assess, reflect and act (i.e. to think and act critically and creatively) upon the (post-) conflict and violence situation and the promotion of preventative strategies is an indispensable learning outcome without which all other quality “recognized and measurable” learning outcomes (see EFA-goal 6) cannot even be validated.

The 1990 World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand launched the ‘Education for All’-initiative (EFA). A review session of EFA achievements was held in 2000 (Dakar, Senegal) and identified that many countries faced specific obstacles to attaining the Jomtien EFA goals. Six goals are set to be reached by 2015: 1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and

education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.


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3. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programs.

4. Achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.

5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girl’s full and equal access to and achievement in, basic education of good quality.

6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeric and essential life skills.

What is often ignored as important educational outcome of learning systems is the amount of (life)-skills gained, attitudes mastered and values clarified and internalized at the end of a specific life-cycle, thus putting the learning actors (i.e. the children and youngsters for which a particular kind of learning or schooling is facilitated) in a better position to self-define and shape their own lives into qualitative existences. Moreover, the model of education and learning as taking place in a prescribed and preformatted setting, i.e. the “school-in-a-box” as blueprint, in which to contain beneficiaries during a particular amount of time to fill their ‘blank slates’, is still the dominant organizational architectural model that one refers to when talking about (basic)education. In Africa, new primary schools and pre-primary schools are being built on a daily basis to promote the educational access component. This may at first sight seem very recommendable; if it was not for the fact that a linear universalized organizational model is uncritically being imposed or accepted by educational planners and implementers. Traveling to rural areas from the Western Sahara to the Kwazulu Natal Province in South Africa, one may not even see a big change in the way a school building and premises looks like. Consequently, with the variety in socio-cultural identities enriching the African continent, it is hard to believe this promoted architecture is by definition relevant to all potential beneficiaries. A rich socio-cultural region by definition should reflect the same extent of richness in how learning is organized and delivered. The opposite however seems to be true and a lot of forms of rejections of the universalized model (alternative models) are being criminalized, e.g. the Dara’a schools in the Sahel countries). It is needless to say that criminalization often opens the gate to extremism. Bearing in mind the before mentioned observations, will children, youth and adults be able to acquire long-lasting individual and social life long learning skills as key to ongoing development and progress in Africa? The stress on life-skills education and learning becomes of even more importance for children and youth growing up in unsafe environments dominated by conflicts, wars, violence, … whether of an international, regional or national nature (macro-level), within their communities and families (meso-level) or within their peer and personal environment (micro-level).


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More than the acquisition of literacy and numeric skills, the acquisition of life-long learning and life-long quality living skills may enable the children and youth to become proficient actors in their own ongoing development and in enabling their contribution to community life and civil society in order to be able to foster peace, diversity and to positively deal with conflict. Numeric and literacy skills are important, but merely as tools for self- and community development; not as ends in itself that learning or schooling environments should strive for.


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2 Methodological outline This paper aims at analyzing and highlighting some learning methodologies that have the potential of enhancing people’s life-skills, thus hypothetically contributing to reducing the prevalence of violence and the prevention of negative conflict situations in the lives of children and youth (micro-level). Hypothetically, they may in turn have a long-term potential to be able to prevent conflict and violence at meso- and even macro-level, or at least have the potential to facilitate children’s coping strategies when confronted with violence, conflicts and even wars. The paper wants to give a non-exclusive overview of three curricular or cross-curricular methodologies encompassing peace education, value education, creative and critical thinking strategies, education for diversity, etc; all may be conglomerated under the broad header of life-skills education. The following learner-centered methodologies are looked into a bit closer: (1) Child-to-Child methodology (CtC), (2) philosophy for/with children (P4/wC) and (3) youth and girls’ clubs; all three in their capacity of life-skills enhancers and therefore (though again hypothetically) conflict resolution and violence prevention strategies. It must be highlighted that these learner centered methodologies are analyzed for their use in formal school settings, non-formal educational initiatives, as well as in informal learning environments and situations. As a start the analysis is theoretically founded on the pedagogical findings of moral development thinkers as Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan. Emphasis is being put on the role of learning and education towards strengthening attitudinal and value-related competencies. The analysis will be illustrated by case studies of situations where the three methodologies are or have been used in West Africa. Lessons are drawn from international experiences, in particular from development programs’ and projects’ monitoring and evaluation reports in which the effects of using the above methodologies within projects (i.e. towards particular project objectives) is measured. More in-depth educational research is needed to really define the impact of these methodologies and of life-skills education in general. On the basis of (1) the literature review, (2) conceptual inquiry and (3) analysis of case-studies, the paper/presentation defines possible ways forward to educational researchers (under the form of proposed research questions) and development practitioners (under the form of potential pragmatic or programmatic solutions and hands-on project-based recommendations) on the planning for, implementation of and monitoring and evaluation of life-skills education initiatives that may facilitate children and youth to reduce the prevalence of violence and conflict in their lives and/or to strengthen their competencies and strategies to cope better with violence and conflict in their personal lives.


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3 Life-skills education as clarifying value systems Where gaining reading and writing skills have a proven positive impact on further development, they are by no means the key objective but rather one of the necessary tools. The key is the way in which reading and writing may play a role in enhancing the critical competencies of individuals and the way these critical competencies are being transformed into voices of social dialogue and change. Also, from an economical perspective, it is the development of a critical mass which is perceived to be a pre-requisite for social growth; hence the primordial importance that is given to education for social, economical and personal growth. Progress in all domains of life is the overall objective; progress reflected in the combination of added value for the individual, her/his social network and the mesa- and macro-levels surrounding her/him. How to attain added value through education? Teaching and learning knowledge and competencies (reading, writing, learning a trade, ICT-skills, etc) will not as such add value to a person’s life. From a constructivist point of view, it is the extent to which an individual or a social group values these skills and transforms them into action as well as the intrinsic potentials of these new skills that will make a person to add value to life or not. Reading and writing skills are neutral competencies. As was Einstein’s relativity theory. How one/a society uses them will make them increase or decrease value to a person’s life and that of her/his community. It was the application of the relativity theory within a societal value system that led to the creation and use of the Atomic Bomb. Eugenetics is another example, leading to a devastating decrease of value and quality of life for millions during the Second World War, but also to the pre-natal treatment of genetic dysfunctions. How all the learning is given a place in a personal or societal set of life stances is where the quality or loss of quality is coming in. It is the latter that is currently being neglected in educational systems throughout the world: the issue of thinking about and acting upon learned competencies is too little being addressed in the educational systems promoted in Africa. Thinking about values and critical thinking are not part of the EFA goals, making the educational systems irrelevant or meaningless for a lot of so-called beneficiaries. Children are not in a state of ‘blank slates’: they are raised within a value system; they live within a particular context and have own ideas about that and bring a set of value-loaded luggage with them as reference framework. Education therefore needs to facilitate children to unfold their luggage, take stock, reorganize, change or adapt, in other words to facilitate a process of clarifying the values that they have, in order to be able to embrace, adapt or reject them. Education that tries to mould, rather than to facilitate children to mould themselves, is therefore bound to be irrelevant education. That’s the way effective social change and development may be achieved, not predefined by external actors, but decided and defined by the beneficiaries themselves through a constant internal and external dialogue.


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4 Life skills and Moral Development: Piag et, Kohlberg and Gilligan

4.1 Jean Piaget Jean Piaget , in particular in his early work “The moral judgment of the child”, focused on the moral lives of children. He studied the way children play games in order to learn more about children's beliefs about right and wrong. According to Piaget, all development emerges from action. Individuals construct and reconstruct their knowledge of the world as a result of interactions with the environment. Based on his observations of children's application of rules when playing, Piaget determined that morality, too, can be considered a developmental process. Piaget concluded from this work that schools should emphasize cooperative decision-making and problem solving, nurturing moral development by requiring students to work out common rules based on fairness. Piaget believed individuals define morality individually through their struggles to arrive at fair solutions. Piaget suggested that a classroom teacher performs a difficult task: the educator must provide students with opportunities for personal discovery through problem solving, rather than to indoctrinate students with norms. Nevertheless, Piaget’s child development theory was still based on a concept of cognitive development (as outlined in the adjacent table), rather than on more holistic child development framework.

P iaget ’s Stages of C ognitive Development

Appr o x imate Age Range Stage Typical Developments

Birth to age 2 Sensorimotor Children develop the concept of object permanence and the ability to form mental representations.

Age 2 to 7 Preoperational Children's thought is egocentric; they lack the concept of conversation and the ability to de-center.

Age 7 to 11 Concrete Operations

Children can de-center; they acquire the concept of conversion; but they cannot reason abstractly or test hypotheses systematically.

Starts at age 11 or 12 Formal Operations Children begin to reason abstractly.


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4.2 Lawrence Kohlberg Lawrence K ohlberg elaborated on Piaget’s findings. He proposed that children form ways of thinking through their experiences which include understandings of moral concepts such as justice, rights, equality and human welfare. Kohlberg identified six stages of moral reasoning grouped into three major levels (for an outline, see adjacent figure). Each level represented a fundamental shift in the socio-moral perspective of the individual.

K ohlberg Stages of Moral Development Appr o x imate

Age Range Stage Substages

Birth to 9 Preconventional 1) Avoid punishment 2) Gain Reward

Age 9 to 20 Conventional 3) Gain Approval & Avoid Disapproval 4) Duty & Guilt

Age 20+ maybe never Postconventional 5) Agreed upon rights

6) Personal moral standards Kohlberg used his research findings to reject the traditional character of education practices. According to the traditional approach, teachers are to teach these virtues through example and direct communication of convictions, by giving students an opportunity to practice these virtues, and by rewarding their expression. This methodological approach is also called value construction. In order to address this issue of ethical relativity resulting from value construction, others adopted the value clarification approach. This teaching practice is based on the assumption that there are no single, correct answers to ethical dilemmas, but that there is value in holding clear views and acting accordingly. In addition, there is a value of toleration of divergent views. It follows, then, that the teacher's role is one of moderator of discussions with the goal of teaching that people hold different values and that there is intrinsic value in that. For Kohlberg, however, the goal of moral education was to encourage individuals to reach a next stage of moral reasoning. Development, in this model, is not merely the result of gaining more knowledge, but rather consists of a sequence of qualitative changes in the way an individual thinks. Within any stage of development, thought is organized according to the constraints of that stage. An individual then interacts with the environment according to their basic understandings of the environment. However, the child will at some point encounter information which does not fit into their world view, forcing the child to adjust their view to accommodate this new information. Kohlberg called this process equilibration, and it is through equilibration that development occurs.


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The most common equilibration methodology was to present a moral dilemma and require learners to determine and justify what course the actor in the dilemma should take. Through discussion, students should then be forced to face the contradictions present in any course of action not based on principles of justice or fairness. While Kohlberg appreciated the importance and value of such moral dilemma discussions, he held from very early on that moral education required more than individual reflection, but also needed to include experiences for students to operate as moral agents within a community. In order to provide students with an optimal context within which to grow morally, Kohlberg and his colleagues developed the "just community" schools approach towards promoting moral development. The basic premise of these schools is to enhance students' moral development by offering them the chance to participate in a democratic community. The central institution of these schools is a community meeting in which issues related to life and discipline in the schools are discussed and democratically decided, with an equal value placed on the voices of students and teachers. 4.3 Carol Gilligan Car ol Gilligan suggested that Kohlberg's theories were biased against women, as only males were used in his studies. By listening to women's experiences, Gilligan offered that a morality of care can serve in the place of the Kohlberg morality of justice and rights. In Gilligan’s view, the morality of caring and responsibility is premised in nonviolence, while the morality of justice and rights is based on equality. Educational approaches based on Gilligan's work have emphasized efforts to foster empathy and care responses in students.

Gilligan's Stages of the Ethi c of Care Appr o x imate Age

Range Stage Goal

not listed Preconventional Goal is individual survival Transition from selfishness to responsibility to others

not listed Conventional Self sacrifice is goodness Transition from goodness to truth that she is a person too

maybe never Postconventional Principle of nonviolence: do not hurt others or self

4.4 To conclude … Learning outcomes may be achieved on four different levels: cognitively, behavioral, attitudinal and finally at the level of values. A case may be built, based on child development thinkers as Piaget, Kohlberg and Gilligan to argue that the level of values


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is the cement sticking together the learning outcomes of the other levels and conglomerating them into a holistic whole, i.e. giving them their meaning. Nevertheless, values education, as an integral part of a broad definition of life-skills education, is globally suffering from being put on the agenda. The reasons are multifold: some argument that values education is the responsibility of parents and does not become in a ‘neutral’ education system; others make the mistake of equaling values education with religious education and either define RE as a separate subject in the curriculum or suffer from an irrational scare that RE does not belong in the school, hence also rejecting values education. In particular in Francophone Africa (building on the reminiscences of the French colonial educational system) this attitude towards values education conflicts with the experienced and expressed needs of parents to deal with values (and religion) in the schools.


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5 Main approaches to values education as part of life -skills education

Superka, Ahrens, & Hedstrom (1976) state there are five basic approaches to values education: inculcation, moral development, analysis, values clarification and action learning. A short outline of these five methodologies may be found in the adjacent table (borrowed from Huitt; 2004).

Overview of Typology of Values Education Approac hes

Approach Purpose Methods

Incul cation

• To instill or internalize certain values in students;

• To change the values of students so they more nearly reflect certain desired values

• Modeling; • Positive and negative

reinforcement; • Manipulating alternatives; • Games and simulations; • Role playing

Moral Development

• To help students develop more complex moral reasoning patterns based on a higher set of values;

• To urge students to discuss the reasons for their value choices and positions, not merely to share with others, but to foster change in the stages of reasoning of students

• Moral dilemma episodes with small-group discussion;

• Relatively structured and argumentative without necessarily coming to a "right" answer

Analysis

• To help students use logical thinking and scientific investigation to decide value issues and questions

• To help students use rational, analytical processes in interrelating and conceptualizing their values

• Structured rational discussion that demands application of reasons as well as evidence;

• Testing principles; • Analyzing analogous cases; • Research and debate

Value Clar i f icat ion

• To help students become aware of and identify their own values and those of others;

• To help students communicate openly and honestly with others about their values;

• To help students use both rational thinking and emotional awareness to examine their personal feelings, values, and behavior patterns

• Role-playing games; • Simulations; • Contrived or real value-laden

situations; • In-depth self-analysis

exercises; • Sensitivity activities; • Out-of-class activities; • Small group discussions

Action Learning • Those purposes listed for

analysis and values clarification;

• Methods listed for analysis and values clarification;

• Projects within school and


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• To provide students with opportunities for personal and social action based on their values;

• To encourage students to view themselves as personal-social interactive beings, not fully autonomous, but members of a community or social system

community practice; • Skill practice in group

organizing and interpersonal relations


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6 Field examples 6.1 Child-to-child: action learning revisited The Child to Child approach is a social action learning methodology widely used in Plan program countries and Plan programs, though it particularly emphasizes health education. According to the Child-to-Child trust, an international network promoting children’s participation in health and development, “Child-to-Child is a rights-based approach to children’s participation in health promotion and development. Through participating in Child-to-Child activities the personal, physical, social, emotional, moral and intellectual development of children is enhanced. The Child-to-Child approach is an educational process that links children’s learning with taking action to promote the health, well-being and development of themselves, their families and their communities”. The child-to-child methodology is a peer teaching methodology with an overt social learning action component. The following framework demonstrates the full participation of children in health development learning.

Using a series of linked activities, or ‘steps’, children think about health issues, make decisions, develop their life-skills and take action to promote health in their communities, with the support of adults. The steps in the methodology may be outlined below and visualized in the adjacent picture:

¬ Cho ose and Understand Children identify and assess their health problems and priorities.

¬ Find o ut Mo re Children research and find out how these issues affect them and their communities.

¬ Discuss what we Fo und and Plan A cti on Based on their findings children plan action that they can take individually or together.

¬ Take A cti on Children take action based on what they planned.


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¬ Evaluate Children evaluate the action they took: What went well? What was difficult? Has any change been achieved?

¬ Do it better Based on their evaluation children find ways of keeping the action going or improving it.

During several country evaluations the child-to-child methodology in Plan’s programming has been evaluated, as was the case in Burkina Faso. Next to its proven outcome of increasing the child’s participation in its own learning, that of peers and the wider community, “aspects which made it difficult for the approach to become sustainable … include the lack of integration within the education or any other system, a lack of continuous follow-up and support, inadequate training for implementers, difficulties with funding and unclear objectives in some cases … but it is also seen as a means of supporting children's participation and child-centred community development in a more general way” and “the Child-to-Child approach can be used to cover a multitude of issues and … it is useful if those working with children have access to specialised knowledge in many areas, as well as health, such as agriculture, water and sanitation, the environment, etc.”. More action research has to be done to assess the validity of the methodology in conflict prevention and peace enhancement. Moreover, because of the methodology’s base in


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health development, it needs to be critically analyzed and, if necessary, adapted to become a social action learning methodology for violence prevention. 6.2 Philosophy for/with Children: value clarification at its best The P4/wC methodology aims at the establishment of philosophical child communities of inquiry to enhance critical, creative, collaborative and caring thinking skills. This may take place in school (either within subject areas or outside subject areas) or in out-of-school settings. The Food and Freedom project, funded by the Department for International Development, was a collaboration between SAPERE (Society for Advancing Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education) and the Living Earth Foundation, an environmental charity, that developed out of a common interest in educating for global citizenship. Its purpose was to develop teaching and learning strategies (thinking skills etc.) for global citizenship in the UK & Ghana, as well as raise awareness of the needs and lives of people in Ghana. P4/wC was seen as an ideal approach to the project's aims. The 'Food and Freedom' title also provided a framework in which political and moral, as well as physical, human needs could be explored. Some examples of philosophical questions, based on a photo, raised by children during a philosophical enquiry session are given in the box below.

1. Is appearance everything? 2. What is normal? 3. When should you give up? 4. Does size matter? 5. Should you base personality on appearance? 6. What is the point of fighting a battle you know you can’t win? * 7. Is there a difference between an aim and an objective? 8. Should you look up or down on your enemies? 9. Is any obstacle in life too big to overcome? 10. Can man move mountains?

* Question voted for by the community of enquiry

From an evaluation report of the Food and Freedom project the following may be quoted: “There grew a strong sense of the responsibilities that Ghana had for its own governance and position in the wider world, and of the special role that Ghanaian teachers had in promoting such qualities/virtues as curiosity, care, engagement, tolerance, selflessness, patience, humility, etc. Parallel with this sense of Ghanaian


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responsibilities was a sense of the responsibilities – arguably greater in their call – that richer countries have in promoting such qualities in governance and in self/individual-regulation”. Currently the methodology is also introduced as a research tool in a Plan WARO regional child protection research to learn more about how and what children think about particular social facts and the values they hold towards these specifics. It is too early though to draw any conclusions on the practicability of the methodology in West Africa, nor on the affect that the methodology could have on violence and conflict prevention. 6.3 Girls’ and youth clubs: action learning enlarg ed Another action learning methodology that builds further on children’s rights is the facilitation of the organization of associations or clubs. A well functioning children or youth club may be determined to have the following characteristics:

¬ « Un club avec des objectifs ¬ Un club avec un plan d’action ¬ Un club où se tiennent des activités ¬ Un club disposant d’un comité ¬ Un club où des rencontres sont programmées ¬ Un club où les directives et les règles du jeu sont respectées ¬ Un club avec des membres loyaux ¬ Un club avec des membres actifs ¬ Un club où les membres sont sélectionnés par leurs pairs ¬ Un club équipé d’une salle de réunion ¬ Un club où il existe des superviseurs et des formateurs ¬ Un club où se tient une forme de formation et d’apprentissage ¬ Un club où la mobilisation est planifiée et organisée ¬ Un club où l’environnement est sain, où aucun enfant ou jeune personne n’est

victime d’abus d’aucune forme d’abus » The following was taken from an evaluation report of girls’ clubs in Togo: « Les enfants pourraient en tirer un profit énorme et varié du moment que ces clubs seraient équipés des infrastructures suivantes :

¬ Un cadre où ils pourront à la fois développer leur compétences, talents et potentiels et apprendre une variété de choses nouvelles ;

¬ Un espace où ils pourront mener des activités qui les intéressent, des activités récréatives et un programme déterminé par les enfants eux-mêmes ;

¬ L’opportunité de s’associer avec d’autres enfants et échanger des expériences et idées avec les personnes de leur age, notamment des enfants d’horizons divers ;


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¬ L’occasion de rencontrer et de faire connaissance avec d’autres enfants et jeunes personnes originaires de différents pays et groupes, à savoir la classe sociale, la religion, l’ethnie, le sexe, qu’ils soient handicapés ou non ;

¬ Un moyen leur permettant d’acquérir une meilleure confiance en soi et une meilleure estime de soi tout en faisant l’apprentissage de cohabiter avec des groupes régis par des principes démocratiques ;

¬ Une structure organisée mais qui permet aussi aux enfants de bâtir et de créer comme ils le désirent.

Les activités du club peuvent aussi être des cadres efficaces pouvant convaincre les adultes des capacités et du droit des enfants à former des groupes leur permettant d’exprimer leurs intérêts, besoins et compétences. Cependant, il est essentiel que le club réponde aux intérêts des jeunes personnes et non à ceux des adultes chargés de la mise en place de ces clubs. » Another evaluation formulates the positive outcomes of this methodology as such: “There was unanimous approval of the clubs, and indeed a lot of enthusiasm. Everyone felt that the children had gained in important social and life skills – communication skills, self-expression, negotiation skills – their behavior was greatly improved – more respectful, obedient, responsible, mature. The children are generally considered to be more alert and active, as well as cleaner. They help at home and do their schools work more willingly. There has been a great reduction in "risky" behavior which could lead to unwanted pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections (including HIV/AIDS). Two school directors told me (i.e. the evaluator; S.C.) that there had been no more unwanted pregnancies in their schools since the club started. In addition, several pupils had remained in the X rather than go to a larger town because the club provided them with something interesting to do. The facilitator from X said that the girls had learnt to say “no”. The club members have learnt a lot in the clubs and apply what they have learnt. They are very pleased with their accounting (basic book-keeping and petty cash) skills which they are already able to use in their gardening and storage projects, and various selling activities. They often collect a group of other young people/siblings together and share what they have learnt with them. Their awareness-raising campaigns have been very popular, despite the cultural norms contravened in talking about reproductive health, and their training in reproductive health has made them more responsible and mature in their attitudes to life in general and sexual relations in particular. Most are far more able to speak out in public and in groups, and are speaking up in class much more than they used to.” As for the other methodologies, more action research has to be done to assess the validity of the methodology in conflict prevention and peace enhancement. It needs to be critically analyzed and, if necessary, adapted to become an action learning methodology for violence prevention.


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7 Conclusions

¬ Do or to what extent do learner centered methodologies as the ones presented reduce the prevalence of violence and conflicts in Africa?

¬ If so, what other variables need to be present at learning, school and societal level for those methodologies to be able to be fully exploited, i.e. to have the impact these methodologies may have on prevention of violence and conflicts?

¬ How may one measure the learning outcomes (short, medium, long term) of these life-skills methodologies? How to assess learning outcomes?

¬ Is moral development universally human? What is the role of cultural idiosyncrasies on individual and social moral development? Is there value in creating ‘African’ conceptual pedagogical moral development theories? (this is an appeal to African pedagogues to embrace African conceptual pedagogical research, cf. Gilligan’s feminist theory)

¬ What is the role of African academics in the process of creating relevant learning environments for children and youth?

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