BORDER PEDAGOGY, SOCIAL REPRODUCTION AND
STRUCTURES OF FEELING: EXPLAINING SUCCESS
IN A SLUM SCHOOL. APOLLO SCHOOL,
NAIROBI, KENYA.
By
Mumbua Sarah Musilla
Submitted to the
Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences
of American University
in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
In
Anthropology
Chair:
Dr. William L. Leap
Dr. Geompy tv. Burkhart
Dr. Vivian M.
Dean of College of Arts and Sciences
Date 2006 American University Washington, D.C 20016
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
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Copyright 2006 by Musilla, Mumbua Sarah
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by
Mumbua Sarah Musilla
2006
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BORDER PEDAGOGY, SOCIAL REPRODUCTION AND
STRUCTURES OF FEELING: EXPLAINING SUCCESS
IN A SLUM SCHOOL. APOLLO SCHOOL,
NAIROBI, KENYA.
BY
MUMBUA SARAH MUSILLA
ABSTRACT
Slums in Kenya house some of the most disadvantaged populations in terms of
schooling and economic marginalization. Apollo, a school which has consistently
attained high scores in grade eight centralized examinations for almost three decades, is,
however, situated in Nairobi slums. Its continued outstanding performance defies
commonplace expectations that low income students cannot excel in academics. This
study examines how the school has contested the ideology of failure that is normally
associated with schooling in the slums. While my research does not question the
importance of facilities in learning, it offers another way of looking at resource-based
models in perceptions of successful education.
My study establishes that Apollo is a battleground where both the ideologies of
failure and success are in contestation. First, it examines the assumptions of what success
in education in Kenya means. It assembles the politics of community needs in education
ii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and examines Apollo’s attempts to respond to them. I find that the assumption that one
needs formal schooling in order to get ahead in Kenya is a strong motivating force for the
parents, teachers and students. Second, I explore the perceptions of Apollo population
about their physical and social location vis-a-vis their chances of achieving success in
education. The way the teachers and students interpellate their position in slum ideology
promotes strategies that advance the success ideology. Their positive interpellation
provides a countemarrative to slum habitation and its associated ideology of failure.
Third, my study investigates the underside of the success ideology. The practical
process of attaining exemplary performance demands not only charismatic leadership but
also unwavering discipline, strong work ethics, somewhat structured pedagogy and
relentless commitment from the teachers and students. Fourth, I examine the success
ideology in linguistic practice. Language is used by Apollo teachers and students to
position themselves as major actors in the creation and maintenance of succcess and
construction of Apollo school as a space where success prevails. Fifth, the study situates
the success ideology within broader socio-political and cultural discourses that negotiate
inequality. The success ideology is embedded in contested socio-political and economic
terrains in education, language and culture.
iii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE
The names of the schools (Apollo and Toyi), teachers, parents and students that
are used in this dissertation are pseudonyms only, in order to protect the privacy of
individuals interviewed. Gender identities have also been interchanged in several
instances, in order to further conceal the identity of respondents and informants. Any
names that resemble the real people interviewed should be considered coincidental.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The many miles that I travelled, literally and metaphorically, in the process of my
doctoral studies could not have been covered without the contribution of many people and
several organizations. My deep gratitude is extended to you all, in no particular order of
priority.
The Department of Anthropology at American University awarded me a merit
tuition remission Teaching Assistantship, without which it would have been extremely
difficult to finance my course work. They also awarded me a Sarah and Harvey Moore
Fellowship that somewhat eased pressure at a difficult time. In addition, I am greatly
indebted to the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, for their
financial support (living expenses) throughout my course work, and the American
University Career Center, for providing employment at a critical time.
My dissertation committee deserves a chunk of gratitude for their constructive
criticism. I salute the chair of my committee, Prof. Leap, for being the best advisor I
could ever wish for. Your high expectations, standards and abstract thinking, which were
both a source of admiration and frustration to me, challenged me to dig deeper, work
better and tease out broad connections that immensely improved my drafts. Many thanks,
too, for sensing when my spirit was in need of going into hybernation, and allowing it to,
but still welcoming me back, like a prodigal sister, when the hybernation was over. Your
V
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. understanding of the restlessness of the spirit and the struggles of those who inhabit social
and physicalla frontera is remarkable; your active participation in easing their
atravesado experience was recognized and greatly appreciated. Prof. Burkhart, many
thanks for giving very useful suggestions on the hidden variables and for exposing the
beauty of ethnography to me. Your meticulous eye also helped me get a head start in
editing. Prof. Vasquez, your ideas on everyday expressions of power and challenges to
power relations and hegemony were thought provoking and highly appreciated.
I salute all my teachers, at all levels of my schooling, for all your work that
provided the solid foundation which eventually led to this achievement.
The fieldwork leading to the writing of this dissertation would not have been
possible without the cooperation of the leadership, the teachers, students and parents of
both Apollo and Toyi schools. Although you are known here only by pseudonyms, your
names, faces and personalities are real to me. I am most grateful that you gave me your
time, shared your knowledge with me and welcomed me to your community. I am
similarly indebted to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Kenya), and the
City Council, Nairobi, for allowing me to do research in the schools mentioned.
To Ms. Fanta Aw, Director of the American University International Students and
Scholar Services, for your encouragement and understanding of the unique problems that
international students face. To my former colleagues at the Career Center of American
university and especially to the members of the Merit Awards Unit, for being great
colleagues and for your encouragement. To Ms. Janice Flug and Ms. Lauren Tabbara of
American University Library and CAS, respectively, for clarifying formatting issues. To
vi
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Mr. Ken Ambrose of American University Center for Teaching and Learning Resources,
for assistance with formatting and for solving a computer problem that was difficult to
crack.
The not-so-formal sector was extremely helpful throughout my course work,
fieldwork and dissertation writing. To my parents, for your unconditional love, sacrifice
and generosity, patience, wisdom, guidance and for teaching us the importance of
education. To my mother, for reminding us to “keep kicking, even when you are on your
death beds” (kava ngakusaa nginyaunyangya).
To my children, Emma and Khelly, for your great love, for your optimism, for
cheering me on, for being my technical team, and for not giving up on me. To my sister
and great friend, Suviwa, for “taking care of business”, for your unconditional love, your
faith in me, your understanding, your being candid with me, your sense of fairness and
integrity, your cheering me on and keeping me abreast of developments. To my other
sisters, Kavata (a.k.a Shola) and Clara (a.k.a mama Mwenda), my brothers Sau and
Kiema (a.k.a Senior) and the rest of the family, for manning and womaning the fort
without my active participation.
To my great friend, Tere Carmona-Born, for her love, wisdom and understanding,
and for welcoming me to her very loving family. To Margot Born, for being a gentle but
concerned “police officer”. Your questions, “How is the dissertation going?” and, “Did
you write a chapter this week?” always reminded me that I had some unfinished business.
Your generous sharing of your father’s experience in dissertation writing cautioned me
that giving it up was not an option. Thank you, too, for your golden heart, for your love
vii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and for welcoming me to your family (with all their energy, spirit of engagement and
humor). And your calm spirit always reminded me that no matter the chaos, the beautiful
sun will still rise tomorrow.
To my book club comrades, Dr. Nicolette Borek, Mr. Greg Newbold, Dr. Barbara
Hampton, Ms. Margot Bom, Dr. Pembrooke Hart, and Ms. Susan Bom-Ozment, for
providing a welcome distraction from the rigor of academics, and for hearing my
submissions and giving suggestions. To Dora Oduor and Cesarine Ngoma, for cheering
me on, and for being great comrades and whining buddies. To Dr. Winnie Wafwoyo, for
your encouragement, for being a great friend, for your cheerful demeanor and generosity,
all home-baked and sizzling. To Dr. Meryl James-Sebro and Dr. Marianna Blagbum, for
being the faithful cheerleaders who keep trusting and encouraging, even when the ball
seems out of reach. To Stephen Bom and Greg Newbold, for your humor and for being
“black sheep”! To Prof. Joan Gero and Dr. Stephen Loring, for your assistance in settling
down when I first arrived in DC. To Prof. Geoffrey Burkhart, for your suggestions and
encouragement before and after I arrived in DC. To Prof. Brett Williams, for being a
great neighbor. To Mr. Phil Collins, for eliminating computer viruses. To Mr. Saul
Murimba, Mr. Oannes Pritzker and Dr. Laban Erapu, for your comradeship.
To my long time friends, Marianne Schmidt (a.k.a “Ruth Benedict”), Shelly and
Justo D’Souza, for your enduring love and friendship. Marianne, your attempt to come to
my rescue was strongly appreciated. We did not win, but in the process I affirmed what I
have always known - your heart is huge. To many other people who assisted in one way
or other, directly or indirectly. And to those few souls who tried to pull me down - 1
viii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. thank you because your efforts encouraged me to re-examine my strengths and
weaknesses and to find the determination that would propel me to the finishing line, and
thus deny you a celebration. Finally, I salute myself, for not hanging my gloves before
the mission was accomplished. To you all, to us all, IAsante, say Asanteni sana, nuseo
muno, merci, mucho gracias; may destiny reward you in triple measure.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...... ii
PREFACE...... iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... v
LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS...... xiii
TRANSLATION OF KISWAHILI WORDS...... xv
Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION...... 1
The Problem...... 1
Justification ...... 5
Study Goals...... 8
Study Findings ...... 8
2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK...... 15
Literature Review...... 15
Success Ideology, Language and Border Pedagogy in Education ...... 17
School Failure, Language and Social Reproduction in Education ...... 25
Theoretical Framework of the Study...... 42
Border Pedagogy...... 44
Social Reproduction...... 46
X
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Structures of Feeling ...... 47
Discussion...... 49
3. THE STUDY AREA, POPULATION AND DATA COLLECTION...... 52
Background Information...... 52
The Politics of Location: Doing Ethnography “At Home”...... 52
Education in Kenya...... 67
Gender Disparity in Education...... 76
The Structure of Education in Kenya...... 79
Apollo School...... 81
Toyi School...... 90
Methods of Data collection and Analysis...... 92
Population and Sampling...... 93
Data Collection...... 96
Data Analysis...... 103
Overall Form at...... 105
4. SUCCESS IDEOLOGY IN APOLLO SCHOOL ...... 109
From New Toyi to Apollo School...... 110
Exemplary Leadership...... 114
Motivation...... 116
A Spirit of Positive Competitiveness...... 119
Creating a Tradition to Excel and an Antithesis of Success...... 123
xi
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. An Aggressive Work Ethic ...... 126
Great Expectations...... 130
School Cohesiveness...... 135
Coaching Fees as an Incentive ...... 141
Discussion...... 143
5. SUCCESS IDEOLOGY TAKES ITS TOLL: “THE ROOTS OF EDUCATION ARE BITTER”...... 152
Discipline/Punishment...... 153
Pedagogy...... 164
Language as Regulation in Apollo School...... 181
6. LANGUAGE AND THE IDEOLOGY OF SCHOOL SUCCESS...... 187
Rejection of the Ideology of Failure...... 187
Language: Ethnicities, Nationalism, and Internationalism ...... 193
Success Ideology in Linguistic Practice ...... 206
An Exceptional Family...... 221
7. CONCLUSIONS...... 231
Teacher Centered-ness as Virtue ...... 239
Kinship Redefined...... 244
Language(s) in Kenyan Schools ...... 247
Effective Schools Contrasted...... 253
Border Pedagogy in Apollo School...... 258
REFERENCES ...... 267
xii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
CPE - Certificate of Primary Education
EFA - Education For All
FPE - Full Primary Education
GoK - Government of Kenya
ICED - International Council for Educational Development
HEP - International Institute for Education Planning
K.C.P.E - Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination
KDE - Kenya Institute of Education
KNUT - Kenya National Union of Teachers
KNEC - Kenya National Examinations Council
KTN - Kenya Television Network
(K)TSC - (Kenya) Teachers’ Service Commission
MDGs - Millenium Development Goals
MoEST - Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
ILO - International Labor Organization
IMF - International Monetary Fund
IRE - Initiation, Response, Evaluation
P.E - Physical Education
xiii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PRA - Participatory Rural Appraisal
PTA - Parents and Teachers Association
SACMEQ - Southern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality
UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientic and Cultural Organization
UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
UPE - Universal Primary Education
URT - United Republic of Tanzania
WB - World Bank
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TRANSLATION OF KISWAHILI WORDS
Bangi - marijuana.
Busaa - home brewed beer, made from fermenting grains.
Chang’aa - home distilled gin.
Harambee - pooling together of resources for a certain purpose.
Insha - composition, in Kiswahili.
Jua Kali - literally “hot sun” or “strong sun”; Jua kali businesses are small scale businesses in Kenya that started as small self-help employment in open spaces (could not afford renting shelters, hence the name). Some of them have grown into more robust businesses that make gas stoves, furniture etc.
Kiarabu - Arabic.
Maendeleo - development.
Mangamanga - loiter.
Manamba - matatu tout.
Matatu - minibus used for public transportation.
Matopeni - literally, “muddy areas”, slums (see also vichochoroni, below).
Mitumba - used goods.
Mjadala - debate, in Kiswahili.
Mkokoteni - a cart, used for ferrying goods from one place to another.
Muratina - home brewed beer, made from fermenting a certain “fruit”.
Mwalimu - teacher, sometimes used simply as a respectful title.
XV
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Sheng - a hybrid language that has English and Kiswahili words. It is mainly viewed as a language for urban youth and considered shoddy English by elite.
Sukuma Wiki - kale, collard greens.
Uhuru - independence, freedom.
Umoja - unity, togetherness.
Ushagu - somewhat derogatory term for rural homes, villages, folk (seen as “not advanced”).
Vichochoroni - Literally, “at the corners, unplanned”, slums (see also, matopeni, above).
xvi
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION
In memory of my brother, Phil Mumo and my brother-in-law, Baing’aru
Kiambata, whowent away during my course work and fieldwork,
respectively. Since youwent away, I sing out of
tune and dance out of rhythm.
To my parents, Mukulu Kisinzi (a.k.a Ng’aNdula) and, Musila Muoka (a.k.a Mwana’a
Muoka) for everything, and my children Emma and Khelly, for giving
me a good reason to “keep kicking”.
and
To all teachers, at all levels, who teach
students “to learn to learn”.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The Problem
Since independence in 1963, Kenya has had a stated objective of availing
education equitably to all school age children (Urch 1968:198, King 1974:134, GoK
(MoEST) 2004: www.education.ke/Mission.htm). In spite of the stated objective,
schooling continues to be distributed unequally in Kenya (Somerset 1974:159-160,169;
Court and Ghai 1974:17, Achola and Pillai 2000:49-56). Slum schools in Kenya house
some of the most disadvantaged students in terms of economic marginalization and
access to education. For many of the children in such schools, formal education is an
elusive dream because schooling for them is hampered by lack of both physical and
human resources.
Education and economic marginalization in Kenya are closely related to political
marginalization, and they form a chain that is difficult to break because the three
variables reinforce one another. The situation is exacerbated by the attitude that bad news
from the slums is no news after all; it is the expected. Thus, slum school failure is hardly
any news. The schools in the slums of Nairobi are hardly ever among the top 100 schools
in the national examinations (there were 17,750 primary schools in the country in 2003 -
World Bank 2003:2). Since education in Kenya is still a gate pass for better paying
employment (Rado 1974:29), those who do not get it hardly have a chance to compete in 1
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the highly competitive job market Thus, the schools in the slums are at a disadvantage
when it comes to securing better paying employment and other resources. Apollo school,
a school that has consistently done very well in grade eight national examinations, is,
however, situated in the physical and social location of the slums.
When students at Apollo school sat for their first standard eight national
examination in 1985, their results made great news because the school came fifth on the
list of the top 100 schools in the country. In 1986, when it made its second attempt at the
national examinations, it attained first position, and it has consistently maintained the
position among the public schools, except on two occasions when it was in the second
position. It is usually in position two overal, with the first position being claimed by a
high cost private school. The outstanding performance of Apollo school calls into
question the expectation that schools and communities in low income environments are
unredeemable failures. The continued good performance defies commonplace
expectations that low income students cannot excel in academic performance (Bernstein
1972, Macleod 1995, Fordham 1996, Heath 1982). Apollo’s success story should be a
motivating story to many disadvantaged schools. But, how did the school become a
counter example of slum failure? Documenting how the school overcame the challenges
that low income schools face provides a framework that may be borrowed by other
economically disadvantaged schools.
Starting from an untraditional position in anthropology of education research, my
field work investigated success in Apollo School from January to September 2002. I
envisaged that a study of a school that is already successful despite all the negative
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 associations with slum failure would give a better suggestion of what could improve
performance in economically disadvantaged schools in Kenya and elsewhere. In this
respect, I argue that although studies of particular schools are largely school specific in
their findings, there are some similarities between Apollo and other low income schools
in Nairobi that would make parts of this study applicable to them. My study also suggests
that although what works in one school may not be effective in another, it is possible for
schools to borrow what works in a specific situation and adapt it to their own school in
order to make a difference in students’ lives.
Considering that language is recognized as a strong medium for creating,
maintaining, and changing meanings and relationships (Fairclough 1989:37-38, Swann
2000:171), this study examines the role played by language in the creation and
maintenance of a tradition of success in Apollo school. After independence, schools in
Kenya, and Africa in general, perpetuated the inherited hierarchical colonial education
structure that sent Europeans to the top schools, Asians to the middle schools and
Africans to the lowest categories (Court and Ghai 1974:8-9, Roy-Campbell 1991:202).
Though the racial hierarchies were minimized after independence, new hierarchies
emerged, based on economic and political power. In view of the new hierarchies, and
considering that Apollo, as a slum school, would be in the lowest of the low category, the
study examines how the school, using language among other strategies, carved and
maintained a successful comer for themselves. Did they completely re-interpret the
negative associations with failure and interrogate the privileged positions of high cost
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 schools and communities? Do they attain a clear stage of “knowing” (Freire 2000:44-47,
Giroux 1994:52, Anzaldua 1999:102-2)?
My study offers a different way of looking at performance in low income schools
and suggests how students’ cycle of failure in such environments might be broken. By
interrogating real life experiences in Apollo, the study throws some light on how the
tradition of slum failure was broken. It also shows how the transition from an ideology of
slum failure to one of success might be explained within a theory of border pedagogy.
That path is hardly unilinear, however, and elements that can be explained within a theory
of Social Reproduction are still evident, even in a very successful school like Apollo.
Border Pedagogy and Social Reproduction are two diverging theories that offer ways of
understanding school as a battleground. Border Pedagy offers a method of explaining the
positive transformative processes that Apollo goes through and reinforces the expectation
that school is a place of opportunity, thus asserting the ideology of school success. Social
Reproduction, on the other hand, explains the elements that threaten the success ideology
and work towards reproducing the ideology of failure. It offers an approach that explains
the other end of the spectrum - school as a battleground that often reproduces further
marginalization of low income students. The comers and deviations on the path to
achieving and maintaining the success ideology in Apollo school attest to the contested
terrains in the creation and maintenance of meanings that underscore school as a place of
struggle.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 Justification
Although several studies of schools’ performance have been done in Kenya, they
are mainly “assessments” made by education administration and are largely based on
input-output models that assess the effectiveness of resources (number of teachers and
their specialization, student/textbook ratio, teacher/student ratios and school physical
facilities). This input-output model may be effective in partial assessment of the
relationship between inputs and outputs but success (high scores) or failure in a school
may not always be related to inputs. In a recent study, for example, Paul Glewwe and
colleagues studied the effects of flip charts on performance in selected Kenyan schools.
The introduction of flipcharts was based on observations elsewhere that “Almost all
students recall having seen pictures more often than having read words or sentences”
(Glewwe and colleagues 2004:253). The study concluded that flip charts had a modest or
negligible impact on test scores (Glewwe and colleagues 2004:266). The researchers
further observed that “schools with flip charts have other unmeasured advantages that
allow them to achieve higher test scores, but that flip charts have little impact, direct or
indirect, on test scores in the Kenyan environment we examined” (Glewwe and
colleagues 2004:267). Also, as early as 1972, a World Bank staff occasional paper had
questioned the strongly held wisdom that teacher-pupil ratios had any impact on
examination performance (Thias and Camoy 1972:171). In their case study analysis of
cost-benefit in education in Kenya, Thias and Camoy reported that in primary schooling,
“The teacher-pupil ratio apparently has no impact on the examination performance, not
even when disaggregated into partial ratios based on teacher qualifications” (1972:171).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Increasing teachers’ salaries and expenditure per student were also found to be
questionable methods of improving examination scores (Thias and Camoy 1972:171-2).
My study suggests that the input-output model could be used together with an
examination of important socio-anthropological factors that are often overlooked (by
input-output measurements) but are pertinent in the assessment of students’ performance.
This study fills a part of this absence with anthropological data. Secondly, most
“assessments” in Kenyan schools are done mainly in schools with an already stated
problem that needs to be solved. My study suggests that in addition to studying problem
schools, there is need to study non- problem schools so as to learn how such schools
prevent the occurrence of difficulties. Since primary school education in Kenya has the
primary role of preparing candidates for transition to secondary school (Somerset
1974:167, Ghai 1974:336), schools that perform that role well should be studied with a
view of applying the findings of such research to schools that do not. My research
examines a school that is not only producing oustanding results but also which falls in the
category of schools that are normally expected to attain poor results. Further, my study
includes a population that is not normally requested to give an input in the assessment of
schools in Kenya - the students themselves. Focusing mainly on students themselves,
parents, and teachers, this study produces data that are ordinarily inaccessible to school
boards, data that capture the meanings of the success of the school through the experience
of the students, parents and teachers, as narrated in their own subjectivities.
The significance of this study can be viewed against the background that schools,
in general, are sites of manufacturing both success and failure (Bourdieu and Passeron
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 1998, Macleod 1995, Fordham 1996, Prewitt 1974). Interrogating a real success story
serves as an encouragement to the teachers and communities in similar low income
schools, who are trying to make a difference for their students, in very difficult
circumstances in terms of resources, with very little encouragement. It is a message that
maintains hope in the learning ability of children of all economic categories and suggests
that low income schools need not always be associated with failure. While my research
does not question the importance of facilities in learning, it offers another way of looking
at resource-based models in perceptions of successful education. Further, in spite of the
studies that have been done on low income students’ failure in schools (Rosenfeld 1971,
Fordham 1996, Bernstein 1972, Leap 1993), low income students’ dismal performance
still persists (Prewitt 1974, King 1974, Smitherman 2000, Fordham 1999, Ogbu 1987).
This persistence could cause a sense of hopelessness or, at worst, reinforce the acceptance
of low income students’ failure as just the “norm”. Although school dynamics can be
different in different schools, the findings of studies in successful low income schools can
be adapted by other schools and development planners in order to “plan” for the success
of their students. The studies would inspire confidence that, although economically
marginalizedstudents may not have the resources that the privileged schools have, they,
too, against all odds, can be success stories.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Study Goals
The study:
a) Examines the assumptions of what success in education in Kenya means in general and
in Apollo community in particular. It assembles the politics of community needs in
education and examines Apollo school’s attempts to respond to the needs.
b) Explores the perceptions of Apollo population about their physical and social location
vis-a-vis their chances of achieving success in education. Their positive interpellation of
their position in the slum ideology facilitates an approach that embraces the success
ideology.
c) Investigates the underside of the success ideology, the practical realities of what
success in Apollo entails for the teachers and students.
d) Examines the role of language in the creation of the success ideology, its maintenance
and the change of meanings from slum apathy to success. Language is seen as a tool that
negotiates ideological messages. This study examines the way the ideology of success is
marked in linguistic practice.
e) Situates the success ideology within broader socio-political and cultural discourses in
education, language and culture - discourses that negotiate inequality.
Study Findings
The study finds that Apollo school is a battleground on which a success ideology
is contested by the ideology of slum failure. Through a mixture of ideas, contradictions
and strategies that may be explained within the viewpoints of both Border Pedagogy and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 Social Reproduction, Apollo offers an alternative way of looking at performance in low
income schools. The major findings of the study are:
a) The assumption that one needs formal schooling in order to get ahead in Kenya is a
strong motivating force for the teachers, parents and students in Apollo. In particular, the
vicious cycle of poverty and apathy in the slums, they believe, can only be broken by
schooling. Further, the community (teachers, parents, students) strongly believe in
meritocracy: those who will go to school and work hard will pass their examinations and
be rewarded by having better chances in life than those who do not. This assumption is a
strong motivating factor in striving for success in Apollo.
b) Through a conflicting scenario of embracing ideas and strategies that promote success
ideology and others that are not immediately recognized as doing so, the teachers are able
to navigate the school towards success. They claim that all the family problems and
unbecoming morals that are uniquely associated with families in slum areas are also
familiar ones in rich neighborhoods. The head teacher is especially unequivocal in her
claim. In this manner, she and some of the teachers unsettle the privileged zones claimed
by better off schools. Their ideology could be explained within the values of Border
Pedagogy. Because some of the teachers partially believe the ideology of slum failure,
they paradoxically work harder in order to deliver their students from failure. In addition,
some of the members of the Apollo community distance themselves from the ideology of
failure by sometimes arguing that their school is not a part of the slums, instead of fully
embracing their habitation in the slums and claiming ability to succeed despite such
habitation. This is a strategy that further distances them from slum failure. However, in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 10 this respect, they unconsciously express their belief in the ideology of slum failure; such
partial accommodation of the slum ideology can be explained within the theory of Social
Reproduction.
Social Reproduction offers one way of understanding elements that threaten the
success ideology thereby working towards the reproduction of the ideology of failure.
However, the rejection of slum habitation gives the community further reason to
dissociate themselves from failure and align themselves with practices that promote the
ideology of success. This study argues that the way the teachers, students and the
community interpellate their position in slum ideology assists them model their approach
towards embracing values that promote the success ideology. In this somewhat
contradictory scenario, two levels of Border Pedagogy are attained in Apollo school. The
first is that the school and community is seen “making meanings of self’ (Willis
1990:136, Freire 2000:44-47, Giroux 1988:177). The second is that they unsettle the
validity of myths of higher morals and ability of the privileged students and families
(Anzaldua 1999:99, Freire 2000:44-47, Giroux 1988:176). The third stage in Border
Pedagogy, which interrogates how the privileged created and maintained and continue to
mold positive myths about themselves and negative ones about others has not been
attained in Apollo. (The third stage has been expounded on by Giroux 1994:51, Freire
2000:44-47, Anzaldua 1999:20, 99). A detailed discussion on the stages of Border
Pedagogy that are attained in Apollo school is given in Chapter 7.
c) The practical process of attaining exemplary performance requires unwavering
discipline, a strong work ethic and commitment, especially on the part of teachers and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11 students. Through a combination of somewhat religious notions of brotherhood, strong
work ethics and positive competitiveness, Apollo maintains its superior performance.
But the underside of the success ideology reveals the practical realities of what the
teachers and students have to go through - not only hard work but also uncompromising
discipline. They themselves explain the difficulties of this process by asserting that, “The
roots of education are bitter but its fruits are sweet”.
d) Language emerges as a tool that advances values that promote the success ideology in
Apollo. It is used to construct Apollo as a space where success prevails and position the
students and teachers as major actors in the creation and maintenance of ideological
messages of success. The same tool (language) that is used to discredit students in
economically marginalised situations is used by Apollo school (in addition to hard work)
to contest the ideology of slum failure. This study takes language a step further and
examines the way the success ideology is marked in actual linguistic practice. In this
manner, language is seen as a “site of struggle” in Apollo school (Fairclough 1999:99).
e) Language in the broad historical context of schools in Kenya affects the teaching of
both English and other subjects (and languages) today. In this study, languages
themselves are seen as indexes of power as they reflect the political, cultural and
economic power relations of peoples. The study finds that languages in Apollo, like in
the rest of Kenya, are contested and that contestation is a reflection of the hierarchical
language positions, which were amplified during colonization and continue today. They
also reflect the desire of local populations to express their indigenous identities,
nationalism and internationalism. This study finds that the success ideology is embedded
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 12 within contested broader socio-political and cultural discourses in education, language
and culture - discourses that negotiate inequality. The balance between nationalism and
internationalism is a precarious one but the choice of English as the priority language
further advances success in Apollo school. In this manner, language is seen as a “stake in
the struggle” for meanings and power relations (Fairclough 1999:99).
In the above processes, a positive spirit of competitiveness is established through
the exemplary leadership of the head teacher and the teachers who establish themselves
on center stage. They define their colleagues as “family members” and thus somewhat re
define the rules of “kinship”. By constructing a narrative of cohesiveness through the
family metaphor, the teachers elicit cooperation and support, claim rights and obligations
to one another and thus solidify unity in the school. This further advances the ideology of
success in the school. Not so far away from Apollo is a school, Toyi, that serves as an
example of what can get so wrong in a school (exaggerated though it is). I argue that this
scapegoat serves as a constant reminder of what slum failure could be. The rival school is
a convenient “other” and Apollo does not want to be “like them”. The success in Apollo
and the presence of slum schools in the neighborhood that continue to perform poorly
somewhat fuel the myth that Apollo is not a part of the slums. With that myth, Apollo
further distances itself from poor performance.
Although my research findings do not question the importance of school facilities
and parental involvement in schools, it suggests that exemplary leadership, committed
teachers (with low turnover), constant student assignment practice, evaluation of student
performance and a general positive school environment are variables that strongly
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 13 complement facilities and parental involvement. Student centered environments have
also been favored as crucial in producing success in schools. The Apollo study suggests
that there is need to balance schools as environments that are both student - and teacher -
centered. Similarly, though education studies suggest that teacher/student ratios affect
learning in schools, Apollo school succeeds in an environment with as many as 67
students per classroom. Parental contribution in learning has also been identified as an
important factor in learning. However, most of the parents in Apollo are unable to help
their children with assignments due to their own low level of education. Thus, while
parental involvement may affect performance output in schools where parents are
generally highly educated, in Apollo, students perform very well with hardly any parental
support. Similarly, the parents believe in leaving the day-to-day school matters to the
teachers because they (teachers) “know best” what should be done in the school
environment. The case of Apollo shows that teachers and students have performed very
well with minimal involvement of most of the parents. This is contrary to the studies of
successful schools in America that show that schools in which parents are fully involved
tend to do better (see, for example Garibaldi 1987, Sizemore 1987, Noblit and Pink
1987). The deficient parental involvement is, it seems, compensated for by the extra
guidance that the teachers in Apollo provide.
The findings of my study emerge from contradictory and contested terrains. They
underscore Apollo as a battleground with a continuum of ideologies that describe the
school as a place of opportunity but also as a place where the low class can be
reproduced, thus creating a vicious cycle of poverty. I found Raymond Williams’
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 14 discussion of “structures of feeling” as layers of unfolding contradictory meanings that
are a part and parcel of formations, institutions, positions and experiences in their
present, on-going formation very useful in understanding the maze of meanings in Apollo
school (1977:128-135). Further discussion on “structures of feeling” is given in chapter 2
and it will also be discussed again in the conclusions, after we have walked through the
various contested paths. Overall, this study recognizes that success is not attained by just
one factor or even a collection of factors, but also by their interaction.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Literature Review
The Literature Review examines the school as a space in which two major
ideologies are in constant contestation. On the one hand, the school is commonly viewed
as a place of opportunity, a place where chances of success are offered on an equal basis
to students. At the other end of the continuum, school can be viewed as an environment
that legitimates failure of categories of populations or indviduals. The two opposing
approaches foreground school as a battleground, a place where contestation of meanings
and subjectivities abound.
This dissertation suggests that the theory of Border Pedagogy offers one way of
understanding the meanings behind the ideology of success in Apollo school while that of
Social Reproduction offers a way of understanding the ways in which failure is
reproduced, especially in low class environments. Social Reproduction explains how an
enduring working class is reproduced by various means of teaching students to “learn not
to learn” (Rosenfeld 1971:39,46). It, further, looks at the ways in which schools dismiss
low income students in school environments and relates it to the pathologization of poor
people in general. Border Pedagogy, on the other hand, offers a way to interrogate the
forces of social reproduction and produces an environment in which marginalized
students and communities can assert their worth, subjectivities, heritage and ability to 15
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 16 perform equally well in school environments.
In my research, data reflected that although the success ideology in Apollo school
is dominant and students and teachers largely see the school as an opportunity to change
their lives for the better, elements of the ideology of failure still persist. Thus, meanings
fall within a continuum, which, on one end tilts heavily towards the success ideology
while on the other end, it tilts slightly towards the ideology of failure. While Border
Pedagogy provides a way of explaining the data that assert school as an environment
where success is created, Social Reproduction offers a method of explaining the data that
assert that schools tend to ensure that low income classes are reproduced through
economically marginalised student failure. Embedded in the constant negotiation of the
ideologies connected to the two theoretical frameworks in school environments is
language.
The literature review examines power struggles in language, education and culture
as enacted in the success ideology and the ideology of slum failure. Language is seen as
an important vehicle in the creation, maintenance and change of meanings in the
processes of advancing meanings that can be understood within the theories of both
Border Pedagogy and Social Reproduction. In this dissertation, the opposing but
nevertheless shifting forces of social reproduction and border pedagogy are often
recognized by examining language as a site of struggle in the creation of meanings. As
language itself can be an index of a peoples’ socio-political, cultural and economic
positioning vis-a-vis other members of the community, nation and the world, it is seen as
a stake in both Apollo and Kenya.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 17 The literature review throws some light on broad ideas that suggest that language
in schools matters, that in the examination of language we are able to locate the workings
of power, the workings of border pedagogy and social reproduction in schools. In my
examination of language in Apollo school, I find that the theory of Border Pedagogy can
be one way of illuminating the dynamics in the school’s success while the few forces that
threaten success in Apollo can be explained within the theory of Social Reproduction.
Success Ideology, Language and Border Pedagogy in Education
Examining language use in Kenyan schools reflects dynamics of the socio
political and historical experiences in Kenya. Apollo students, in general, all inherited
English language from the colonial situation during which English was ranked first,
Kiswahili second and Kenya’s other African languages third. English continues to be
ranked first. There are tensions, though, with the use of English in Kenya (Swann
2000:157) and an official bias in favor of English. English is the language the students
use during their standard eight national examination, in which Apollo school excels. It is
also the official language and the language of professionalism in Kenya.
Although Apollo is an economically marginalized school, some stratification of
sorts, even in low income categories is evident. Some students speak some English
before joining school while others do not. Some of their parents help them with English
and/or other assignments in the course of their education (for example, most of the
teachers have children learning in the school). The language situation in Apollo is
strongly contested but English occupies privileged status due to historical and structural
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. country specific priorities in education. The languages spoken by students are often also
a reflection of the economic status of the families from which they come, with speakers
of English occupying higher status category, then Kiswahili and finally indigenous
language speakers. Most of the students will speak two or more languages but they will
have a languge that they identify with, which is normally the language that the student
speaks in most informal environments.
The impact of language on students’ perceptions of self and on their performance
has been found significant in other geographical areas. In the US, for example, relevant
studies reveal how language can be a very important variable in symbolic domination.
Freeman, for example, discusses how in Julia de Burgos Bilingual Middle School,
Philadelphia, Spanish came to be devalued cultural capital while English signified
important symbolic capital (Freeman 2000:219). This created a rift between Puerto
Ricans bom in the US and those bom in Puerto Rico, with the former refusing to acquire
the “inferior” language of the latter. Freeman links the devaluation of Spanish to political
economy and shows how Spanish was associated with Puerto Rican ethnicity that was
devalued due to the island’s dependent politico-economic status to the U.S. Not only was
the language devalued but the floor where bi-lingual education was carried out was
stigmatized as the floor ofjibaros (the “hick” language) (Freeman 2000:217).
Freeman also explains that there is often a misunderstanding among the teachers
concerning “English-44 and “Spanish-Dominant” concepts or conceptualization of “second
language” (2000:218), which seems to pre-empt hierarchies. One bi-lingual Puerto Rican
Teaching Assistant wonders about it and reflects, “I was trying to figure out which was
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 19 my first language and which was my second language ... you know... I just kind of learned
them both together” (Freeman 2000:214). This contestation of the position of each
language in the dual language setting is not helped by the very fact that some teachers
erroneously believe that if a student is good at one language, he cannot also be good at the
other (Freeman 2000:218). This underscores the inherent dialectical tension between
practical engagement and critical inquiiy.
Similar language tensions have been exposed by literature that theorizes the
school as a place where contestation of meanings occurs on an every day basis (Gramsci
1999, Grossberg 1994, Camoy 1982). The school then becomes what Anzaldua calls a
borderland, la Frontera (1999) - a place where nothing is contained; a place of contested
meanings where the neatness of duality has no place. It is a place where a broad spectrum
of language traditions, cultural practices, epistemologies, subjectivities, displacements,
and inequalities come into contact and conflict. Anzaldua defines borderland as a place
of “shifting and multiple identity and integrity” (1999:20). She adds that “A borderland
is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural
boundary. It is in a constant state of transition” (Anzaldua 1999:25). Borders are made to
define places that are safe and ones that are not and they distinguish “us from them”
(1999:25). Those in power, together with those who align themselves with the people in
power are the ones who make decisions about borders (Anzaldua 1999:25-26). Anzaldua
discusses the social borderland as a place where individuals or groups are denied access
(“the female, the homosexuals of all races, the dark skinned, the outcast, the persecuted,
the marginalized, the foreign” (Anzaldua 1999:60). Border Pedagogy teaches such
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 20 individuals about the processes that are created to deny them access to resources and
privilege and equips them with tools they can use to assert themselves and make
meanings about the self and the world around them.
The discourses of education discuss the pri vileged positions of middle class
students in schools. The case of Apollo school shows how teachers, students and parents
in a slum school claim valid habitation in ala frontera. While their economically
marginalized position places them in a category where failure is normally expected, their
dedication and belief in themselves help them succeed. Though they are not completely
weaned off the discourses of slum failure, they certainly do not consider themselveslos
atravesados (intruders) intruding in the world of success.
Susan Gal gives us an insight on los atravesados and language. She asserts that
marginalization of languages has a powerful connection with political economy. Thus,
languages associated with inferior status are not inherently problematic in themselves;
they only index the position (class, status) that the people who speak them have been
relegated to in political economy (Gal 1989:353). In the US case, the relevant question to
ask might be why and how minority groups came to occupy a secondary position in the
economy and how the structures that reinforce this domination might be challenged. It is
the same domination that signifies the secondary position of languages like Spanish and
Ebonics. In the Kenyan case, historical institutions, specifically colonization and the neo
colonial institutions reproduce the relative hierarchical positions of different languages.
However, though the school system mandates English as the language to be used in
schools, Kiswahili, and to a lesser extent indigenous languages, contest this stipulation.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 21 Several authors have theorized the need for effective negotiation of greater
accommodation and assertion of valid habitation by those considered trespassers,
atravesados (1999), in border environments. Border Pedagogy has been suggested by
such authors as an everyday way of challenging the anger and brutality that is directed at
atravesados in everyday social performances of cultures, race, class, and gender (Giroux
1988,1994, Anzaldua 1999, Grossberg 1994). Border Pedagogy also challenges the
institutions that reproduce inequality in society. Practising Border Pedagogy unsettles the
forces of class, race, ethnicity and sex and gender in schools, and forces us to look beyond
categories based on binary divisions. In a New York example of border pedagogy, a
Puerto Rican teacher recognizes her South American immigrant students’ low confidence
in themselves and plans to introduce them to tactics that would help them survive in their
new environment but also “aims to strengthen the students’ morale and to strengthen their
sense of worth and identity, in the context of their own culture” (Montero-Sieburth and
Perez 1987:185). In doing so, she realizes, too, that it is necessary for her to occupy a
multiplicity of roles: “teacher, friend, mother, social worker, translator, counselor,
advocate, prosecutor, group therapist, hygienist, and monitor” (1987:183).
In the example from Julia de Burgos Middle School in North Philadelphia cited
above, bilingual teachers promoted the status of Spanish by deliberately encouraging
English first language students to get involved in Spanish language learning (Freeman
2000:217-219). They therefore helped transform the language lfom a “migrant” language
to a language that would make students “bi-literate” and “cool”. They deliberately
enhanced the desirability of Spanish by transforming the already stigmatized second floor
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 22 (Spanish language floor) to a “high-tech, high profile field of communication”- in video
production. For a year (1997-8), the students produced a bilingualtelenovela (soap
opera) that had short broadcasting periods to the whole school, every day. Soon, both
English and Spanish speaking students wanted to join the Spanish classes. Thus, as an
entry point towards enhancing the status of Spanish students, the school started practicing
everyday ways of making Spanish a desirable language, thus challenging the position of
English as “the” dominant language/ideology. Such practical acts are directed towards
achieving and asserting “a new consciousness”, as perceived by Anzaldua (1999:99).
Anzaldua sees Border Pedagogy as a new consciousness that challenges dualistic
thinking; it is a tolerance for ambiguity, “it is where the possibility of uniting all that is
separate occurs ... In attempting to work out a synthesis, the self has added a third
element which is greater than the sum of its severed parts” (Anzaldua 1999:101-2). This
sounds similar to Freire’s notion of “knowing”, “liberating oneself’ through “the quest
for human completion” that goes beyond the will to join or overthrow the oppressor but
reaches out for liberation for all, including the oppressor who is oppressed by his
oppressing power (Freire 2000:44-47). It is also similar to Gramsci’s concept of “organic
intellectual”, who, if well “organically” connected to the working class could resist the
maintenance of class-based power relations and bourgeois hegemony (Gramsci 1999:4,
Camoy 1982:90). As both Anzaldua and Freire argue, “knowing” and “liberating
oneself’ challenges subjectivities and makes actors proactive, instead of reactive. Willis
similarly captures this meaning of Border Pedagogy by his illumination that:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 23 Making (not receiving) messages and meanings in your own context and from materials you have appropriated is, in essence, a form of education in the broadest sense. It is the specifically developmental part of symbolic work, an education about “the self’ and its relation to the world and to others in it (Willis 1990:136, parentheses and quotes in the original).
Viewed in this way, Border Pedagogy produces new subjectsatravesados - become
border intellectuals and assert themselves and educate others about their experiences.
The border intellectual (in the case of Anzaldua’s text, Chicano) need “no longer feel that
we need to beg entrance, that we need always to make the first overture - to translate to
Anglos, Mexicans and Latinos, apology blurting out of our mouths with every step.
Today, we ask to be met halfway” (Anzaldua 1999:20). Similar ideas in border pedagogy
in the Kenyan situation would teach low income students that they need not be apologetic
about their status to the dominant economic powers. The head teacher does so by
asserting that the students in the better-off schools and their family are not spared from
the human problems of family dysfunction and poor student performance in national
examinations.
Giroux, however, sees Border Pedagogy as going even deeper than self-realization
and assertion: it must problematize whiteness and destroy the myth of white invisibility
which camouflages white ethnicity, history, privilege and struggle (Giroux 1994:51)1. In
this way, “ethnicity as a representational politics pushes against the boundaries of cultural
containment and becomes a site of pedagogical struggle in which the legacies of
dominant histories, codes, and relations become unsettled and thus, open to being
challenged and rewritten” (Giroux 1994:52). Thus, representational pedagogy must learn
1 Glazier also sees whiteness as “a topic shrouded in deliberate or unconscious silence” (Glazier 1998:379).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 24 to identify, challenge and rewrite representations (resistance and transformation), of both
the privileged as well as the underdogged (Giroux 1994:49). Representational pedagogy,
thus, becomes “a pedagogy of place, that is, it must address the specificities of the
experiences, problems, languages, and histories that students and communities rely upon
to construct a narrative of collective identity and possible transformation” (Giroux
1994:52). Without taking the above into consideration, teachers and administrators may
not be successful in changing students’ poor performances that are, again, really
embedded in “the social and political realities that shape the larger society” (Giroux
1994:52).
Elsewhere Giroux asserts that teachers can assist such pedagogical learning by
recognizing the myriad voices of their classes, courses and curriculum “so as to make
problematic not only the stories that give meanings to the lives of their students, but also
the ethical and political lineaments that inform their students’ subjectivities and
identities” (Giroux 1988:176). Better still, the underprivileged should be able to
articulate and assert their own border pedagogy by not just rewriting stories as counter
memories but interrogating and retrieving their own voice, instead of merely celebrating
it (Giroux 1988:177).
Giroux’ border pedagogy is relevant to the Kenyan situation and challenges
educators’ ability to go beyond just enlightening students that they are not to blame for
their low income status and they should not be apologetic about being in a low income
school. For Giroux, Border Pedagogy goes a step further and problematizes the rich
peoples’ situation. How did the rich get so rich and how do they continue enjoying
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 25 special status when the poor continue being economically marginalised and devalued?
Without criminalizing wealth or glorifying poverty, the Apollo study points to the
everyday construction of classes and exposes an important element: that the poor are also
a part of the negotiation of class positions and meanings and can resist them.
Border Pedagogy offers a way to threaten the reproduction of dominant ideologies
in schools. Since the theory of Social Reproduction has been widely used as one way to
explain the persistence of failure in specific education locales, I find it useful in
explaining the situations that present difficulties on the path to success in Apollo. The
case of Apollo suggests that elements that can be explained within Border Pedagogy can
exist side by side with those to be explained within Social Reproduction, in constant daily
battling, and in some cases, social reproduction seems to prevail, while in other cases,
border pedagogy prevails. Both border pedagogy and social reproduction reflect the
precarious balance of the power of agency and structural pressure and expose the
workings of implicit power or ideology.
School Failure, Language and Social Reproduction in Education
Though the school is often described as a neutral site in which there is fair play
and the “best stdents” win, many scholars have documented how the school is a powerful
ideological site for justifying middle class success (Bourdieu and Passeron 1998,
Fairclough 1989, Macleod 1995, Fordham 1996). Indeed, such scholars argue that the
immense ideological power in the school lies in the very fact that its power is hidden
behind this apparent veil of fairness. The ideological power is asserted as “the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 26 conceptualization of power as a force which operates in ways that are subtle, disguised,
and accepted as everyday social practice” (Allison 1985:195-208). Expressing a similar
opinion to Allison’s, and borrowing from Althusser (1971), Fairclough describes two
types of power: coercive power (brutal, explicit) and power that skillfully and tactfully
manufactures consent (smooth, implicit but probably more dangerous in its brainwashing
brutality) - the power of ideology, often marked as “common sense” (Fairclough 1989:3-
4). Thus, Fairclough observes that:
Education, along with all the other social institutions, has as its ‘hidden agenda’ the reproduction of class relations and other higher-level social structures, in addition to its overt educational agenda” (Faircloughl 989:40, quotes in the original).
In his discussion of Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses, Althusser points out that
State Apparatuses function both by repression and ideology, but “with the difference that
the (Repressive) State Apparatus functions massively and predominantly by suppression,
whereas the Ideological State Apparatuses function massively and predominantly by
ideology” (1971: 149, parentheses in the original). He sees the school as replacing the
role of the church as the dominant Ideological State Apparatus (Althusser 1971.157).
Althusser argues that the church performed not just religious but also educational,
cultural and communications roles in the pre-capitalist historical period and ensured
reproduction of the relations of production, a role often benignly carried out by the school
and teachers today (Althusser 1971:149-151,157).
Reflecting the sentiments expressed above by Althusser, Apple asserts that
“Schools are deeply involved not ‘just’ in the contested reproduction of class relations,
but in race and gender reproduction as well” (Apple 1982:21). And Bourdieu and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 27 Passeron’s writing expound on the mechanisms that are employed to perpetuate social
reproduction. He explains that, though cultural reproduction has been well explained by
classical theories, the theories fail to grasp the idea that the function of cultural
reproduction is actually social reproduction (Bourdieu and Passeron 1998:10). They
define social reproduction as “the reproduction of the structure of the relations of force
between the classes” (Bourdieu and Passeron 1998:11). The social structure is
reproduced simultaneously with the reproduction of cultural capital. He, further, asserts
that cultural capital is a “jointly owned property of the whole ‘society’” which Macleod
translates as “the general cultural background, knowledge, disposition, and skills that are
passed from one generation to the next” (Macleod 1995:13). But Bourdieu recognizes
that each time a structure or system is reproduced, it only remains a phantom copy, never
a phantasmic original (Bourdieu and Passeron 1998: 89).
The gist of Bourdieu’s theory of cultural reproduction is that, “By embodying
class interests and ideologies, schools reward the cultural capital of the dominant classes
and systematically devalue that of the lower classes” (Macleod 1995:13). Macleod points
to four main points in Bourdieu’s theory: Each class transmits distinctive cultural and
linguistic capital; the school systematically depreciates lower class cultural capital as it
valorizes that of the upper class; the “superior” upper-class credentials are well
remunerated by the job market and thus, retranslated back into economic wealth; the
school legitimates the process of reproduction of social hierarchies which are converted
to academic hierarchies that are based on “gifts” and “merits” which some people
“deserve” and others do not, depending on academic capital (Macleod 1995:14).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 28 In his own study of Social Reproduction, Macleod examines two groups of low
class students (living in the projects), who have different aspirations and focus about their
future. The Hallway Hangers are mainly white low class students who see their future as
a dead end . there is not an opportunity to make money. That’s how you get into
stealing and all that sh it... this is a handicap, out here. If you say you are from the
projects or anywhere in this area, that can hurt you.” (Macleod 1995:72). One of the
Hangers sees the blunt future more clearly, “I wanna sell cocaine, no lie. .. .I’m just tellin’
you the truth, man. That’s what I’m s’posed to do, right man?” (Macleod 1995:68).
On the other end of the spectrum are the Brothers, a mainly black group of
students who believed in meritocracy and were optimistic about their future. One of them
says, “ If you put your mind, if you want to make a future for yourself, there’s no reason
why you can’t. It’s a question of attitude” (Macleod 1995: 80). Eventually both the
Hallway hangers and the Brothers end up with dead-end jobs, jail or the underground
economy. While the brothers mainly blame themselves for not doing better, the Hallway
Hangers seem to comprehend their unenviable “destiny” and seek solace in sexism and
racism. Although the two groups make meanings of their situation in a different manner,
they do not escape the tentacles of class domination and the structural strategies that
implicitly promote social reproduction. The racism and sexism prevents the Hangers
from forming any sort of “critical consciousness” (Macleod 1995:149) and so does the
self-blame that engulfs the Brothers. The Brothers’ case illustrates an all-pervasive ironic
twist in the legitimization of social reproduction: the fact that both the dominated and the
dominant groups often buy into the ideology of meritocracy. This is not surprising
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 29 considering what Fairclough informs us: that dominant groups can use coercion or strive
to win others’ consent in the exercise of power over them but they often find it cheaper
and expedient to attain consent (Fairclough 1989:33-34). Fairclough adds that, “Ideology
is the key mechanism of rule by consent, and because it is the favored vehicle of ideology,
discourse is of considerable social significance in this connection” (Fairclough 1989:34).
In a similar and equally revealing study of the processes of social reproduction,
Paul Willis (1981), examines the complex association of manual labor with desired
masculinity and “superior” knowledge by poor lads in a low class white neighborhood in
England. The Hammertown lads (twelve white low class boys) develop a counter school
culture that ensures their failure and condemnation to low class jobs. They despise paper
qualifications, school knowledge, school authority and school conformists and they see
themselves as the epitome of self- determination. One of them asserts, “I am quite
satisfied as I am now not taking any leaving qualifications, if I’m intelligent enough, it’ll
lucking show through ... I’ll make ‘em see that I’m something. I’ll make ‘em see that
I’m worth a bit of an investment...” (Willis 1981:94). And the lads believe conformists
lack imagination and creativity and that’s why they need book knowledge and they learn
about life “the hard way”. One of the Hammertown boys emphasizes the “superior”
knowledge he and his friends possess compared to what the conformists have:
Guts, determination ... we know more about life than they do. They might know a bit more about maths and science which isn’t important. It’s important to fucking nobody ... by the time they’re twenty they might know as much about life as me now. ‘Cos they gotta go through it (Willis 1981:95).
The Hammertown lads also take pride in their negative socially defined encounters,
including sexism and violence and consider the conformists naive. One of them
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 30 expounds on the events that apparently have led to their “maturity”:
... we’ve been through all life’s pleasures and all its fucking displeasures, we’ve been drinking, we’ve been fighting, we’ve known frustration, sex, fucking hatred, love,... yet he’s known none of it. He’s never been with a woman, he’s never been in a pub... I’ve never known him in a fight. He’s not known so many of the emotions as we’ve had to experience, and he’s got it all to come yet (Willis 1981:16)
Willis informs us that though the path “chosen” by the Hammertown lads is that
of resistance and apparent agency, it is actually a complex process of “self-damnation”
that ensures the reproduction of working class labor (Willis 1981:3). The lads,
unintentionally, seal their fate by appropriating a culture that works to their disadvantage
through “complex processes ranging from both general ideological processes and those
within the school and guidance agencies to the widespread influence of a form of
patriarchal male domination and sexism within working class culture itself’ (Willis
1981:3). The processes ensure the regeneration of the working class culture and are an
“example of how this culture is related in complex ways to regulative state institutions”
which have an important function in the reproduction of the social totality (Willis,
1981:3). Taking almost a similar angle on social reproduction to that of Willis, Basil
Bernstein (1972) argues that the different cultural capital inherited by different economic
classes leads to success or failure in school. He argues that high and low classes have
different “classes” of socializing agents and different types of “coding” which predispose
higher class students to relative success in learning. Unlike Bernstein, Heath (1982),
Leap (1993) and Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1994) suggest that it is not so much the “class” that
determines positive performance but harmony in “ways of ‘taking’ ” at home and at
school. They, thus, suggest that positive literacy programs must be interpreted according
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 31 to larger socio-cultural patterns in students’ immediate environment.
Though the responsibility for success or failure in schools has been traditionally
placed on students, the power of teachers and institutionalized education systems in
determining the success or failure of students has also been documented (Fordham 1996,
Smitherman 2000, Macleod 1995, Rosenfeld 1971). As other authors have suggested,
“many studies show that the micro-politics of the classroom impinge directly on the
teaching-learning processes” (Gibson 1988:176). Though the power of students to use
agency in their reaction to such micro-politics has been documented (see, for example,
Fordham 1996, Macleod 1995, Willis 1981), teachers are more likely than students to be
in a more powerful position to play such micro-politics (Rosenfeld 1971). The long term
impact of such micro-politics is the perpetuation of failure among minoritized students
and the social reproduction of classes in general. In a study of failure in a school in
Harlem, Rosenfeld, unlike Macleod and Willis, examines teachers and the teaching
institution. He concludes that teachers and teaching institutions perpetuated students’
failure by staging such micro-politics. They legitimized their poor approach to their
students by creating myths about black culture in particular, and negative images about
living in poverty, in general. The teachers, for example, said they hit the students because
the students were hit all the time (at home) and their parents expected you to hit them
(Rosenfeld 1971:18). There was also the myth of “immediate gratification”. Teachers
argued that students could not work steadily and consistently at their studies because they
were myopic, preferring only to put efforts in tasks that gave them immediate
gratification. Thus, it was explained, they could not focus on long range school goals. It
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 32 was even argued that, for the same reason, black athletes excelled in short distances but
not long distances because, in the latter, it took too long to determine the winner
(Rosenfeld 1971: 50-51). Rosenfeld sees this as just one of the myths that form a part of
the ideological maneuvers aimed at tarnishing the integrity of low income students and
their families. He argues that if there are any people who do not have the luxury of
immediate gratification in their lives, it is the economically marginalized. Indeed, he
argues, they have to be patient, because:
Of all the people in our midst who learn to be patient and wait (for almost everything other people always have on hand), it is the poor. They wait for welfare checks, for overdue repairs to their homes, for job openings, and for improved social conditions which they hope will bring better and equal opportunity.... Postponement of gratification typifies so many aspects of their lives (Rosenfeld 1971:51, parentheses in the original).
Related to the above issue is Gibson’s observation that “There is much evidence
to show a strong relationship between teachers’ expectations and students’ actual
performance” (Gibson 1988:178). Gibson also shows that students’ behavior shapes
teachers’ expectations and vice versa. “We need to study not only how teachers’
expectations of students are formed but also how students’ expectations of teachers are
formed” (1988:179).
Studies of groups that are peripheral in political economy indicate some form of
resistance to dominant powers in schools (Macleod 1995, Fordham 1988, Gal 1987 and
1989). The students in Apollo know that people living in slums are viewed as secondary
in political economy and specifically, they are viewed as social “rejects”? Fordham notes
how in Capitol High that conceptualization of self as imposed by the dominant ideology
produced resistance in two opposing ways among African-American students: i)
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 33 resistance to an education that was viewed as an agent of the dominant ideology, and ii)
accommodation of that education to prove that they, too, had what it takes to succeed,
contrary to the assertion of the dominant ideology. Similarly, in Gibson’s (1988) case,
the Sikh community employed strategies of both accommodation and assimilation,
without foregoing what they thought was the core of their culture, in order to counter
mainstream hegemonic ideology.
The low income students in Apollo are viewed by more affluent quarters in
Nairobi Province in a way similar to that the predominantly black students in Harlem
School (Rosenfeld 1971) and the poor women in Manhattan (Waterston 1999) were
viewed by mainstream educationists and more affluent Americans, respectively. In
Harlem, discriminatory language, which attributed to the students an innate inability to
learn was used and teachers overplayed family dynamics as causes of student failure. In
the case of Manhattan, poor homeless women were dismissed as “mentally and physically
diseased, bad mothers, crack addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, government dependents”
(Waterston 1999:7). Some of the teachers in Apollo occasionally used inappropriate
language. They did not always recognize the superior ability of the students, and claimed
it was they, the teachers, who made the students’ performance spectacular.
It has been argued that education facilitates upward mobility (Fordham 1996,
Rosenfeld 1971, Bourdieu and Passeron 1998). If education facilitates upward mobility,
then denying a certain group that education is synonymous to denying them upward
mobility. In the case of America, a mainly racialized poor working class is reproduced
while in Kenya there is reproduction of an economically marginalized population
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 34 category that respectively performs lower category jobs in the labor market.
Discussing liberal education, Mohanty describes how several educators have
argued that “education represents both a struggle for meaning and a struggle over power
relations” (Mohanty 1994:147). She adds: “Thus, education becomes a central terrain
where power and politics operate out of the lived culture of individuals and groups
situated in asymmetrical social and political positions” (Mohanty 1994:147). Since such
political positions are largely institutionalized by discourses that construct and maintain
meanings, difference and inequality, it is important to examine the use of language in the
creation of images of school students that are constructed by the teachers. Is the use of
language as detrimental as that used by teachers in perpetuating negative myths in Harlem
(Rosenfeld 1971:49-61)? Commenting on how the children in Harlem School were
“taught not to learn” by teachers who camouflaged their own failures by blaming the
students’ families, environment, and native intelligence, and creating myths about them,
Rosenfeld observes that “learning not to learn is just as effective as learning to learn”
(Rosenfeld 1971:39, 46).
An analysis of the language used by some teachers, parents, and the community in
general conveys the meanings attached to the school students, the school itself and the
teaching and learning process. In Harlem, for example, the teachers use the following
linguistic expressions to describe the students as “animals in a zoo”, as “can’t learn”,
“dopey students”, “good with hands” (Rosenfeld 1971:42-43). The author notes how
such humiliation was effective in teaching students not to learn. Although such discourse
was not common in Apollo school, it was not altogether absent. Indeed, both discourses
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 35 of creating failure and success were present in Apollo school, but the discourses of
succcess were much more reinforced. Thus, Apollo did not completely escape the
discourse of “social reproduction” (Bourdieu and Passeron 1998, Apple 1989, Macleod
1995) of failures. But they still managed to steer the school to success. How did they
transform the school from a cycle of “learning not to learn” to “learning to learn”?
An analysis of the discourses of power is important considering that language is
crucial in the negotiation of ideology. Language itself is an indispensable tool in the
creation of everyday meanings as it grows with culture as lived experience. The
language/culture nexus is expounded by Whorf:
How does such a network of language, culture, and behavior come about historically? Which was first: the language patterns or the cultural norms? In the main, they have grown up together constantly influencing each other” (Whorf 1956: 156).
The relevance of this point in education is addressed further by Ngugi wa Thiong’o in his
assertion that colonial languages, like any other languages, carry with them their cultural
context and history. They are, therefore a very important vehicle in the colonization of
the minds of students because they are “both a means of communication and a carrier of
culture” (Ngugi wa Thiong’o 1994:439). Citing his own example, Ngugi Wa Thing’o
asserts that colonial education and language alienated him from his natural environment
and created disharmony with his culture. Right from primary school, he was reciting
things about foreign environments that were removed from his experience and immediate
environment. By learning simplified forms of foreign literature in primary school and
consolidating the same through university (He names Dickens, Haggard, Oliver Twist,
Chaucer, T.S. Eliot, Graham Greene), the foreign texts “were now my daily companions
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 36 in the world of imagination” (Ngugi wa Thiong’o 1994:439). This caused alienation.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o adds that such alienation is composed of “distancing of oneself from
the reality around” and “identification with that which is most external to one’s
environment” (Ngugi wa Thiong’o 1994:451). He elaborates on the role of language on
the relentless process of alienation in the colonial context and its impact:
It starts with a deliberate disassociation of the language of conceptualization, of thinking, of formal education, of mental development, from the language of daily interaction in the home and in the community. It is like separating the mind from the body so that they are occupying two unrelated spheres in the same person. On a larger social scale it is like producing a society of bodiless heads and headless bodies (Ngugi wa Thiong’o 1994:451).
He, thus, problematizes the assumed innocence of colonial languages and agrees with
Whorf that “ ... a language is a system, not just an assemblage of norms” (Whorf
1956:156). And Smitherman asserts the same point with respect to Ebonics when she
argues that the devaluation of Ebonics is synonymous to devaluation of the black
community and their heritage:
For those who know that language is identity, the issue is the same: the children’s language is them is they mommas and kinfolk and community and black culture and the black experience made manifest in verbal (Smitherman form 2000:149, Italics in the original).
In the case of Ebonics, the devaluation had important implications for the learning of
African American students. And Anzaldua puts the point across quite plainly, “Ethnic
identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - 1 am my language. Until I can take pride in
my language, I cannot take pride in myself’ (1999:81).
In his study of Ute English, Leap, similarly, argues that language use among
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. native Americans is not just a means of communication but a reflection of self
determination issues. Thus, he suggests that before Indian languages could be seen as a
reflection of Indian “problems”, externally based concerns should be shelved and Indian
interests, needs and goals should be considered supreme (Leap 1982:28). He further
suggests that external scholars and planners should be informed not just about Indian
language issues but any other issues that affect American Indian schooling (and
government) before they proceed with plans, recommendations and endorsements for
Indian schools. He sees Indian languages as part and parcel of larger issues that cannot be
overlooked and therefore advises that: “ ... given that Indian language issues are self-
determination issues, there seems to be no more appropriate framework for approaching
them than from the self-determination philosophy itself’ (Leap 1982:29).
In a different context, Leap cites practical classroom examples that demonstrate
that languages are intertwined with cultures and communication is as much a part of
semantics as it is a part and parcel of culture. He demonstrates this by analyzing the
dynamics of miscommunication between mainstream culture (white teachers) and Ute
American Indian culture (Ute students) in Ute schools (Leap 1991, 1993, Leap and
Mesthrie 2000). Observing classroom comprehension of narratives, Leap discovered that
Ute students would add information in stories narrated in class, when asked to
demonstrate comprehension (of the stories). This process was in harmony with
traditional Ute story telling that “stresses flexibility and situational adaptation in narrative
settings” and in which “it was the listener’s responsibility to reconstruct the larger
narrative framework” (Leap 1993:254). Thus,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 38 ... none of the Ute students responded to this question merely by reproducing relevant segments from the Slim Green (taught story) narrative. Their statements reworked the details of the target narrative into something much more creative, imaginative and personalized - exactly in the sense suggested by the Ute English principle of narrative ownership (Leap, 1993:262, italics in the original, parentheses added ).
Ownership of narratives was not individualized but communal. Similarly, questions were
asked only if a speaker had confidence in the respondents’ knowledge and expertise to
answer. Failure to answer therefore signified betrayal of that confidence. Thus, Ute
students not only felt obligated to respond to questions asked by their teachers but also to
dig deeper into their tribal narratives so as to enrich the story telling. Without knowledge
of this cultural background, teachers using standard English discourse and methods of
expressing “comprehension” would be puzzled by the students’ creativity (“digressing?”)
in demonstrating comprehension when all they were required to do was demonstrate
understanding of the specific narrative features read in class. Similarly, why would they
show such enthusiasm in responding to questions when they “obviously” did not “know”
the answers?
Touching on an area that may be seen as resistance to social reproduction, Gibson
(1988) argues out a case of negotiation of school success - accommodation without
assimilation - in a Sikh community in California. Gibson argues that Sikh students attain
success by accepting those school norms that enable the students to be successful in
school while rejecting those that threaten their Sikh identity. She explains that:
Punjabis did not view compliance with school rules or doing what one must to succeed academically as symbols of majority-group conformity, and they rewarded those who excelled in school. Diligence in matters academic and the acceptance of school authority were not equated, in the Punjabi view, with “acting white” or “like the Americans” (Gibson 1988:166).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 39
However, the Sikh parents only accommodated the practices that enabled their children to
excel in school and strongly resisted participation in any “non-essential school activities”
(Gibson 1988:169). The more the schools pressured the parents and their kids to
assimilate in non-essential activities, the more the Sikhs resisted, supervised and
restricted their children. Sikh peer pressure was also a factor that was exceedingly useful
in the resistance; “few teenagers will risk being ridiculed by fellow Punjabis for
socializing too freely with white peers”, Gibson expounds (Gibson 1988:169).
One factor that facilitates a relatively easy resistance to dominant ideology is Sikh
history of strong and positive sense of cultural identity, sometimes even superiority. It is
the strong self-esteem and self-confidence that emerges from the historical training that
every Sikh is asardar (leader) that allows them to dismiss the pressure to Americanize,
even when they are “simple rustics, low skilled and with little formal education”(Gibson
1988:169). This may be seen as some borderland encounter although the Sikh students
are still seen as the ones who are accommodating to mainstream school culture while
American students discriminate against Sikh students’ behavior, which they consider
“Un-American”. Other studies in the US have noted the predominance of white middle
class cultural mannerisms in schools and the pressure on other students to acquire such
mannerism in order to succeed (Fordham 1996, Rosenfeld 1971, Ogbu 1987).
Signithia Fordham explains successful African-American students’ ideology of
“resistance as conformity” (Fordham 1996:329) or rather conformity as resistance to
white perceptions of low African-American performance in schools. On the other hand,
the author also explains how the low achieving students employ an ideology of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 40 “resistance through avoidance” (Fordham 1996:331) of school norms, which they see as
an embodiment of white culture. Morgan suggests that in Fordham’s ethnography
“Conformity is described as the active participation in education and the unqualified
acceptance of claims of the larger society that blacks are not as smart as whites” (Morgan
1998:377). On the contrary, Fordham’s data, analysis, and interpretation throughout the
ethnography, describe conformity by the black students interested in education as the
active participation in education so as to challenge the claims of the larger society that
blacks can only display a dismal performance in academia. Fordham asserts, for
example:
I argue the high-achieving students seek to validate African-Americans’ humanness by demonstrating the ability to perform academically in ways that parallel and even surpass those of their white American counterparts. Hence, they often eagerly seek to become indistinguishable from their dominant group counterparts in behavior, worldview, language usage, and so forth” (Fordham 1996:236).
With an emphasis on the role of language in attaining success in schools, Geneva
Smitherman (2000) explains the close relationship between language, culture and learning
and is critical of how African American achievement has been constrained by the
devaluation of Ebonics in schools. William Leap (1993), similarly explains (as
expounded earlier in this chapter) American Indian cultural milieu of story-telling and
how it differs from White American ways of teaching and learning, with significant
implications for American Indian learning in mainstream American schools.
As seen in some of the works of the authors cited, resistance to dominant
educational ideologies is a negotiating tool which students use to challenge the process of
the reproduction of school failure. In view of this, there is need to caution that although
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 41 social reproduction is often understood as a continuity of specified social relations,
reproduction may elicit changes. Again, we turn to Fairclough who affirms that:
“...structures may be produced anew with virtually no change, or ... they may be produced
anew in modified forms. Reproduction may be basically conservative, sustaining
continuity, or basically transformatory, effecting changes” (Fairclough 1989:39). And
these two paths are not themselves so unilinear; in discussing the specific field of
education, Apple points out that “the everyday meanings and practices constitute the warp
and woof of reproduction, contradiction, and contestation in important ways” (Apple
1982:2). Thus, though educational Social Reproduction has the lure of a totalizing
thinking, almost like some Marxian narratives, it still acknowledges peoples’ and
educational institutions’ shifting identities that are captured by Raymond Williams as
“structures of feeling” (1977:132-135) and recognized by Smith as “fluid forces” (Smith
1999:11). When embedded in bureaucracies, the forces, however, have a concreteness
that Smith associates with armies, prisons, law courts and hospitals (Smith 1999:11). To
a slightly lesser extent, such social reproduction forces seem to acquire similar
concreteness when embedded in school bureaucracies. However, in Apollo school, there
is great contestation between conservative and transformative social reproduction. In my
dissertation, Social Reproduction is used in its conservative sense.
The literature review examined has demonstrated that the apparently innocent
school environment is, indeed, a battleground for the subtle workings of ideology,
hegemony and social/structural power. It is an environment where different interests
converge and struggle for authenticity and, like many state social institutions, the school
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 42 is an effective tool for social reproduction of class, race, and gender relations. This
knowledge offers a different view of the school as a battleground where neither success
nor failure are guaranteed. The review has also examined the language, culture and
education nexus and exposed the difficulties inherent in extricating one from the trio in
the problematization of inequality in educational access. Language, it has been seen, is
not only a mirror of dominance and differential status in political economy but also a
vibrant ideological apparatus that negotiates the students’ places in linguistic and cultural
markets, both in schools and outside the school environment. In this respect, language
itself becomes a stake and site of struggle and the apparently innocent school becomes
very political. Yet, because of its fluid forces, the school is also an environment that can
be used by border intellectuals to challenge the status quo. This will be achieved not only
by interrogating dominance but also by deliberately disturbing subjectivities and asserting
border authenticity. Since language is the tool used to create, maintain or challenge
meanings, it paradoxically is also the tool that is used to disturb subjectivities and create
school as a successful environment for students in difficult circumstances.
The Theoretical Framework of the Study
In view of the literature review examined, the goals of my research and an
examination of the process through which Apollo went in order to attain succcess, two
theories stand out as capable of explaining the complex patterns unfolding from my field
data: Border Pedagogy and Social Reproduction. Thus, part of the inspiration in Apollo
comes from approaches that can be explained within the framework of Border Pedagogy
(Anzaldua 1999:101-2, Giroux 1994:52, Freire 2000:44-47). The success in Apollo
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 43 school is a reality because the students and teachers see themselves as capable of attaining
success. They do not see themselves as victims chained to failure and their efforts do not
allow slum failure to be reproduced in Apollo. This reality is realized through strategies
that make sense when viewed within the framework of Border Pedagogy and religious
notions of brotherhood and hard work, which are seen as a part of Border Pedagogy. The
students, parents and teachers do not see students in rich schools and neighborhoods as
superior in terms of moral integrity and achievement skills. This outlook is
transformatory, embracing students in the slums as worthy students, not just noble causes
and challenging the validity of rich students’ privileged position. The school first
establishes that the common assumption that better off schools should always perform
better than low income schools is baseless. They also establish that their disadvantaged
position does not mean that they are morally bankrupt - their family problems are also
experienced by families in better off neighborhoods. They therefore understand
themselves better and “make meanings about the self’ (Willis 1990:136) They “liberate”
themselves (Freire 2000:44-46) and realize they should not be “blurting apology” about
their situation (Anzaldua 1999:20). The Christian ideology of brotherhood can be
understood within the values of Border Pedagogy. The head teacher sees all as equal in
God’s eyes and refutes the idea that students and families in better neigborhoods are
superior. The teachers view their “God given” purpose on earth as putting their brains to
work and helping the students because when they die, they’ll only “make graves rich”.
They are faced with a difficult situation - making students do well in their examinations.
Their prestige as good teachers depends on their students’ performance in examinations;
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 44 their students’ future depends on the performance and, simply put, there is just too much
at stake. They take the challenge they are facing as even more difficult because although
they are convinced that students in the slums can do well, they also believe that the only
way they can do so is by the teachers’ unwavering commitment. Because the community
in Apollo do not fully believe that slums are completely free from the problems that they
are generally associated with, they want to distance themselves from “the slums” and
carve a more “superior” position than that of slum dwellers. In this manner, they display,
paradoxically, some acceptance of slum ideology. The teachers also re-define kin and
consider themselves a part of a special family. This study sees the redefinition of
colleagues as family members as a strategy that elicits support and establishes rights and
obligations to one another. The strategy promotes cohesiveness in the school which, in
turn, promotes working together for the advancement of the school.
Border Pedagogy
Border Pedagogy, as already seen in the Literature Review has critical elements
that help problematize dominated groups as well as the dominant ones. In Apollo, the
head teacher comes out as a charismatic and pragmatic leader who asserts that the
problems experienced by her students are not unique to the slum environment. She tells
her teaching staff members in a meeting that I attended, “ Ukienda Muthaiga ni hivo” hivo
(If you go to Muthaiga , you’ll find the very same problems). That is, if you go to the
families of the rich, you’ll also find that they have family problems, parents fight and
children do not always follow rules and regulations. Like Anzaldua (1999:20), she
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 45 believes that her students need not stumble over themselves, “apology blurting out of our
mouths with every step. Today, we ask to be met half way” (Anzaldua 1999:20). She
asserts that her students do not need to apologize to the rich about their economically
marginalizedstatus. She tells her students and teachers that the rich, even with the better
facilities in their schools, do not perform better than her students. Further, she explains
that the rich are only privileged by ideologies of dominance that have equated riches with
better brains and asserts that her students are a formidable challenge to the rich. She
argues that if they are able to do better than the rich children even with their limited
resources, if they had as good facilities as the private schools, they would surpass them by
immeasurable margins in achievement of better scores. In this way, the head teacher
problematizes both the privileged position of the better off students and the underdogged
position of her own students. The process of promoting this positive self image in the
school can be explained within the ideological approach of Border Pedagogy and I argue
that her approach is significantly responsible for the unquestionable record of success that
the school has been credited with for the past two decades.
Some of her teachers are not as articulate as the head teacher in problematizing
slum ideology. Indeed, they partly embrace slum ideology because they believe that their
students do well mainly because of teachers’ efforts. They point out that they have to put
greater effort than the teachers in high cost schools because the students in Apollo do not
grasp ideas as easily as those others and also the school does not have as good facilities.
It is a paradox that the teachers work harder with students because they partially embrace
2 Muthaiga is a rich neighborhood inhabited by ambassadors, expatriates and senior ministers.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 46 the slum ideology of failure. But the fact that they believe that if they work hard with the
students, they will excel, is in itself a negation, albeit implicit, of the permanence of the
ideology of slum students’ inability to excel. Although their ideas do not strongly
problematize rich children’s privileged positions, as recommended by Giroux (1994:51),
they maintain strong enough elements of border pedagogy to challenge the ideology of
reproduction of failure and maintain a persistent culture of success in the school. That
does not, however, suggest that elements of Social Reproduction, in its conservative
sense, are totally absent in Apollo.
Social Reproduction
On the other end of the broad spectrum of competing forces in Apollo are
elements that are viewed (at least partially) as springing from the ideology of school
failure, specifically slum school failure. My research finds that Social Reproduction
theory offers a way of understanding such elements. Some of the language used in the
school, despite the overall excellent performance of the school, refuses to fully embrace
the success ideology. It is similar to the language used in Harlem to maintain the
reproduction of failure in a school (Rosenfeld 1971:18). Punishment/discipline may be
seen as containing elements that contribute to both success and failure in a school,
depending on how one looks at it. Punishment can be viewed as an integral part of
enforcing discipline and therefore promoting success. Persistent punishment may be seen
as contributing more towards failure by creating a dislike for the school environment and
learning in general. The question is, when does “disciplining” become “punishment” or
“excessive or persistent punishment” and how can we measure how much of it
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 47 contributes to failure or success? Parents, teachers and former students upheld the
effectiveness of punishment in producing and maintaining excellent performance and
school discipline. But current students, in general, singled out punishment as an element
of discontent. A few elements in Apollo may, therefore, still be explained within Social
Reproduction ideology even though overall, the ideology of failure was not reproduced in
the school. In this respect, Social Reproduction is viewed in its conservative, rather than
transformatory framework.
In addition, faced with a very strong desire and determination to succeed, Apollo
responds with a creation of narratives and attitude that symbolically takes them as far
away from slum ideology and failure as possible. The way Apollo community describes
itself vis-a-vis the other members of the slums can be seen as an effective method of
distancing themselves from the ideology of failure. Their reality is that they have to
succeed, against all odds, and no weapon is out of bounds for them in their determination
to succeed. Their agency and response to the challenges facing them confirm that
although the prevailing ideology is that of rejection of slum failure, there is some
acceptance that slum dwelling and schooling translates into failure. The community re
interprets their identity and relationships with one another in order to break away from the
imprisoning chains of the ideology of slum failure.
Structures of Feeling
The transformative and conservative elements that are explained within the
frameworks of both Border Pedagogy and Social Reproduction in Apollo school are,
theoretically, at opposing camps. In practical on-going experience, however, they are
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 48 linked together as simultaneous forces that are in tension but which are nevertheless part
and parcel of the formation of institutions, experiences and positions. The seemingly
contradictory forces are an expression of the tension inherent in the formation of
meanings in the present, which is explained as normal human experience by Raymond
Williams (1977). Williams sees institutions, relationships, formations, positions and
experiences in their present form as “unfixed products”, that are still flexible (1977:128).
The flexibility experienced in the articulation of positions in Apollo speaks to the on
going process before the positions are “finished products”. Williams sees tension
between “fixed forms” and “practical consciousness”, what he calls “frequent tension
between the received interpretation and practical experience” (1977: 130). Practical
consciousness is what is being lived now, “a kind of feeling and thinking”, as opposed to
what is actually thought as being lived and it has a complex relationship with the already
articulated and defined experience, already in the past (1977:131). Like the change of
language between generations, there is connection between the past and the present for
the present is not really evidence of radically changed instititutions, beliefs or fracture,
but a general social change which has not yet been fully defined or classified. The on
going experience has no fixed forms or ideology; it has “sturctures of feeling”. They are
a “structure” ( not just mere flux) and “a feeling”, a structure with specific internal
relations and tension, “not feeling against thought, but thought as felt and feeling as
thought: practical consciousness of a present kind” (1977:132,134). Williams sees such
strutures as defining social phenomena that are still in process, private, yet recognized as
social (1977:130-132). They have emergent, connecting and dominant characteristics
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 49 which will be recognizable in future, after they are formalized and classified. By that
time, a new structure of feeling will already be in formation - as a result of the rise of a
class, contradiction, fracture, or mutation within a class when a formation may appear to
break away from its norms while retaining its substantial affiliation (1977:134-135).
In the case of Apollo, forces that can be explained within Border Pedagogy theory
and others within the Social Reproduction theory can be experienced by different
members of the community but they can also be experienced within the same locale.
They are articulated privately; they are social, yet private but defining social phenomena.
The seeming contradiction speaks to positions and formations that are in progress and are
not yet fully formed. They are “structures” that are “felt”, not yet concrete “ideology” or
“world-view” (Williams 1977:132). I found Raymond Williams explanation of the
tension inherent in the formation of “meanings and values as they are actively lived” as
opposed to “formal or systematic beliefs”, useful in understanding the tension in Apollo
(1977:132). The explanation gives meaning to the simultaneous connectedness and
fracture of the contradictory assertions, positions and meanings in Apollo.
Discussion
As already mentioned in chapter one, Apollo is a battleground where different
ideologies are contested. There are several ways of looking at the struggle. My study
sees two theoretical approaches as capable of explaining the ideological struggle in
Apollo. Border Pedagogy offers a way of understanding what happens in the school in
the process of promoting an ideology of success. It explains the ideological and
psychological warfare that informs the students that they can do just as well as the other
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 50 students from rich neighborhoods. Ideas rooted in values that are similar to the teachings
of Border Pedagogy help unlock the students’ potential as they realize that the other
students are not any more morally right than they are and that they actually do not
perform any better in the national exams so their claim to superior intellect is flawed.
This approach conforms to the dominant ideology of schools in general - school as a
place where you get an opportunity to succeed and get ahead. In order to address the
practical challenges, and also because of the success experienced, some of the students,
the teachers and parents unconsciously start perceiving themselves as members of a
different habitation (that is, other than inhabitants of the slums). The change of name
from New Toyi (a.k.a Toyi B) also accompanies the break from the ties of failure. The
community also re-defines their kinship ties and considers one another as members of a
“family”, sometimes defining themselves as more united in their goals and similar
economic situation than real blood relatives. The redefinition of the school community as
“family” is a strategy that elicits support and normalizes rights and obligations which
promote cohesiveness in the school. This cohesiveness, I argue, is a contributing factor to
the success in Apollo school.
However, Apollo school is not just one smooth plane of the ideology of success.
Although the constant theme at Apollo is students “can do it”, and teachers “can do it”
(and they “did” and “do” succeed), there are still undercurrents that describe the students
as having some sort of disability or disadvantage because they “live in the slums”. This is
all within a framework of contradictory and contested school terrain. Sometimes the
contradiction comes from the very same informant. For example, a teacher elaborates on
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. how some of the students are very hard working and “sharp” (smart) but later on in the
same day, the same teacher talks about how the students can only do well because of the
teachers. Similarly, the few teachers that were heard talking to students in an unpleasant
manner were in praise of the students in the class or in discussions with other teachers.
Still in a contradictory manner, punishment itself and the words uttered to students during
punishment could not be explained within the framework of an ideology that promotes
success.
The language, the punishment and other not-so-positive practices in Apollo may
be explained within an ideology that could promote a dislike for school and the learning
process in general. Though in this study I view them as part of the unpleasant underside
of the practices embracing the ideology of success, I identify them in the Literature
Review subsection as some of the strategies that were unconsciously used by teachers in
low class schools elsewhere, with the negative effect of reproducing the low class, thus,
ensuring a vicious cycle. In this study, Social Reproduction offers a way of explaining
the processes that promote the ideology of failure. The contradictory terrain that is a part
and parcel of this study can be understood within the framework of Raymond Williams’
“Structures of Feeling” (Williams 1977). Williams’ thesis has been discussed in this
chapter and will be revisited in the conclusions, after we have walked through the various
contested paths.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 3
THE STUDY AREA, POPULATION AND DATA COLLECTION
Background Information
This Chapter provides background information that situates the researcher in the
social and physical environment of the research in Apollo. It gives the reader an
orientation to the general social location of Apollo school. The chapter also provides
information about education in Kenya in order to give an overall picture of the
educational environment within which Apollo operates in its struggles to maintain good
results. The methods sub-section foregrounds the qualitative approach that this research
is grounded on. This chapter comes lfom the recognition that all social science research
is situated and its results are affected by both the methods we choose to employ but also
by our social (and sometimes physical) locations. Understanding Apollo’s locality
together with my positionality - with its different subject positions - and taking into
account the methods of data collection and analysis used in this research will make the
research observations and findings more vivid to the reader.
The Politics of Location: Doing Ethnography “At Home”
In this sub-section, I highlight my somewhat hybrid position as a researcher
studying in a foreign anthropology department and doing research “at home”. I was not
the typical “professional stranger” who does research in some “exotic” environment, but I
52
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 53 was also not exactly “at home” since some scholars would argue that my harmony with
“home” was somewhat compromised by my general western oriented academics at home
and subsequent tutelage “away from home”. As our subject positions are a part of our
observations in research, I find it necessary to reflect on my position vis-a-vis my
research subjects, general academic orientation and relevant anthropological theories on
subjectivities.
Anthropologists have been grappling with issues of objectivity and subjectivity in
research for decades. On the identity level of the debate, for example, is the assertion by
some anthropologists that only insiders can come close to “knowing” their people since
“only an insider knows enough of the subtle details of the lifestyles” that outsiders should
not pretend to know (Agar 1996:74).
Related to the above claim is also the assumption that only as an insider (or,
others argue, outsider) can one be “objective”. However, experiences of “outsiders” who
record different findings for studies done in the same region point out the fact that there is
no “outsider” or “insider” consensus. Agar, for example, reminds us that Robert Redfield
reported harmony and integration in a study of a Mexican village (Redfield: 1948). When
Oscar Lewis (1953) studied the same village, he reported hostility, jealousy and greed
(Agar 1996:59-60). In another example, Goodenough and Fisher (Goodenough 1956)
reported differing percentages of postmarital residence after studying the same group in
the Pacific atoll (Agar 1996:60). A classic example omitted on this list by Agar is the
avid criticism of Mead’s Samoan ethnography on adolescence (Mead 1961), by Freeman
(1983,1999). While Mead reported an absence of psychological maladjustment and lack
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 54 of neurosis in Samoa, Freeman reports emotional and mental stress that could sometimes
lead to psychopathological ailments, suicides and violence (Freeman 1983:216). Further,
Freeman disputes the report of “free love” in Samoa that Mead asserted led to harmony in
adolescence and uneventful transition to adulthood. He asserts that virginity is highly
coveted in Samoa and it is customary “for the virginity of an adolescent daughter,
whatever her rank, to be safeguarded by her brothers, who exercise an active surveillance
over her comings and going, especially at night” (Freeman 1983:236).
One thing such contrasting observations caution us about is the need to examine
multiple possibilities in our interpretation of human situations and constantly re-think our
methods, and subjectivities. Thus, the assertion by Stuart Hall that all we write,
experience and interpret in social research is somewhat situated, can never be
overemphasized (Hall 1994:392). In view of this, I assumed that though I had some
advantages, in terms of logistics, in studying a group that is not from a different
continent, I had to constantly remind myself that I should not just see “what I would love
to see.” In this context, Agar warns that, contrary to what we may expect, the thin line
between home and field that an “insider”experiences as an ethnographer may be more
stressful than the very clear cut demarcations of field and home that are experienced by
the traditional ethnographer (Agar 1996:102).
The “insider” versus “outsider”, “native” versus “real” categories can be blurred
too, as Narayan explains. She sees dynamics like education, gender, sex orientation,
class, race, or duration of contact as very challenging to the binary categorization of
“outsider” versus “insider”, “native” versus “real” (Narayan 1997:24-5). Is, for example,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 55 a poor minority who studies his people in America a native anthropologist? How about a
middle class white professional studying her own people or a “non-native” anthropologist
who has lived for several years studying “natives”? How can identity itself be so
bounded, especially at an historical moment when “global flows in trade, politics, and the
media stimulate greater inter-penetration between cultures” (Narayan 1997:30,36)? The
same question is asked by Murray in his fieldwork in Guatemala: is there such a bounded
thing as “a male homosexuality in Guatemala” (1996)?
Murray was fascinated by contradictions he experienced as he shared intimacy and
did participant observation research with Guatemalan male homosexuals. What could he
say was the greatest motivational factor for sharing intimacy, on the part of his
Guatemalan partners? Did the Guatemalan find the gringo “guapo” (handsome)? Was
the novelty of a foreigner compelling? Was the perception of a presumably affluent
norteno (northerner) a catalyst in the ease with which he could pick some of the sexual
buddies? How about the convenience of availability of private space afforded by the
norteno or just a convenient opportunity to experiment with stigmatizing behavior
(Murray 1996:248-9)? More importantly, Murray wondered whether he could
confidently conclude that the sexual acts each of the Guatemalans performed with him
were “evidence” of how homosexuality was lived in Guatemala. What other factors
could affect the process of his “experiment”? Were the perceived norms of
homosexuality to the north determinants of some of the sexual acts?
Murray recognized how fluid identities could be. Just as it was difficult for him to
sort out exactly why some Guatemalans would pick him as a sexual buddy, it was equally
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 56 difficult for him to sum up his intimate experiences as representative of Guatemalan
homosexuality. If Guatemalans were intimate with a foreigner, it was possible that they
could adjust their sexual behavior in order to suit what they perceived as the foreigners’
expectations and vice versa (Murray 1996:242-3). Indeed, Murray explains that as a
possible reason for the discrepancy between what Guatemalans pointed out as their sexual
preferences and the actual sexual encounters he experienced with them. Although many
of his partners would initially describe themselves either activoas orpasivo, most of
them enacted both of the roles in real sexual experiences with him. He concludes that
when two foreigners share intimacy, they do not necessarily enact usual culturally defined
roles “Almost as much as the foreigner, the native who has sex with the foreigner is
‘away from home’ and released to some extent from the cultural constraints that affect
intracultural sexual behavior .... At the same time that I was trying to fit my behavior to
what I thought were their expectations, they were trying to fit their behavior to what they
thought were my expectations” (Murray 1996:243, quotes in the original). Thus, the
anthropologist who studies another sexual culture cannot pretend to penetrate that culture
through sexual encounters because “Rather than penetrating the mysteries of another
culture’s sexual lifeways, both may be outside their own cultures in a (liminal?)
interculture” (Murray 1996:243, parenthesis in the original).
On interrogating identity and subjectivities further, Lewin and Leap question the
expectation from more “traditional” anthropologists that African Americans not only
forego research among their own people in America but also in Africa “because they
would lack objectivity about members of their own race” (Lewin and Leap 1996:6). And
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 57 Abu-Lughod notices two rather contradictory arguments related to identity and ethnicity
in research: one is the arguable “conviction that one cannot be objective about one’s own
society, something that affects indigenous anthropologists (Western or non-Westem)”
(Abu-Lughod 1991:139, parentheses in the original). The other is “a tacit understanding
that anthropologists study the non-West; halfies who study their own or related non-
Westem communities are still more easily recognizable as anthropologists than
Americans who study Americans” (Abu-Lughod 1991:139). As pointed a little earlier,
some anthropologists have used the other end of the spectrum and argued that “only an
insider knows enough of the subtle details of the lifestyles” that outsiders should not
pretend to know (Agar 1996:74).
Teasing the argument on subjectivities further, and extending it to lesbian and gay
studies, Lewin and Leap then wonder, “Are gay and lesbian people “our tribe”? Is there
such a thing as a gay or lesbian person or culture outside Western society?” (Lewin and
Leap 1996:17, quotes in the original). When Bolton does participant observation research
in Belgium among gay men, is he, then, an ethnographer doing research among his
“tribe”, like an “insider” (Bolton 1996:147)? As Bolton comes out of the closet in
Copenhagen and does participant observation AIDS research among gay men in Norway,
Belgium and the United States, he recognizes gay men as a community. He tells us, “We
are in a chess game with Death, and the stakes are disturbingly high - the lives of friends
and lovers and the survival ofcommunity1'’ a (Bolton 1997:164, emphasis added). Are gay
men in United States, Norway, Belgium, etc, then, members of the same community?
Bolton answers the question by reflecting on his observations:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 58 And over the years I discovered that, despite differences of dialect, the language of gay men in places I have been is the same; we areone tribe in diaspora, whether living in Trondheim or Zagreb, San Juan or Oaxaca, San Francisco or Atlanta, Las Vegas or Chicago” (Bolton 1996:153, emphasis added).
Though he recognizes different stylistic preferences and attributes, for example, age,
Bolton asserts that gay men are, indeed, a “tribe” (Bolton 1996:153).
Bolton’s observation resonates with Stuart Hall’s reference (in connection with
black identity in the diaspora) to “stable, unchanging and continuous frames of reference
and meaning, beneath the shifting divisions and vicissitudes of our actual history” (Hall
1994:393). Hall discusses two kinds of identity - an enduring oneness that persists side
by side with the second superficial and artificially imposed selves (Hall 1994:393). He
sees such identity as diverse and heterogeneous and recognizes that it, “lives with and
through, not despite, difference; byhybridity” (Hall 1994:402, italics in the original). Is
Bolton then an “insider” even as he does research “away” from his home in United
States? What then are the implications of doing research among his “tribe”? or as Lewin
and Leap ask “... what are the implications of this for the way we construct ethnographic
interpretations?” (Lewin and Leap 1996:17). Or, “How do these affiliations intersect
with others — ethnic group, neighborhood, or gender?” (Lewin and Leap 1996:17). Thus,
although the language of identities is effective in galvanizing action in “activism” and
issues of social justice (like the HIV/AIDS dilemma, gender and racial issues),
anthropologists need to understand the impact identities could have on the interpretation
of fieldwork experiences.
As Lewin and Leap suggest, “ ... no explanation can take all variations into
account and that systems that work also fail” (Lewin and Leap 1996:21). There are no
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. neat models, and there is no outsider/insider, objective/subjective categories or identity
that could be used as trump cards. While an “insider” may experience greater ease in
fitting in and using already acquired background information . an insider’s advantage
may tend to be neutralized by conflicting professional demands, because even an insider
may tend to organize observations in terms of ideas that prevail in the discipline” (Lewin
and Leap 1996:7). Besides, there are no insider/outsider enduring identities. The
observations by Lewin and Leap on gay and lesbian ethnographers apply also for
heterosexual anthropologists:
... lesbian and gay identity may intersect with the authors’ objectives as writers and fieldworkers, (but) they do not specify a fixed relationship between identities and activities. Lesbian and gay identities, like all identities, are contested and shifting, both within particular research and interpretive endeavors and as they resonate with the other identities (Lewin and Leap 1996:22, parentheses added).
Narayan concurs that the notion of an “authentic insider” is challenged by shifting
identities. The same applies to dichotomies of observer/observed, native/real,
insider/outsider (Narayan 1997: 23). Variables like education, gender, sex orientation,
class, race and duration of stay in the field add to the challenge. She suggests that
anthropologists need to get away from colonial roots of anthropology and acknowledge
that “natives” have voices and can even be critical of anthropologists themselves
(Narayan 1997:24). Anthropologists themselves, like the communities they study, are
often “hybrids” that belong simultaneously to the world of engaged scholarship and
everyday life (Narayan 1997:24). They have a multiplex of subjectivities/identities that
shift due to strategies employed in different environments. Borrowing from Stuart Hall,
Narayan tells us that “identities are the names we give to the different ways we are
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 60 positioned by, and position ourselves within, the narratives of the past” (Hall 1989:70,
cited in Narayan 1997:29). Thus, the identities of anthropologists and also the people
they study have history, culture and power. They are fluid too because we all belong to
worlds both personal and professional and so we are bicultural or multicultural whether
we belong to the same race or not (Narayan 1997:35). She argues that although people
with third world allegiance, minorities and women experience the tensions of different
identities more than other categories, even the “conglomerate category termed ‘white
men’” is not altogether without tension (Narayan 1997:35, quotes in the original). Even
when the outsider category seems clear, relationships can develop in the process of
fieldwork and render the category obscure.
Narayan argues that ethnographers can only know societies from particular
locations within it because we are situated in relation to the people we study. Thus,
knowledge produced by ethnographers is “situated, negotiated and part of an ongoing
process. This process spans personal, professional and cultural domains” (Narayan
1997:37). She, however, sees the important point as that of recognizing how our
disempowerment or empowerment by prevailing power relations affect our interactions in
the field and text making in ethnography (Narayan 1997:35). She suggests that our
subjectivities should interact with and invite other subjectivities in anthropological
production (Narayan 1997:37). Abu-Lughod elaborates on the same point when she
argues that standing on shifting ground means that “every view is a view from somewhere
and every act of speaking a speaking from somewhere”. Thus, “What we call the outside
is a positionwithin a larger political-historical complex. No less than the halfie, the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 61 ‘wholie’ is in a specific position vis-a-vis the community being studied” (Abu-Lughod
1999: 141, italics and quotes in the original).
Mankekar’s extensive discussion of the contradictions that she experienced as an
anthropologist studying in New Delhi illustrate the precarious position of an ethnographer
studying her “own” people (Mankekar 1999:30-38). To begin with, the “home” metaphor
was problematic for her as an “ethnographer trained and based ‘elsewhere’” (Mankekar
1999:30). The physical locality in the diaspora further problematized her Indian
nationalism and conceptualization of family and community. She recognizes that being a
middle-class Indian woman socialized in discourses of Indian womanhood but also
trained in anthropology and feminist theory and critique in the U.S academy presents
contradictions in her perceptions (Mankekar 1999:31).
Mankekar minimises the personal impact of her different localities by confronting
and accepting both the limitations and rewards that come with the different facets of her
positionality, that is, by recognizing that her own subjectivities were entangled with her
production of an ethnography on Indian womanhood. She recognizes that her
ethnography is affected not just by simple insider/outsider categories but also by the
political and emotional alliances forged through field work itself (Mankekar 1999:32).
Further she recognized that her subjectivities, shifting though they are, had been
overdetermined by her privileged class and family (Mankekar 1999:35).
As I did my own fieldwork and especially after I started interpreting data, I
struggled with the issues of “multiple audiences” and “multiple accountability” (Abu-
Lughod 1999:142). I was writing for multiple audiences, and some of them were real
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 62 and, possibly, others were “imagined”. As what Lughod calls an “halfie”, I felt the
tension of writing for a foreign anthropology department, western anthropologists but also
writing for my department of anthropology “at home” that introduced me to theories of
anthropology and helped create a great love in me for the discipline. I was also writing,
no doubt, for anthropologists from Africa, for the schools that welcomed me to do
research on their compounds (the teachers, the students, the parents), for the officials in
the Ministry of Education and City Council who gave me permission to do research. In
addition, I was ever conscious that I was text making and texts are records that may be
available for wider circulation for years. With new theories and approaches to the study
of anthropology and education and approach to global relationships, in ten to twenty years
from now, would I sound as “bounded” (or some other word that has not yet been coined)
as Evans-Pritchard or Mead? I recognized my subjectivities and decided not to worry
about theories that lay in the abyss. The future would deal with that and I hoped to be
judged according to contemporary theories and the many subjectivities that are a part and
parcel of me. In a more nuanced way, I was writing for the students too. I assumed they
would grow up and some would read my dissertation; others would become
anthropologists and educators, too. Would they find a realistic representation of their
responses and interaction with me?
I see myself as both an “insider” and “outsider” in my research. I share a similar
historical past and a big chunk of local cultural capital with my study population. Though
most of the students (and their parents) would be considered relatively economically
disadvantaged compared to me, many of the teachers are arguably of economic levels that
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. are comparable to mine. Some are, indeed, better off compared to me (judging from local
symbols of “comfort” that they owned at the time of research that I did not have, namely,
big houses and automobiles). On the other hand, my subject position (as a person living
outside Apollo school and slums, who has received more formal education than most of
the people in Apollo) elevated me to a position of higher status, relatively. That I am
studying in an academy in “white man’s land” somewhat adds to such status. Indeed, it is
this last factor that I was ever aware of during my fieldwork because it is a perception that
could tilt the balance between a welcome researcher and an overbearing “stranger”.
The relationship between a “native” anthropologist who is associated with the
West and her interviewees/informants is a very complex one in the Kenyan case.
Depending on who the interviewee is, it can evoke shifting emotions that range from
admiration, pride, optimism, sense of encouragement, frustration, anger, bitterness and
jealousies. The person in America is seen as “lucky” because America is where you can
earn “so much money” by delivering pizza to “the rich” while they relax at home and
watch TV! And three days’ earnings can pay for all your month’s rent in Kenya! There is
so much money there that if you have no job, Uncle Sam pays for your rent, food, hospital
bills and your children’s education till you get back on your feet! A person associated
with America has to negotiate her relationship with informants on a daily basis, lest they
be seen as “proud” and self-absorbed. In this respect, I realized that I had to be aware of
not just my subjectivities but also those of my informants, their needs, dreams and
aspirations and “imagined better lifestyles”. Some of the imagined better lifestyles were
made larger than life by the very knowledge that they were, and would most likely
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 64 remain, out of reach. My attempts to point out that some of the information about
America was exaggerated were feeble compared to the remittances some of the people
received from relatives living in US. The dollar conversion to the local currency could do
miracles, and my explanation that most of the students remitting such money could only
afford living in “group houses” in the US could only be laughable fallacy. The media
focus on US glamour and the immigrants to US who sent exaggerated stories about their
own success back home so that they could be perceived as “somebody” had a lasting
impact on the minds of the people. This image was also “confirmed” by the lifestyle
(while on homeleave/vacation) of a few Kenyans who had actually secured respectable
employment and were earning decent wages, even by American standards.
To some of the students who aspired to go out of the country to study, I was a
dream come true (although several pointed out that they would prefer going to Britain,
Canada, Australia or the Netherlands since US visa processing had become even more
problematic after September 11th). They wanted to know how difficult the process was,
how different life was, whether there are many “foreign” students in America, whether
African food products are available in American grocery stores. How were the schools?
Classes? Teachers? Students? How come people as young as high school students know
how to shoot (guns) at other students? They wanted to soak up as much information as
they could get. Not that they did not know other people who were in the US. Some of
Apollo’s former students were already studying in the US, and one of them visited the
school over summer holiday while I was doing research.
As a result of growing up in Kenya and living there most of my life, I have strong
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 65 emotional ties to the country. Further, I have known many students who thirst for
education but who have had to drop out of school mainly because they could not afford
school fees. As the students in slum schools are already disadvantaged, they are more
likely to drop out of school during their primary and secondary education than others, and
those who remain in school are more likely to lose motivation in education in general.
They already see how empty their present lives are and find it difficult to believe the
future holds anything better, unless they are strongly motivated by teachers and parents.
This issue resonates very strongly with me because I realize that if people in
disadavantaged situations in general can be given hope that makes them feel like
“somebody”, they are capable of achieving a lot more than they would ever imagine. If
slum schools truly believe that they are not underdogs, and the belief extends to the
teachers, students and parents, education has a better chance of being achieved almost as
effectively in slum schools as it is in the schools with better reputation.
My different subjectivities give what Mankekar refers to as “shifting registers of
subjectivity” and “shared and divergent histories” (Mankekar 1999:35, 36). I, also
recognize home as both a comfortable and safe place but also, as Mohanty views it (as):
not as a comfortable, stable, inherited and familiar space, but instead as an imaginative, politically-charged space where the familiarity and sense of affection and commitment lay in shared collective analysis of social injustice, as well as a vision of radical transformation” (Mohanty 1994:353, cited in Mankekar 1999:31).
This influences my interpretation of my observations in Apollo, again, if I may allude to
Stuart Hall’s argument on positionality (Hall 1994:392). I also want to borrow from
Narayan the fact that “Even if one can blend into a particular social group without the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. quest of fieldwork, the very nature of researching what to others is taken-for-granted
reality creates an uneasy distance” (Narayan 1997:37). Knowledge produced in this
manner is thus “situated, negotiated and part of an ongoing process” (Narayan 1997:37).
Indeed, I felt like a real stranger when I visited the school first. It was the very first time I
had ever visited the school, and I did not even know a single teacher in the school. No
contact had been made with the school because when I left for studies in the US, I was
planning on doing research in Tanzania, on a different topic altogether. When I visited
Apollo, I was armed with a letter from the Ministry of Education requesting the
headteacher to allow me to do research in the school. I was also armed with a research
permit from the ministry. I had decided it was safer to start that way than to informally
ask the head if she could allow me to do research in her school before securing the
permit. What if she said no? It would have complicated my research environment if she
said no and then I come back to the school armed with a letter from a higher authority
(the ministry). I did not want us to play power games and I knew my success in the field
could depend on her initial perceptions about me. Even then, I had to go back and get
another letter from the City Council as this was a city school and city schools have a
semi-autonomous relationship with the ministry in administrative matters; it was not
enough to have a permit from the Ministry (of Education).
As my research progressed, I was ever aware that I had to negotiate my place in
the school on a daily basis. I had no problem blending in everyday activities with the
school. I avoided talking about America to the teachers unless someone solicited the
discussion. I knew it would be a great strategic mistake if I were perceived as removed
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 67 from the mundane life in Kenya. Too much talk about America may signify greater
attachment to America than Kenya. That could further signify an “I am better than thou”
perception. But I also knew a researcher is always some sort of a “stranger”. In one staff
meeting, the head teacher and another teacher suggested that I change my central location
from the staffroom to the library. That way I would not “hear too much” in the staff
meetings and while the teachers do their own work or discuss issues (sometimes noisily),
I could continue writing in the library without interruption. Was this a strategic
suggestion to banish me? My heart was pounding and I realized I had to think fast before
I was banished to the library. I explained to the head teacher that I was perfectly all right
where I was and also that I understood that even in the most successful school, there must
be some unpleasant issues because institutions are never perfect. A “perfect” school was
like a “perfect” family - it is not always perfect. Although the suggestion to banish me
was not given in a manner to suggest that I was “unwanted” in the staff room, it
nevertheless reminded me I still needed to continue negotiating my place in the school on
a daily basis.
Education in Kenya
Formal education in Kenya began with the Islamic Koran schools that began with
the arrival of the Arab traders in the 14th Century. The next phase in formal education
came with the Christian missionaries in the 19th Century (Achola and Pillai 2000:5). The
first missionaries to arrive were Germans (J. Krapf and J. Rabmann) and they opened a
school at Rabbi near Mombasa in 1846. The 1901 completion and opening of the railway
line from the Indian Ocean coastal town of Mombasa to Kisumu in Western Kenya eased
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 68 communication to the interior of the country, thus accelerating the opening up of mission
schools in the interior (Achola and Pillai 2000:5).
Making the interior accessible also encouraged white settler farmers to establish
themselves in the interior and the Indian labor force that had assisted with the
construction of the railway line were encouraged by the British to stay. Urch submits that
education for the “natives” was seen as necessary because the settler economy required
semi-educated native labor (1968:27). Within a short time, however, local populations
started seeing the advantage that education gave them as they could get paid jobs
(1968:27-28). But education geared to serve the settler community was limited to reading
and writing as education beyond that was considered dangerous (1968:29). Later on (in
the 1920s), industrial education was deemed as the appropriate one for Kenyans in the
three tier racial categorization - European, Asian and African, in that order of superiority.
Semi-skilled labor was reserved for the Indians while skilled labor was for Europeans.
This was reflected in the education that stipulated that “The need to ‘fit’ the African to
cooperate with the ‘superior races’ in order that the colony could prosper was deemed an
integral part of the general educational policy” (Urch 1968:53, quotes in the original).
This need was felt all the more after the Berlin Treaty of 1885 that ended the scramble for
Africa by carving specific African geographical areas for specific European powers.
Kenya was given to the British Empire.
The missionaries themselves used education so as to break down the African
traditional belief systems and establish Christian beliefs (Urch 1968:24) while traders
(British East Africa Company) looked to the missionaries not only to Christianize the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 69 people, thus making trading easier, but also to ease communication (Urch 1968:22). In
brief, while the Christian missionaries believed in saving Kenyan (and African souls in
general) by their religion and ‘civilizing’ them, they also had a multifaceted mission
whose tasks directly or indirectly included easing of the penetration of the country by the
colonialist. In addition to the religious goals, needless to say, education in the colonial
period was geared to that end.
At independence in 1963, Urch informs us, the governing body of the new nation
state realized that they had inherited an inadequately equipped nation that had only a
small elite class and a majority group that was ill equipped to participate effectively in the
economic improvement of the country (1968:191). The new state had also to cope with
increasing demands of the citizens for more educational facilities and a country in need of
skills to exploit its mainly rural economy. The new nation state had the stated goal of
Africanizing the curriculum and expanding free primary education, with the aim of
achieving more equitable regional education and universal primary education (Urch
1968:198). Education also aimed at fostering national unity that at independence was
seen as threatened by racial, tribal and regional differences (Urch 1968:202-220). In
addition to producing qualified human power for development, education in Kenya has
been seen as a tool “to promote egalitarianism, to adopt a rural orientation andin stillto
Kenyan nationalism” (Court and Ghai 1974:7). Prewitt adds:
In Kenya, education for citizenship includes a heavy dose of nationalism, especially as interpreted through the themes ofUhuru (freedom), the self-help movement (Harambee) and African Socialism (Ujamaa). Whatever the practice, there is in principle an ideological commitment to egalitarianism as well (Prewitt 1974:200, italics in the original, parentheses added).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 70
Whether education has achieved or can achieve these goals is debatable
considering that education itself is a tool of stratification and most of the jobs that
education prepares students for are actually located in the cities. Besides, it is also in the
cities where one finds better facilities for everyday life and western style entertainment,
which is seen as superior to traditional entertainment. Thus, Court and Ghai also report
that critics of education in Kenya argue that it (education) “tends to hinder rather than
promote development... the most important effect of most educational systems is to
contribute to the enrichment of a small minority and, the exploitation of a majority and
the dependence of all upon international economic and academic standards and values.”
(Court and Ghai 1974:4). And elsewhere, Prewitt makes the following assertion about
education in Kenya and in general: “Education simultaneously promotes the conditions of
equality and the conditions of inequality” (Prewitt 1974:201).
In spite of the stated Africanization goal of Kenya’s education, its leaders have
been constrained by the desire to make the national education not only “national” but also
“international” so that their graduates are able to compete with other graduates from
Africa and also the developed world (Court and Ghai 1974:19). Thus, there is argument
that “Kenya’s education is and ought to be based on a structure of international
standards”, in an effort to have “national education in an international context” (Court
and Ghai 1974:19). This has led to the privileging of English as medium of instruction
rather than Kiswahili, the national language. It has also led to the adoption of foreign
models in education - first the British system of seven years of primary school, four of
secondary, two of higher secondary and three to five of basic university education and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 71 later an adaptation to the North American model of 8-4-4). According to Court and Ghai:
Modelled on parallel institutions in the industrial world, it has been characterized by its high cost, its specialized academic degree programme, the privileged position of its students and an ethos of autonomy which has served to keep it relatively aloof from the mundane demands of its social environment (Court and Ghai 1974:20).
The persistence of the modeling of Kenyan education to western standards is also evident
from the heavy involvement of donors, and international organizations in educational
decision making fora (Achola and Pillai 2000:11-15). Such organizations have included
the World Bank, which has on occasions engaged the ICED (International Council for
Educational Development) to review and give suggestions for World Bank’s educational
policies towards the third world (Achola and Pillai 2000:12). Other organizations that
have participated in the formulation of Kenyan educational policies are: UNICEF,
UNESCO, ILO and UNDP (Achola and Pillai 2000:11-15). While some scholars in
Kenya argue that to aspire to foreign standards is to perpetuate cultural and technological
dependency, others argue that “whether certain international standards are a product or a
cause of the technological growth of the industrial world, their mastery is a prerequisite
for understanding that world, for dealing with it on a basis of equality and for benefiting
from what it has to offer” (Court and Ghai 1974:20).
By 1974, Court and Ghai noted that access to education in Kenya was still not
evenly distributed according to gender, regions and social groups and even after selection,
there were regional and social differences in performance (Court and Ghai 1974:17).
They argue that the differences in schooling of girls and boys are not based on traditional
attitudes to women but rather on the fact that families that are constrained to send both
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 72 girls and boys to school prefer to send boys because the financial returns on girls’
education’s expenditure are smaller than those for boys (Court and Ghai 1974:17). This
argument overlooks the point that the major reason why the return on girls’ education is
smaller than that of boys is the traditional attitude towards women. It is the traditional
attitude that often determines the jobs they get in the labor market, how much they earn,
and the meager contribution they should make to their natal families after marriage.
By 2000, Achola and Pillai noted similar school inequality in school performance
that had roots in colonial times when schools, mainly in Nairobi and Central Provinces,
where children of settlers attended school, were equipped with better facilities and better
trained teachers and generally performed better. An emerging trend after independence
was that while Nairobi city and towns in Kenya continued to have some of the best
schools, with overpopulation, slums also emerged in poorer parts of the city and towns
and with them came slum schools (in colonial times, the city and towns were out of
bounds for Africans who were mainly restricted to the labor reserves in the outskirts of
the city and towns). Though the former colonial schools are now “Africanized”, they are
high cost and only children of the rich can afford them. Their performance in national
examinations continues to be better than that of the other schools (Acholla and Pillai
2000:49-56). Discussing the impact of school hierarchies in Kenya, Court and Ghai note
that:
The danger of this situation (school hierarchies) in Kenya is that students tend to be socially defined and to define themselves according to the type of school which they attend to the point where this affects aspirations and expectations in a way which bears little relation to pupils’ innate ability (1974:13, parentheses added).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The disparities are still felt today although one of the stated goals of Kenya’s Ministry of
Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) is to “ensure equitable access, attendance,
retention, attainment and achievement in education”, especially in primary and secondary
schools (GoK-MoEST 2004: www.education.go.ke/mission.htm). Specifically, the
ministry plans to achieve ‘“Universal Primary Education’ by 2005, within the context of
the wider objective of ‘Education for All (EFA)’ by 2015 and achieve a transition rate of
70% by 2010, from primary to secondary school, from the present rate of 47% (GoK -
MoEST 2004: www.education.go.ke/mission.htm). The planning and achievement of
education targets are also assessed within the framework of the Millenium Development
Goals (MDGs), a listing of which can be found in Harcourt 2005:4 and details on goals,
targets and indicators are at the United Nations site www.un.org/milleniumgoals/. The
enrolments and teacher student ratios, while generally high, vary considerably from
region to region and sometimes from school to school. Provisional data for 2000 student-
teacher ratio, for example, show that in North Eastern Province the ratio was as high as
43.8 and 30.4 in Eastern Province but it was as low as 11.5 andl3.8 in Lugari and Meru
South Districts, respectively (GoK- MoEST 2004:
www.education.go.ke/Statistics/PriSchPTRByDistrict.htm). The distribution of physical
facilities is equally varied. Thus, one of SACMEQ’s goals is to make sure that more
classrooms are constructed in schools that already have more than 50 students per class
(SACMEQ 2004: paper downloaded from MoEST site: www.education.go.ke). (In one
class in Apollo, I counted as many as 67 students). Although the resources in education,
as seen above, do not address the problems in education adequately, Kenya has
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. consistently spent 30% or more of its national budget on education (Court and Ghai
1974:1, GoK-MoEST 2004: www.education.go.ke/Functions.htm). And the World Bank
adds that Kenya is one of the highest spenders on education in Sub-Saharan Africa,
spending over 6% of its GDP and 36% of recurrent expenditure on education (World
Bank 2003:2; downloaded April 13, 06; http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servIet/WDS).
Kenya also has a relatively low illiteracy rate of 17% (population of 15 years and over)
compared to an average of 37% in Sub-Saharan Africa and a gross primary school
enrollment of 89% - percentage of school age population - (World Bank 2003:85).
Disparities in education in Kenya do not, however, arise only from differential
distribution of physical facilities and qualified teachers. It could be argued that the
curriculum in general is tailored to benefit urban, westernized, relatively rich students.
Education in Kenya is embedded in imagery that may not be accessible to students with
low income cultural capital. The images in textbooks, for example, are dominated by
descriptions of activities surrounding middle class families. For example, a composition
textbook may describe experiences like car rides, swimming pools and holiday
adventures. For most of the students in Apollo, the experience of having a ride in their
father’s car is too removed from reality because their parents are not likely to possess one.
Further, they hardly travel outside the city during vacation because resources are
unavailable, and neither their families nor their school will have access to a swimming
pool. If they ever travel at all, it will most likely be to the rural village of their extended
kin group, where they could have free or subsidized boarding facilities with relatives.
Expounding on a similar problem, Somerset explains the problems low cost schools in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 75 Kenya faced in one real examination situation. They were responding to the question
“Through what angle does the hour hand of a clock move from 9 am to 9.45 am?”
(Somerset 1974:159). Somerset explains the responses to the question showed
differences in performance between high cost and low cost schools and suggests that:
the handicap to low-cost pupils probably derives mainly from their lack of familiarity with the products of industrialised societies and with everyday English. Most pupils in high-cost schools almost certainly knew which hand on a clock is the hour hand; a high proportion of them were probably wearing a watch while they were sitting the examination (Somerset 1974:159-160).
He explains that low cost students wondered, “which hand of the clock is the hour hand -
the one which travels around the clock once every hour, or the one which moves from one
number to the next?” (Somerset 1974:160). In this respect, one could argue that the way
low income students experience school environment in Kenya is similar to the way black
students and other minorities experience “whiteness” not only in school but in general
public environments in the American situation. Page and Thomas discuss the everyday
practices that establish spaces as “white spaces” in America. They also enlighten us that
far from being confined in specific professions, the construction of “white space” as a
gate-keeping devise is widespread:
Either in its material or symbolic dimensions, white public space is comprised of all the places where racism is reproduced by the professional class. That space may entail particular or generalized locations, sites, patterns, configurations, tactics or devices that routinely, discursively, and sometimes coercively privilege Euro-Americans over non whites (Page and Thomas 1994: 111).
3 The term “whiteness” is also somewhat misleading because it lumps all whites in a single category and overlooks the reality that poor white students also experience similar alienation in the schools that privilege middle class cultural capital. It also may disguise neocolonialism in the Kenyan situation and overlook the fact that some upper class blacks and other minorities enjoy the privileges of “whiteness” in institutions in America, schools included. When viewed in this manner, “whiteness” becomes only a metaphor.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 76 In a similar manner, the low income student would be made to feel alienated from the
practices of the economically privileged group through lack of cultural capital.
Since education in Kenya considerably improves one’s chances of getting better
paying employment (Rado 1974:29, Somerset 1974:149), those who fail to get it hardly
have a chance to compete in the highly competitive job market. This has the implication
that many students in low hierarchy schools generally give up on themselves long before
they join the competitive job market. Slum schools fall within the lowest of the low
hierarchy. Since the school hierarchies can paralyze even potentially good students with
feelings of inadequacy, a story of success in one slum school is a positive lesson that
encourages low income students to believe in themselves, to believe that they still have a
chance in school.
Gender Disparity in Education
Differential enrollment and performance in girls’ and boys’ education as well as
gender gaps in social relations in Kenya, Africa and the developing countries in general,
have been mentioned by several authors (see, for example, Achola and Pillai 2000,
Kilbride, Suda and Njue 2000, Court and Ghai 1974, Onsomu and colleagues 2005,
URT/UNICEF 1997). The major reasons given for gender disparity are traditional
patriarchal beliefs that privilege male youth and adults over women. Due to such beliefs,
it has been argued, returns on education for girls is low thus leading to preference in
educating boys. The immediate manifestations of the problem are early marriages for
girls, low enrollment, poor attendance and retention, weaker performance in exams, girls
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 77 performing nurturing chores at home instead of going to school, and few female teachers
as models.
In view of the amount of literature available on the different experiences of the
school environment for boys and girls, my expectations were that gender differences
would naturally come out in conversations with parents, teachers and the students
themselves. I especially expected the students to bring this up during discussions on their
weekly calenders (including their daily activities in and out-of- school). I certainly
expected the teachers to bring out differential performace of boys and girls or to point out
that girls needed more encouragement so as to perform better. However, there was hardly
any information about the special problems of the girl child and my observations of
classroom teaching and the school environment did not reveal gender differentiation.
Although I had decided on the onset that researching gender dynamics would make my
already broad study too broad, I had also planned to analyze issues of gender if they came
out in conversations. That way, I would also avoid getting stereotypes as a result of being
overly aggressive on gender questioning. I would also focus on the causes of the unusual
outstanding performance of a school in the slums (whether the performance was gender
differentiated or not). However, the silence on gender was puzzling.
There was equity in enrollment. In 2002, Toyi had 1343 students and 673 were
boys while 670 were girls. The enrollment distribution from standard one to eight was
not always balanced but it was not significantly varied (standard one: 89 boys, 84 girls,
two: 82, 112; three: 84, 85; four: 93, 87; five: 90, 100; six: 86, 72; seven: 88, 62; eight:
61, 68). Apollo had 12 male and 26 female teachers while Toyi had 5 and 25
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 78 respectively. (Primary school teaching attracts more women than men and female
teachers are “preferred” spouses. The gender discrepancy in urban centers becomes more
visible because more female teachers come to the cities and towns to join husbands who
normally have non-teaching jobs). Apparently, the girls in cities have more female role
models.
Enrollment in Kenya is varied depending on the province in question. For
example, enrollment figures between 1999 and 2002 indicate that North Eastern province
had low levels of enrollment in primary school in general and high gender disparity, with
68% of the enrolled as boys and 32% as girls. In the same period Western province had
more girls enrolled than boys (Onsomu and collegueas 2005:17-18). The study concludes
that, “Although gender parity has been achieved at national level, particularly at primary
education level, regional disparities are apparent with North Eastern province recording
the highest regional disparities” (Onsomu and colleagues 2005:16). Further, the more
visible problems in primary schooling in Kenya were geographical and socio-economic
disparities, rather than gender inequity.
In addition to the apparent equity in enrollment, the authors reveal that SACMEQ
(funded by HEP and UNESCO) studies, done in two phases, revealed equity in gender
performance in examinations done by standard (grade) six students in reading and math in
East and Southern Africa region. There were variations in performance in different
subjects, but there was no major difference in overall performance between girls and
boys. In fact, girls scored significantly higher than boys in reading in Botswana, South
Africa, Namibia and Seychelles while boys scored higher in math in Tanzania, Kenya,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 79 Mozambique, Zanzibar and Malawi (Onsomu and colleagues 2005:11). Although they
give a list of “possible” gender problems in primary schooling in the region, they add,
“Further, the study indicates that in all countries, at no instance were standard six girls
less advantaged than their male counterparts but more important differences were the
disparities between geographical locations and socioeconomic levels” (Onsomu and
colleagues 2005:11).
The silence on gender in Apollo can be understood in the context of what is
mentioned in the above paragraphs, but I would add that gender inequity in schooling is
concentrated among pastoral communities and there are fewer of them in the cities and
towns. In addition, parents in cities are less constrained by traditional practices which,
generally, encourage preferance for boys and also promote better returns on
boys’education. Further, as primary public schooling is cheaper than secondary
schooling, it is possible that parents would make gender choices for the education of their
children in secondary school, when financial demands become more acute. It is also
possible that as students get older and join secondary school, the socialization
expectations of different gender roles become more defined both at home and in school;
this would make issues of gender more visible and conversations about gender more
intense.
The Structure of Education in Kenya
Public education in Kenya is based on what is locally called the 8-4-4 (or 5)
system, in which students go through eight years of primary education, four of secondary
and four (or five, depending on specific field) of university education (first degree).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 80 Formerly (from independence in 1963 to the early eighties), education was based on 7-4-
2-3 (or 4), which was seven years of primary education, four years of secondary, two of
higher secondary and three (or four, depending on field taken) of first degree.
There are many institutions that deal with specific functions of primary and
secondary education but they all fall under the Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology (MoEST). The ministry oversees several institutions that deal with specific
functions of primary and secondary education. Overall, the ministry (under the
guardianship of a minister, assistant ministers and directors (and assistant directors) of
education oversees:
• Registration of education and training institutions
• Curriculum development
• Examinations and certification
• Inspection and supervision of education institutions
• Teacher education and management
Some of the specific institutions that deal with education are Kenya National
Examinations Council (KNEC) which prepares national centralized examinations,
oversees the examination process and deals with certification. The Kenya Teachers’
Service Commission (KTSC) deals with staffing and payment of salaries while the Kenya
Institute of Education (KDE) deals with preparation of syllabi for pre-primary, primary and
secondary school education as well as teacher and special education, post school technical
and business education and adult and continuing education. They also prepare teaching
and evaluation materials that support the syllabi, conduct in-service training, distance
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 81 education, co-ordinate education research in education institutions, excluding
universities. Teachers in public primary and secondary schools in Kenya are unionised
under Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), and they have occasionally
successfully bargained for salary increase by downing their tools and threatening to use
their voting power to deny relevant politicians positions in government.
Management, inspection and supervision of education is represented at provincial
and district levels by provincial education offices and district education boards,
respectively. All public and private schools that sit for Kenyan examinations are
supervised. Private schools that teach international syllabi and offer international
examinations are not supervised by the ministry of education. Toyi and Apollo schools
are two of the 188 schools in Nairobi City that sat for Kenya national examinations (2003
statistics).
Apollo School
Apollo school had 38 teachers (26 women and 12 men) in the beginning of first
term of 2002, but at the end of the term, one teacher retired and another one transferred to
another school. Altogether the school had 1750 students that were distributed in four
streams from standard one to eight. The examination class had 210 candidates that would
sit for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) at the end of the year - 2002.
KCPE marks the end of eight years of primary education and selects students that qualify
to proceed to secondary school education. In the previous year, 191 students had sat for
KCPE and 167 of them passed well enough to qualify for secondary education. (Each of
them scored 300 or more scores out of 500). Some passed well enough to be admitted to
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 82 prestigious national schools, while others qualified for provincial secondary schools, but
it was noteworthy that more than three quarters of them qualified, since many schools do
not succeed in taking half of their students to secondary school. The overall national
transition rate to secondary school was 46.8% in 2001, 48.7% in 2002 and 52% in 2003
(Gok-MoEST 2004:
www.education.go.ke/Statistics/NationalPriToSecTransitionRateByGender.htm) and on
average, it is usually 47% (www.education.go.ke/Mission.htm).
Apollo school was started in 1980, with three classes: standards one to three.
Three teachers started the school and they all had come from the nearby Toyi school,
which was started soon after the First World War (1924). They were joined the same year
by a fourth teacher and the four, all female, were still in Apollo school when I did
research in 2002. Three of them occupy the senior-most positions in the school, head
teacher, deputy head teacher and second deputy.
Toyi school was a not-so-well performing school, and the teachers that started
Apollo school were determined from the very start to establish a school that would make
a difference to students. They wanted to show that a school can have students from
economically marginalised families but still do well in the exams and join secondary
schools of great reputation. The school sat for the first examinations in 1985, and they
were number five in the province. From then onwards they were the best school in the
province, except on two other occasions when their school was in the second position.
During the yearly trophy giving ceremony in the province (held on June 14’ 2002), which
I attended, Apollo got trophies for best school (out of 188) overall (with an average of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 83 354.36 scores out of 500), best school in Kiswahili, best school in Math, best public
school, best school with the highest number of candidates, the school with the highest
number of top candidates, and best two schools overall (Program of the 2001 K.C.P.E
Trophy Awards Presentation of Prizes Ceremony on June 14, 2002 at Charter Hall, City
Hall, Nairobi).
Since Apollo was an offshoot of Toyi School, its first name was “New Toyi”,
(also known as “Toyi B”). It was later christened Apollo, because, as the teachers said,
“We didn’t want to be confused with Toyi School”. That was a potent symbolic break
from all that Toyi stood for, as we shall see later in the dissertation.
Data on the income of the population in Apollo neighborhood have been difficult
to obtain. Most of the inhabitants have no formal employment and they do small trade or
get out to the industrial area in Nairobi city where they do construction work or other
menial, low paying, daily wage jobs. The jobs are highly insecure and people have to
wake up at dawn to walk to construction sites to secure jobs that are acquired every day,
on a first-come, first-served basis. Since income is also considered a private matter, even
the few people who have more formal or regular employment are reluctant to diverge
information about their earnings, even to immediate members of families. A transect
walk in the neighborhood revealed a rough understanding of the low income population
in Apollo neighborhood. It also revealed the trademarks of slum dwellings in Kenya,
especially as relates to overcrowding.
There were women selling tomatoes, cabbages, sukuma wiki (kale), cut-up
sugarcane stems, carrots, and onions on raised stands. Some of the women had
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sandwitched the stands outside their small dwellings, others were on paths or along the
“main road” designated for vehicles. Other women were deep flying whole tilapia along
the paths; it smelt so good. Indeed, as I walked through the neighborhood, I was struck
by the sheer variety of food items that were being sold in different places. In addition to
the above items there were grains: beans, maize (com), millet, simsim, ndegu (grams),
pigeon pea, cow pea (so many different peas, some of which I could not place a nametag
on). Then there were roots:nduma (arrow roots), cassava, sweet and Irish potatoes and
more roots that I could not name. And more “traditional” vegetables:mrenda, terere,
nduma, cow pea, pumpkin. I remembered how my friend from western Kenya had
explained to me that some of the vegetables were very“kalF (bitter) and needed to be
soaked with milk overnight in order to “tame” them. Some young men were grilling
sweet potatoes over subdued charcoal fire. I know how delicious grilled sweet potatoes
can be.
There was a variety of food types, albeit in small quantities. I wondered where it
all came from. How did the traders raise an income for the financial capital necessary to
keep the small scale businesses running? I decided to ask one of the female traders:
Example 3.1
Researcher: Mama, hivi vyakula mnatoa wapi? Interviewee: Tunaamka asubuhi na mapema kabla ndege hawajaamka halafu tunarejea marikiti ukooo karibu na uwanja wa Machakos. Hapo ndio bei nafuu. Wenyewe wanaleta na malori kutoka mashambani. Wee mgeni? R: Mgeni kidogo tu. Naishi upande mwingine wa Toyi lakini nina ndugu na marafiki hapa kwa hivo natembelea hapa sana.
[Researcher: Mother, where do you get all these foodstuff from? Interviewee: We wake up very early in the morning, before birds have woken up,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 85 then we go to the market, far away, near Machakos bus station. That’s where the prices are reasonable. They themselves bring [the foodstuff] in lorries from the farms. Are you new (to this place)? R: Only a little. I live on the other side of Toyi but I have relatives and friends here so I visit often. March 2, 2002; Translated by author]
Some women and young men nearby were cutting upsukuma wiki (kale) and
packaging it in transparent plastic bags, enough in each bag for a family meal. This was a
new phenomenon. Previously,sukuma wiki would be sold whole and then the buyer
would clean and cut before cooking. They were listening to music from a tape. It was
Lingala music from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were singing along
with the artist, Kofi Olomide, and they would interrupt the vegetable cutting to swing
their hips to the rhythm of the music as the lyrics became intense.Kipinda kipinda yiii I
kipinda ngoyi! Kipinda kipinda yiii I kipinda ngoyil
There was meat hanging nakedly from the windows of the stores, goat meat cut
into half (half goat) or quarters. There were limbs of beef, too. The organ meats were
enclosed in transparent glass enclosures - maini (liver),figo (kidneys), moyo (hearts),
ulimi (tongue), half-cleaned matumbo (intestines). As I moved nearer the road, I came
across some traders who were selling plastic and aluminium containers- from kitchen
utensils to large water storage containers and drums of all colors. Some traders had
whistles which they made use of every now and again to attract customers. They were
also shouting out the prices of their waresSufuria “ mbili shilingi mia! Hamsini kwa
sufuria! Debe ni mia! Mia kwa debe! Mia kwa ndebe mara moja! Mia kwa debe mara
mbili! Mia kwa ndebe mara taaa...? Tatu! Ndebe imeendar [Two pans for hundred
shillings! Fifty for a pan! A drum for one hundred! One hundred for a drum! One
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. hundred for a drum once! One hundred for a drum twice! One hundred for a drum
threee...? Thrice! The debe is gone!] But it was only a mock auction. There were few
buyers at the time. The traders were bored and entertaining themselves and their potential
buyers. A few yards from them was thematatu (minibus) station. The manamba (matatu
touts) were teasing each other and competing for “customers”. Tauni “ shilingi kumi!
Tauni shilingi kumi wa haraka weee! Tauni shilingi kumi mwalimu/” [Ten mkuu
shillings to town! Ten shillings to town for those who are in a hurry! Ten shillings to
town head teacher!]. The well groomed man went past thematatu and the touts teased
each other about their failed effort. One of themanamba was wearing a Lakers sports
shirt, blue denims and tennis shoes while the other was wearing an ordinary T-shirt, black
jeans and tennis shoes. Both were sporting their newly braided comrows4.
On the way to town, from thematatu station was a small valley (depression) after
which there was a mitumba (used clothing) bazaar. There was a wide selection of items:
blankets, sheets, duvets, curtains, fleeces, sports wear clothes for men, women and
children, bags, shoes. The mitumba bazaar was packed with people shopping for various
items. Sometime in the nineties, mitumba had been banned in Kenya because it was
giving too much competition to local textile industries. But it was the son of the
president, it was rumored, who owned the bulk ofmitumba business, so after a temporary
effort to please the industries, the ban was lifted. It was also rumored that the clothes had
been donated for free from the Salvation Armies in rich countries but “big shots” were
selling them. That the clothes were reputed to cause itchy skin diseases did not affect the
4 Manamba are typically young men in their late teens and twenties who are trendy, usually dressed in sports wear supporting US basket ball players. They also sport comrow hair-dos and bandannas.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 87 lucrative mitumba business. I kept thinking, “This is a poor neighborhood, where do the
inhabitants get money to buy all the wares from?” Actually, themitumba market also
attracted other buyers from outside the neighborhood. Apparently, mitumbaeven prices
were sensitive to market environments, and buyers knew that prices in the slums were
cheaper than the prices in the more affluent neighborhoods.
On another day, I walked from Toyi School to interview one of the parents. It was
about six o’clock and many people were getting home from their jobs. What caught my
attention more than anything else was the overpowering smell of rotten stuff and the
irritation of nostrils from the filthy fumes from open sewerage. There was uncollected
and badly managed garbage, and inadequately sanitized food handling environments. The
walking paths had to be zigzagged as some places got blocked by houses that were too
close to each other to allow passage and there were also abrupt open sewers that blocked
paths. There was no planning in the construction of the houses that the people lived in.
The dwellings were mainly raw mud houses with rusty corrugated iron roofing. Some
were single rooms; many had private rooms. In a research on street children, Kilbride,
Suda and Njeru inform us that the slums had an average of 2 rooms per house/household
and 6.2 persons per household. The rental value for each room was 6-10 US dollars per
month (Kilbride, Suda and Njeru 2000:42). There was no electricity or running water, so
residents used kerosene lamps for lighting and charcoal or kerosene for fuel. When the
students do their assignments at home, they use kerosene lamps. The walk revealed many
small scale enterprises like charcoal, vegetable and fish vending, selling of clothes (both
new and mitumba), hair salons, and meat selling outlets. Communal water can be
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. accessed through water taps shared by several households, and when there is scarcity,
water vending becomes a lucrative business.
It was, however, evident that poor as the neighborhood was, it had some
stratification of sorts. Some of the houses were made of semi-permanent materials.
Others had permanent materials and had living rooms and bedrooms. Some even had TV
antennas and there were “low” and “higher”category salons, bars, shops, better sanitized
meat outlets, etc. Some of the houses were good enough for the teachers in Apollo to live
in and some teachers did invite me to their houses, which had electricity, telephone
facilities and all. Some of the teachers and their neighbors owned important symbols of
comfort, specifically specious houses and relatively new automobiles. There were also
commercial telephone bureaus, the owners of which were rumored to vandalize the
regular phone booths (mainly from government subsidized telecommunication services)
so as to boost their own small businesses. As I observed my surroundings during the
walk, I understood what I had read about “consumption trends in the slums” in a Kenyan
magazine that discusses slum issues: “The slum population basically belong to the low
income earning category. For this reason, their (food) consumption habits are more or
less the same as that of middle and upper levels only that theirs is in either mini packages
or of low quality” (Kiru 1998:2, parentheses added).
What I did not witness during the transect walk was the brewing of illegal types of
brews and consumption of illegal substances that are reportedly frequently by Slum
News. Some of the story titles are suggestive of the content (see, for example,
“Numerous Drugs Sold to Pumwani Youths” (Muhindi 1999:8); “Escalating Drug Abuse
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 89 in Kenya” (Said 2001:2); “Miraa Trade Flourishes in Majengo” (Muhindi: 2001:4); “The
Never Ending Tragedies of Illicit Brews in the Slums” (Ong’ala: 2001:2); “The Brew that
Killed My Son Quickly” (Bundi:2001:3). Since the brewing is illegal, I suppose it would
be done in secrecy. I noticed several alcohol drinking outlets though.
With such bad news emanating from the slums, it is worth examining how a slum
school like Apollo managed not only to be successful but also not to be associated with
drugs and the crime associated with slum dwellers. The continued good performance
defies commonplace expectations that economically marginalized students cannot excel
in academic performance and life in general due to socially determined variables that
constrain their potential (Bernstein 1972, Macleod 1995, Fordham 1996, Heath 1982).
Success in Apollo school has been measured by the performance of the school in
national examinations and the high number of students that make a smooth transition to
secondary school. For the teachers, parents and students, performance in national
examinations was a priority as a measure of a successful school. Discipline was also
important but its importance was largely tied to its contribution towards passing
examinations. The stress on national exams is not unwarranted considering the reality of
what Somerset tells us about the primary school national examination:
The Certificate of Primary Education (C.P.E) determines the whole destiny of a child. If he passes well and enters a Government secondary school he has a good chance of ultimately entering a job where his income may reach ten, twenty or even one hundred times the national per-capita average. But if he fails, his lifetime earnings may not amount to much more than those of someone with no formal education. It is hardly surprising that the examination produces so much anxiety and tension, and the selection process which follows it so much controversy and bitterness (Somerset 1974:149-150).
Although the passage somehow exaggerates the income potential after graduation from
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. secondary school, the expectation that each level of education will lead to the next and
eventually university education will lead to a much better gamble in income potential is
real. Some studies in the Kenyan situation already indicate that primary schools and
secondary schools are not designed as terminal since they hardly prepare students for
employment or life skills. They are designed mainly to prepare students to move to
higher stages in education and the eventual reward for education is seen as higher
incomes from employment (Moock 1974:110-112, Rado 1974:29). The school that
chums out the largest number of students to the next level of education is considered
successful. Some of the former Apollo students were somewhat critical of the less
emphasis on co-curricular activities by the school, but that was not a major issue to
parents, teachers and current students. This probes the important question of whether the
student success attained in Apollo is continued in post-Apollo institutions and whether
the students, parents, teachers and the community believe that post-Apollo achievements
should be taken into consideration in the assessment of the school’s success. Although
the Apollo community may have little control over what happens to students after they
leave their school, if students “succeed” in Apollo but have no opportunities to build on
such success, the “success” would be wasted.
Toyi School
Toyi School, a rival school from which three teachers who started Apollo school
(formerly “New Toyi”) came, is about seven minutes’ walk from Apollo school. The
socio-economic environment of both Apollo and Toyi schools is similar.
Initially, Toyi school was not to be a part of my research, but I decided to spend
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 91 some time there because its name was mentioned on many occasions by the teachers,
students and parents of Apollo school. In as far as Apollo community was concerned,
Toyi was the worst example of a school. If a teacher’s subject was not well done, s/he
was asked by colleagues whether s/he wanted Apollo to be like Toyi. If a student was
lazy, they were told to “cross the road” and join the lazy ones. If performance was
unacceptable, students were told such performance would only be acceptable in Toyi.
And in self-congratulatory tones, Apollos often declared, “Their best is our worst and our
worst is their best”.
Toyi school was started in 1924 and was mainly attended by Nubian children
whose parents had come from the Southern Sudan during the first World War. Its name
comes from the Nubian word “X”, which means X. The general physical area was called
“X” because when the Nubians inhabited it, it had not yet been cleared for human
habitation. The Nubians were Muslims, so the school was used for both secular
education and Madrassa. Later on, the Nubians were joined by Kenyan populations.
In 2002, Toyi had a total student population of 1343 and the candidates waiting
for the standard eight national examinations were 129. The school had 30 teachers (5
male and 25 female). The performance of Toyi school in the national examinations was
not at all good (especially compared to the towering Apollo standards), but it was not as
terrible as Apollo made it look. (Indeed, both schools exaggerated each other’s
weaknesses). Toyi managed to send a few students to good secondary schools every year
and they had average scores of 330 (out of 700)5 from 1994 to 1996, 352 in 1997 and 338
5 The average score here is out of 700 while in the Apollo data, above it, the score is out of 500 because since 2001 examinations, three subjects were merged, reducing the total score from 700 to 500.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 92 in 1998. However, they did not make it on the list of the best 100 schools in the province
(a former student said they did in 1997), they received no trophy for 2001 national
examinations and none of their students was in the top 106 students in the same year.
Methods of Data Collection and Analysis
In his general discussion of research methods, Bernard (1995) explores the
various meanings of “methodology”:
...the word “method” itself has, at least three meanings. At the most general level, it means epistemology or the study of how we know things. At a still-pretty- general level, its about strategic choices, like whether to do participant observation field-work, a library dissertation, or an experiment. At the specific level, it’s about what kind of sample you select, whether you do face-to-face interviews or use the telephone, whether you use an interpreter or learn the local language well enough to do your own interviewing, and so on (Bernard 1995:1-2).
A researcher’s choice of methods may be influenced at the theoretical level by an
understanding of what social scientists have been grappling with for years - issues of
validity and reliability. A reliable method, so scientists argue, will give the same results
in different parts of the globe. As Bernard puts it, “something that is true in Detroit is just
as true in Vladivostok and Nairobi” or there can never be “Venezuelan physics”,
“American chemistry”, or “Kenyan geology” (1995:4). Validity, on the other hand,
“refers to the accuracy and trustworthiness of instruments, data and findings in research”
(Bernard 1995:38). But social sciences are not physics, chemistry and geology and, as we
have seen earlier in this chapter, validity and reliability could be affected by many other
variables in the social context, not least of which is subjectivity.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 93 Population and Sampling
Students, teachers and parents formed a major part of the research. Former
students as well as current students were interviewed. It would have been important to
obtain thorough information about what happens to students after successful completion
of primary school; how many of them continue smoothly throughout high school and,
university colleges. However, the two schools did not keep such data.
I interviewed 28 students in Apollo- 20 current and 8 former. The 20 were from
senior grade levels - standards 7 (10) and 8 (another 10). I assumed that students in the
higher grades were more mature and able to articulate their thoughts about the school.
They had also been in the school for a relatively longer time. (There were 210 standard 8
students altogether and 197 standard seven). Eight former students were interviewed
because I wanted to see whether their views would be different from current students. I
also had suspected that current students may not be very free to talk about their school.
After interviewing them, I found out that current students’ information, contrary to my
earlier suspicions, was not constrained. However, some ideas, especially about
punishment and pedagogy were somewhat different in the two groups, possibly due to
shifting interests, greater exposure to critical thinking about education and exposure to
different learning and teaching methods.
A stratified random sampling method was used. Half of the students were
selected from the high achieving group (determined by examining their school
performance in 2001) by random sampling, while the other half was selected from the
low achieving group. I assumed a student’s performance might influence the responses to
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 94 questions about teachers, parents and the school in general or more specifically, a low
performing student may experience life in the school in a fundamentally different way
from a well performing student.
In Apollo the gender was balanced between girls and boys interviewed; ten girls
and ten boys were interviewed. The difference was, however, that while in standard
eight, two of the five bright students interviewed were girls, only one out of the five
bright students in standard seven was a girl. That was simply how the random sampling
results came out. Five teachers from Apollo were interviewed while six were interviewed
in Toyi. Four parents in Toyi were interviewed while six were interviewed in Apollo.
Eight former Apollo students were interviewed while in Toyi only one was. The parents,
former students and teachers were selected according to their availability and willingness
to participate in the research (one former Apollo student declined, another gave an
appointment that was not honored and attempts to reach her were not successful. Some
teachers also politely declined). For the teachers and students, there were several other
informal interviews.
Students were forthright in their responses and gave invaluable information but it
was the informal interviews and participant observation that really gave me the teachers’
insights about the school. I listened to the teachers and students in their daily
performance of tasks. I participated in sports, listened to discussions during staff
meetings, listened to student and teacher conversations and attended classes on a daily
basis. I graded students’ compositions andinsha, and in Toyi’s case, read student daily
diary, which were a part of English writing exercises. I was allowed to join the daily
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 95 lunch membership in Apollo and I was also a member of the teachers’ informal welfare
association. I also went out for lunch with different groups of teachers who chose to
sometimes eat out, instead of having the communal lunch. By the time I was through
with research, Apollo had truly made me feel like “kin”.
As mentioned in background information, Toyi school, a neighboring school that
was not proposed as a part of my study was included later on due to its status as the “arch
rival” of Apollo school. I learned of the status after I started my fieldwork in Apollo
school, and I believed that doing some fieldwork in the school would illuminate some
elements in Apollo that may not be clear to me, without a comparison. It did. In
particular, I wanted to observe student and teacher interaction, pedagogy in a second
school, and I also wanted to hear opinions about punishment and school work load. After
hearing about Toyi’s poor reputation from Apollo, I was very curious about what really
happened in the school and what their own perceptions of Apollo were. I had also “seen”
so much success in Apollo that I began to wonder whether my perceptions were so
positive only because I was not comparing the school with any other.
The sampling in Toyi was similar to that in Apollo. I interviewed ten students
who were selected from the better performing groups in standards 7 and 8 and ten from
the weaker groups. I also interviewed teachers, parents and former students. Other than
the meticulously selected group of students, there were several informal conversations
that were carried out with other students, and teachers.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 96 Data Collection
A combination of data collection methods were used to facilitate my research.
The major ones were: surveys (interviews) using unstructured questionnaires, text
recording (audio, audio-visual), classroom observations, and participant observation.
While none of the methods is singled out as completely bias-proof, it was hoped that a
combination of methods would avoid as much bias as could be avoided.
Interviewing
I conducted face-to-face interviews. Interviews were conducted in English,
Kiswahili or Kikamba. (I interviewed only one parent in Kikamba, my ethnic language -
the other interviewees did not speak my language, so I used either English or Kiswahili.)
Typically, the parents were interviewed in Kiswahili and the students in English. I asked
students to choose whichever language they felt comfortable to be interviewed in and
only two students chose Kiswahili (one from the bright group in Apollo and one from the
weak group in Toyi). I came across a few students who had difficulties communicating in
English (in Toyi group B - of weaker students), although they insisted that they felt
comfortable speaking the language.
Face-to-face interviews were useful because I could record what a person was
saying and also observe body language. An added advantage with interviews is that the
response to the questions is more spontaneous compared to, for example, a mailed
questionnaire which allows a person to think about the implications of certain answers.
But it is also possible that more time allows a respondent to think about other responses
that are equally valid. Thus, though this assertion sounds controversial, some authors
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 97 have argued that “spontaneous answers may be more informative and less normative than
answers about which the respondent has had time to think” (Bailey 1978:182).
Students are a major focus of the research. I conducted interviews with each of
the students individually and I got to talk to some of the students in a more informal
manner. Unstructured questionnaires soliciting for background information and specific
information concerning the school, the teachers, the students’ satisfaction and
dissatisfaction about the school were administered. Other questions were administered to
find out the interviewees’ parents’/guardians’ participation in the school, students’
satisfaction with parent/s’ participation in the school and in general educational needs. I
solicited for the information myself on a one-on-one basis and recorded responses.
Parents were interviewed about what they considered to be strengths and
weaknesses in their students’ learning (what promotes their learning and what hinders it),
what they considered to be the schools’/teachers’ strengths and weaknesses and how
school performance could be made better. They were also interviewed about their
participation (or lack of) in the school and what demands, if any, the school made on
them. The questions exposed the relationship that parents had with education institutions
and their children.
I interviewed teachers, especially those who teach subjects that students
consistently said they liked or disliked. I wanted to know from them what they
considered to be weaknesses and strengths in their pedagogy, in their school, their role in
motivating students, their explanation of successful performance in the school, and what
motivated them.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Scheduling of two to three interviews with students, teachers and parents, as
initially planned was not possible because of school’s rigid schedules and long school
days that left the different parties too tired to be involved in extra activities. The
teachers’ interviews also were somewhat constrained, so I got more reliable information
about teachers and the school environment in general from observing the teachers as they
interacted with one another and carried out their duties on a day-to-day basis and also
from classroom teaching observations, and conversations with parents and students. The
students’ and parents’ interviews were, in contrast, informative, more forthright and less
self-censored.
Classroom Teaching Observation
In the observation of classroom teaching, my attention was focused on:
i) Whether instruction was performed in a rigid manner or not (in a general sense).
ii) Whether students were, generally, given similar attention (positive and otherwise)
iii) Issues of language use. The classroom language was English since that was the
language of the grade eight examination. However, occasionally, there was code
switching to Kiswahili for various reasons that included emphasis, elaboration,
clarification, and humor. The language use in the classrooms exposed a combination of
methods of teaching: participatory as well as banking education. There was a distinction
between languages used in class by students and languages used outside the class. In the
successful school, however, the students were more forthright in accepting that they used
the national language (Kiswahili) and sometimes their ethnic languages outside the
classroom. The students in the less successful school insisted they used English language
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 99 in school all the time. The classroom was also an ideal place to examine how the
ideology of success was played out during teacher/student interaction.
Participant Observation
Participant observation has been defined as “a process of learning through
exposure to or involvement in the day-to-day or routine activities of participants in the
research setting” (Schensul, Schensul and LeCompte 1999:91). The authors see the realm
of “participation” of a participant observer as a continuum that ranges from “just”
observing to “active” participation, to “complete” participation, depending on
circumstances (Schensul and colleagues, 1999:92).
A great advantage of the participant observation method is that “it gives the
researcher an intuitive as well as an intellectual grasp of the way things are organized and
prioritized, how people relate to one another, and the ways in which social and physical
boundaries are defined” (Schensul and colleagues, 1999:91). In addition, a researcher
gets a “feel” of “stuff’ that is not overtly discussed.
Participant observation has traditionally been and still is the heart of anthropology
and anthropological text production: ethnography. Though a controversy among
anthropologists as to whether ethnographic research should include only qualitative or
both qualitative and quantitative data ensues (Schensul and colleagues, 1999:3),
researchers often do what they think would yield useful data, depending on the specific
focus of research. In the case of Apollo, though quantitative data were not altogether
absent, qualitative data were the soul of the research as they captured the “thick
descriptions” (Geertz 1973) that quantitative data often miss.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 100 Schensul and colleagues (1999:93) warn that issues of appearance, language, class
background, manner, ease of interaction style, age, size, gender, race and ethnicity may
affect one’s interaction in a research setting. I did not expect any of the issues mentioned
to work strongly against me: I had a definite advantage in my ability to speak both
English and Kiswahili which allowed me access to any interviewee or conversation. In
one case, I did an interview in my ethnic language (Kikamba), but I would have had
access to the interviewee even if I had no knowledge of Kikamba because she also spoke
fluent Kiswahili. Ethnicity was not an important variable in a city school that had mixed
populations. I had, however, to be careful about my “language”, appearance and general
demeanor, all of which might be read as signaling that I thought I was “so educated” or a
“been-to-America”!
I observed most of what was happening in the school: the interaction of teachers
with one another, student/student interaction, parent/teacher interaction, student/teacher
interaction, parent/student interaction. I observed the participation of all concerned
entities in the activities of the school. I sat in meetings in the staff room, sat in the
staffroom and observed what was going on and listened to the many conversations,
observed classroom teaching, went to the sports field with teachers and students, assisted
students with preparations for prose and poetry recitation competitions, preparation for
debating competitions andmjadala (Kiswahili debate), assisted with internal
examinations, graded student compositions andinsha (Kiswahili composition). In
addition, I attended off school sports and music competitions, poetry competitions,
awards ceremonies and any other gatherings that would give an opportunity to meet and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 101 listen to school officials, teachers and students.
I wrote notes whenever I observed or heard something noteworthy. I wrote down
what the teachers said about the school, the students, parents, the teaching profession in
general, pedagogy, issues of success in schools, performance expectations (of the school
in general, specific students and also classes). I also wrote notes on what was said about
co-curricular activities, position of Apollo vis-a-vis other schools, school administration
in Apollo, parents’ expectations, jokes about promotions
Unlike the traditional anthropologist who observes a community while living in it,
I was both living in the community and away from the community. Like the teachers and
students, I would come to school in the morning and leave at the end of the day, at 5.00 or
6.00 pm, depending on whether the school had after school activities on the specific day.
I lived about 20 minutes’ walk from the school, if there had been a direct route home. In
the absence of a direct route, it took me that same amount of time to take public
transportation(matatu or bus) from my living quarters to the school. The break from
school in the evening was welcome as it allowed me to reflect on the day activities and
re-examine my notes for the day.
Participatory Appraisal
Additionally, I got information about the school and neighborhood by using
aspects of participatory learning skills. By utilizing selected learning tools of PRA
(Participatory Rural Appraisal), I accessed knowledge about the social and physical
environment of the school and community. I also was able to experience the students’
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. daily lives through their descriptions of their activities in a school day/week, weekends
and holidays. Chambers (1992:1) defines PRA as “a growing family of approaches and
methods to enable local people to share, enhance and analyze their knowledge of life and
conditions, to plan and to act”. PRA methods are important practical tools to assist a
researcher in getting bearing in a community both physically and socially, although they
have been criticized by some academics for an apparent lack of abstract social theory
(Mikkelsen 1995:202). Whether PRA has an abstract social theory or not, it is a strong
tool in assisting people in the assessment of their social and physical environment, its
analysis and possible ways of taking action. For my research, I used a few tools
(explained below) that I found very useful in understanding students’ life in Apollo.
I had to make some modification of this methodology because it was not possible
to get a group of students at the same time, and also it was not possible for the students to
have the stretch of time commitment that is required for full group participation in the
context of PRA. However, I plotted a day’s calendar, and a week’s calendar (seven days)
with the students I interviewed, which gave a good idea of how busy their days and weeks
were, due to school assignments. I also took transect walks on several occasions in the
neighborhood, just to take in as much as I could about the physical conditions, social
interaction, income generation and leisure activities carried out in the neighborhood.
As suggested earlier, the different methods complemented one another.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 103 Data Analysis
LeCompte and Schensul inform us that analysis of data does three things:
• It brings order to piles of data
• It turns the piles into summarized data
•. “It permits the ethnographer to discover patterns and themes in the data and to link
them with other patterns and themes” (LeCompte and Schensul 1999:3).
LeCompte and Schensul also define interpretation of data as “attaching meaning
and significance to the patterns, themes, and connections that the researcher identified
during analysis; explaining why they have come to exist; and indicating what implications
they might have for future actions” (1999:5).
I tape-recorded, transcribed and analyzed all the data myself. I looked for themes
in the data and compared the emerging themes with those that had become apparent in the
field notes. Then I derived broader connections and theoretical meanings from the
themes conveyed by the data. In the beginning many themes had emerged. However, as I
proceeeded with analysis and interpretation, I found that several of the themes were
subsumed under broader connections. For example, the Christian ethic initially emerged
from the data as a major source of motivation but my participant observations had
revealed that though Christian virtues were verbally expressed, Christianity was not really
a consuming preoccupation in actual practice in the school. I later, therefore, recognized
a larger theme of perspectives that could be explained within different religions and also
indigenous values. They were subsumed under perspectives that are better explained
within the framework of Border Pedagogy.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 104 All sources of my data are given importance in the interpretation of data and
comparisons are made to see where meanings are contested. A great focus, however, is
given to the qualitative data collection and interpretation (although data were not really so
mutually exclusive). I argue that data that may be obtained through a persistent process
of interaction may be more reliable than those obtained through short periods of contact
(questionnaires). Further, this bias is deliberate, bearing in mind that all interviewee
responses are situated, as already established in this chapter, and taking them for their
verbal value may not always give a picture of the real situation.
My bias for qualitative analysis and interpretation has nothing to do with Apple’s
“suspicions that some educational researchers turn to ethnography out of a fear of
statistics or because they believe it to be simpler”. As he himself notes, “ The former
motivation (fear of statistics) is unfortunate; the latter (apparent simplicity of
ethnography), as anyone who has done serious ethnographic work undoubtedly knows, is
wildly inaccurate” (Apple 1989:7, parentheses added).
I give greater attention to the data that I gathered through direct observations of
the school (teachers in the staff room, informal conversations with teachers, classroom
and other school activity observations) and also data gathered from student interviews
and parents. I found those data to be more reliable than the formal teacher interviews that
were typically constrained, especially in Apollo school.
Although I maintained the original names of the schools, students, teachers and
parents while writing my study findings, the names in the final version of my dissertation
are only pseudonyms. Maintaining the names throughout the writing stage helped me
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 105 recall specific interviews and body language during interviews (although some notes on
body language had been written down as part of “field notes”). Using pseudonyms
protects the interviewees by maintaining their anonymity. Similarly, gender classification
< of some of the interviewees was distorted for the same reason.
Overall Format
In chapter one, I give a concise orientation of the dissertation - the
conceptualization of the research and gaps it addresses, its significance, goals and
findings. Chapter one foregrounds the school as a battleground where conservative and
transformative ideologies are in constant battle. In chapter two, I examine literature that
discusses diverse opinions that, on the one hand, view the school as a place of
opportunity for every student and, on the other, view the school as a place where low
income students “learn not to learn” (Rosenfeld 1971), thus ensuring that the low class is
reproduced in society. Chapter two also discusses two theories that offer ways of
explaining the findings of my study: Border Pedagogy and Social Reproduction. The
explanation of contradictory and contested terrains in institutions, positions, and
formations in their present, on-going experience, as captured by Raymond Williams
(1977:128-135) were found useful in explaining the tension in Apollo school. Williams
sees human experience in its present form as not fully formed, not concrete and very
contested. In its present form, it is only a “structure” (but not flux) and a “feeling” but
full of tension. In its present form, the expereince is, therefore a “structure of feeling”
(Williams 1977:128-135). The concept was useful in understanding the maze of
conflicting meanings in Apollo school. “Structures of feeling” are also discussed in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 106 chapter two and conclusions. In Chapter three of the dissertation, I provide an orientation
to the study by situating education in Kenya in historical and contemporary socio-political
landscapes. The chapter also foregrounds my social location as a researcher engaged in
research in my native country. A discussion on my social location becomes necessary in
view of the debate about identity and authenticity in research vis-avis the insider/outsider,
native/non-native, objective/subjective categories. In addition, the chapter takes the
reader to the physical environment of the research by giving a description of the social
activities and structures that are observed as one takes a transect walk in the
neighborhood. Finally, the chapter gives an account of the methodology of data
collection and analysis.
The fourth chapter presents the ideology of success in the school, the shared
common sense understanding of success. It gives the assumptions of the ideology of
success and the practices associated with it. The fifth chapter discusses the struggle that
emerges as a result of making the choice to not accommodate the ideology of failure. It
reflects the difficult terrain that the teachers and students in Apollo school go through in
order to attain success. The difficult process is better understood within the overall
framework of centralized national syllabus and examinations (King 1974:126-128,
Somerset 1974:167)6. Chapter six situates the success ideology within broader socio
cultural analysis and theoretical framework and examines how the success ideology
expounded on in chapters four and five plays out in linguistic practice. It examines use of
languages at the site and situates them within the national and international education
6 The centralized curriculum and examination method is expounded on in chapter five.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 107 paradigms. Languages in Kenya are seen as expressions of local, national and
international identities, but they are also media through which ideological messages are
created, negotiated and maintained. The messages are important for success in Apollo
school. The chapter also includes two detailed interviews with an exceptional family in
Toyi school. The struggles of the family give a vivid first hand account of the picture
within which education in Apollo and Toyi slum schools is attained. The interviews of
the two members of the family reflect the challenges that many families have to go
through in order to get an education for their children and also the many facilities that
they lack. In this respect, they put Apollo school success into context.
Though Toyi school gets poor results, the exceptional family vowed not to take
their children elsewhere and all the six children had exemplary performance in grade
eight national examinations. The mother believes that students do well first and foremost
because they work hard. Secondly, she believes students need discipline and guidance by
both teachers and parents so that they can avoid distractions that disrupt concentration on
learning. Three of her children were already in the university in January 2002, and a
fourth one joined in September 2002. The youngest two children (who were already in
secondary schools of good reputation) were following their older siblings very closely in
terms of performance, and it was expected that they would eventually also join the
university. While I speculate that one reason for the outstanding performance was that
there must have been intelligent genes in the family, it was also evident that the mother
fought tooth and nail to make sure that her children faced as few distractions from
learning as possible. The chapter also gives a personalized glimpse of what challenges
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 108 successful students had to overcome in terms of basic needs. Chapter 7 concludes the
findings of research, gives recommendations and suggestions for further research.
The dissertation chapters are not as neatly separated as expressed here; some
themes overlap simply because it is difficult to be so neatly packaged in a social science
study. In addition, the language theme runs across all the chapters because language is
seen as ever present in any construction, maintenance and change of meanings.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 4
SUCCESS IDEOLOGY IN APOLLO SCHOOL
This chapter explores the assumptions of the ideology of success in Apollo school
and the practices associated with it. My study borrows the simplified definition of
ideology from Althusser, in which he states that “Ideology is the system of the ideas and
representations which dominate the mind of a man (person) or a social group” (1971:158,
parentheses added). Because of their generally shared nature, ideologies become
“naturalized” and are often manifested as “common sense”.
Overall, several factors are seen as essential to the successful legacy of Apollo
school. Some of the factors could be understood in terms of notions of hard work,
selflessness, and brotherhood that seem to have religious connections. Although the
school did not have the high pitched tone of evangelical Christianity, Christian values
were often evoked in many spheres of activity. Influence of Christian values was evident
in what the head teacher said to motivate her teachers, what the teachers themselves said
to students and what parents and students themselves said. On the eve of national
examinations, the whole community had a tradition of getting together for a special
prayer to ask God for guidance during the exams. Islam was given its place in the school
by allowing Muslim students to be taught Islamic religion while their counterparts were
being taught Christian religion, and also Muslims had their own prayer meetings. But
Muslim students were a small minority, and I did not hear public quoting of Islamic
109
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 110 teaching from either the students or the teacher who taught Islam.
Similarly, assumptions of what Kenyans should do to get ahead have a great
influence on the teachers’ and students’ behavior and spirit of hard work. Education is a
coveted achievement that would not only eventually earn status for an individual, family
and community in general, but also higher chances of making it in life. - It enhances the
status of the teachers in successful schools as much as it enhances that of the students
themselves. My study suggests several transformations and assumptions as part of the
ideology of success in Apollo.
From New Toyi to Apollo School
In Kenya, like in many other parts of the world, slums are associated with not only
consistent failure but also hopelessness and danger (please refer to literature review in
chapter two for details). Three years after Apollo school was started with the name “New
Toyi” (also Toyi B), it changed its name from New Toyi to Apollo School. It was started
with three classes (standard one to three) that were taken from Toyi to the new school so
as to curb congestion in the old school, hence the name “New Toyi”. Though Apollo was
an offshoot of Toyi School, it did not want to be confused with the older school that was
already not doing well and was associated with slum failure. On a linguistic level, that
was a symbolic break from what Toyi stood for: alcoholism, smokingbangi (marijuana),
immorality and general irresponsibility that is commonly associated with slums.
However, the schools are only about ten minutes walk from each other (less than that if
one takes a direct transect walk). That notwithstanding, through their discourse (text
making), some Apollo students, teachers and parents disconnected themselves from the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. slums and they continually negotiate the disconnection through language. The new name
“Apollo” was potent and reflects the power of languge as both constructive and
constructed. It symbolized the launching of rockets to space, after meticulous
preparations. The Apollos, as they called themselves, asserted that the name symbolized
swiftness, efficiency, hard work, endurance, and success. On a conceptual level, it was •
mind boggling to me that some teachers and students told me that Apollo was not “really”
in the slums. Strangely, the areas that sandwiched Apollo were viewed as parts of the
slums. The head teacher, the teachers and students admitted and reinforced in each other
that if one wanted to fail, Apollo was not the place for them. “If you are scared of hard
work, cross the road”, the teachers said to each other. “If you want to be lazy, you can
join our neighbors”, “We don’t want to be like our neighbors”. “If we relax, we’ll soon
be like our neighbors”. The success in Apollo school and the presence of slum schools in
the neighbrhood that continued to perform poorly somewhat fueled the myth that Apollo
is not a part of the slums. With that myth, Apollo further distances itself from poor
performance.
One other way that Apollos disconnected themselves from the slums was by
describing their “newness” to the slums, based on the time of their actual inhabitation of
the slums. As pointed in the introduction, Toyi’s initial inhabitants were mainly Nubians
who had migrated from the Sudan during the First World War and they were largely
Muslims. The new inhabitants who considered themselves non-native slum dwellers
were mainly from the many Kenyan ethnic groupings and although some of these are
Muslims, the majority are professed Christians and a few are not affiliated to any religion
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 112 as such. Over time, though, the so-called “new comers” domiciled in the slums, have
created a socially “higher position” for themselves by not recognizing themselves as a
part of the slums. This paradox to the researcher was expressed almost as a natural by
several teachers, students, and parents. Significantly, the Luo (a Kenyan ethnic grouping)
slum dwellers (who are linguistically and ethnically closer to the Nubians as both are
Nilotics) were seen as “the real slum dwellers”. Some parents explained that because
Luos brewed and drank chang ’aa (home distilled gin), they were a part of the slum
dwellers. This is an example of such dialogue that I received from one of the parents:
Example 4.1
Mama Debbie: Mambo yamekuwa mazuri kwa kiasi fulani. Naye Headmaster ambaye tulikuwa naye mwaka jana alikuwa mzuri. Alikuwa strict. Sasa amepewa transfer. Sijui kwa nini lakini wanasema eti hawa Wanubi ndio walilalamika eti hawamtaki. Hawa Wanubi hawapendi mwalimu strict. Hata huyu ambaye ameingia Januari, naona hawezi kukaa kwa muda mrefu. Researcher: Kwa nini? MD: Mimi sijui. Hawa Wanubi wanajuana kwa committee. Lakini wana mambo mengi sana. Wanalalamika ovyo ovyo. Nimesikia wanasema huyu mwalimu mpya ni strict sana. Tena sio Muislamu. Hawa Wanubi hawatakiwi kupewa nafasi ya kuingia committee. R: Kwa nini? MD: Niliongea na huyo mwalimu juzi na niliona kama ni mwalimu mzuri ambaye anaweza kuwa kiongozi mzuri. Lakini simjui vizuri maanake niliongea naye siku hio moja. R: Huyo headmaster? MD: Ndio huyo headmaster. Shule kama hii inaitaji mwalimu mkali sana. Maanake hawa Wanubi na Wajaluo huwawezi kabisa kwa kuongea vizuri. Lazima uongee nao ukiwa mkali. Mkali kweli. R: Kwa nini? MD: Unaona kama watoto hawa. Ni kweli. Kama hawa Wajaluo na Wanubi wa slums. Ni wabaya sana kwa kuharibu wanafunzi wenzao. Bangi wanafuta. Chang’aa wanapika. R: Lini kama wanaenda shule? MD: Bangi nasikia hata wengine wanafuta mpaka shule. ... (July 24, 2002).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 113
[Mama Debbie: Things have become alright to a certain extent. And the Headmaster we had last year was good. He was strict. Now he has been transferred. I don’t know why but they say these Nubians complained and said they didn’t want him. These Nubians do not like a strict teacher. Even this one who arrived here in January, he can’t stay here for a long time. Researcher: Why? MD: I don’t know. These Nubians know one another in the committee [plot together in committee meetings]. But they have too many things [are a big problem]. They complain for nothing. I hear they say the new teacher is too strict. And he is not a Muslim. These Nubians should not be given an opportunity to join the committee [school committee], R: Why? MD: I talked with the teacher recently and I saw [felt like] he is a good teacher who can be a good leader. But I don’t know him well because I talked with him only that day. R: The Headmaster? MD: Yes, the Headmaster. A school like this one needs a very strict teacher. Because these Nubians and Luos cannot be managed at all by talking politely. You must be very serious when you talk with them. Very serious. R: Why? MD: You see like these children. It is true. Like these Luos and Nubians from the slums. They are very bad when it comes to influencing [negatively] their fellow students. They smoke marijuana. They brewchang ’aa. R: When, if they go to school? MD: I hear that some of them smoke marijuana even in school.] (July 24, 2002; Translated by author).
The Luos were not the only “newcomers” involved in brewingchang ’aa (home distilled
gin) and Muratina (home brewed beer). Respondents argued, however, that although
other ethnic groups were involved in brewing and selling illicit brews, they were not as
experienced in the art of brewing as the Luos and Nubians (bothchang ’aa and Muratina
are illegal). And thus, the Luos and Nubians, with time, were lumped together and
conceived of as slum dwellers.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 114 Exemplary Leadership
By administering by delegation of powers to the other teachers, the head teacher
recognized that the members of staff were important, and they were made to feel their
contribution in the school was indispensable. They made important decisions about the
running of the school. As an example, on July 8th, 2002, the head teacher requested the
teachers to suggest what could be done to a student who had been involved in theft. The
mother of the student was a teacher in a neighboring school. Some teachers suggested he
be expelled, others he be suspended, others said “Let the School Committee decide” (The
School Committee is composed of leaders of PTA - Parents Teachers’ Association - and
senior school administration). Eventually they recommended that the student should be
suspended for a week after which he was supposed to come back with both parents.
Though it was not always that all the teachers were consulted on such matters, at least the
class teacher and the deputy head teacher would be involved in problem solving.
Teachers also decided which teachers should go to receive trophies for the school
while others remained behind managing and teaching the other students. They also
decided what punishment should be given to students, for example, after poor
performance in continous evaluation. The head teacher allowed her staff to bask in the
glory of their performance. Lor example, though the head teacher was present during the
provincial ceremony that gave out trophies to teachers whose subjects held first positions
and schools and students that excelled, she did not even receive the trophy for the best
school (June 14th 2002, City Hall, Nairobi). Her teachers received the trophies for
specific subjects as well as those for the recognition of the school in other areas. (Except
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 115 for trophies for specific subjects that were received by the subject teachers, other head
teachers received trophies that highlighted general school related distinctions). Apollo
School received trophies for the best performing school in mathematics and Kiswahili in
KCPE, 2001. In addition, it got trophies for the overall best school in Lang’ata Division,
the overall best public school in the province, the best school with the highest number of
candidates in the province, the school with the highest number of top candidates in the
province. There was euphoria in City Hall as the school teachers went forward to receive
trophies. There was euphoria as the Apollo 2001 KCPE students went forward to receive
their own trophies for good performance.
One teacher explained to me why the head teacher was so respected by the
teachers:
Example 4.2
.... You cannot gossip with her. If you go to her office and tell her another teacher did a, b, c, she will table the problem in the staff-room and seek solutions right there in the presence of all the other teachers. And if there is a problem with any teacher, she’ll deal with the teacher confidentially but if the teacher does not heed, she’ll expose the problem to the rest of the teachers in the presence of the teacher and request for solutions. She corrects teachers and forgets about it. She holds no grudges. No spoiling of teachers’ records. No writing bad reports for the file. (Mama Kethi: March 22, 2002).
The teacher added that the head-teacher was not interested in who you were, how rich you
were or where you came from; all she was concerned about was your performance as a
teacher. “You teach, you are friends; you don’t teach, you’re looking for trouble”. The
head teacher led by involving the staff in making decisions on the day-to-day running of
the school, too. She did not suspend any child without having discussions with the class
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 116 teacher concerned and the deputy and senior teachers. On several occasions, decisions
about who should be in charge of what activities in the school were made in the staff
room by all the teachers. She also made the teachers realize that Apollo was their school
and its success was their success. The teachers led the analysis discussions that came
after every assessment examination. The examinations were held twice per term in the
first term of school and every month in the second and third terms of the year. Teachers
also called staff members to attention during break to discuss issues about the school that
they thought were important. Although there were scheduled meetings, many of the
meetings were ad hoc, called as and whenever it was necessary. The only rule was that
they be held within the half hour break, and respect the time for the classes immediately
after break.
Motivation
In the many discussions that were held in the staff-room among the teachers, the
head teacher’s ability to energize and motivate teachers was unmistakable. In her
discussions, the headteacher highlighted how special Apollo school was, how she
succeeded because of the teachers, how special the teachers were and what an amazing
role they could play in the students’ lives and how and why they should keep the fire
burning. She stressed the importance of each of the members of staff and how none of
them could succeed as individuals and they could only succeed because they worked
together. She appealed to the anthropological structural-functionalism of
interconnectedness and interdependence of social units in social systems (see for
example, Evans-Pritchard 1940:4,168-181). She also highlighted how, yes, some other
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 117 schools were jealous of them and how lazy some of the rival schools were!
On the first day of the second term of the year, I sat with the teachers in the staff
room as the head teacher led the discussion and set the pace in building up the energy
required for second term. Some of the issues she emphasized were:
Example 4.3
.... Your class and students are what you tell or teach them to be.... Wehad 14 pupils among the national top but Kiko had four. Do you know how much school fees they pay per term and what facilities they have? We are blessed but it is because of our hard work that we get blessed. You have to work hard for everything that you succeed in, whether it is in school or personal life.... (May 6, 2002).
The Kiswahili teacher interjected “We beat Kiko in Insha [Kiswahili composition] last
year. Can you imagine?” The head teacher recognized the interjection, and added
And we can do more. Yes, we can do more. We have to be disciplined, the pupils have to be disciplined and the parents, too. I succeed because of you teachers. Without you there is no success. Each one of us is important; if one part of the body is missing, the body cannot function well. I had an eye operation the other day and I now know what X was feeling (another teacher who had had a bad leg). Each part of the body is important and so every teacher is important. Every subject is important, too. If you find that English is weak, then concentrate more on English. There is a time we had decided to teach English, maths and science. ... If these kids don’t do well, their parents will be on our backs.... We have to discipline the pupils until they get it. We know there will be a few who will not give us what we want. (May 6, 2002).
She asked three teachers, one at a time, “How many bad ones do you have?” The
answers came ... five, four, five. She responded:
Even Jesus had one bad one. If he had one bad out of 12 and we have four, five or so in each class, that’s not so bad. While we discipline them, try also to find out what is happening in their lives because the school could be the only family they have. Two kids lost their fathers this holiday, so teachers need to be aware that they need some emotional support. (May 6, 2002).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The names of the students and their classes and class teachers were given. “And it is not
the pupils alone that may need support. The teachers may need support, too. We don’t
know what is happening in different homes [families], so the school could be the closest
that we have to a family, too. And it is not just happening here.Ukienda Muthaiga ni
hivyo hivyo tul [If you go to Muthaiga, you’ll find similar problems too]”. She recounted
a story of children whom she knew in Muthaiga who grew up knowing that their mother
was dead because their father had told them so. When the mother showed up later to see
her children, they thought they were seeing a ghost. She had to explain that the marriage
had gone sour and the husband threatened he would kill her if ever she showed up in the
residence, so she had fled for her life. Even the stepmother was shocked when the real
mother surfaced because she, too, had been told the first wife had died. She reminded the
teachers about the meeting of the parent who had visited the school drunk earlier in the
year and demanded to take his son home because “he wanted to send him somewhere”.
The student had maintained position one in class for some time but his grades were now
getting bad. The head teacher asked if there was a male teacher who could volunteer to
be a mentor for the kid because “... for some pupils, the closest person to them who is
normal is only the teacher because at home all is chaos and confusion”.
June 3rd, 2002 was the day the teachers had a meeting to analyze the monthly
examinations that, according to the teachers, were mainly forjerking both the teachers
and the students. The head teacher complained about the poor results and said the
students had to be made to work harder. She said, adding some humor,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 119 “We can even close the rest of the school so that we can deal with standard eight only”.
She said that some people criticize them and say that they overwork students.
Example 4.4
Hata Wazungu wanasema watoto wetu hawana nafasi ya kucheza they maanake are always studying [Even white people say that our children have no time for leisure because they are always studying], Wazungu wenyewe [The whites themselves], where do they have time in their countries? They don’t even have time to eat. They eat as they work or as they walk. When we went to their country, they had no time to accompany us to show us places like we do here. They just give you a map! You stop someone on the road and ask for directions to some place, they tell you, “Read the map!” (June 3rd, 2002).
Even when the head teacher was complaining about the performance of the
classes, she was hailing the teachers’ contribution. Poor performance had to be explained
because teachers were seen as instrumental in student performance. One teacher who said
he had no problem was told not to say he had no problem but to say he had a problem but
he did not know what it was (his class had not performed according to Apollo standards).
She asserted that other schools do not like Apollo because Apollo works hard and gets
great results. “There are other schools that work only in the morning and in the afternoon
they just sit in the class and say they are tired. Their best is our worst and our worst is
their best”.
A Spirit of Positive Competitiveness
The teachers competed against one another and each teacher wanted her/his class
to perform better than all the rest (there were four streams in each class with different
teachers). The school had subject panels which looked into the problems that were
experienced by students (and teachers) in every subject. It had also class teachers who
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 120 looked into the overall welfare of specific classes. The class teacher made sure that his or
her class received the best tuition and he or she had powers to ask why a teacher was
absent. She or he had the power to seek explanation as to why a particular subject was
not well done and I saw several class teachers refusing to let their classes attend co-
curricular activities because they were doing academic work in classes. But the epitome
of competitiveness was displayed in the “board analysis” of examinations. The board
analysis reflected the average scores received by the classes in every subject. They were
displayed on a black-board for the visibility of the teachers, and they were analyzed in a
special staff meeting after every major examination.
Teachers did not set examinations for their own classes and they did not grade
them (that was the way it was going to be in the national examinations). All the classes
were discussed, but special weight was given to the “examination classes” - standards
seven and eight. In the first term, the classes performed two major exams: midterm and
end-of-term. In the second and third terms there were three major examinations that took
place every month (in addition to weekly exercises). For all of them, progress would be
recorded on the board and analyzed. The scores on the board were preserved till the
following examination when they would be stored in a different form and the new
examination scores would replace them. (It was more convenient for the teachers and
students to make reference to the scores, as displayed on the board, whenever necessary).
The board analysis was a cause of anxiety for many teachers. My observation was
that it was an experience that evoked contradictory emotions from the teachers: anxiety,
pride, accomplishment, satisfaction, and even frustration. The period before the analysis
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 121 was the most difficult one for some teachers. One time one of the teachers described her
feelings about the impending end-of-first-term analysis to a colleague in the staffroom.
She was wishing they had discussed the analysis before breaking for the weekend. The
scores were already on the board, and she did not think her standard five performance was
so great. She said: “Mwalimu7 [teacher], i will have a bad weekend because of that
science on the board. Mmm! Mwalimu, it is haunting me!” (May 22nd, 2002). While
commending on her apparently bad performance8, she mentioned the competition of the
men teaching the other streams. She explained that male teachers had better networking
opportunities, exchanged past papers amongst themselves and did not share same with the
women. (Teachers, especially in standard eight, use past examination papers to teach
some of their classes so that students can get used to the style of the questions, because in
some subjects the style and language of the examinations can be more complex than the
language used in the textbooks). She, however, vowed, “But next term,hawatanishinda!
Hawa wanaume! Hawatanishinda tena, mwalimur [But next term, they will not beat me!
These men! They will not beat me again, teacher!].
My examination of the analysis board did not display a skewed performance by
gender. Even the subjects that received trophies for good performance the previous year
were a mixture of subjects taught by men and women. The frustrated teacher also
complained that the parents expected them to do miracles after paying them peanuts in
the name of “coaching fees”. She role-played, in an authoritative tone, “I pay coaching
7 The term “Mwalimu” can be used cordially between teachers.
8 The performance was not bad as such; all the students had passed at B level and above but the aim was to have most students at A level, and just a few at B level.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 122 fees; why is my child failing?” Another teacher agreed that it was difficult for the parents
to understand because in as far as they were concerned they paid money “so that the
children can excel in the examinations”. Thus, although the reaction to the analysis of
results was not always cordial, it was overall positively received, and many teachers
would joke and tease one another for days after analysis. -The underdogs would remind
the successful incumbents that next time they would be the ones “to explain” [to explain
why their class did not do well].
The teachers see the students’ success as their own success, and they see poor
performance as a reflection of poor performance by teachers. “What you see on the board
(exam analysis) is the effort of the teachers. These kids don’t read on their own. If we
don’t teach, they will fail”, one teacher told me before the mid-term analysis for second
term. That assertion was repeated to me many times, and it was also floated among
teachers during informal and formal staff meetings. They saw the kids as disadvantaged
and understood that factor as a great challenge ahead of them. Though this is not a
complete departure from the idea that slum kids cannot learn, it makes a shift from the
social environmental determinism that alleges slum kids have something almost
intrinsically wrong with them and are, therefore, unable to learn. This guarded against the
temptation to blame the kids for their failure. Thus they were seen as kids living in
difficult circumstances and because of that reason, having special needs. This perception
also puts the teacher on center stage - the teacher as capable of producing “A” students or
“D” students, depending on commitment and dedication. Teachers took responsibility for
the poor performance of their students and similarly took credit for successful
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 123 performance. Although the analysis was not always a welcome event, it was a ritual that
re-affirmed the ideals that were highly treasured in the school: success, togetherness and
comradeship. It left the teachers with a strong sense of positive accomplishment and
recognition, and renewed energy for the tasks ahead of them.
Creating a Tradition to Excel and an Antithesis of Success
“Their best is our worst and our worst is their best”. (Head teacher, Apollo School)
The head teacher and the teachers at Apollo School constantly asserted “other
schools in the province compete to catch up with us and beat us in the exams but we
compete against our own record”. From its onset, the teachers decided they would start a
school in the slums that would change peoples’ ideas about slum schools’ ability to excel
in national examinations. Since the school started doing well, the teachers maintained the
hard work and vowed not to relax. This was facilitated by the fact that the four teachers
that started the school (in 1980) have remained in the school up to this moment and they
hold strong positions in the school: head teacher, 1st deputy and 2nd deputy. Many of the
other teachers had been in the school for relatively long periods (fifteen out of thirty-eight
teachers had been in the school for eight or more years and fourteen of the remaining
teachers had been in the school for three to seven years). Thus, they have enjoyed their
success, ensured its continuity and continue to reap its fruits. Their own children have
passed through the same school and are some of the students who excelled. Indeed more
than three quarters of the teachers in Apollo have had their kids and relatives educated at
Apollo. Some of the teachers quoted this as a motivation for continued interest in the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 124 school’s success). The teachers in Toyi, their rival school, typically enrol their children to
Apollo school. (Though many of the teachers in Toyi were evasive about this fact, all the
twenty Toyi students whom I interviewed expressed this as a prevailing trend). This is an
affirmation that even the rivals of Apollo had some admiration for the school.
Both Apollo and Toyi Schools exaggerated each other’s weaknesses. Each
exaggerated the other’s record and the accusations extended even to parents. As
mentioned in chapter three, I decided to spend some time in Toyi school so as to observe
what they did and also hear what they had to say about Apollo’s as well as their own
performance. I was also overwhelmed by Apollo’s greatness and decided observing
another school would assist me in seeing some perspectives of the school that may not be
clear without a comparison. That way, I would be reading Apollo’s text through Toyi’s
and that process may be less foggy or less overwhelming. I had heard many allegations
about teaching in that school. Toyi was portrayed as the worst that a school could ever be
by Apollo. There was no teaching going on there, there was no discipline, there was no
learning, the teachers hardly ever go to class and the school is a total failure. One teacher
told me, “You will be shocked by what you find there.” Apparently the rivalry was
already known by the two schools because another teacher told me, “Don’t go there; they
will poison you against us”. But I explained that in addition to listening, I was going to
observe what was going on and the observation was more important than the listening.
The teachers jokingly (and sometimes seriously) advised each other to “cross the road” or
“join our neighbors, if you cannot cope with the hard work”. When I “crossed the road”,
I realized the rivahy between the schools was mutual.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 125 There was uninhibited admiration for Apollo, especially from the students of Toyi
and the teachers also conceded that Apollo’s performance was certainly enviable.
However, it is the effect of the rivalry between the two schools that is relevant here. So
many times I heard the Head Teacher say, “Their best is our worst and our worst is their
best”. The teachers also kept saying, “They work hard to catch up with us, but we work
harder to beat our own record”. And they were convinced about what they were saying.
And I dare say it was not altogether far-fetched. I suggest that the rivalry provided a
convenient rallying point for Apollo to show sharp contrasts between the school that felt
too disempowered by their slum environment to challenge hegemonic discourses and the
other that rose to the occasion and counteracted it. One became an epitome of success
while the other provided a sharp contrast. The sharp contrast legitimized hard work. It
also boosted Apollo’s ego, motivation, pride and expectations and promoted the daily
constructions of success in Apollo through discourse and hard work. It was a very
convenient “other”. Through discourse, Apollo succeeded in creating an “other” who was
the embodiment of all that which was undesirable in Apollo: lack of agency, dedication
and commitment, and the epitome of misery, apathy and despair. In this respect, Toyi
became a metaphor for all what Apollo despised. But even Toyi had its own anomalies or
contested terrains, as seen from the narrative of An Exceptional Family, in chapter 6.
Apollo’s assertion, “Our worst is their best and their best is our worst”, may not
have been 100% correct, but it had many grains of truth. And they fought tooth and nail
to maintain their tradition to excel.
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An Aggressive Work Ethic
The one thing that was never disputed by any single person I interviewed was that
Apollo had a very strong work ethic. Even the teachers of the rival school, the parents
and also the students admitted that everyone in Apollo school worked extremely hard -
the teachers as well as the students. School started at 7 oclock in the morning and
students would do revision with teachers for an hour before the official time table started
at eight oclock and the school day typically ended at five oclock in the afternoon. The
following interview with one of the bright standard eight students explains the life of a
student in Apollo school:
Example 4.5
Researcher: What really is your school day like? Say from Monday to Friday? What time do you wake up? Interviewee: I wake up at 5.30, take a bath, get dressed, take my breakfast, I come to school, then at about 6.30 there I’m already, no, no, at about 6.40 I’m already at school, I check if I’ve done all the homework we’ve been given, remove the books that we are supposed to start the day with. At seven the teacher comes, we learn up to eight. At eight we go for a short break. Then we come back to class, we learn for three periods then we go for break for 35 minutes. At break ok you can just chat with your friends, then at 10.45 we continue with lessons up to 12.30, that’s three periods, up to 12.30. We go for lunch, we come back at 1.30, we go for lunch for one hour, come back at 1.30, then at 1.30 we have prep up to 2.00, we learn, then at 2.00 three periods up to 3.10, 3.10 we have a short break, after the short break we have prep from 3.30 to 5.00 and then eeh like it’s ten minutes from here up to home so at 5.10 I’m home. I take my tea, I take a bath, then I can rest up to kitu 6.00, 6.30 there, start my homework, do homework up to 7.30 or 8.00 or if it’s a lot sometimes up to 9.00, then maybe I can read for one hour or two hours then I go to sleep. R: What time do you take your supper? I: Supper? R:Mm I: Ok, at our house it’s about from7.00 to 8.00. We don’t take supper past 8.00. R: Eeh, is (sic) Saturdays different from that? I: Yeah, Saturdays I can wake up at 7.00, Sometimes we come to school. So I can
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 127 wake up at 7.00 or so and then I come to school at 8.00 we learn up to 1.00,1 go home and then ok after lunch we can just rest or not do anything just relax or if I decide to do my homework which we have been given, I can do. Yeah. R: What are those Saturdays that you come to school? Like how do you decide or the school decide which Saturday students should come to school? I: Ok, like this Saturday we came to school and it was because we were having our pre-trials the next, the next day, the next, no, the next week. So we came to school and then it’s it was the seating of the pre-trial, we came then to revise and last week we came to school because we had missed a lot of lessons so we came to school to catch up. R: About how many Saturdays do you come to school in a term? I: Like this term, we have come for two Saturdays so it can be three Saturdays a term I think or just two but maybe second term there will be more but this term I think it will be only those two Saturdays. R: Do you also come to school during the holidays? I: Yeah, during the holidays we come. R: How long is the school during the holidays? I: Ok, I don’t know for this year since we have not come for any holiday but last year when we were in seven, we used to come from 8.00 to 1.00 and class eight they used to come from 8.00 to 4.00. R: What do you do like in school during the holidays? Is it all revision or you are learning new things? I: Ok, we might, we revise the papers, the ones that we did, ok the things that we missed why we missed them, then after that we go, we start new things now we start new topics the ones that maybe we couldn’t finish the first term work during the periods allocated to us. So we cover it during the holidays. R: Is all that too much for you, do you feel it is too much or it is just adequate or you would like to have time to do more school work? I: No, I just think it is enough. (Maselina, March 20, 2002).
Also, all the twenty students who were interviewed from the school said that what they
liked most about their school was that the teachers were hardworking and the school
performed very well in the national examinations. The interviews with the past students
of the school reinforced this assertion. The day after standard eight students were
“disciplined”(June, 4th’ 2002), I got into a conversation with one of the teachers in the
staff room. Here is a part of the conversation:
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Example 4.6
Researcher: You teach more hours than suggested in the syllabus, no? Teacher X: that’s why they don’t like us. R: Who? TX: The other teachers. R: Which teachers? TX: The teachers in some of the other schools. R: Ooh! They really don’t like you? TX: No, they don’t , ... didn’t you hear X say in the staff meeting yesterday? (the head teacher had mentioned this). R: Yes, I heard. I wonder why they don’t just work equally hard and leave Apollo alone. TX: (animated) They don’t want to! They’re too lazy! Let me tell you what happened to me one time! Let me tell you! You can’t believe it! R: Yeaah? TX: Yes! Yes, I tell you! I went to invigilate in another school one time. Let me tell you! One teacher was complaining to me, “You call yourselves Apollos and you work like donkeys! You think you’re the best because you keep getting promotions!” I told her, “Yes, we work like donkeys and we’re the best and we’re Apollos and we get promotions, and we’ll keep getting them. Do you have another question?” Then she left me alone. R: Do you actually get promotions? TX: Not any more than the other schools. But we work harder. At the end of the day, you’re extremely tired. (Mrs Mwaka; June 4th, 2002).
At this point during my research, further confirmation that the teachers (and the students)
in Apollo worked hard was almost unnecessary because I had seen it all.
My own observations from my vantage point in the staff room, the classrooms and
the general school environment was that very little time was spent on other activities:
teaching and learning was the unquestionable priority. If a teacher was not in class, then
s/he was in the staff-room grading papers or doing preparations for the next lesson. Two
compositions (in English) and twoinsha (Kiswahili Composition) were done by all upper
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. primary students every week, in addition to the assignments for the same subjects that
were done during normal class scheduled time. (The two compositions were graded by
teachers who did not teach English in the specific classes. I graded some of them. The
idea was to give students as much practice as possible in writing compositions. The
justification for allowing teachers who were not teaching the classes to grade them was
that in the national exams, compositions and indeed, all the other subjects, would be
graded externally). The students had daily assignments in the other subjects, too.
Although there was a lot of conversation and humor in the staff room, it went on while
teachers were very busy doing some work. Typically, all classes were kept busy
throughout; although some teachers joined the classes five or so minutes after the
previous teacher, this was not a common practice. The head teacher in one meeting said
that she and her staff had not succeeded in making the students free enough to come to
remind teachers that it was time for class if s/he was a little late. She mentioned that she
herself had sometimes been a little late but no student came for her. I actually saw
several students politely come to the staff room to say “Mwalimu [Teacher], it’s time for
science” or maths or Kiswahili.
The teachers signed in when they came to school in the morning, and they signed
again after lunch to show what time they arrived. They explained to me that the head
teacher did not often complain when one was a few minutes’ late, but she would notice if
one was consistently late, and one could get into trouble. She would also occasionally go
round the classes and see if they were engaged. If she found any class that was not
engaged, she would get in and start teaching, and it was very embarrassing for the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 130 responsible teacher to get to the class and find the head teacher teaching.
A parent whom I interviewed (on June 3, 2002), told me that the school had a lot
of strengths: committed and dedicated teachers, strong discipline, a very serious (read, no
nonsense) head teacher, and the school performance is excellent. He added that the cost
of the school to the parents was minimal compared to private schools, which could not
even beat Apollo in the national examinations. The students, he added, are kept busy
with homework, so they do not have time for watching TV, patronizing video bureaus
and mangamangaring [loitering]. The above sentiments were echoed by all the parents of
Apollo school whom I interviewed and they were corroborated by teachers, parents and
students of Toyi, the rival school (who said that Apollo workedtoo hard).
As I watched the teachers teach and the students learn, as I listened to their dreams
and the dreams of the Apollo community as a whole, I remembered that in Hollywood
they say, “It takes 15 years to become an overnight success”.
Great Expectations
The Apollo community had great expectations about their school. The teachers
expected their school to be at the top of all public schools in the province, every time they
sat for national examinations. Not even second position was acceptable. In addition to
that, they always wanted to be at the top, with better grades than the previous years. The
teachers always said, “They work hard to catch up with us, but we work harder to beat our
own record. Their best is our worst and our worst is their best”. The students had great
pride and faith in their teachers’ ability to navigate them safely through the difficult
waters, and they had faith in their own ability to remain afloat throughout. All the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. students I interviewed, even the relatively weak ones, knew what they wanted to do after
they finished grade eight, and they had pretty clear long term career goals, in spite of the
fact that there was no clear effort to help students focus on careers. The students actually
said that most of the career discussions were carried out amongst themselves, siblings and
peer groups but not with any teachers or parents. There was no scheduled school time for
such advice. Part of this omission could be explained by the expectation that the students
were being prepared to join secondary schools, not the labor market. Nevertheless,
seventeen of the twenty students that I interviewed chose careers that they planned to take
up after graduating from university. Many of the students wanted to be economists,
engineers, lawyers, and doctors (with two of the prospective doctors stating specific fields
they wanted to eventually specialize in: neurosurgery and cardiology). One of the other
three students said she wanted to do some nursing training after high school, but she was
not sure her parents would afford high school fees. Another one wanted to become a
newscaster after high school, while the third one was not sure he would ever work
because he already had serious complications from sickle cell. In general, even the
students from the weak group knew what they wanted to become and they chose what can
be called “high expectation careers”. They also knew what levels of education they
would have to go through before they could attain their goals. A particularly articulate
girl in standard eight, told me this:
Example 4.7
Researcher: What do you plan to do after you finish your school? Interview: Ok, after I finish Primary, I plan to go to high school, then ok I might do IB, then I might go to university.. .yeah, abroad ...preferably in Britain. R: What are you going to do if you go to university abroad?
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 132 I: Ok, ok, I want to do medicine... eeh.. neurosurgery. (Maselina; March 20, 2002).
Their goals were in strong contrast with the goals of the students in the rival
school, Toyi, who chose relatively “low expectation careers”. Out of the twenty whom I
interviewed, less than half intended to go to college, and in a surprising choice of career,
one student told me he planned tokuendesha mkokoteni [push carts] after finishing
standard eight. “Cart pushing” is typically done by people who have no schooling at all.
The student in question went on to explain that it would be easy to join that career
because he already knew someone who was doing that work and he had volunteered to
train him after completing his primary education. While that reasoning made a lot of
sense, it was difficult to admit that the student was unaware that “pushing carts” was not
only a very low paying, dead-end occupation that would task his physical abilities to the
limit (he was a slender youngster) but also a strongly despised career. But he was dead
serious as he elaborated that the cart would be hauling fruits and vegetables for market
women in the area, since that service was greatly required and the demand was only
partially fulfilled. He was, however, an anomaly since he was the only student
interviewed who chose an occupation that he would take after finishing standard eight.
All the other interviewees were looking forward to joining secondary school and then
pursuing careers afterwards (although some mentioned that school fees may force them to
leave school earlier).
The students in Toyi said either that their school did not do well or that they did
not know whether the school performed well or not, while those at Apollo school were
very articulate in asserting that their school did very well. Indeed, the Monday after
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 133 trophy giving day, Apollo school displayed the many trophies received by the school and
individual teachers and elaborated on the success of the school, to the admiration of
students (June 17, 2002). Everybody who was even remotely associated with Apollo
walked with a smile and a spring that week. On the contrary, some of the students in
Toyi alleged that sometimes the teachers did not even announce the results for national
examinations; they pinned them on the board and told students to check for themselves to
see how the school had performed.
As an extension of celebrations, one teacher in Apollo would particularly get so
excited that whenever a former student visited, she would look for me to proudly
introduce the former students to me and elaborate on how well the students were doing.
She had been in Apollo since the school started, was the second deputy, and her subject
(Kiswahili) was one of the subjects that received a trophy for best performance in the
province for 2001 examinations. I attended several of her teaching sessions. She was not
only energetic in class, but also popular with students. It was clear that she loved and
enjoyed teaching. The teachers in Toyi, on the other hand, were evasive in their answers
about school performance, and those who answered the question said either the school
was not doing as well as it should or it was doing well but it could do better.
The parents answered the question in a similar fashion. The parents I interviewed
about Apollo had no doubt in their minds that their children were in the right school.
Some parents were so impressed by what the teachers were doing that one time they
decided to collect money to partially support the teachers’ expenses for a short vacation to
the Kenyan coastal beaches and rejuvenate themselves for the following term. After the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 134 2001 examination results were out, a parent of one of the students who had done very
well entertained the teachers (including me) with lunch as a sign of appreciation (food
stuff was bought and prepared in the school).
Apollo spirit and tradition was so strongly guarded that some parents requested
the teachers not to mix Apollo students with those from other schools during private
coaching on weekends and during the holidays. (They explained that the other schools
lacked discipline and commitment and may negatively influence the better disciplined
and dedicated Apollos). The “soliloquy” below, which is between a parent who had been
asked to report to the school for a disciplinary case, and her son, displays some of the
faith that the parents have in the school. The teacher dealing with the case in the staff
room had briefly excused herself, and the parent was talking to the child:
Example 4.8
Ulikuja shule kusoma, kwa nini niitwe eti hutaki kusoma? Ndugu zako wamesoma bila matatizo. Tena walikuwa shule hii hii tu. Shule yenyewe ni nzuri na walimu wanasomesha vizuri. Sasa nini? Kwa nini unanitia aibu? Unafikiri nalipa hiyo pesa ya bure? Mimi nina mahitaji mengi. Sina pesa ya kutupa kwa msitu. Tsa! tsa! Wewe! Wewe! Akili huna kabisa! Wacha tu mwalimu ndio huyo anarudi. Tsa! (June 5, 2002).
[You came to school to learn, why should I be summoned (to the school) because you don’t want to study? Your brothers have learnt without (giving me) any problems.And they were in this very school. The school itself is good and the teachers teach well. Now what (do you want)? Why are you embarrassing me? You think I pay that money for nothing? I have many needs. I have no money to throw in the forest. Tsa! Tsa! You! You! You’ve no brains at all! Anyway, the teacher is coming back. Tsa!] (June 5, 2002; translated by author).
The siblings whom the parent is referring to, I was later informed, had done very well and
they were already in the university.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 135 High expectations, pride and admiration for Apollo did not just come from people
who were affiliated to Apollo school. During the divisional prize giving day, which I
attended along with other teachers and students, the head teacher of Apollo was given a
thunderous applause when divisional head teachers were introduced.9 It came from
students and teachers from not only Apollo but also the other schools and the education
administration team. None of the other head teachers received such profound
recognition; some of the head teachers received only some half-hearted recognition.
School Cohesiveness
In a meeting at the beginning of second term (May 6th, 2002), the deputy head
teacher thanked the teachers for attending her silver wedding anniversary and mentioned
how proud she was to be a member of Apollo community. She added that some of her
own siblings could not attend, but the teachers did, and she was touched by their positive
gesture. She was echoing and strengthening the head teacher’s words. The head teacher
had mentioned that some of the students had dysfunctional families and it was a
phenomenon that transcended the students’ disadvantaged environment since it was
visible also in the high cost environments like Muthaiga and Karen. She urged teachers
to continue assuming the roles of parents by providing guidance to students who needed
it. But she also urged teachers to have concern for their colleagues’ welfare since even
some teachers could be in similar family circumstances.
This conversation was not unique. In an effort to understand differences, the head
teacher had always asserted that teachers, students, and all members in a school, like
9 The function was held at Khalsa Girls’ School, June 21, 2002.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. families could not always agree but it was important that they rally together to achieve
important goals. For her, the most important school goal was unambiguous: success in
the school. To achieve success, the teachers had to promote harmony and work together
to make the students learn. “We don’t have to be friends. You do not have to like me but
we must make sure that we are friends enough to work together for the success of the
school”.
Teachers were, however, more than just “friends enough” to work together. One
of the harmonizing agents among the teachers was a welfare association that
complemented official help from the employer during times of sickness, bereavement and
even retirement. The teachers made financial contributions to assist colleagues at such
times. While I was doing research, they visited two colleagues in the hospital and
contributed money for them. They also contributed money for a non-teaching member of
staff whose husband died and gave contributions to a teacher who was retiring. I was also
informed that the teachers had rallied behind several of their colleagues through
Harambee10 to help them send their children to America for further studies.
School cohesiveness also extended to the students. Teachers tried as much as
possible to intervene in family situations that affected the learning of students. In one
case (May 17, 2002), a student who was living with his father and step-mother had
differences with them, and the family situation was affecting his concentration. The
school asked all the parties concerned to meet in the school. The head teacher and senior
10 Harambee means “pulling together”. It is a formal (and sometimes informal) pulling together of resources, usually financial, for a specific purpose.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. teachers listened to the case and suggested that it would be best for the student to stay
with his mother. After some convincing, the father agreed to let the child live with the
mother. The student’s concentration improved over the next two months. In a similar
case (May 2nd, 2002), a student had missed April holiday coaching because he was
staying with his mother during the holidays. He stayed with his father during the school
months partly because the father’s home was only walking distance from the school. The
mother lived far enough to need bus fare for the commute, which the mother could not
provide. After meeting with the head teacher and senior teachers, the father was
persuaded to provide bus fare to the student during holidays to enable the student to
benefit from holiday tutoring, like the other students.
Cohesion in “the family” was also promoted through eating lunch together.
Teachers made contributions and paid someone to make lunch for them. The children of
the teachers were also invited to share the meals with their parents and the other teachers.
Thus, the school was almost a family of sorts and the teachers teased each other
with “ethnic” and teaching related jokes (including the performance of the teachers’
students). Sometimes I was amazed at how far the tribal jokes could go without touching
a raw nerve, because some of them were based on real rivalries in national political
situations that could easily ruffle someone with thin skin. They were also based on senior
politicians from the different ethnic groups (see Example 4.9). The context was an
informal discussion in the staffroom. A teacher from the president’s ethnic grouping
asked the science teacher a question. He responded, in feigned seriousness:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 138
Example 4.9
Teacher 1: Unajua, Ukiongea na mimi unatakiwa uongee kwa heshima. Siku zako ni chache sasa. Na mimi ndio nitakuwa natoa amri kesho. Na nyinyi wote mtapiga magoti mkiniona. Kwa hivo afadhali muanze kujitayarisha mapema. Teacher 2: Usiseme lolote, mzee. Siku zako zilikuja na zikaenda. Wewe ndio utapiga magoti mpaka uchoke. Mlishindwa kufanya “Constitutional amendment” kwa hivo kaa kimwa. Nafasi yako ilikuja na ikaenda kabisa. Sasa wengine ndio watakula gegi na gogagola. (Laughter in the staffroom). Teacher 3: Nyinyi wawili, vita ya nini? Tutaona ndume ni nani. Mimi na watu wangu tumeanza tayari kuchukua hii nchi, mpende msipende! (Laughter). Tl: You know, you should talk respectfully to me. Your days are numbered. And tomorrow, I will be the one giving orders. And all of you will kneel down when you see me! So you had better start practising early. T2: Don’t say anything, old man (“old man” used for humor here). Your opportunity came and you lost it. You will be the one to kneel down till your knees hurt. You failed to implement “constitutional amendment”, so, shut up! Now other people will eat “cake and cocacola” (Laughter in the staffroom). T3: You two, why are you fighting? We’ll see who is the man [winner]! My people and I have already started taking over this land, whether you like it or not! (April 2002, Translated by author).
The reference to “constitutional amendment” was a historical fact. There had
been an attempt to block the automatic takeover of the country by the vice president in the
event of the president’s death. The failed amendment would have ensured that a leader
from teacher number one’s ethnic grouping would have been president after the death of
the first president. The refence to “taking over land” was literal and metaphorical. The
ethnic grouping of teacher number three had claimed ownership of the slums where
Apollo school is built; they were, it was alleged, incited by their influential national
political leader. The leader also organized a break-away political party in order to
increase his chances of campaigning for presidency. “Mpende msipende” (whether you
like it or not) was an unfortunate phrase that had been used by a local politician in some
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 139 political confrontation, and it stuck to the minds of the people. “Gegi na gogagola” is a
humorous reference to the accent of one of the ethnic groups (that of the ruling president
at the time) - the way they pronounce “cake” and “cocacola”, but in this context, it is also
used to refer to the national pie - the fruits of independence. (Indeed, the 2002 elections
brought a leader from teacher number one’s ethnic grouping to power).
In changing times, when even members of blood families were becoming no
longer assumed allies, the teachers defined colleagues as allies and friends, and this
togetherness, I argue, contributed towards working for success in Apollo. The closeness
made it easier to ask a teacher to teach a class, in case one had an emergency, and it gave
emotional support and sense of “community” and “common goals” in the school and
simply made the school a warm place to be in for both teachers and students. Tea breaks
and lunch breaks were humorous sessions.
I was invited to join the various groups and associations, which was a blessing
because it gave me more opportunities to learn about the many areas of convergence and
sometimes the few areas of divergence in the school. It brought me closer to the teachers,
and I benefited from the informal conversations that went on during lunch. Most of the
times, the conversations would be related to school matters. Also, I was initially nervous
about the “stiffness” of the administration, especially in the first days of my research.
With time, it was the semi-official gatherings that really made me feel that I was close to
becoming kin in Apollo.
The community spirit did not, however, completely obliterate some of the ripples
of tension that I sometimes noticed. There was some feeling that standard seven and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. eight teachers were given greater recognition than lower primary teachers. I also saw the
tension experienced by the teachers when it came to choices between working towards
academic excellence and doing some token extra-curricular activities. Some of the
teachers were also not so eager to participate in “disciplining/punishing” students, but
teacher peer pressure was too strong for them. Also, though it was not always explicitly
stated, the pressure to succeed was somewhat heavy on some teachers. Two teachers also
raised some discomfort about pedagogy in the school. Even the signs of unity and
togetherness were not always taken in stride because some teachers whispered that they
were too young and by the time they retire, the welfare club would probably have died,
after they have made so many contributions to retirees. Then they themselves would
probably get nothing because nobody knows whether the welfare organization and
community spirit would last that long. Also some teachers said rallying for contributions
was pursued with greater energy when “popular” teachers were affected but not when
teachers with less clout needed some support. But as the head teacher always asserted
“families are not always in harmony”, and I did not see the ripples of discontent as a
major threat to the general unity that I witnessed in the school. The teachers were always
able to rise above the ripples of discontent and navigate the school skilfully towards the
finishing line. In fact, one of the teachers, who had been transferred to another school (at
his request) was trying to return because he missed the cohesiveness of the school and the
general goal oriented teaching. He said working hard was not a goal for the majority of
the teachers in his new school, so he felt rather isolated in his effort and missed the group
spirit in Apollo.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 141
Coaching Fees as an Incentive
Teachers in Apollo as well as the other schools in Nairobi were privately coaching
students. Coaching was intended to help students revise so that they could be better
prepared to face the national examinations. Typically coaching took place after school
and on Saturdays, and during school holidays. In the case of Apollos, teachers included
coaching as a part of the school program so that after school, all the students from a
particular class could be coached together. Thus, all the students were supposed to pay
“coaching money”, that is, money for extra tuition. This was a lower category of
“privatization” of tuition, through the back door (since primary school tuition was
supposedly “officially free”). Although the teachers argued that students were always
allowed to join the coaching sessions whether they had paid “coaching” fees or not, I
witnessed a few times when students who had not paid this levy were not allowed to stay
in class. The students I interviewed were divided on this issue: some said that students
who were unable to pay coaching money had to leave the class, while others said if a
student was truly unable to pay, the teachers let her stay in. Others said that parents
negotiated with teachers so that they could pay later, when money became available. Two
of the 20 students I interviewed had managed to stay without paying after their parents
explained to the teachers that they simply could not pay, but I saw some students that had
to stay out of the class because they had not paid. I also heard deliberations in the staff
room that negotiated the timing of ejecting students who had not paid coaching fees from
the classes.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 142 In my interviews with the teachers, they argued that coaching money was not an
incentive to their hard work, but the seriousness with which non-payment was discussed
belies this. One teacher told me:
Example 4.10
We don’t stress this, we don’t like discussing this because actually many children cannot afford this and we don’t send them home if they can’t. The going rate for tuition is Ksh 400 an hour but what we get here after coaching the whole class fluctuates. Sometimes it comes close to 400 per month and sometimes it goes down because not all students pay. (Mr Kofi: April 24, 2002).
On May 9, 2002 some teachers were complaining in the staff room about how
mean some parents were when it came to payment of coaching money. They even
mentioned that some parents would lie that they had given their children money to give to
the teacher but the children lost it, in the hope that the teachers would sympathize with
them and not ask for it. Though the teachers always gave vague answers to questions
about the amount of money that students are supposed to pay as “coaching” fees, the
students said it was Ksh 40011 a month, which is, indeed lower than the open market rate.
This is what one student told me:
Example 4.11
Researcher: How much school fees do they pay? Interviewee: No, as eeh, we don’t pay school fees here, we pay coaching, so it’s like 400 a month. R: Are there any other fees that you pay? I: Yeah, running costs. R: Running cost I: yeah I: 300 a term R: Is there a time they have problems paying that?
11 At the time of research, the exchange rate to the US $ was 74 shillings.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I: [inaudible] R: Are there some pupils in the school who find it difficult to pay? I: Yeah R: What happens if they find it difficult to pay? I: They can speak to the teachers to let the students continue learning till the parents get the money or they are chased away, they stay home until the parents get the money. R: And if they don’t get? I: If they don’t get, you can apply for a [inaudible]. There are some children who are paid for by sponsors. R: Eeh which sponsors? Do they ..do they come to the school [inaudible] the one that looks for sponsors or the kids are the ones that look for sponsors? I: The school. (March 24, 2002)
Also rule number seven of the school rules states that “Parents should pay the authorized
school levies as agreed upon by the P.T.A (Parents /Teachers Association)”.
Although coaching money was not a sufficient reason to motivate the teachers to
work hard in Apollo, it was a boost to their morale. The other schools that were not
performing as well as Apollo also paid “coaching” fees but in Toyi, the practice, as a
whole, was not as well organized as it was in Apollo, that is, in terms of the teaching
itself and also the payment.
Discussion
As mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, notions of Christian values are
conspicuous in the Apollo school discourses. Christian notions are expressed covertly
and overtly in the school environment. They include what the teachers say and also what
is displayed in the work places — the classrooms and the staffroom. The head teacher is
forthright in her Christian parallels in conversations with teachers and students. Some
notable examples are “Even Jesus had one bad one.. .(see Example 4.3) and “Each part of
the body is important and so every teacher is important..."(see Example 4.3). An
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 144 example that I did not immediately recognize as having religious connotations is one in
which she encourages teachers to continue working hard. She explains that we are only
useful now because when we die we’ll not have the power to be of benefit to anyone.
Then she added that she had heard that someone had said, “Graves are the richest places
in the world because they harbor all the brains of great people that have passed over the
years” (June 3, 2002). Taken together with the other religious citations, this seems to
imply the uselessness of the material things that we consider as “riches”, and exalts brains
as the real riches that should be shared with other people before one dies. The
uselessness of not sharing fits well with the biblical spirit of “love thy neighbor as thou
lovest thyself’. Other examples are “God Sees You Everywhere!!” and “Do Good
Anyway”, that were some of the several charts conspicuously displayed in the staff room.
“God Sees You Everywhere” was a chart with a huge eye and the words written in upper
case letters, “GOD SEES YOU EVERYWHERE!!” It was strategically placed above the
analysis board. The “Do Good Anyway” chart was also written in upper case and its
heading was “ANYWAY”. It contained statements on the way people behave and
phrases about what one should do about their behavior. The statements were written in
red while the suggested behavior guidelines were written in black. I reproduce the words
of the chart below:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 145 ANYWAY
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and tru enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be frank and honest anyway.
People favour the lazy but follow the hardworking. Fight the lazy people anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you when you help them. Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have got anyway.
It seems that religion plays a part in solidifying ethics of hard work and,
especially, concern for students’ and teachers’ well being in Apollo. The intersection of
religious and African value ethics is not easy to define considering that there are many
people who profess Christianity but who nevertheless do not claim to practise Christian
values on an everyday basis or go to church on a weekly basis. (Christian values are seen
as somewhat more “civilized” and as such have almost become a status and higher moral
value symbol). In general, indifference to religion is more pronounced in Nairobi than in
rural areas. Available data suggests that “73% of the nation’s population is Christian,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 146 with 40% of these attending church weekly in rural areas compared to only 12% attending
in Nairobi where 60% never go near a church” (Shorter 1991, cited in Kilbride, Suda and
Njeru 2000:50). Christian values are, however, seen as playing some role in informing
the school about ideas of equality (all are equal whether they live in Muthaiga or the
slums - all are equal in the eyes of God, all are important in Christian brotherhood). The
values are seen in this study as complementary to the values associated with Border
Pedagogy.
Above all else, the students and teachers in Apollo school have a strong
conviction that education and hard work is necessary in order to get ahead in Kenya (see
head teacher’s comment that one cannot succeed without hard work, even in private life
(Example 4.3). Elsewhere, a former student comments, “This is Kenya” (please refer to
Example 5.11) and the short statement is loaded in meaning. It is a tacit
acknowledgement of the fact that if one wanted to get ahead in Kenya, one had to work
hard in school and get good grades that would lay the foundation for a good life. It was
also a tacit acknowledgement of the shrewdness for survival that is expected in a country
where “the distribution of Kenya’s income is among the most unequal in the world”
(Kilbride and colleagues 2000:44). At the time of research, almost 40 years after
independence, competition for jobs was very stiff. Unemployment rate was estimated at
30-40 % in Nairobi and in the slums of Pumwani, which are comparable to Toyi, 38.4%
of the population were unemployed (Kilbride and colleagues 2000:46). Competitiveness
in education was stiffer than it had been in the two decades after independence because
education was seen as the gate that could deliver someone from harsh lifestyles both in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 147 the rural areas and the city to relatively well-to-do social and economic environments.
Unlike the sixties and seventies when high schools were fewer and high school graduates
could easily find relatively well paying jobs, students had to aim at university education if
they wanted to get skilled employment. There was also the realization that education was
not only a ticket to a better livelihood but also an important status symbol. The harsh
reality of the slum environment, that many students hoped education would save them
from, was captured by Kilbride, Suda and Njeru. Doing research on street children in the
slums in Nairobi (Toyi, the focus of my study was one of the slums), Kilbride and
colleagues note that:
56% of the parents (of the street children), for example, were petty commodity traders with very low and irregular incomes; 9.7% were beggars on the streets; 11.8% of the mothers said they were housewives; 6.5% were in formal employment; 6.5% were brewingbusaa (home brewed beer) and selling chang’aa (home distilled gin) in the slums, and 5.4% were barmaids (Kilbride, Suda and Njeru 2000:53, parentheses added).
Also, with increased pace of changes to a market economy, there was a greater
realization that formal employment was becoming not an option for survival but a
necesssity. Erratic rural economies could only satisfy subsistent needs, not school fees,
health needs and modem consumption tastes. Besides, with globalization, Kenyans were
increasingly participating in global “heteroconsumerism”, not only in terms of goods but
also luxury and education (Foster 2002:151, Kilbride and colleagues 2000:46).
Getting more education, in addition, was increasingly defined as a tenet of good
citizenship and also as the one variable that was potentially capable of breaking the
chains of hardship, low class and status. The views of both street children and their
parents concerning what should be done to eliminate the desperation experienced by
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. street children indicates the strong perception that education is of great priority in Kenya.
While the highest number of the street children interviewed ranked “feeding programs” as
of priority to them (100 street children), “free education” was second in terms of priority
(chosen by 88 street children). The other suggested programs were provision of clothing
(79), shelter (50), training (42), employment (20), credit scheme (4), counselling (3), no
response (14) - out of a total of 400 (Kilbride, Suda and Njeru 2000:64). The parents had
education on top of the list (37), create employment for parents (21), provide food to poor
families (21), help children get intojua kali business (4), provide credit facilities to
parents (3), take them to children’s home (1), don’t know (11) - total 98 (Kilbride, Suda
and Njeru 2000:65). Kilbride and colleagues argue that parents and street boys were in
harmony “in expressing ‘education’ and ‘employment’as desired objectives, ones in
conformity with national values and goals for Kenyans” (2000:62, quotes in the original).
And Apollo school teachers, students and parents embraced the dream of education first
of all for better future livelihood (and breaking the chains of slum poverty) and, secondly,
for good citizenship. The high demand for education by parents in Kenya has also been
recognized by the World Bank (World Bank 2003:3; downloaded April 13, 2006.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servletAVDS).
Some of the factors contributing to success in Apollo school are similar to those
that have been found in effective schools in the United States, but there are also marked
differences in the two environments. In a study that was done in eight schools in the US,
the successful schools were found to have clear academic goals, high expectation for
students, order and discipline, student incentives and rewards, frequent monitoring of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 149 student success, opportunities for meaningful student participation and responsibility,
teacher efficacy, incentives and rewards for teachers, concentration on academic learning
time, positive school climate, administrative leadership, well-articulated curriculum,
evaluation for instructional improvement and community support and involvement
(Garibaldi 1987:252,260). The indicators for success were standardized achievement
scores, performance on minimum competency tests, percentages of students who join
higher education, or training, military or find jobs, students receiving scholarships or
other awards (science fairs, essays, other competitions), low drop out rates, daily
attendance (teachers and students), few/low suspensions/expulsions, awards for
outstanding school programs and teaching (Garibaldi 1987:252).
Garibaldi concluded that effective schools’ principals recognized student and
faculty needs, delegated responsibilities to students and faculty, screen and evaluate staff,
participate in school instruction decisions and lastly, but most important of all, project the
belief that all students can learn. Such schools had sound and diverse curricular, able and
committed staff, good but not oppressive discipline, effective administrative activities,
involvement of parents, diverse co-curricular activities and motivated students who had
high expectations for themselves (Garibaldi 1987:260). Similar qualities were also
mentioned by Pink (1987:246-247), Sizemore (1987:200-201) and Squires and colleagues
(1984:3)
Although there was a lot of convergence in the above areas, there were differences
in “involvement of parents”, “curriculum diversification”, “teacher and student
incentives”, andnumber of students per class. Although parents in Apollo were
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 150 “involved” since they paid their dues and also had representatives in the PTA (Parents
Teachers Association), most of them could not help their children with home-work
because they themselves did not have much education, and many parents explained that
they generally left matters of the school to teachers “because teachers knew best what was
important for the students in matters of schooling”.
A major difference in effective schools in the US is also that there are hardly any
successful schools in low income groups (comparable to Apollo). What abounds are
studies of failure in low income neighborhoods (please refer to Chapter Two for details
on this). Even in the above study of effective schools, two of the schools had minority
enrollments of less than 4% and only three had minority enrollments that exceeded 40%
(Garibaldi 1987:253). (Please refer to chapter seven for details on the contrast).
This chapter indicates that language is used strategically in the shaping of notions
of “family” and “community”in order to further the success ideology in Apollo school.
Notions of “family” and “community” or cohesiveness are a part of the language of
motivation, consensus seeking and cohesiveness in focusing on strategic planning and
action. By constructing a narrative of cohesiveness through the family metaphor, the
teachers elicit cooperation and support, claim rights and obligations to one another and
thus solidify unity in the school. The board analysis is the central arena around which
shortcomings are identified, remedy sought and future planning given expression. It is
also a tool that exposes the democratic approach of the head teacher, and the potential
power that each of the teachers have in assessing present practices in teaching, and
influencing changes for the better. The chapter indicates that the teachers realize that in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 151 order to succeed, they have to motivate not only the students but also they themselves.
They have to set a fast pace for the school and shield it from the negative slum ideologies
surrounding it, even if that means distancing themselves somewhat from the confining
ideologies of slum failure. But they also know that rhetoric is not enough to see them
through their goals - there has to be hard work and unwavering commitment.
Overall, this study suggests that success in Apollo school is achieved through
factors that are internal, not external to the school. It suggests that success is partially
derived from the way the teachers and students interpellate their position in slum ideology
and model their approach to the success ideology. It depends on how they perceive the
ability of their students to overcome the limitations of slum environment through
teachers’ effort and dedication, competitiveness, work ethics, leadership, school
“community” and cohesiveness. Their positive interpellation gives a counternarrative to
slum habitation and its associated ideology of failure and helps them rise above its
confining chains. But the road to success was not all smooth; the underside of the
success ideology required Apollo to make difficult practical choices, as we see in chapter
five.
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SUCCESS IDEOLOGY TAKES ITS TOLL: “THE ROOTS
OF EDUCATION ARE BITTER”
While chapter four outlined the assumptions of the success ideology in Apollo
school, chapter five examines the underside of the ideal terrain and shows the practical
challenges of the success ideology. The practical choices made in order to attain success
implied that the general school community, and especially the teachers and students, had
to show unwavering commitment and dedication. The teachers, parents and former
students explained that unflinching discipline (or punishment) was an essential ingredient
in the success model. This translated into an adherence to strict interpretation of school
rules and regulations, management of classroom and out-of-class time. It meant that
teachers and students had to work as a team and remind one another that Apollo was a
place where failure was not and would not be accommodated. Their expectation reflected
the words of a sentence that was boldly crafted with a marker pen in the deputy head
teacher’s office in Toyi School: The Roots of Education are Bitter but its Fruits are
Sweet.
True to the bitter roots current Apollo students frequently mentioned in their
interviews with me that punishment was the one thing that they did not like about their
school. An issue of pedagogy was raised by two former students and two current
teachers. They saw the teaching methodology as encouraging rote learning. One of the 152
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 153 two teachers was questioning the teaching, not just in Apollo but in all schools since
focus, in his view, was changing from “learning” to “passing exams” and therefore killing
the original focus of education as a forum to create curiosity in learning. He said his
concern was on the national focus and not limited to Apollo.
I observed some use of bad language (albeit limited) by some of the teachers in
their interaction with students in Apollo. None of the students complained about the
language issue during my interviews with them and indeed the teachers whom I heard use
discouraging language were a total of three. I, however, think even if they were few,
some of the things they said warrant some attention. That notwithstanding, most of the
students in Toyi said they would have prefered being in Apollo because they would have
been more assured of passing their national examinations than when in Toyi. Two
students said there was too much work in Apollo and they did not want to be doing
homework throughout and also the “discipline” in Apollo was more rigorous and they did
not want to be punished. Some students, however, said they were in Toyi because the
school was more lenient with school levies, or their parents enrolled them in Toyi and
they could not go against the wish of their parents. None of the students in Apollo
expressed a wish to be in Toyi school.
Discipline/Punishment
What the teachers in Apollo school, like in many other schools, called “discipline”
was referred by many students as “punishment”. While teachers and parents, in general,
were in agreement that “discipline” was necessary in schools, students gave somewhat
conflicting opinions but, in general, they claimed physical “punishment” was unpleasant
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 154 and cruel, albeit sometimes effective. It was unclear, from the responses that I gathered,
whether different modes of punishment would produce different results in terms of
success or failure of schools. Except for two teachers who expressed reservations about
the effectiveness of physical punishment in Apollo, all the teachers I talked to accepted
punishment as a good method of controlling students’ behavior and “encouraging” them
to learn. A parent of a boy who came to Apollo to solve a disciplinary case about her son
explained the importance of discipline to me:
Example 5.1
Watoto ni watoto, kwa hivo watakosea. Mtoto kama huyu wangu lazima achapwe viboko maanake hata nyumbani ni kichwa ngumu. Huwezi kumwambia chochote. Na sijui kwa nini maanake nimelea watoto wengine wawili. Tena wa kiume pia. Sikupata matatizo kabisa kwa wale vijana. Walisoma vizuuuri, tena walikuwa shule hii hii tu. Ndio nashangaa! Nyumbani walikuwa watii. Walisoma vizuri kabisa mpaka wakaingia university. Lakini huyu, huyu kabisa sijui alitoka wapi. Sijui nifanye nini. Sijui nifanye nini kabisa. Waalimu wakichapa hivo viboko watanisaidia kulea. Akikosa elimu ataenda wapi? Niambie, ataenda waapi? (June 5, 2002).
[Children are children, so they will make mistakes. A child like this one of mine must be beaten because even at home, he is big headed. You cannot tell him anything. And I don’t know why because I have brought up two other children. And they were also boys. I never got any problems at all from the youngsters. They learnt very well, and they were in this very school. So, I’m perplexed! At home they were obedient. They learnt so well that they joined the university. But this one, this one I don’t know where he came from [I don’t understand his behavior], I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do at all. If the teachers punish him, they will help me bring him up. If he doesn’t get an education, where will he go? Tell me, where will he go?] (June 5, 2002: translated by author).
Another parent whom I had interviewed the day before (June 4th) had asserted
that even at home, a parent has to set rules and regulations and enforce them, otherwise,
children would be uncontrollable.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 155 Example 5.2
Lazima wazazi na waalimu wawape watoto sheria na miongozo. Wasipofanya hivo watoto watakua ovyo na hamna chochote wataweza kufanya. Lazima wajue umuhimu wa kufata sheria na miongozo. Maanake sheria na miongozo ni vitu vya maisha. Kwa hivo lazima waanze kuzifuata mapema kuanzia nyumbani na shule. Wakiajiliwa itawabidi wafate sheria na miongozo. Familia pia ni sheria na miongozo. Hata serikali. Na ukikosea utazilipia. (June 4, 2002).
Parents and teachers must give children rules and regulations. If they fail to do that, children will be failures and they will achieve nothing. They must know the importance of following rules and regulations. Because rules and regulations are for life [lifetime requirements]. So they must start following them early, starting with home and school. When they get employed, they will have to follow rules and regulations. The community is also rules and regulations. Even the government. And if you break them, you will pay for them [rules and regulations]. (June 4, 2002: translated by author).
He, however, added that the head teacher is the one to decide what punishment a
student should get, and if a student has to be caned, the head teacher was the only person
allowed to carry out the punishment. It was difficult for me to believe that he was
unaware that his son, like all the other students in standard eight, had what was called a
major “jerking session”, the previous day (June 3rd).
The jerking session was preceded by a board analysis of standard eight
performance for the month of May, 2002 (please referA Spiritto of Positive
Competitiveness, for details on what a board analysis is). It was a good performance
because more than three quarters of the students had achieved an equivalent of a “B”
grade or more. However, a “jerking session” was not necessarily a result of dismal
performance. Its goal, a teacher explained to me, was to jolt students, shock them from
their complacency so that you prevent them from getting a real shock when the real
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 156 examination is administered. Even if the students were doing fine, they needed this so
that they could feel inadequate and therefore work even harder. Another way of
promoting this feeling of inadequacy was by not giving them high scores when grading
their papers. That way, when they faced the national examination, they would find it
easier than they thought it would be.
In a staff meeting on June 3rd, it was decided that standard eight deserved a
“jerking session”. It was going to be in the afternoon. It was started by an assertion that
the scores for May examination were very low and unacceptable and that showed
standard eight were not ready for the national examination. They needed to be woken up
from their slumber. Then the “jerking” started. With wooden sticks and small whips
from old vehicle tyres. On both sides of the hands (boys and girls). On butts and thighs
(boys only). On shoulders (both girls and boys). The students were crying and some
wailing, others were clinging to the teachers in desperation. The teachers were using all
the languages they knew to tell the students that they had to “wake up.” They used both
English and Kiswahili and some even tried their ethnic languages. The students were
reminded that their performance was an embarrassment to the school, the teachers and
their parents. And where did they hope to go after failing? They wouldmanamba be
[mini-bus touts] and thieves. It was difficult to watch all the session so I went back to the
staff room. Soon some other teachers came back to the staff room. They were soon
fetched by another teacher who half jokingly told them all the teachers needed to
participate in the “disciplining” of the students. He also invited me to participate in the
“disciplining” session but I jokingly told him, I never liked being caned when I was in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 157 school. (By that time in my research, I knew some teachers well enough to feel safe
enough to give personal opinions about some topics, albeit lightly).
It was puzzling that the students in standard eight could be targets of such a
beating when some of them were sons and daughters of the teachers in the school. I
wondered what the teachers really felt about “disciplining” when it affected their own
children. An opportunity to pursue this presented itself on July 10th when standard six
students needed “jerking”. Three of the students had parents teaching in the school and a
fourth one was distantly related to the head teacher (a niece). After different teachers
“disciplined” the students, their own parents, who were teachers in the school, added to
the beating. Even the female teachers “disciplined” their kids. The students were told
that they received the extra “discipline” because they werewatoto wa waalimu [teachers’
children]. Though the head teacher was not one of the teachers disciplining the students
this time, her niece was not going to get away without the “extra discipline”. One of the
teachers took care of that and while doing so he was giving verbal advice:
Example 5.3
Unaaibisha mwalimu mkuu! Unaaibisha mwalimu! Mtoto wa mwalimu ndiye anaanguka mtihani! Mtoto wa mwalimu ndiye ataanguka mtihani kweli? Mtoto wa mwalimu hawezi kusoma! Mtoto wa mwalimu hawezi kusoma kweli? Utasoma! Utasoma na utasoma tena! (July 10, 2002)
[You are embarrassing the head teacher! You are embarrassing [the] teacher! The teacher’s child is the one who fails examination! Will the teacher’s child fail the examination really? The teacher’s child cannot study! The teacher’s child cannot study really? You will study! You will study and you will study again!] (July 10,2002: translated by author).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 158 The teacher who was disciplining the head teacher’s child himself has a student in
the school. On the same day, a daughter of the Islamic education teacher was punished in
the staff room because she had got 25 scores out of 40 ininsha [Kiswahili composition].
She had previously been getting 30 or more, so this was a sign that she was slackening.
After she was disciplined, the father who was in the staff room at the time wanted to give
extra punishment, but the teacher who had carried out the initial punishment said that
what she had received was already enough since she had previously been a good student
anyway.
I had often wondered whether deep down, the teachers experienced any issues of
role conflict, especially when they were required to punish their own children. Quoted
below is a part of conversation between a teacher and her son, after the son had been
ordered out of a class by another teacher. The son came to fetch his mother in the staff
room.
Example 5.4
Teacher: Did the teacher tell you to call me as a teacher or a parent? Son: He said to call one of my parents. T: Go and call your dad. I am busy marking compositions. I have my class to deal with. I am here as a teacher, not parent. Go get your father. And from now onwards, he comes to school whenever a teacher needs your parent. When I’m in school, I’m a teacher; when at home, I’m your mother. (June 26, 02).
Many teachers said that they did not experience any role conflict, but one said she
felt a little uncomfortable when punishing her own child because she knew she had to
appear impartial and that often meant punishing her own child more than the other
children. She asserted, however, that the aim of sending a message to the other students
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 159 that no one was treated differently was more important.
After the “jerking” of standard six, I talked to the teacher who was punishing the
niece of mwalimu mkuu [head teacher]. He has a vibrant personality so I did not worry
very much about how to start the conversation. “Why is there discrimination against
teachers’ children when it comes to ‘disciplining’ them?” I ventured. He was quick to
answer me:
Example 5.5
Because they should set a good example. They should be in the forefront when it comes to learning because we coach them at home. They can always ask [us] questions if they don’t understand. They should work harder. They should also follow school rules all the time because they are children of teachers. They have to set an example of what a good student should be. (July 10, 2002).
The Islamic education teacher who had wanted to discipline his daughter added
that teachers’ children have to set examples because other students would complain if
teachers were seen to favor their own children. I insisted that I could see the logic but the
teachers’ children were getting a worse deal. With caution, I insisted that it could still be
seen as discrimination since there is no requirement that teachers’ children should be used
as guinea pigs in the name of setting examples in schools. I said if teachers “disciplined”
them just as much as they “disciplined” other students, it would be clear to the other
students that the teachers were fair. A female teacher explained that she had to
“discipline” her own son a few days before then, because if she had not, it might be seen
as discrimination and the son would also start feeling special and probably become a
disciplinary problem since he would expect his mother to bail him out. Later, on the
same day, I heard some whispers in the staff room that some of the teachers were
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 160 “disciplining” children for their own mistakes; if they (teachers) were “relaxed”, how did
they expect the children to do well? I tried to get further explanation but I was not
successful. Although I did not see any really “relaxed” teachers in Apollo, there were
three that I suspected to be on the borderline.
I talked to a former student about “discipline” in Apollo school. She had an
interesting story to tell:
Example 5.6
Those teachers beat me so much I wanted to die. I really wished I could die. I wanted to go to another school, but my parents would not hear of it. Then I thought of quitting school altogether, but I had no place to go to. If I had been a big girl like I am today, I think I would have asked some man to marry me. Any man... any man, I tell you ... because I so much wanted to just get out of that school. But now I am really happy that I had nowhere to go. I am also happy that they disciplined me. I was a difficult child. But they forced me to behave. The teachers were right. My parents were right. I was a difficult child and I didn’t want to read. I just didn’t like school. I hated school so much. (Fatuma: June 20, 2002).
Support for punishment was also expressed by another former Apollo student who
was now a student of economics in the university. She had different reasons though to
support her claim. She explained that students in Apollo were used to hard life since they
come fromvichochoroni (slums). They were therefore different from students from X (a
high cost private school). Each school required a different kind of punishment: X school
required soft punishment because their parents give “soft” punishment, but Toyi required
hard punishment like corporal punishment (July 10, 2002). The argument was not unlike
that of the teachers in Harlem who punished their students persistently (see Rosenfeld
1971, in Literature Review, chapter 2). The former student added that it was good that
she had been disciplined in school because it helped her and other students not become
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 161 lazy. She clarified that when she was in school, she did not like the idea of punishment,
but now she realizes that it had been useful. As I followed on whether rich students (for
example, from X school) should not be “punished”, she asserted that they should be
punished but in different ways because their upbringing was also different. The same
student emphasized that when she was in Apollo School, her English was not good
because her family lived in the slums and they spoke Kiswahili at home, instead of
English (Fatuma: July 10th).
A different view was expressed by a different student (also in college). She
stressed that she still felt bad, five years later, that she suffered those beatings. She
insisted beating does not help students, and it did not help her at all because it made her
do things “because I didn’t want to be beaten”. Yet my conversation with her had pretty
contradictory statements about the effectiveness of punishment, as displayed in part of my
interview with her:
Example5.1
R: Do you think punishment helps some students who don’t work hard? I: Punishment helps, especially up to standard five. In class eight, it don’t help. Better to be talked to. In some situations caning [corporal punishment] is not good. Some kids have psychological problems ‘cause of problems at home. Therefore low performance. First find out why the student is not doing homework. There are fewer troublemakers in each class so if they are 70, there will only be ten troublemakers. They can concentrate on the ten. R: Do you think there are some students that work hard so as not to be punished? I: Even in standard eight and seven there are kids who work so as not to be punished. I was one of them. But in standard eight, it is more important to go to high school. R: Do you think some standard eight students are helped by caning? I: Yes, it helps. R: What do you suggest the school could change? I: Yes, give presents. Give presents and certificates to good students. Use other kinds of punishment, for example things kids don’t like doing like, ok, people in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 162 high school, yeah for example calling rain [laughter]. An afternoon of calling rain. R: How do you do so? I: Call with fingers [demonstrating]. I found it harder than being beaten. R: Did you do it in your high school? R & I: [Laughter] I: Yes, when you don’t do your homework. (Erica: July 4, 2002).
A group of three former students that had just graduated with “A” grade from a
top-rated high school in the country and were waiting to go to the university told me that
the “discipline” in Apollo school had helped them. They explained it set the foundation
for hard work and that was why they had managed to do so well in high school. If they
had not been “disciplined”, distractions would have taken away their concentration.
However, all but two current students whom I interviewed in Apollos said the one thing
they wanted changed about their school was the “punishment” because sometimes it got
cruel. While the two exceptions said the “discipline” was good because if one made a
mistake, they needed to be “disciplined”, all the others suggested that a different kind of
punishment would be more acceptable. They suggested physical work like cleaning
classrooms, toilets, and collecting and burning trash.
The teachers in Apollo kept cautioning each other with a reference to a former
student who met a teacher at the bus station, but he refused to acknowledge his former
teacher’s greeting. Instead he told him to leave him alone because Viboko mlituchapa
Apollo vilitosha [The caning you administered on us in Apollo was enough - don’t want
any more connection with you/ Apollo], Although it was generally an uncomfortable
topic, the episode was often made fun of and shrugged off by the teachers. They would
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 163 warn that one had to be careful how they “disciplined” the students because if a student
sustained injuries, Apollo would not get away with it, but some other schools would. One
time the head teacher cautioned in a staff meeting that committee members had
complained that teachers were punishing students who had not paid coaching money.
She said:
Example 5.8
In the last meeting, some committee members complained children are beaten if they have not paid coaching money. Kwa bahati nzuri [By good luck], X was in that meeting. Mnaweza kusema mimi naongeza chumvi! [You probably will say (think) that I am adding salt (exaggerating)]. Committee members complained that children are being beaten. Be careful! You can find yourself in court. (May 30, 2002)
Ironically, teachers in their rival school later on told me that they physically “disciplined”
their students only occasionally; if something happened, they would be blamed very much
while if something happened in Apollo, the latter would get away with it. Surprisingly,
Toyi school, which had more students that said disciplining was alright if one did wrong
(it was a form of correction), actually received less intense disciplining, from my
observations, than Apollo school.
Somehow, teachers continue giving “discipline” in some schools in Kenya,
although the head teacher is the only person authorized to give “discipline” and even then
only a maximum of two strokes on the cane are allowed. Somehow, many parents,
teachers and law enforcement personnel do not normally raise issues about the practice.
Somehow, the practice continues until something like Ndeiya happens and the issue
explodes and criminal charges are filed.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In Ndeiya, David Mwaura Kariuki, a 17 year old student of Thigio Boys’
Secondary School was hospitalised in Kijabe Hospital after a “disciplining” episode on
July 19, 2002. Two days later, David Kariuki died (Kenya Television Network -KTN
News: Sunday, July 21, 2002). The media went into a frenzy with the news. Teachers
whispered about it; they were evidently shaken. Parents were angry. Public commuters
were talking about it in disbelief on their way to and from work. Everybody wondered
how it had happened; many thought that it must have been an unusually brutal teacher but
everybody wondered whether it could happen again.
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is one of the variables discussed often by education planners and
teachers in Kenya. They focus on teaching content (syllabus, curriculum) but especially
on teaching methodology and rigor. The need to facilitate smooth and quality transition
from one level of education to the next (primary to secondary school, secondary to
university) is strongly felt. Teachers as well as education planners believe that content,
rigor and teaching methodology affect education quality and determine not only whether
students pass examinations but also whether they excel when they get to the next level of
education.
Both Toyi and Apollo raised issues on the quality and process of pedagogy.
While only one teacher had seriously raised the issue of pedagogy in Apollo during my
interview with him (another one raised it as a critique of the national curriculum as a
whole), in Toyi, all the teachers I had a discussion with raised it. (The head teacher in
Apollo had at one time mentioned the issue of “drilling”, asserting in a meeting that
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 165 drilling is not effective and should not be done in Apollo). Another teacher whose
subject had not been well done, according to board analysis, complained informally in the
staff room after the analysis that the other teachers had been teaching using past papers
while she had followed the syllabus, since she does not do “drilling” (rote learning). I
saw this as a tacit indication that she thought some teacher/s did some “drilling”. She
asserted that she would finish the syllabus during the holidays in April and then start
using past papers in May.
The deputy head teacher in Toyi conceded that his school does not do as well as
Apollo does in the national examinations, but he asserted that there were several reasons
why, not the least of which was that the two schools use different methods in teaching.
He explained that Apollo do “driH”(doing persistent revision, usually based on a narrow
focus on questions that may appear in examinations), using past papers to revise, with
their only objective as to have the students join prestigious secondary schools. The
accusation was repeated by many teachers in Toyi. (I had observed teachers in Apollo
doing revision with past papers but I had more often observed teachers teaching complete
topics from the syllabus).
The head teacher who had been in Toyi since the beginning of the year (2002)
explained that his school was training students to think for themselves, not to pass
examinations like robots. He claimed that when his students get to secondary school,
they do much better than the students in Apollo school or any other schools that get better
grades in KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education). He conceded that his school’s
performance was not very good, especially in English, but he and his staff had vowed to
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 166 change the situation. Asked whether the social environment contributed to the poor
performance in English, he, like the Apollo head teacher, asserted that poor performance
should be blamed on teachers, not students. He explained:
Example 5.9
I don’t want us to blame the pupils for our own failures. I, myself, spoke Kikuyu only until I went to school. I only learnt Kiswahili and English in my School. And I continued to speak Kikuyu when I was learning English and Kiswahili. Now I speak the three languages without a problem. And there were many [students] like me. And we passed very well [in the national examinations]. I don’t want the students of this school to be blamed because they communicate in Kiswahili in their environment. After all, high cost schools also communicate in shoddy English, Sheng12. And also students in Coast Province do not excel in Kiswahili in our national exams13. (July 10, 2002).
He asserted poor performance can only be blamed on teachers, not students.
A standard eight class teacher asserted that their students are good but they cannot
learn because they have too many problems that distract them from concentrating in
school - family problems and financial problems. She said the parents of their students
were so poor that she herself offered lunch to two students who were so poor that they
went without lunch. Some parents also did not care; they brewMuratina [traditional
beer] and chang ’aa [home brewed gin] and spent most of the day too drunk to worry
about kids and school. She added that teachers cannot “discipline” the students in Toyi as
much as they do in Apollo because if they did, they would get into trouble with provincial
and national education administration. Apollo could get away with it but not them.
Apollo claimed the very opposite. She also explained that since students are brought up
12 Sheng is a mixture of Kiswahili and English that is mainly spoken by the youth.
13 Kiswahili is spoken as first language by the majority of Kenyan Coast Province populations.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 167 to expect a beating if they do wrong, you cannot correct them without giving a beating.
Another teacher asserted this approach by explaining that he himself disciplined his own
children at home by beating them a little. How can they ever learn in class if they are not
disciplined for mistakes made? Children need some amount of fear of authority in order
to do the right things because their reasoning is not yet fully developed, like that of adults.
They need to know their behavior has consequences.
Teachers in Toyi also informed me that Toyi experienced many transfers. I later
learnt from parents that the teachers themselves are the ones who request for transfers. In
fact, in the previous three years, there had been two head teachers and whispers were
there that the present head teacher, who had not even finished a year in the school, was on
his way elsewhere. One of the senior teachers explained to me that all teachers resisted
being posted to Toyi and whenever Toyi got a good teacher, she or he would be restless,
always looking for ways of getting out. Toyi, they reckoned, was the deep end of slums,
and nobody wanted to stay there for a long time. He also said that head teachers in
schools like Apollo had clout and could refuse some teachers because all the teachers
were competing to get to such schools that already had a good name and also could give
extra money (from coaching fees), but not schools like Toyi. Even the teacher who gave
this information said that he thought the students in Toyi were “special”; they were unlike
any students he had taught before; they had a big problem in “retention” (the teacher had
not taught in a slum school before he came to Toyi and implied he would soon go
elsewhere).
As I continued interacting with teachers and students in Toyi, it became clear to
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 168 me that strong and consistent leadership was missing and the teachers were not united in
their goals to serve the school. There was a rift between the teachers and the community
(parents), and there were enough differences among parents themselves to affect smooth
running of the school. A strong head teacher, capable of minimizing the differences in
the various sections of the community was badly needed.
Of all the differences that were cited between the two schools, it was the alleged
difference in approach to pedagogy that caught my attention. The two schools had goals
that diverged in certain important areas. While both wanted to do well in national
examinations, the determination to get there was tempered with special needs in Toyi
while in Apollo, unquestionable relentlessness and an attitude of survival for the fittest
were required. Teachers in Toyi would “push” some weak students up to standard eight,
even if they were weak just so that they could get some literacy and numeral skills. If a
student was too weak in Apollo they would repeat, but if they were hopeless, they had
better look for some other school because Apollo was not for them. If they were
indisciplined, Toyi would be more tolerant too, again, with the idea of pushing the kids as
much as possible so as to get at least basic skills for life. “Even if they ended up being
manambas [mini-bus touts]”, the teachers would say, “they would be able to read and
write”. One of the teachers mentioned a girl who had gone off and gotten married, but
the marriage had gotten sour and she wanted to come back to school and write her exams
since she had already paid examination fees for 2002; why should she be denied the
opportunity?
Similarly, in the very selection of standard one students, Apollo would evaluate
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 169 them, and if they had not reached a particular level, they would not be admitted. Toyi
argued that some of their kids had not even been to pre-school. And in Apollo, good
performance had to be maintained if a student expected to move to the next class. Thus,
Apollo was recruiting students who would excel and maintain the high standard of
performance; if the standards were not maintained, a student had either to repeat or “cross
the road” (join Toyi school). The reference to “crossing the road” had been heard many,
many times in Apollo, with reference to not only the students but also the teachers.
Before I met the students and teachers in Toyi, crossing the road had meant making a
choice between success and failure. After I crossed the road, I started to wonder whether
it could also mean teaching to excel in national examinations in order to proceed to the
next level versus making basic skills available to disadvantaged children.
A Toyi parent very strongly disapproved of Apollo’s approach. He said:
Example 5.10
.. .Kule Apollo wanasomea mtihani peke yake. Hiyo ndio sababu wanaanguka wakiingia secondary; wanasomea mtihani tu. Ndio wanakuwa very clever. Sasa mwalimu hawezi kueleza details zote. Lazima mwanafunzi atumie akili wakati mwingine. Lakini kabisa hajafunzwa kutumia akili. Ndio unaona wakienda shule nyingine hawawezi kutumia akili, wanasubiri mwalimu awaambie kila kitu. Haiwezekani! Wamesomeshwa goal moja tu, just the exam. Kwa hivo wameerevushwa kabisa exam ikiingia hakuna mwanafunzi ataanguka. Lakini akienda mbele, atakutana na maswali mengine ambao yamekuwa twisted kiasi ya kwamba anatakiwa atumie ubongo ili aelewe. Hawezi kuelewa hiyo maanake amezoea kuwa spoon-fed. Ndio unaona wanafunzi wachache ambao wanaingia secondary kutoka Toyi wanakuwa bright sana mpaka wanaingia university. Tena Apollo, watoto wanaenda shule mpaka Sunday. Hawana time. Wanakuwa overloaded sana. Otherwise Toyi wanasomeshwa vizuri sana. Na mtoto akisomeshwa hivo, umemkosea sana. Maanake akiendelea atakutana na mambo mengi ambao hajasomeshwa na yatamsumbua akili. ...Lakini wazazi wengi wanachagua Apollo maanake ina sifa ya watoto kuingia secondary. Na ukipeleka mtoto Apollo haruhusiwi kuendelea hapo kama hafanyi vizuri. Atafukuzwa. Akipata tu nambari mbaya, atafukuzwa! Toyi wanaencourage watoto sana. Hata
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 170 wale ambao sio bright, wanawasukuma tu ili waendelee hata kama hawafiki hio secondary. Naye X (Apollo principal) akiona tu wanafunzi wengine wa Toyi ni bright anawachukua anawapeleka shule lake. Wakifika tu seven ama five, anaongea na wazazi wao ili wavuke barabara. Sio uwongo. (July 23, 2002).
[In Apollo, they study for examinations only. That is the reason they fail when they join secondary school; they study for examinations only. That is why they • are very clever [sharp]. Now, a teacher cannot explain all the details. A student must use his brains sometimes. But he has not been trained to use his brains at all. That is why when they go to other schools, they cannot use their brains; they wait for teachers to spoon-feed them. It’s impossible! They’ve been trained for one goal [purpose], just the exam. Therefore, they have been made so sharp that when it’s time for exams, no student will fail. But when they move ahead [join secondary school], they will come across other questions that have been so twisted that one has to use his head so as to understand. He cannot understand those because he is used to being spoon-fed. That’s why you see the few students who join secondary schools from Toyi [Primary School] are so bright that they join the university. Further, the students in Apollo go to school even on Sundays. They’ve no time. They are overloaded. Otherwise, in Toyi, they are taught very well. And if a student is taught like that [by spoon-feeding], you’ve messed his chances for him. Because if he goes ahead [joins secondary school], he’ll come across many other things that he has not been taught and they will challenge him very much. .. .But many parents choose Apollo because it is famous for taking students to secondary school. And if you take your child to Apollo, he’ll not be allowed to continue [his studies] there if he doesn’t maintain good performance. He’ll be expelled! In Toyi, they encourage students very much. Even those that are not bright, they push them hard so that they can go on, even if they don’t get to secondary school. And if X [head teacher]spots some bright students in Toyi, she poaches them and takes them to her school. When they get to seven [standard seven] or five [standard five], she talks with their parents so that they can “cross the road”. It’s not a lie.] (July 23, 2002: translated by author).
Apollo school was not unanimously silent about the importance of equipping
students with basic skills and using methods of teaching that would encourage students to
face life on their own. Two teachers raised the issue of “drilling” (doing lots of revision,
especially with past papers in standards 6, 7 and 8, with the objective of making students
used to examination style and therefore enabling them to pass more smoothly). Another
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 171 one said that in Apollo, they were not teaching the students with an aim of brandishing
curiosity, creating an interest in learning new ideas; they were not focusing on the growth
of the total individual so that students can be well-rounded in their future life. She said
all they were focusing on was “passing the examinations”.
A former student also said she wished they had been taught differently. The
following is a part of my conversation with her:
Example 5.11
R: Now, when you look back, what can you say about Apollo School? I: Ooh, when I was there, it was just books (laugh). So, it was good anyway. R: It was goodanyway ? I: Good, because you get better in academics but socially I don’t know. You’re just in class with a teacher. You don’t fail in Apollo. R: What if the teacher said, “There will be time for social activities when you leave Apollos, but now my job is to make sure that you pass your examinations in standard eight”. What do you think about that approach? I: Ok, ok. Like in our school [high school], twenty of us went there. We didn’t do so very well because we were used to being forced to study. And in high school, teachers didn’t care. Ok, ok, they didn’t force you to do your work. You do your work or you don’t, who cares? They shouldn’t do everything for you, so the change is not drastic for you when you join high school. Well, even if they go to schools that are as strict as Apollo, they still will be caught in the university, where they will be on their own. R: Did you say you went to same school, ten of you? I: Yes, there were twenty of us. R: How many joined university? I: Only five went to university. The other half had “B”. The others “C”. The performance in high school kind of drops, somehow. Ok, ok because nobody is supervising you all the time. R: Do other Apollo students that you’ve discussed this with feel the same? I: Ok, guys ok, other guys don’t say it easily, ok, but I have observed that unless one goes to a school where discipline is tight like Precious Blood Riruta, they really don’t do well. R: What do you suggest teachers could do? I: Ok, this is difficult to implement and the teachers will not like it if I say it. But they could include other things. Be more relaxed. Help the students do other
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 172 things. Be more relaxed. Do other things. R: Like? I: Like eeh, I know here standard eight don’t go for PE [physical Education]. They should also go for games, you know, other activities. R: Do parents feel so? I: I know here in this school, parents don’t say what they think, feel. They are also not sensitized. Like, they just want kids to go to school, pass their exams, that’s all. R: Why so? I: You know this is Kenya. R&I: [Laughter]. I: Yeah, it has been like that. Like yeah, yeah, I think they know your future depends on it. To get a good job. R: Do you think punishment helps some students who don’t work hard? I: Punishment helps, especially up to standard five. In class eight, it don’t help. Better to be talked to. In some situations caning [corporal punishment] is not good. Some kids have psychological problems ‘cause of problems at home. Therefore low performance. First find out why the student is not doing homework. There are fewer troublemakers in each class so if they are 70, there will only be ten troublemakers. They can concentrate on the ten. R: Do you think there are some students that work hard so as not to be punished? I: Even in standard eight and seven there are kids who work so as not to be punished. I was one of them. But in standard eight, it is more important to go to high school. R: Do you think some standard eight students are helped by caning? I: Yes, it helps. R: What do you suggest the school could change? I: Yes, give presents. Give presents and certificates to good students. Use other kinds of punishment, for example things kids don’t like doing like, ok, people in high school, yeah for example calling rain [laughter]. An afternoon of calling rain. R: How do you do so? I: Call with finger [demonstrating]. I found it harder than being beaten. R: Did you do it in your high school? R&I: [Laughter] I: Yes, when you don’t do your homework. (Asha: July 4, 2002).
Another former Apollo student explained that when she was in Apollo she did not
think they were doing too much academic work, but now she believes they were. She
thinks the school should spend more time involving students in co-curricular activities so
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 173 as to make students more “well-rounded”; some students get “too withdrawn” when they
grow up, since they never learnt to socialize by playing games and participating in sports
when they were in school.
My observation of the two schools discovered some differences in educational
approach. They were not glaring but they were enough to question whether both schools
could not be labeled as “successful” in different ways. Though both schools were in the
slums, Toyi was making education accessible to some children who were not very strong
academically and would be unacceptable in the long run in Apollo.
As I observed classroom teaching in the two schools, I became aware of the two
different paces in teaching. Apollo was fast and energetic, whether it was papers that
were being revised or classes that were taught new topics. My impression was that the
few weak students were being left behind while the teacher moved on with the bright
students who were the majority of the class anyway. Although the teachers constantly
asked the students whether they understood, any voice of any of the students who did not,
would be drowned by the chorus of the many voices of the students that understood. I
saw isolated cases that would not respond at all to such questions, and the teacher would
sometimes not notice. It did not help that some of the classes had up to 67 students. On
several occasions I wondered whether the students were just reciting or having what was
popularly known as “drill”. I, however, often asked questions afterwards about the
content of class lessons and the students were actually able to demonstrate that they had
understood the class and could apply the knowledge to related topics that were not
directly addressed in the class. The students and teachers were very enthusiastic.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 174 In Toyi, the pace was slower and the students interacted with their teachers in an
easier way. The interaction between teachers and students was less formal, and they
asked more questions both inside and outside the class. In fact, the students in Toyi even
engaged me more than those in Apollo. They would approach me on the school
compound and also as we were going home and ask me whether I remembered doing an
interview with them on such and such a day. They would ask me to photograph them,
and they would request me to come observe their class the following day. Apollo
students were more “stiff’ - 1 guess because Apollo school environment was more formal
and the teacher/student dichotomy was more pronounced in terms of interaction.
Interaction in the classroom and outside was more conversational, more interactive and
open-ended in Toyi school. Apollo seemed to reflect what Edwards and Westgate refer
to as “restricted thinking” as opposed to “expanded thinking” in Toyi (Edwards and
Westgate 1994:86). The authors explain that “restricted thinking” limits conversational
options while “expanded thinking” facilitates more interaction options. However, when I
initiated conversation, Apollo students also talked comfortably and were vocal about
what they liked and did not like about their school. They also had superior command of
English language, compared to Toyi school.
Both schools exaggerated the weaknesses of the other. I did not see as much
“drilling” in Apollo as was rumored by not only Toyi but by other schools in the
neighborhood. I did not see as much “failure” in Toyi as Apollo claimed. Granted they
were more relaxed than Apollo and they got no trophies for their performance the
previous year, but they were also sending students, fewer though they were, to secondary
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. schools and some even to the national university afterwards. A picture in the second
deputy’s office proudly displayed a former student (class of 2000) receiving a donation
for fees by theMaendeleo ya Wanawake [Women in Development) chairperson. The
student had received 543 scores (out of 700) in the 2000 KCPE examination and she was
in one of the prestigious schools in Nairobi. I also interviewed a former Toyi student who
had three siblings in the university of Nairobi, and they had all passed through Toyi. He
himself joined the engineering department in September 2002, and his youngest two
brothers were most likely going to join later, since they were already in leading secondary
schools in Nairobi and maintained excellent performance. His reflection on his primary
education is given as Example 6.9.
However, Toyi’s performance was not as visible as Apollos. Was Apollo too
focused on national examinations? Teachers’ promotions were based on the performance
of schools during national examinations. Although trophies were awarded for sports and
other activities, it was the trophies for excellent performance in academics that were
coveted by everybody: teachers, parents, students. My observation was that academics
took an unquestionable priority in Apollos. Though there were half-hearted attempts by
the head teacher to encourage sports and games, these were precisely that: half hearted.
There was pretence to put together a team for athletics competition on the week preceding
the competition but that did not work. Only three teachers (out of 38) and I reported to
the field in the afternoons that week (27-31, May 2002). Some of the class teachers did
not even allow their students to leave the classes because they were revising. One of the
three teachers I was with suggested to the others that it was better to give up on athletics
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. altogether instead of pretending that the school was involved in such activities. One of
the teachers told me that she did not bring her child to school to do athletics and even if
he were good at athletics, how would that benefit him? P.E (Physical Education), sports,
games and athletics were never discussed in the major or minor staff meetings. On June
13, 2002, one of the parent teachers told me she was going to buy a P.E kit for her
daughter because it was required for teaching practice of some college students who were
scheduled to start practicals the following week. It had not been necessary to buy a P.E
kit earlier because, though P.E is plotted on the timetable, that time is spent on keeping
students busy with academics. The school’s unquestionable agenda was performance:
good performance was not enough, excellent performance was expected in the national
examinations. The second agenda was discipline and that was because discipline was
seen as an important prerequisite for good performance in examinations.
Debating, mjadala [debating in Kiswahili], drama, and poetry were, however,
given some importance. The difference was that the named activities were seen as
important in improving skills in English, composition andinsha [Kiswahili composition].
On several occasions, teachers would be deployed in the staff room to listen to students
debate before the actual competitions so that they could give suggestions. In the previous
year, Apollo had taken first position in debate in the province. Though the teachers
complained occasionally about their students’ performance in English, they held position
one in composition in the national examinations in 2001, but they did not hold position
one in the combined results of English Language and Composition.
None of the teachers in Apollo or the rival school, Toyi, suggested that Apollo
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. was involved in any rigging of the national examinations, but I heard whispers from other
comers that suggested so. After my observations of what was going on in Apollo, I find
that allegation very difficult to believe. The sheer amount of effort that was put by both
teachers and students in preparing the school for examinations coupled with the very high
expectations of the whole Apollo community was enough to make them soar into great
heights in their performance. The sources that suggested rigging was a possibility, it
seems, were simply mesmerized by the consistently superb performance, and they
certainly did not understand how a slum school could do it. The excellent performance
belied common sense associations with slum education and slum ideology (of failure).
Although Apollo was criticised by rivals as “not teaching their students to think”,
I did not find their former students inadequate in terms of being able to think
independently. In fact, some of the former students that criticized Apollo were most
articulate and also sharp in their thinking; it seemed to me that Apollo had equipped them
with an unquestionably strong foundation in their education. Such possibility was also
strongly supported by some of the standards seven and eight compositions that I graded in
Apollo. Most of them were, undoubtedly, secondary school level material. And the
students I interviewed (even those from the weaker groups were able to understand and
respond to my questions without any problems). Apparently, the former students that
highlighted the weaknesses in learning had learnt from their higher education that
students should be involved in co-curricular activities so as to be “well-rounded” and
“psychologically whole”. Then they started wondering whether they could truly be “well-
rounded” after all that academic rigor in Apollos and very little sports. For example,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Asha (please refer to example 5.11) complains that if students are not trained early to see
the benefits of working hard without being punished, it is difficult for them to learn in
high school. She also asserts that even if they manage to pass well in high school, they
would still find difficulties in the university, but she also says punishment helps some
students (and actually helped her). She adds that she found “calling rain” a worse
punishment than “caning”. Thus, what she is against could be the mode of punishment,
not the idea of punishment per se or being “forced” to work hard. Rather than take her
interview as a misrepresentation of facts, I realize that the contradictions in her interview
reveal contested terrains that I experienced on numerous occasions as I observed every
day activities and listened to opposing claims, sometimes from the same person.
In the examination of pedagogy, it is difficult to examine Apollo school without
examining the total package of education in Kenya. Primary education is tailored to
prepare the students for the rigor of learning that is expected in secondary school
(Somerset 1974:167, King 1974:123-124). Thus, primary schools are not expected to
prepare students for the labor market. No firms or government institutions advertise jobs
that require primary education skills or, to be more exact, the primary certificate of
education cannot secure employment for anyone (King 1974:123). Consequently, anyone
who terminates their education at primary level can only do menial manual jobs that are
also open to persons with no formal education at all. Besides, high performance in the
primary education examination is very important as it lays the foundation of what is to
come; entry to a high status, national secondary school is most desired. Entry to a high
status provincial school is the second choice. With such high stakes, the destiny of the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 179 teacher is very much intertwined with that of the student. Elaborating on this scenario in
Kenya, Somerset points out that, “We have said that CPE determines the whole destiny of
a school pupil, but equally, it determines the destiny of his teacher. Parents, pupils,
education officials and the community at large all judge his efficiency at his job by the
examination results he achieves” (Somerset 1994:172). If the stakes for producing results
are that high, can the teachers be blamed for relegating everything else to secondary
position and establishing the primary goal as facilitating transition to good secondary
schools?
How then can we compare the pedagogy at Apollo school with that at Toyi? No
doubt the teachers in Apollo exaggerated the mediocrity of Toyi (just as Toyi exaggerated
the weaknesses of Apollo). Toyi was not excelling in exams; they did not earn a single
trophy for the previous year’s performance. No doubt they were not half as good as
Apollo in churning out students to prestigious secondary schools. But there was
something heroic about wanting to have every child on board. And they were not
altogether unsuccessful in national examinations. In the second deputy’s office was the
picture of a former student in the newspapers (class of 2000). She was in a secondary
school of good reputation and was receiving an award of merit that included sponsorship
for her secondary education. And the story of the exceptional family was a triumph for
the school (please refer to Example 6.9). Displayed in the offices were also certificates
for excelling in drama and music. But the few highlights of success were dwarfed by
Apollo’s dazzling and persistent record of success.
Apollo school is focused on long-term goals of promoting their students to the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 180 next stage, while Toyi is focused on both long and short term goals, depending on the
particular students. Or are they really? Toyi’s 2000-2002 School Development Plan
indicates that their “ ... number one priority is to raise our academic standards especially
in KCPE to a comfortable level. This would enable the school to send a good number of
pupils to both National and Provincial Government Secondary Schools.” (2000:9).
The national education goals themselves are contradictory because while they
stress access to education for all, education (schooling) itself is a stratification process
that moves ahead with the cream of society, while leaving behind students who are
considered as “failures” by the legitimizing process of examinations. As seen in the
review of literature, the contradictory goals of education are not limited to the Kenyan
situation but to education systems in general. Commenting on education in Kenya in
particular and education systems in general, Prewitt states that, “Education
simultaneously promotes the conditions of equality and the conditions of inequality”
(Prewitt 1974:201).
In raising issues of the process of education or methodologies used, it is difficult
to say which methods work best or rather what needs should be given priority. Thus,
when we consider Toyi’s view of including as many students as possible in learning, we
are furthering issues of access to education of as many students as possible. When
Apollo, right from the very start, declares that the teachers and students who join the
school must be ready to work hard and deliver results, they are sending signals that their
team opens membership only to the cream who must be prepared for the difficult march
to greater heights in achievement. Achievement is not only a major school goal but also
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 181 the dream of many parents who see the education of their children as an opportunity for
them to make a break from the cycle of slum poverty. Achievement is also generally
rewarded in the market with better jobs and status in society. The goals in both schools
are ideal but the success ideology is defined in a slightly different way in each school.
Language as Regulation in Apollo school
It was tempting to assume that since Apollo school’s performance was
outstanding in national examinations, there would be none of the unpleasant language
that is often associated with the ideology of reproduction of failure in slum schools.
Though the negative language that is often used to denote “slum failure” was not
pronounced in Apollo school, it was not altogether absent. Examining some of the
language that was used to regulate discipline and hard work in Apollo reflects how the
toll of the success ideology is mapped out in linguistic practice. I was immensely
impressed by the very positive work that goes on in Apollo school and the language that
sets a tone of values of Border Pedagogy in the overall environment in the school. I,
however, mention here a few exceptions of unpleasant language that I came across that
further reflect the practical reality of the toll of the success ideology.
In many of the discussions with the teachers, it was asserted that the students in
Apollo only did very well in the exams because of the teachers’ efforts. The teachers had
to put more effort than necessary to teach the children. Due to the environment they lived
in, it was alleged that the students were “hard cores” that needed physical coercion in
order to learn. One teacher claimed that the students’ morals were also “poor” because of
living in small quarters and observing their parents in inappropriate situations. This was
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. asserted in view of the fact that some of the students had recently drawn some
pornographic images of male and female teachers in the toilets. It was curious, though,
that several observations of this particular teacher’s classroom teaching did not confirm
her negative attitude. She interacted with the students very well, and had very good
rapport in class. I witnessed no abusive language from her, and no physical punishment
was administered by the teacher, during my observations. Although she had
recommended physical punishment for the “hard core” children in the slum environment,
I did not witness her giving any physical punishment to any child, either in class or
outside. The teacher had, indeed, expressed her reservations for the effectiveness of
physical punishment in general, but she had recommended it as a tool in the slum
environment in which students had to be coerced into learning. Did we have a case of
double consciousness?
Although the teacher mentioned in the paragraph above expressed her reservations
to me in the absence of students and I did not see any negative interaction between her
and the students, I observed other cases, albeit very few, in which teachers said
unpleasant things directly to students. In one class, a teacher told specific students that
they weremjinga [stupid] and lazy and they just sit in class and saymambo poa [things
are cool]. She added:
Example 5.12
Hii row hapa, hawa ndio wataniangusha. Ndio watanipa zero14. Wengine sijui kama wako normal! Nitawapeleka tu Mathare. Wapi Kiboko? Mmeficha? Nikikasirika nitatumia kiatu. (Mrs Kiko; March 24, 2002)
14 The reference to teachers’ failure due to students’ performance was repeated so many times that I decided to analyse its contribution to success. SeeTeacher-Centeredness as Virtue, chapter 7.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 183 [This row here, these are the ones that will make me fail. They are the ones that will give me zero. I don’t know whether others [other students] are normal. I’ll take them to Mathare15. Where is the cane? You’ve hidden it? If I get angry, I’ll use (my) shoe], (Mrs Kiko; March 24, 2002: translated by author)
Once she said, “If you get it wrong, I’ll throw you out of the window”. Of course the
teacher threw no student out of a window. A few students got “disciplined” with a piece
of tyre, but the students were generally giggling when the threats were spelt out and some
even managed to laugh openly. It was clear that the students took the insults in their
stride, but it may be questionable whether repeated threats like those would encourage
students to work harder. The teachers explained that students had to be made aware that
their actions had consequences and if they relaxed in class, they would have a hard time
from the teachers.
In another class, a teacher made the following comment to an Arab student of
Islamic faith: Wengine ni Osama tu\ Wanajua tu kuongea [Others Kiarabul (other
students) are simply Osama! They only know how to speak Arabic!)16. And in another
case, a female student was admonished in the staff-room because she had low marks in
some subject. As she left the staff-room (still in hearing proximity), the teacher made the
following remarks “Kiangalie! Kikitembea matiti yako (laughing hivi! and
demonstrating). Kinajua mengil [Look atit\ When it walks, the bust is like this!
(laughing and walking clumsily, demonstrating the bouncing up and down of an
15 Mathare is a mental hospital.
16 A reference to Osama Bin Laden - A Saudi national, an Arab Muslim who was wanted by United States of America in connection with the bombing of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, on Sept 11, 2001.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 184 exaggerated weight of a huge bust). It knows a lot!]. The use of an inanimate Kiswahili
pronoun prefix (Ki) is very powerful in this context and the student was visibly
embarrassed and offended. Such insults are not unlike those witnessed by Rosenfeld in
Harlem (see Rosenfeld 1971, in chapter two).
On one occasion, I tried to interject a different opinion in a conversation that was
carried out in the staff room. The context was that students were assisting a teacher in
bringing math papers (after a test) to the staff-room. Another teacher who was grading
papers in the staff room started asking them a question:
Example 5.13
Teacher 1: Are you doing well in class you kids? Teacher 2: Hawa Waislamu hawawezi chochote! Teacher 1: Kweli hawawezi chochote! Hawapati chochote kabisa! Researcher: Kwa nini unasema hivo na wengine ni wazuri zaidi? Kama huyu X wa standard 7. Ndiyo best student, ama ni exception? Teacher 2: Hawa Wanubi kabisa hawawezi! Researcher: Na vile X ni Mnubi ama unamaanisha Waislamu kabisa kabisa, Waarabu? Teacher 2: Hawawezi kabisa! Researcher: Pengine ni exception? Teacher 2: Pengine ni exception. Researcher: Lakini, out of the five best in that class, two are Muslims! Teacher two: Mmmmh? Researcher: Yes! (May 21, 2002)
Teacher 1: Are you doing well in class you kids? Teacher 2: These Muslims can’t get anything! Teacher 1: True, they are incapable of anything! They can’t get anything at all! Researcher: Why do you say so while some of them are excellent? Like this X of standard 7. He is the best student (in the class), or is he an exception? Teacher 2: These Nubians can’t at all! Researcher: And the way X is a Nubian or are you referring to proper proper Muslims, the Arabs? Teacher 2: They can’t at all! Researcher: Maybe he is an exception?
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 185 Teacher 2: Maybe he is an exception. Researcher: But, out of the five best in that class, two are Muslims! Teacher two: Mmmmh? Researcher: Yes! (May 21, 2002: translated by author)
In standard seven, the best student was a Muslim and the fourth best was also a Muslim.
(The relative positions of the students were posted in each class and they were determined
according to student performance in internal and in some cases, zonal examinations.) I
had also assisted composition teachers in grading the weekly composition papers, and the
performance of the two students was strong. In negotiating the underdogged perceptions
of Muslim students by some teachers, it was difficult to stop wondering how much of the
perceptions had to do with the previous year’s September 11th historical events. I,
however, remembered how I had been taught in high school history that Muslims were
fearless, ruthless and unaccommodating people who waged jihads on infidels. Their
actions, I had been taught, were encouraged by the perception that death in such jihads
translated into an express ticket to heaven, through martyrdom. Had September 11th, by
any chance, strengthened the mythologies about the cruelty of Islamic nationalism?
If the use of language in Apollo is seen as somewhat bold, it was aggressive in
Toyi school. Muslims were characterized by the non-Islamic teachers and parents as lazy,
laissez faire, unduly interested in religion and disinterested in encouraging school
learning in their children. They were generally viewed as retrogressive, and displaying
apathy for “development”. Non-Islamic parents in Toyi school explained how they were
always plotting to exclude Muslims from their school committee, because they were
afraid that Muslims would not make progressive decisions about the school.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In the conflicting discourses, it was evident that, except for religious connotations
that were strongly reified, the students themselves were not viewed as intrinsically unable
to learn. Rather the social environment they lived in was seen as limiting them in their
achievement. The teachers in Apollo reckoned that because of the limitations, they had to
work extra hard to ensure the success of the students. Rigorous discipline had also to be
maintained. Language in this chapter is seen as a tool to regulate students’ behavior,
almost in a similar way that punishment does. Rigorous discipline, intense and focused
pedagogy, and the language of regulation are seen as parts of the bitter roots of education,
which were seen by Apollo community as a prerequisite for the eventual harvest of the
sweet fruits of education. In the next chapter, I explore how language is utilized to
further the ideology of school success in the context of limited resources, ethnicities,
nationalism, and internationalism.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 6
LANGUAGE AND THE IDEOLOGY OF SCHOOL SUCCESS
In chapters four and five, I explored the assumptions of the success ideology in
Apollo school and the struggle that emerges after the school makes a choice to embrace
the success ideology instead of the ideology of failure that is normally associated with
slum schools. In this chapter, I examine how the ideology of success is marked in
language and expressions of ethnicity, nationalism and internationalism. In addition, I
situate the success ideology within broader socio-political and cultural discources in
education, language and culture - discourses that negotiate ideological messages. Further,
this chapter shows how the ideology of success plays out in actual linguistic practice.
The experiences of the successful family that are recounted at the end of the chapter
underscore the struggles students in slums in Kenya go through and thus illuminate the
context of success in Apollo school. The family’s experiences are an “abstract” of the
dissertation focus and anticipate the conclusions of my study.
Rejection of the Ideology of Failure
Like the change of names in the baptism of the faithful in Christian scriptures, the
change of name from New Toyi to Apollo was symbolic and loaded with meanings. The
name “New Toyi” had some tacit acknowledgement that though there was some
“newness”, there was still some connection to the old Toyi. With the new name (Apollo),
187
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 188 the ties to the old identity were symbolically lost altogether. This break was important for
Apollo because Toyi, in as far as they were concerned, stood for mediocrity, laziness,
alcoholism and irresponsibility. By changing the name, the ties to mediocre performance
in national examinations were, therefore, shredded. The psychological “break” was
accompanied by rationalization of the move further and further away from slum identity
and the ideology of failure. The Apollo community continued to disconnect themselves
from the slums by positing the argument that the people who actually were slum dwellers
were the very original inhabitants of the place, that is, the Nubians (from Sudan) who
occupied the area during the First World War. Surprisingly, even some members of Toyi
school conceded that Toyi slums belonged to the Nubians. With time, however, the Luos
were increasingly incorporated as authentic members of the slums. Some parents
explained to me that this was because the Luos displayed typical slum culture by brewing
chang ’aa (home distilled gin) but it is also true that the two (Luos and Nubians) are
ethnically closer as they are Nilotics while many of the other ethnic groupings are Bantu).
The enormity of this conceptualization was realized in 2001 when those who were
socially considered as “real slum dwellers” mounted an actual claim to the physical space,
and declared themselves as the only “authentic inhabitants”. They carried out an eviction
of “squatters” and refused to pay the “little” amount of rent for the mud houses they lived
in. Politicians at national level had to intervene (they had also somewhat contributed to
the exacerbation of the dispute for political gain - votes).
The differences between slum and non-slum were conveniently cemented by
religion. Apollo saw Toyi as Islamic and retrogressive (there were Islamic students too,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 189 in Apollo and Christians also in Toyi but the numbers were fewer, comparatively).
However, even the non-Islamic elements in Toyi saw the Islamic elements as
retrogressive, hence non-Islamic parents revealed that they often schemed to keep Islamic
parents out of the school committee because they were not really interested in education
(it was alleged).
The reasons cited created for Apollo a very solid background for “breaking away”
from any connection with Toyi. Thus, Apollo school is physically built in the slums of
Toyi but psychologically and emotionally, the school inhabits a different space and
present. This great paradox was expressed almost as a natural by several teachers,
students and parents. I later realized how effective the psychological break was in
liberating the school from the chains of the ideology of failure; it was agency
symbolically embedded in discourse. However, the discourses on slum construction were
so contested that nothing was ever neatly cut. Some of the teachers that would say
Apollo was not really in the slums would also assert that they had to be dedicated teachers
since students “in the slums” would not pass unless the teachers worked hard.
The rejection of the ideology of failure, contested as it was, permeated many
activities in the school. I expected a situation where there would be a lot of bold
liberating discourse asserting “we live in the slums but we can succeed”. What I found
was a situation in which day-to-day discussions between students and teachers about their
habitation in the slums were not so common. There were references every now and again
that reminded the students that they were doing better than “high cost” schools, with all
their facilities. The students, the parents and teachers made reference to such terms. They
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 190 mainly talked about students and performance. It would seem to me that the relative
erasure of the slum condition made it less of a factor in performance. It somewhat
reduced it to an economic category only, and it did not carry the qualities of negative
determinism that are associated with slum habitation. That way, the word did not have its
seemingly permanent limiting connotations and the concomitant associations of
condemnation and helplessness that slum dwellers often experience.
On a different level, the contradictions about “slums” and the ideology of failure
were revealed to me by various conversations. One such conversation was with a teacher
who lives ten or so minutes’ walk from the school. She did not consider herself a slum
dweller, but she considered her students’ families living across the street as slum
dwellers. That was somewhat puzzling (although, as a teacher, she was an “upper class”
slum dweller). I later on realised that the word “slums” was sometimes used as a
metaphor for perceived “lowest” social status, which itself was not always derived from
low economic status (another contradiction). Anybody living in the slums perceived
anyone whose behavior they despised as “really living in the slums”. Thus, people could
be literally living in the same place but inhabiting a different perceived space or status.
Further, the difference in categorizing could be very fluid. A neighbor would be having
similar habitation with the neighbor next door if they were friends, but if they stopped
being friends, one could claim her rival was a “slum dweller” while she was not. The
same principle was somewhat applied by Apollo in the change of name and the eventual
claim to a superior status in narratives. It would seem that Apollo’s continued good
performance in examinations and the presence of other schools in the neighborhood that
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 191 continue to do well somewhat fuel the myth that Apollo is not a part of the slums. The
myth affects Apollo positively as it gives the school further reason to distance themselves
from poor performance.
The terminology “slums” was just as shifty as its meaning. Attempts to get a
Kiswahili word that fitted it exactly were difficult. A Nairobi magazine that produces
news in both Kiswahili and English is called “Slum News”. The Kiswahili version of the
magazine is “Habari Vijijini”. Habari, in this context, means news. Vijijini in this
context means slum but kijiji (PI. vijiji) is generally understood to mean “village”. “M”,
in the context, means “in”. Thus, if an event is taking place in a certain village, it takes
place kijijini“ ”. The connotation, probably, points to the perceived less westernized
lifestyle of people in the slums and also to the lower status they occupy in society (people
from the villages are viewed by those who live in cities as “less exposed”, “less cultured”
and “less civilized”). Possibly, the wordVijijini , though acceptable now, probably
emerged from not-so-pleasant connotations. Another word that was given for slums was
“Vichochoroni”, which normally refers to winding paths and corners. “Uswahilini” was a
word that was also given, which has connotations of “a place where Swahili people live”
or “a place where Swahili culture is practised”. There were also versions that were
clearly adaptations from English, for example, ma-slums, ma-slum, maslumsini.
In spite of the change of names and the narratives challenging the ideology of
slum failure in Apollo, some of the teachers I interviewed still claimed a lower “capacity”
of student understanding due to their slum environment. They explained that this was
due to the “usual” negative environmental factors associated with slums: poverty,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. violence, alcoholism in families, nobody to guide or encourage students in their
homework, and poor morals. When I asked, “If those environmental factors were to be
extracted from the slum environment, somehow, do you think the students would do
well?”, they all said they would, but they asserted that there was no way the factors could
be extracted because they were part and parcel of slum dwelling. But this was not such a
permanent situation either; the teachers asserted that good performance in such situations
could be achieved through the intervention of very committed teachers who wanted to
work extra hard to achieve results.
The head teacher in Apollo school was very vocal in her discussions against the
ideology of slum failure. In her discussions, assertions and narratives to her teachers and
students, she strove to point out that the students in her school were not different from
those in high cost schools. On numerous occasions, she pointed out that the family
problems that they solved in Apollo were not at all any different from those experienced
by parents in Muthaiga and Karen (rich neighborhoods inhabited by expatriates and a
cream of rich Kenyans). Though other teachers in Apollo expressed that opinion, they
were not as steadfast as she was in their assertions. The head teacher was ahead of her
flock. She was an organic intellectual (Gramsci 1999:4). The child in the slums was not
unique; in Muthaiga homes, there were smart children and problematic children, stable
families and unstable families. Similar problems prevailed everywhere. That pedagogy
was “transformative” like Freire’s (Macedo 2000:25). She was teaching her students and
teachers that students in Apollo were notatravesados (Anzaldua: 1999:25) and they
should reach that “new consciousness” (Anzaldua 1999:99). Several teachers, however,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 193 asserted that they worked harder than those in high cost schools; it was necessary for the
teachers to work harder, if they expected their disadvantaged students to pass. Thus,
some teachers put in effort, not so much because of a robust critical interrogation of the
ideology of slum failure but because of some level of acceptance of the ideology. This,
however, must be viewed against the background of contested terrains in which many
contradictory views were expressed, sometimes by the same teacher.
Language: Ethnicities. Nationalism and Internationalism
My close examination of the language choices made by students in both Apollo
and Toyi schools revealed a rift in the approach to the expectation that English be the
language spoken in the schools. The students in both schools asserted the importance of
both English and Kiswahili because a student had to pass in the two languages in the
standard eight national examinations if they wanted to join a prestigious secondary
school. However, there was a rift between what they asserted they spoke in different
environments and what they actually spoke. Students in Apollo were quick to admit that
they spoke Kiswahili with their friends during break time or when there was no teacher in
the class. Those in Toyi were quick in indicating that they did not speak “that
language”[Kiswahili]. Some asserted that they even spoke English with their parents,
instead of Kiswahili or mother tongues, as is usually the case (a suspicious assertion in
view of the fact that very few parents spoke English anyway). In two extreme cases
during my interviews, I was struggling to communicate with students of Toyi whose
English was weak but the students insisted on continuing the interviews in English,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 194 instead of Kiswahili17. Here is a part of one of the conversations:
Example 6.1
R: When did you join this school? I: In standard one. R: What year was that? I: I don’t know but I can tell you [scribbling on paper, possibly calculating years]. 1992 ... 1993 or 1994,1 think. R: Did you repeat any class? I: Yes, class four. R: Did you repeat another class? I: No. R: What does your father do? I: Do? R: Yes, is he engaged in some work? I: Enga..Enga ..ged? R: Anafanya kazi wapi? [Where does he work?] I: He works at home R: Doing what? I: Doing what? R: Ndio, anafanya kazi gani? [Yes, what work does he do] I: Business.? R: What business? I: I don’t know. R: Anafanya biashara gani? [What business is he involved in?] I: He buys makaa [charcoal]. R: Akinunua, anauza tena? [After he buys, does he sell it again?] I: Yes. R: Unaweza tu kuendelea na Kiswahili. [you can go on in Kiswahili, if you like] I: No, it’s ok. R: Ok ..what does your mother do? I: Do? Yes, yes, she is a house mother. R: How is your school day like? Like tell me what time you wake up and what you do till you go to sleep at the end of the day, on a school day. Tangu asubuhi mpaka jioni tuseme jumatatu mpaka ijumaa [From morning till evening, let’s say, from Monday till Friday]. Unaweza tu kuongea Kiswahili. [You can speak Kiswahili, if you like]. I: I wake up at ... at eleven hours in the morning [swahili translation for five oclock], wash face, eat tea and bread ormandazi [buns] or eat uji [porridge]. Sometimes I eat nothing ... (Kako: July 24, 2002)
171 always asked students at the beginning of the interviews whether they wanted me to carry out conversations with them in English or in Kiswahili.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 195
The description of a typical school day made it clear that though I understood the
student very well, it would have been difficult for someone who did not understand
Kiswahili to put some of the description into context. His insistence on speaking English,
which he had less command of, needed to be understood in larger language contests in
Kenya and, probably, in other neo-colonial contexts where languages of former colonial
masters are spoken, in addition to local languages.
Another student in Toyi asserted that she always spoke with her mother in English
but spoke Kiswahili with her siblings. This was contrary to the common claim by
students in both schools that they spoke mother tongue and sometimes Kiswahili to their
parents (even when parents understood some English) but spoke Kiswahili or English (or
Sheng) with siblings. In most of the cases where parents belonged to the same ethnic
groupings, they insisted that they be spoken to in mother tongue. In cases of mixed ethnic
marriages, parents generally preferred that the children speak Kiswahili to them, instead
of English.
The devaluation of local languages was not just limited to the students as the
following observation shows. I once joined an interesting conversation between two
teachers in Apollo school. I noticed a teacher was speaking rather soothingly to a student
in her mother tongue, but she would break now and again into Kiswahili and whenever
she did so, the break was accompanied by a physical break from the student (laying off
her hand from the student’s shoulder). It was also accompanied by the raising of her
voice (somewhat) and also changing her tone to a more serious mood. (I was to observe
later that several teachers used mother tongue in that manner - establishing closeness,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 196 giving advice in a more concerned manner, almost like parental advice but then breaking
away into some apparent seriousness. Was such a scene a partial performance, especially
the show of seriousness? Was it meant for the student or for the other teachers? Was it
sending two messages to the student - genuine concern, like a parent’s or guardian’s but
also possibilities for punishment if a student does not work hard? While the teacher was
talking thus to the student, a second teacher asked:
Example 6.2
Teacher 2: Why are you talking to the student in that language? Teacher 1: So that she can understand easily. T2: But she understands English. Tl: Yes, but I want her to understand better by using lugha ya mama 18 [mother’s language, mother tongue]. T2: Does she understand the language? Tl: Yes, of course she does! And I have learnt that our rural languages help the children understand better, especially in lower classes. I sometimes use it in the class. I even ask other students to translate to their peers, if it is a language that I don’t understand. T2: Kwani huyu alitokaushagu juzi [Did this one come from the village recently?] Tl: I don’t know but she understands the language. Researcher: May-be her parents speak the same language, so even if she has been here for long, she still speaks her mother tongue at home. T2: My husband and I speak the same language but my children do not speak it. R: Why? T2:1 don’t teach my children that language. R: You’ve not taught your kids the language? T2: Nooo! R: Why? T2: Because I don’t find it useful to them but they speak a bit. (Mrs Mwangi and Mr Otiende; May 28, 2002)
Later on, however, I heard the teacher carrying out conversations with her children
in their mother tongue.
18 This was said in a joking tone in reference to a patriotic “national” song of the same title.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 197 A student in Toyi expressed similar sentiments about not speaking his language
(Dholuo) in the school environment and even with his parents. He also insisted that he
does not speak Dholuo with his friends in the school environment, even when they are
playing outside the class. “We don’t talk that language in the school here”, he insisted.
(Charles, July 18th). A reinforcing factor in this attitude is the added stigma of being
given a disk19 if you speak your language and being punished afterwards. Ngugi Wa
Thiong’o discusses the stigma associated with speaking Kenyan languages and being
punished for it (1994:438). Such stigmatization continues today and the “disk” is the
symbol of stigmatization. The deeper implications of stigmatization can be understood if
we take into consideration that languages cannot be divorced from the cultures and the
people who speak them (the languages), as expressed by several scholars (please refer to
Chapter 2, for details). Thus, if a language is accorded a less prestigious status, it is the
speakers of the language themselves that are despised. When discussing the language of
African Americans (Ebonics), one of the scholars argues that:
For those who know that language is identity, the issue is the same: the children’s language is them is they mommas and kinfolk and community and black culture and the black experience made manifest in verbal (Smitherman form 2000:149, italics in the original).
However, the teachers’ and students’ comments only reflect sentiments that are expressed
by many parents and teachers: that local languages are not useful to students. A
perception that implies that learning local languages even interferes with effective
19 The “disk” is a round or oval object, made of wood, that would be passed to a student who speaks a prohibited language. At the end of the school day the person in possession of the disk would mention the name of the person she or he got it from and so on till all culprits are identified for punishment.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 198 learning of English and Kiswahili was sometimes observed. A former Apollo student,
who was in the university at the time of research, argued that the slum environment
promotes speaking of Kiswahili and that did not help her improve her fluency in English
when she was in the school. She used to get the “disk” (during her time, the disk was
fully monitored) and get punished at the end of the day for speaking Kiswahili instead of
English (Fatuma, July 10lh)‘ If Kiswahili continues to be defined as the language of the
slums, its status will continue dropping and eventually it will be viewed as an undesirable
language. This approach advances the argument that children in the slums would perform
poorly in English compared to the children in high cost schools, who speak English with
their parents most of the times (most parents in the slums speak little or no English).
However, both the head teachers of Apollo school and Toyi dismissed that argument.
When some teachers in Apollo suggested in one of the meetings that Apollo students
performed poorly in English because they did not speak English at home, the head teacher
warned:
Example 6.3
If these children get a good foundation in English in lower classes, there is no good reason why they would perform poorly in upper primary. If they perform poorly in upper primary, it is because we have not given them a strong foundation in lower primary. It is our mistake, not the children’s. And it has nothing to do with their speaking other languages at home. Even the high cost schools, if they give no good foundation, they will fail. What English do they speak outside school? Si [don’t] they speak Sheng? Is it their Sheng that makes them perform better than our school? (May 30, 2002).
To dismiss the theory of first language interference in his students’ learning of
English, the head teacher of Toyi cited his own example (please refer to Example 5.9).
Indeed, in the Kenyan setting, the majority of people who go through the Kenyan
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. education system are trilingual, speaking an indigeneous language in addition to
Kiswahili and English. And many of them learn two or three languages at the same time,
sometimes without necessarily learning them in school. For example, most people in the
coastal region learn both Kiswahili and a Mijikenda language (sometimes, in addition to
Arabic) from day one. They are bilingual or trilingual right- from birth. And the non
coastal people who go through public education learn Kiswahili and English right from
primary school (in addition to the already mastered mother tongue). In more privileged
areas of urban centers, they learn Kiswahili and English right from birth (often in addition
to an indigenous language). Thus, the terminologies of first and second languages (when
detangled from their political meanings) are as ambiguous to them as they are to the
Puerto Rican Teaching Assistant who wonders which one is her first, English or Spanish
language: “I was trying to figure out which was my first language and which was my
second language... you know... I just kind of learned them both together” (Freeman
2000:214). And some parents and teachers believe that two or three languages simply
overload and confuse the brain of the child. The misunderstanding mentioned elsewhere
that if a student is good at one language, he cannot be equally good at the other, could
also be at play (Freeman 2000:218). The misconception appears to be reinforced by our
hierarchical thinking about languages.
Local languages (that is, other than Kiswahili) are also not encouraged by the
Kenyan educational system. Though local ethnic languages are learned and generally
used in classes up to third grade in rural schools, they are discouraged from fourth grade
and are not tested at all in any of the national examinations that begin after eight years of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 200 primary. In town and city schools, indigenous languages are not a part of the curriculum
at all and they are prohibited in the school environment. Further, the very structure of the
national curriculum privileges English by giving it seven 35 minute periods per week,
compared to Kiswahili’s four and zero for indigenous languages. And it is the official
language, too. Thus, if schools have to produce effective workers in the job market, they
have to be fluent in English. If schools have to produce students who can accommodate
the rigors of higher learning, they have to have mastery of the language.
Part of the privileged position in English teaching is a result of the sheer practical
difficulties of teaching many languages in schools; the resources required in terms of
personnel and printed materials would be an expensive overhead. However, English also
became privileged, since it was a part of the introduction of formal education that
privileged western education and discouraged local languages and education. The
continued use of English and “foreign” education is somewhat contested but it falls
within the framework of the dependent national economy and development planning.
Students in both schools mentioned that English was more important to them
because English was the medium of instruction in all the other subjects (except
Kiswahili); if they improved their English, they would easily understand the other
subjects. Toyi school also expressed similar views in their overall development planning
strategy: “We realise that English holds the key in the success of the other subjects, apart
from Kiswahili” (Toyi School 2002:11). Employment would also be secured depending
on ability to use English effectively in both oral and written communication. Also, the
very school timetable gives English prominence by allocating more time to it on the time
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 201 table (and maths) than any other subjects (seven slots of 35 minutes each per week). The
next subjects, in terms of importance have four slots (science and Kiswahili).
Ngugi wa Thiong’o explains the central place of language in defining a people.
He writes: “The choice of languge and the use to which language is put is central to a
people’s definition of themselves in relation to their natural and social environment,
indeed in relation to the entire universe” (1981:4). Examining languages in post-colonial
settings, he also explains that colonial languages are not in harmony with colonized
children’s environment and therefore negatively affect chidren’s learning process (Ngugi
wa Thiong’o 1994:442). Further, being punished for using ones own language reinforces
displacement and alienation of the people concerned and devaluation of not only their
language but the self worth of the people that speak it (Ngugi Wa Thiong’o 1994:451).
This is not unlike the observations of the devaluation of Ebonics and African American
culture that Smitherman observes in America (Smitherman 2000) or the alienation and
humiliation experienced by Spanish children because of the despised Spanish language in
Julia de Burgos Bi-lingual Middle School in Philadelphia (Freeman 2000:219). Thus, it
should surprise us less that a teacher in Kenya would say that she does not teach her
children her mother tongue because she does not find it useful to them. Indeed, the local
languages are hardly marketable in the formal linguistic market; their usefulness is
limited to the rural areas and the informal ethnic enclaves in the cities. And it should
surprise us much less that a student asserts that he does not speak his language, even with
close members of his family. Gal puts the argument in a broader perspective by arguing
that languages are accorded their status, depending on where they are placed in the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 202 hierarchy of political economy (Gal 1989:353). Thus, in a city school, albeit in the slums,
the so called “rural languages” are associated with Ushagu economies and status, the
lowest in Kenyan perception.Ushagu status is itself constructed with images denoting
remoteness from city life and westernization and therefore backwardness and
retrogressive behavior. Ironically, rural economies in Kenya, like in many post-colonial
settings, continue to supplement the low incomes of the majority of urban populations.
In the context of the above, the teacher who says she does not see the usefulness
of local languages is not altogether mistaken. For many parents and teachers, education is
an investment that would earn someone a job and income. Only very few jobs require
knowledge of rural languages (and that would be, in addition to the other languages). At
this level, we can say that ideology does a good job of promoting the status of foreign
languages. The national government in Kenya, like in many other African and, indeed,
many developing countries, do not need to be coerced into promoting foreign languages
any more. For whatever reasons, they promote the languages through consent, not
coercion (Fairclough 1996:33-34). Or, if I may borrow from Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s
comment after discussing Senghor’s (Leopold) praise of the French language, “It is the
final triumph of a system of domination when the dominated start singing its virtues”
(Ngugi Wa Thiong’o 1994:445).
I consider the three language contestations as manifestations of the triple historical
heritage of languages and cultures in post-colonial Africa - stemming first from
indigenous languages, and secondly from the desire for national unifying languages
without rigid ethnic associations but also without the baggage of colonization and finally,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 203 the languages of colonial heritage that are usually viewed as the linkage to the global
arena. The success in schools and in the global arena may be manifest in how well
countries and schools balance the demands of the triple heritage. Will they highlight only
the foreign languages that are sometimes seen as giving lingua franca to countries like
Uganda that have had no officially accepted “national languages? Will they highlight
only national languages as in Tanzania (Kiswahili) and then risk dissatisfaction from part
of their populations that complain promoting Kiswahili only isolates them from global
participation? There are no easy answers to the questions, especially in countries with
limited resources and continued dependence on external support. In fact, the place of
foreign languages in neo-colonial settings may be seen as part of that dependency
equation.
In terms of language choice, English is favored by the success ideology. In
practice, ethnicity, nationalism, and internationalism are locked in a struggle and
language and education can be seen as the battle grounds. At the core of the debate is the
question of planning for an education that is relevant locally but also capable of
competing at international settings. Thus, Court and Ghai report that there is “a tacit
assumption that Kenya’s education system is and ought to be based on a structure of
international standards” with the aim of producing what they call “national education in
an international context” (1974:19). However, some scholars are critical of the
“usefulness of international models” as they argue that “To aspire to foreign standards is
to perpetuate the country’s cultural and technological dependency” (Court and Ghai
1974:19-20). Not surprisingly, these two different views confront each other in the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 204 course of the decisions on “whether English or Kiswahili is the appropriate medium of
instruction in primary schools and in the question of whether the content, sequence and
organization of schooling should of necessity parallel practices in other countries” (Court
and Ghai 1974:20). However, Kenya and many developing countries, may believe that
the choices they make are strategically sound (and they probably are). Thus, the
strategists argue that “whether certain international standards are a product or a cause of
the technological growth of the industrial world, their mastery is a prerequisite for
understanding that world, for dealing with it on a basis of equality and for benefitting
from what it has to offer” (Court and Ghai 1974:20).
The success ideology is embraced with greater vigor in Apollo than in Toyi
School. Why are the students in Toyi School quicker to claim ownership of English, the
prefered choice of the success ideology? I suggest the enforcement ofthe disk reinforced
the contempt for the “rural languages” and possibly because their school was not
performing as well as Apollo school, they probably felt more trapped in their under
dogged position than Apollo. Thus, they felt a greater need to grapple for anything that
gave them some claim to higher status. Language (in this case, English) is a stake in
claiming higher status; it is the language of professionalism, status and power and
consequently its claim is an assertion of power and linkage to professionalism and
authority. Could this then be seen as a sign of displacement and alienation, a statement of
allegiance, admiration and yearning for imagined fulfillment of dreams, dreams that seem
only too good to be true? Such alienation was a topic of concern by a senior education
official in her comments on language, culture and issues of global and national
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. citizenship. In her address at the Inter-divisional Music Festival for Nairobi Province
Schools, the Provincial Director of Education commented that Africans were always
picking what is foreign and degrading what is theirs in terms of language and culture but
whites do not acquire black culture or language20. She advised students to pick what is
good, for example, exemplary performance by people like Mandela [Nelson], Mother
Teresa [of Calcutta-late], Diana [Princess -late] and Venus and Serena Williams. Why
not watch Tausi instead of The Bold and The Beautifull After all what is beautiful
about getting one’s father’s girlfriend? She talked about patriotism and harnessing talents
because the young talent today could be a future Mandela, Mr Bean or Serena and Venus
tomorrow. Love your language and culture; after all, the Americans, Europeans and
Russians do not want to see black people in their countries. Previously, political
accusations of people and groups as aligned to “foreign masters” had been common, but
they had not been so boldly stated by people who were not seeking political office. Were
the battlegrounds of national and international citizenship being re-enacted? Ironically,
though foreignness was discouraged in this address, it was also inadvertently glorified in
the very address itself. This underscores the very contradictory and contested nature of
national and international “culture” and identity (please refer to Appadurai 1991:191-210,
for related argument).
20 Inter-provincial Music Festival, Nairobi Teachers’ Center, July 12, 2002.
21 Local and foreign soap operas, respectively, showing on TV stations at the time.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 206 Success Ideology in Linguistic Practice
As the choice of language spoken by Apollos was a way of negotiating local,
national and international identities, so was code-switching. A former student whose
parents speak Luhyia (their ethnic language), Kiswahili (the national language and
language of unity and appeal) and English (the official language and medium of
instruction in schools) told me that she speaks English and Kiswahili with her mother,
mainly Kiswahili with younger siblings and English with older ones but her father prefers
being spoken to in Luhyia. When he is very serious, he speaks English, but when joking,
he speaks Kiswahili. “If one does something wrong and Dad speaks in English, we know
he is very annoyed and someone is in real trouble. When he is in a jovial mood, he
speaks Kiswahili but when he is just himself, not happy, not sad, he speaks Luhyia.”
(Asha, July 4th). This is, again, contrary to what was observed in both schools: that when
teachers were very dissatisfied with students, they mainly communicated in Kiswahili.
But it was also observed that code-switching from English to Kiswahili marked change of
speech meanings to explanation, emphasis or comment, especially in the classrooms and
staffroom). When teachers spoke in mother tongue (relatively fewer occasions), they
were generally warm and soothing, almost persuading peacefully (although one teacher
used mother tongue to tell off students in my presence on more than two occasions).
Often this was accompanied by relatively closer proximity physically (usually a hand on
the shoulder, holding hands). Generally the teachers would be putting emphasis on some
subject facts or probing a student. One time I watched a very friendly interaction between
a teacher and a student as they talked in mother tongue in the staffroom.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. What was the “thick description” [Geertz 1973] for the use of Kiswahili,
especially in the course of punishing students? Since English would be the lingua franca
in school, would seriousness on the part of the teacher be denoted by code-switching to
the language that is not the lingua franca in that space? But in the classroom the
seriousness would be neutralized by the different space - Kiswahili would be used for
humor, explanation, clarification, emphasis and comment. Except for the Kiswahili
teacher who was using English as emphasis and humor in teaching Kiswahili but
switching to use Kiswahili for humor and emphasis when she was teaching maths. The
head teacher would frequently use Kiswahili for humor, comment and emphasis. That
could explain, too why a father’s seriousness would be denoted by the use of English (the
unusual language in the context). But why was Kiswahili the language of humor at home
and mother tongue the language of warmth in the school (Yet Kiswahili was also the
language of humor as comment, and emphasis in classroom teaching? Was space and
context, therefore, determining use? School could be claimed as a warm, familial
nurturing space by using mother tongue, but it could also be claimed as a space of
authority and hierarchical relationships by using Kiswahili, and a formal place by using
English. This is a contradiction because under normal circumstances the language of
authority in the offices would be English -(Kiswahili in the forces, including the police)
but in this context, the unauthorized language for school space denotes licensing of a
different language as a sign of a grave situation.
In example 6.4, the teaching of a history lesson shows how the success ideology
was displayed in a classroom situation. The teacher demands full attention and constantly
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. explains that lack of such attention can only lead to failure. The history teacher generally
operates within the tenets of the behavior of IRE - Initiation, Response, Evaluation. The
teacher generally requests for some information, the student responds and then the teacher
evaluates the quality of response (Leap 2000:360). The teacher positions herself as a
person in charge but also her multi-dimensional roles as a teacher emerge. She initiates
dialogue (“next number?”) and evaluates responses (“Ooh, you guessed eeh?”, “Wewe
unatumia akili” [You use your brains]). She also situates herself as a mentor (“That’s
what I tell you.”, “You must know that question”, “You must be very acti...?”) but she
also has to be a serious coach (“ Wacha kulala wee!” [Stop sleeping, you!]). However,
she is not always tough; she also negotiates (“You must be very acti ...?”), and evaluates
herself “hata mwalimu anakoseanga” [even a teacher makes mistakes]. The various roles
indicate some somewhat unstable (competing) discourses about the role and power of a
teacher within the understanding that “power does not operate in a purely top-down
approach” (Mesthrie 2002:324). In this study, however, they are seen as indicative of the
several roles that the teachers perform in order to further the success ideology in Apollo.
Example 6.4
Teacher and students are correcting questions that the students had been given as
assignments in a history class.
Teacher: Next number? Students: Thirty-two. T: Thirty-two, read. Sts: One of the following is not a major historic site. Which one? Sts: Teacher, teacher ...[raising hands] T: Which one (pointing at a student)? Student: Kericho.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 209 T: Correct. Quickly, go to thirty-three, quickly. Thirty-three, isn’t it? Sts: Yes. T: Quickly. Sts: Abushiri, Hehe and MajiMaji had one factor in common. T: Yes, which one (pointing at a student)? Sts: Teacher, teacher ... [raising hands] St: They resisted German rule. T: Exactly [Pause], And we had Majimaji [rebellion] from which year to which year? Sts: Teacher, teacher ... [raising hands] T: [Pointing at a student who was not raising her hand], Wacha kulala wee! Am ka! [Stop sleeping, you! Wake up!] Sts: [Drowning the teacher’s voice, raising hands], Teacher, teacher ... T: [Pointing at student #2 who was not raising her hand], Ona! Wengine wanalala tu! [Look! Others (students) are simply sleeping]. Sts: Teacher, teacher ...[raising hands] St #2 : 1810 Sts: Teacher, teacher ...[raising hands] T: 1810? [Pauses, points at another student] St.# 3: 1905 to 1907 T: 1905 to 190 ... (nineteen 0 ...) Sts: Seven T: And even with all the grievances of the Africans in Tanganyika the Majimaji ...so let’s move... T: What number? St: Thirty-four T:eeh? St: Thirty-five T: Thirty-five? St: Yes T: How about thirty-four? A st: There is no answer [almost inaudibly] T: Oh! There is no answer ... [inaudible] isn’t it? Listen! It is only this girl who sees that number thirty-four has a problem.Nyinyi wote mmekimya tu! [All of you are just silent!] So, if she had not said, what answer had you given,wewe [you]? Had you given an answer? Sts: Nooo! T: That’s what I tell you. If you are given a paper, even a mathematics paper, you can tell when there is a problem. You can tell when all answers are wrong. When there is no answer. You tell the teacher there is a problem in number seven isn’t it? Sts: Yes T: She is the only one. She is the only one who asked me “Mwalimu, look at thirty four, there is a problem. There is no answer.Na nyinyi wote [And all of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 210 you] you are just quiet!Yaani umepewa karatasi wee ni kuguess tu b, c, a, d. [You have been given a paper, your work is simply guessing b, c, a, d]. That’s what you are supposed to do? Sts: Noooh! T: You must know that question. If there is a question without an answer, you are The one to detect it because you have the paper. The examiner might not know that there is a problem. But you have the paper. You should be able to tell whether there is an answer or not. So she has saved you all.Na wote mmekaa tu [And all of you, you simply sit]. X: [Naming a student], you did not see that question? St: Yes. T: What answer did you give? You gave an answer? St: I guessed. T: Ooh, you guessed eeh. St: Yes T: [Pause] Now, next number St. & T: Thirty-six. The .... T: And the Kikuyu were led by who? Diana. St: [Says nothing] T: Angalia huyu. Exam inakuja, wewe utakaa hivo zubaa zubaa. [Look at this one. The exam is approaching, you will simply sit there confused]. I thought we wrote those ones who had kings, who had counsellors. You never wrote? Sts: We wrote. T: Halaful [Then why?] St: Counsellors. T: Yes, mliandika! [did you write?]? St: Yes. T: Next number? Wewe umelala sana hapo. Simamal Huyu amelala sana. Anafikiri simuoni. Nikiuliza mwingine akijibu huyu anajificha tu. Anasema “Nitapita tu! Watu wanajibu; wanajibu tu! Mimi nitakaa hapa na nitapita tu!” Utapita?
[You, you have slept for too long there. Stand up! This one has slept for too long. He thinks I cannot see him. If I ask someone else (a question), this one just hides. He says “Somehow, I will pass (in the exam)! People are answering; they are answering. I will sit here and somehow, I will pass”. Will you pass?]
Sts: No T: You can’t. You must be very very acti...? St: Active T: What number? And you are too slow mtamaliza- kesho? [Will you finish tomorrow]? Samoure Toure and Lobengula had what things in common? You? St: [Says nothing]
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 211 T: Eeh? Sts: They both signed treaties. T: [pointing at student] Na wewe [And you], you are completely illiterate. Nitaambia mama hakuna kitu unafanya hapa. Huyu hata hajui leo ni siku gani (laughter from students). Na huyu mwingine. Na mnakaa hapa tu! Na mmenona kweli (laughter from other students). (Continues). The best citizen must obey the rules of ... ?
[(Pointing at student)] And you, you are completely illiterate. I will tell your mother you are doing nothing here. This one doesn’t even know today’s date (laughter from students). And this other one. And you simply sit here! And you have become truly fat (laughter from students). (Continues.) The best citizen must obey the rules of ... ?]
Sts: The country, [pointing at student]Na wewe [And you], you are completely illiterate. I will tell your mother you are doing nothing here. This one doesn’t even know what’s the day today (laughter from students). And this is another one. And you are simply sitting here! And you are truly fat (laughter from other students). (Continues) The best citizen must obey the rules o f ...?] Sts: The country. T: Yes? St:The Land. T: Nooo. [Pause] Yes. (After correcting herself)Hata mwalimu anakoseanga [Even a teacher sometimes makes mistakes]. The rules of the land. If they write in the question, “The rules of the land”, you will be wondering “Is ‘land’ also ‘country’? Rules of land or rules of country? But rules of the land are also rules of the country. And they can put “land” instead of “country”. “The best citizens obey the rules of the land.” They just want you to use your brains. (To the student who answered, “the land”), Utaenda Pangani. Utapita vizuri. Wee unatumia akili. [You will go to Pangani (join Pangani High school). You will pass (exams) well. You use your brains (you are smart]. (Mrs Kiko: March, 2002)
The history teacher uses code-switching in class to denote comment, or asides
(both positive and negative). Most of Kiswahili sentences or comments appear as
“interruptions” of the flow of the lesson. They are comments to students who are not
paying attention or comments to the rest of the class about them (students not paying
attention. The code-switching to Kiswahili in such situations denotes disatisfaction with
such students. This is a “marked” choice of code-switching since the expected language
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in a classroom situation would be English (Swann 2000:167). Swann explains that
unmarked choices of codes occur “when aspects of the context such as a change in topic
or in the person addressed make a different language variety more appropriate” (2000:
167). Marked choices, on the other hand, are those that would not be expected in the
particular context. Teachers in a similar Kenyan situation would normally be expected to
express themselves in English when teaching history. They would normally be expected
to denote disatisfaction through their choice of English words and also tone. Marked
choices, Susan Gal adds, are elastic and individual switches need to be interpreted in
context (Gal 1979, cited in Swann 2000:166). Thus, all history teachers in Kenya will not
choose to express disatisfaction in a similar manner and possibly, the specific teacher
observed may express disatisfaction in a different way in a different class or in the same
class, at different times.
Although the history teacher uses Kiswahili to denote disatisfaction, her code
switching somewhat softens the messages that would otherwise be pretty harsh when said
in English. Her code-switching allows her to convey serious messages in a half joking
manner. The semi-humorous effect is also achieved by the use of direct comments to
students. We also note that, in addition to code-switching, she uses third person when
she apologises for her own mistake,Hata mwalimu anakoseanga - even a teacher makes
mistakes. The generic simple present saves her from the awkwardness of making a direct
apology or the rudeness of refusing to accept her own mistakes. In addition, she uses the
colloquialanakoseanga instead of the more formalanakosea to soften it further. In a
similar manner, she uses the third person when addressing the students to further soften
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 213 her criticism [You, you have slept for too long there. Stand up! This one has slept for
too long. He thinks I cannot see him. If I ask someone else (a question), this one just
hides. He says “Somehow, I will pass (in the exam)! People are answering; they are
answering. I will sit here and somehow, I will pass”. Will you pass?]
It is significant that the teacher is the only one who has the prerogative to code
switch in this class (the students do not code-switch). She is in charge of the class; she
can decide to code-switch, but it would be rude for the students to initiate code-switching.
Nonetheless she uses code-switching to negotiate the power of a “strict” teacher but one
who has a sense of humor and is also approachable. This conforms to Myers-Scotton’s
observations about code-switching in her study of languages in Africa. Citing Myers -
Scotton (1993), Swann argues that when two languages are used together, they “convey
certain meanings about the speaker, and also index certain rights and obligations that
speakers wish to obtain between themselves and others” (Swann 2000:166). In this case,
the right of the teacher to initiate code-switching also points to differential power
relations between the teacher and students.
In addition, the classroom provides space to stress the expectations of the success
ideology: no sleeping (being lazy), no guesswork. Hard work, dedication and the ability
to recognize mistakes in exam papers are required. The students who do not display
commitment will not be tolerated; they will be punished and reported to parents. In short,
a strong work ethic has to be respected by both students and teachers.
In example 6.5, the head teacher uses both English and Kiswahili as an expression
of her access to two languages. In this way she is also claiming her dual identities and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 214 allegiance to nationalism and internationalism. In this segment, the teacher also
underscores the importance of understanding what a student has to do during the actual
examination. Good performance in the exams depends on this because many segments of
exams are graded using the computer and it will nullify the answers it cannot read.
Example 6.5
The head teacher comes to a classroom to make a correction. She is accompanied
by head of Science). Kiswahili teacher was teaching the class (which I was observing).
A few Sts: Good morning teacher (Standing up). Head teacher: Good morning, (short pause) Ok, sit down.
Sts: Thank you teacher HT: Now, now. We have something to correct here; hizi cards. (Addressing Kiswahili teacher) X utanisamee. Hizi cards kuna wengine wamekata very faintly. Wengine wanakata ends zingine correctlylakini zingine ni very faint. You know what that means?
[Now, now. We have something to correct here; these cards. (Addressing Kiswahili teacher) X, excuse me. These cards, there are others (some students) who have cut (them) very faintly. Some have cut some ends correctly but others are very faint. You know what that means?]
A few students: Yes HT: The computer will reject these or it will be blinded. [Pause] So I prefer for each and every one of you to shade again.
Science Teacher: Not shade but... HT: Aah, to cut again. [Pause]. When you are cutting, use the ruler. You just cut. Una -cut very quickly.Kuna mwingine alikuwa anakata hivi na hapa anafunga hivi. Nani alikuambia hio? Hiyo sample iko hapo juu ndio unaangalia. You cut just like this one, which is at the top there. [To Kiswahili teacher] Kuna zingine mwalimu wee huwezi ukaona. Na wee ndio unapeleka. So I am helping you. Tomorrowwee ndio utapeleka. So we would like you to correct right now and give back to mwalimu. Kila mtu ata [inaudible]... plate yoke. Sawal
[Aah, to cut again. [Pause], When you are cutting, use the ruler. You just cut. You cut very quickly. There was another one who was cutting like this and then
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 215 close here like this. Who told you that? That sample on top is the one you look at. You cut just like this one, which is at the top there. [To Kiswahili teacher] There are others that you, you cannot see, mwalimu. And you you are the one to deliver (them). So I am helping you. Tomorrow you will be the one to deliver (them). So we would like you to correct right now and give back to mwalimu. Everybody will [inaudible]... his/her plate. Ok?]
Sts: Yes HT: [Pause] Na don’t shake! Use ruler. Unakata tu [You simply cut]. Science T: Wapi Maingi (handing out paper)?... Na mmalize (kuandika) “Apollo Primary School”.
[Where is Maingi (handing out paper)?... Also finish (writing) “Apollo Primary School”]
Kiswahili T: Na vile wameandika, “Apollo Primary School”. (Louder), “Apollo Primary School!”
[Also the way they have written, “Apollo Primary School”. (Louder), “Apollo Primary School!”]
[Science and Kiswahili teachers started calling out students’ names, handing out papers for corrections].
HT: And don’t shake. Hatutaki double lining [We don’t want double lining]. We don’t want double lining. (Examining a student’s corrections) Kama huyu sasa ametumia small letters [Like this one, s/he has used small letters]. (Louder), You use capital letters. A-po-llo primary school. (March 20, 2002)
Although the conversation from the headteacher denotes code-switching as emphasis,
“asides” or conveying meaning that is not meant for everybody, for example, when she
asks the Kiswahili teacher to excuse her (for interrupting her lesson), she mainly uses
code-switching in an unmarked sense in this example. This is in conformity with what
Swann further explains could be the use of two languages without any particular meaning
attached to switching from one or the other. It is rather “the use of both languages
together that is meaningful, drawing on the associations of both languages and indexing
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 216 dual identities” (Swann 2000:168). The head teacher simply explains how the students
should handle the examination papers so that they can be compatible to the computer. She
has access to two languages and she uses both. This is interesting because the same
teacher has used code-switching in other contexts as “marked” choices (please refer to
examples 4.4 and 5.8). She has also used code-switching in various short conversations
mentioned in this dissertation to show emphasis that the problems experienced byfamilies
in the slums are also common in well-to-do families.
In example 6.6, the teacher uses code-switching for emphasis. He highlights the
importance of “pushing” students so that they can use their potential to succeed, as much
as possible. Unless a student is known to have a problem (and especially if his
performance has been good) he has to show interest in maintaining good grades.
Example 6.6
This is a part of conversation between a teacher and the researcher.
Teacher: Commitment and administration. Close supervision from administration makes the teachers work hard. But the teachers in this school are also very committed. Researcher: I heard a teacher complain that the teachers are probably pushing the kids too much. She was talking about two kids she said were usually active but they looked dull and she was wondering whether teachers were pushing kids too hard. What is your opinion? T: I can’t rule that out [pause], Tunawasukuma. [We push them]. R: Mnawasukumal [You push them?]. T: Yes, we push them. If I find that a child is not delivering and he is a normal child. And I look at his records, past records. He has been performing well. Well, why should he perform poorly? I pushNamsukuma him. kabisa [I push him/her very strongly]. Unless he has a reason, I push him.Namsukuma [I push him]. (Mr Mukasa: April 22, 2002)
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 217 The marked choice of the Kiswahili word “ku-sukuma” has been repeated several times
for emphasis. In spoken form, the word is onomatopoeia.
Although the examples below seem to display code-switching as an unmarked
choice in which the speaker simply accesses several languages that are available to her,
they can also be viewed as a claim by the speaker to different identities and statuses.
After establishing that we shared three languages (English, Kiswahili and Kikamba), I
asked the speaker what language she wanted us to use during our conversation. She
responded that we could use any language. I decided to use Kikamba since it was our
first language. It was also the language that would be an “unmarked choice” in the
circumstances. Strictly speaking, it is difficult to argue that language choices are
“unmarked” because even if the languages say nothing more, they do establish the fact
that one is capable of accessing them simultaneously which in itself has deeper identity
claims and, in hierarchical language interpretation, status. During our discussion, the
respondent code-switched a lot, sometimes using the three languages in one sentence.
Example 6.7
The language used is given in bold and italics, preceding the segments where the
language is used. Examples 6.7 and 6.8 are parts of a long conversation between the
researcher and a parent (given elsewhere as Example 6.10).
MD: [Kikamba] Ayiee, ndyaasomethwa. Na umanye ona undu andu mataaw’a nyie [English] my mother[Kikamba] akwie nina [English] ten years. [Kikamba] Niwo natiiwe ni [English] second bom [Kikamba] na ninyie nasuviiye syana ila nini. Imwe liu kitheli muvaka saa muonza. Na uni saa 12 twi sukulu. Nyie niona natumie ndavita F4 ni thina. Imwe [Kikamba and English] naleamiie [English] from my experience. [Kikamba] Ve [Kikamba and English] kutransfer [Kikamba] alimu ... [English] Second, [Kiswahili] kukosa chakula, [Kikamba] liu. Kui sukulu [Kiswahili] bila chakula [Kikamba] na uitinda [English]
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 218 throughout the day. ...[Kikamba] lakini nyie neeyie Ngai vau ndaavika yu nomuvaka muvike. [English] I want you to be more than me.
MD: No, I have not received any training. And you know, even the way people are given advice, my mother died when I was ten years. That’s when I was left, a second bom, taking care of the younger children. Sometimes food would only be ready at one o’clock. And the following day, we are in school at six. I think I didn’t really do well in Form four [high school] because of problems. I learnt from my experience. There is transfering of teachers ... second, having no food, food. Going to school without [eating] any food and then you stay throughout the day. .. .But I told God that where I did not reach [what I did not achieve], you have to reach [achieve]. I want you to be more than me.
Example 6.8
[MD: [Kiswahili] Lakini [kikamba] eka ndyiikuminiite [English\ life [Kikamba] ingi yi vaa [English] in our Toyi area. [Kikamba] Musyai eweka kana musyai niwenukisye muka. Musyai athi wiani syana saa 7 siina mundu wa kusiuwia. Na ndanatia mbesa sya [English] lunch. [Kiswahili]Hak\ma. ...[Kikamba] Nanyie syana isu nundu nyie nina [English] project[Kikamba] ingi ninaendaa okuu [Kiswahili] vijijini ya[English] church, na [Kikamba and English] ninadealia na [English] widows [Kikamba] na [English] orphans.[Kikamba] Nakwia kila [Kikamba and English] ninalearniie [Kikamba] ona vala tuinae vaa vakuvi tunai kuuya X. Syana isu nanyie niniendaa kuvundisya syana isu namonaa ngamewia tei. Ingi syikalaa na usue nundu sii [English] parents na asusu asu mokaa utuku manywite na imwe maukuthuwa musyi na maitavw’a suo itavita. Ta musyi umwe, [English] I even donated a blanket.]
[MD: But, just wait, I had not finished with some life that is here in our Toyi area. A parent is alone or he took his wife home [to the village]. When the parent goes to work, the children have no one to cook for them over lunch time. And he doesn’t leave any money for lunch. There is nothing. ... And those children, because I have a church project that I was working on, dealing with widows and orphans. I tell you what I learnt, although we were not close by, we were at X [bus route # X]. Those children, I go to train them, those children, I would see them and feel sorry for them. Some of them live with grandparents, they have no parents and those grandparents sometimes come home drunk in the night, and sometimes they would be chased away from home, and they would be given insults, some of which cannot even be pronounced. Like one family, I even donated a blanket.] (Mama Daudi; July 26, 2002: translated by author)
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In example 6.7, almost all of the words and phrases used to code-switch are marked
choices - they would not normally be used in general conversation in the way that they
are used here. The exceptions to this rule are the words “ku-transfer” and “lunch”. The
first - a combination of Kikamba and English - is widely used when describing the act of
transfering teachers or other workers while the second is almost becoming the acceptable
word for mid-day meal. The rest of the words claim a certain level of knowledge, identity
and status, signifying the ability to navigate meanings in three different languages. By
using the vernacular, the speaker avoids possible harsh scrutiny (from the researcher) -
that of portraying an image of “looking down on her language and heritage” or being
ashamed of it. She similarly avoids the possibility of being seen to distance herself from
the researcher. In other words, she skilfully identifies herself as a proud member of her
ethnic grouping, and a person who wants to have cordial interaction with the researcher.
In addition, she identifies herself as a person who is educated, with greater exposure tothe
world than the rural village and the urban slum and therefore has relatively high status in
her social environment (like the researcher). She asserts her national pride by speaking
Kiswahili and her ability to interact in a wider social environment by speaking English. In
this manner, the speaker accesses three different identities and statuses simultaneously.
The second example of code-switching (Example 6.8) is not as “marked” as the
first one. In the second example, the speaker is choosing words that are generally used in
such discussions, especially in as far as community projects or “development projects”
are concerned. The notable words in this category are “project”, “widows”, “orphans”,
“donate”. However, such use of words establishes the fact that the interviewee is familiar
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 220 with the development environment scene (and jargon) and that in itself is a “marked”
choice.
Considering that code-switching can be used to negotiate identities, code
switching in Apollo exposes contestation of local, national and international capital.
Ethnicities, nationalism and global knowledge - and status - are claimed by use of
proxies, namely, indigenous languages, the national language and international language,
respectively. Swann enlightens us about this type of code-switching by informing us that
“A speaker’s choice of language has to do with maintaining, or negotiating, a certain type
of social identity in relation to others; code-switching between languages allows speakers
(simultaneous) access to different social identities” (Swann 2000:171, parentheses and
italics in the original). The teachers and parents also access different languages in order
to negotiate multiple identities, sometimes simultaneously. The access to multiple
identities allows them to perform the different roles of authority figures (disciplinarians),
guardians, nurturers, mentors, tough coaches, friends and advisers. It allows the teachers
to access whatever role they deem appropriate in advancing the success ideology on an
every-day basis, in different school situations.
In addition to claiming access to different identities, the parent in examples 6.7
and 6.8 indicates the level of commitment it takes on the part of parents, students and
teachers to ensure that the children in the slums make it to secondary school. (Examples
6.7 and 6.8 are segments of the interview given as Example 6.10).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 221
An Exceptional Family
One of the few gems of Toyi school was an exceptional family that had three siblings
already in the university and a fourth one joined them in September 2002. The two
youngest siblings were in reputable secondary schools and it was expected that they, too,
were on their way to college. When I asked the teachers what their explanation was for
the students’ success, they said the mother was very keen on the education of her
children. She supervised the children and made sure that they sat down every day to do
their school assignments and did not waste time mangamangaring [loitering] with other
children. She also trusted teachers and assisted them in ensuring the students were
disciplined. In addition, she occasionally visited the school to get teachers’ advice on
what she should do to help with the children’s performance.
I include her family in my presentation of success because her children had
done very well in the national examinations, inspite of passing through Toyi school, the
underdogged school. Though she was only a high school graduate herself, she was very
articulate about the role both teachers and parents play in ensuring students’ success in
schools, and her wisdom and agency point to areas that could be targetted in transforming
the ideology of slum failure. As she was not an “upper class” slum dweller (she was
“middleclass”), her story would be encouraging to low class families. She was, however,
not in the poorest category of slum dwelling. Also her children’s performance in a not-
so-good school further illustrate the very concept of school as a battlefield, a place where
contested ideologies converge.
I interviewed one of the siblings from the exceptional family, and he reveals first
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 222 hand, a family commitment to the tenets of the success ideology that have been discussed
in chapters four and five. Both his interview and his mother’s give a vivid picture of the
limited basic resources that the schools and students in the slums have to work with.
Example 6.9
. .-.Researcher: I have been informed that your two brothers and a sister are already in the university and you will join them at the end of this year? Interviewee: Yes. R: Which school did you go to, and did your brothers go to different schools? I: In Primary School or secondary? R: Primary? I: We all went to school here, Toyi. R: How is Toyi school? I: It is good. The teachers teach well. They don’t punish students too much. R: Do you notice any difference between when you were in school here and now? I: Yes, there is some difference. Punishment is not as bad as it was during our time. Also the teachers, are not as dedicated as they were during our time. So the performance has gone down. R: Was it very good during your time? I: No, it wasn’t but it was better. The year after I left the school, that is 1997, the school was one of the top 100 schools. During my year about 3/4s of the students joined secondary school. But many didn’t finish. School fees. Also it got harder. R: What? I: What? R: What got harder? I: Oh, school. It got difficult. R: Was it difficult for you? I: Yes, it got harder. But I worked harder. R: Were some of the subjects in primary school helpful in high school? I: Yes, some, especially science. But they were harder. Too many details. R: Are there many students today that join secondary school from Toyi? I: Now, less than a half goes. The last three years have been worse. R: What reasons led to the lower performance? I: Teachers are not so dedicated any more. R: And students? I: Students, you know, students work according to what the teachers tell them. If the teachers don’t tell students what to do, they cannot work. When you are in primary, you need someone to push you so that you can work harder. And also here the students cannot read at home because, you see we have no electricity and kerosene cannot be available all the time. It is difficult. Many families are poor.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 223 Also some parents. Some parents, you know, just don’t know the importance of education. Some don’t care. R: Some don’t care? I: Yes, some don’t care. They brewchang’aa [home distilled gin] and Muratina [home brewed beer] to sell and they also drink it. When you are drunk, education for kids is not important. R: There are many Muslims here, no? So they can’t drink. I: No, the Muslims here are not Muslims, they are moderate. Just like Christians here. Some churches say don’t drink but they drink anyway. Sunday they go to church. Friday others go to the Mosque. Other days, they do whatever they want. R: How did you yourself manage in the environment? I: Our teachers were better I think. We used to have extra lessons. Mainly for free. Others for money. Saturdays were free lessons. Holidays were for money. We used to work harder. Always studying. R: Even at home? I: Yes. R: You had electricity? I: No, we used kerosene. But my parents made sure there was kerosene most of the time and we could study till very late in the night. Some kids, parents give them a short time, then say, you are using too much kerosene. You see, there is no money to buy more. R: Any other reasons why you did well? I: We also used to be punished more. R: Vibokos [caning]? I: Yes. R: Like how many? R &I: Laughter I: Ten. R: Ten? I: Yes. R. Mmmm! I: Yes. R: Any other reason? I: My parents. They were strict. First question when you get home, “Do you have homework?” We didn’t go outside to play with the other kids until after homework. R: How do you compare your school with any of the other schools in the neighborhood? Any school that did better than yours when you were in school? I: Yes, Apollo. Even during our time, Apollo was doing better than my school. R: Why didn’t you go to Apollo then? I: My parents said, “If you can pass in Toyi, then you can pass in any secondary school. Students in Toyi are taught to think.” R: But supposing you didn’t pass well enough to join secondary school? You might think, well, I should have gone to Apollo, pass primary school and then
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 224 deal with secondary school studies when I get there? I&R: Laughter I: Yes, maybe. Maybe. But Toyi was also cheaper. R: How different is Apollo school? I: The teachers in Apollo are dedicated. They work very hard. But the kids are not given a good chance to read on their own. Apollo expels students if they don’t do well, Toyi doesn’t. Teachers are serious, and kids are forced to learn by use of kiboko [caning]. Also teachers stay in Toyi for a short time and they go away. R: Why? I: I don’t know. We had a new headmaster the year I did KCPE. He left in 2000. The one who came in 2000 left last year. Now they have a new one. All that time, Apollo was having X. She was there even before I joined standard one in Toyi. She still is there and will stay there until she retires. R: You think so? I: Yes, how can they transfer her after so many years? R: Maybe not, eeh. By the way, did you know what career you wanted to join when you were in primary school? Like when you were in standard eight? I: No. R: No? I: No, I only started thinking about it in secondary school. I knew I wanted to go to secondary. Also the secondary schools I wanted to go to but not what I would do in university. R: Did your brothers and sisters know what they wanted? Did you discuss it with your parents? I: No, in primary? No. I didn’t hear them talk about it. We talked about it when we got to secondary. Our parents, no. I don’t know. We discuss together, we the children and our friends but not our parents. Our parents just say go to school, work very hard, do your studies. They make sure we do our homework. But they ask us what we want to do after we finish school. (Daudi: July 25, 2002).
His mother was less ambiguous about her expectations from the children. Surprisingly,
she did not criticize Toyi, as many parents did. She explained that children’s success in a
school depends on teachers as well as parents. Her discipline, like the teachers’, is
unwavering and her commitment to the ideology of success requires her to make difficult
decisions and resolve to implement them.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 225 Example 6.10
Researcher: Syana syaku nisyikaa nesa muno ovau sukulu ya Toyi ona vala asyai amwe ona andu angi measya kana i sukulu ti nzeo muno, utonya kuelesya undu mekaa nesa ata kana kunenga asyai angi motao? MD: Vaa Toyi nimaencouragia syana. Naitu asyai tena ivinda yitu kila mwai nitwauwiaa syana syitu assessment papers nginya standard one. Na kwoou vai competition kwa kila kilasi. Ngwatanio imwe ni ya asyai. Syana isu ndimastressia lakini ninimaencouragia. Check kana kana nikasoma. Homework nikeeka. Alimu ivinda ya syana syakwa matwiaa “make goals for your children”. Yu nuona ta isanduku iu ukwona vaa [ololete TV], isanduku iu ukwona vaa, nakwia ona yu umunthi yii battery. Kii ni kindu kithuku muno kiutuma mwana waku utasoma. Twavika vaa nyumba syana isome. Muthenya ula wiika mutiani wenda ukoma uisisya TV ni sawa. Nuona ta X [kana kamwe] usu uuneenaa nake? Muthenya ula weekie mutiani namwithiie vaa kioko namukulya“wee unafanya niniV Lakini twavuaa ngui tondu mutiani ai ekie kwoou TV ti makosa. Mamina homework no mawatch news sya saa itatu, lakini syindu ingi hapana. Yu nyie onamawatch ndikulasya nundu ninamavundiisye musingi namo moiva mamanya kana ve syindu sya kwika first anatesaa [mzee] uta nanyie nai kuu town nake business ya uta 24 hrs. Nooka neewa syana isu siendaa TV jirani nginya utuku saa sita. Nayu noona itindo ingi ite maana noona kava nasye musee na ngisuvia syana nundu nisyo syi maana. Musee ungi vaa nooka angulya mutonya utia syana syi syoka ata? Ila noosie itambya naamua nundu mai na grudge na my brother nundu nunuumony’a the right thing to do lakini meona ti musyai woo. Nake niwanoite. Na itambya ila namoseie until today Nundu na meetings sya sukulu syonthe nyie ninyie naendaa ona asyai sukulu mai mwisi. Sukulu syonthe nginya ona primary kabisa ona secondary isu ninyie niendaa. Nundu itina wa invest syanani ukona matunda ma kuharvest. R: Niona wina ideas nyingi sya sukulu na syana. Niwaendie ma-course pengine sukulu kusomethwa undu asyai maile kwithwa na mwiwano na sukulu? MD: Ayiee, ndyaasomethwa. Na umanye ona undu andu mataaw’a nyie my mother akwie nina ten years. Niwo natiiwe ni second bom na ninyie nasuviiye syana ila nini. Imwe liu kitheli muvaka saa muonza. Na uni saa 12 twi sukulu. Nyie niona natumie ndavita F4 ni thina. Imwe naleamiie from my experience. Ve kutransfer alimu ...Second, kukosa chakula, liu. Kui sukulu bila chakula na uitinda throughout the day. ...lakini nyie neeyie Ngai vau ndaavika yu nomuvaka muvike. I want you to be more than me. R: Ii. Lakini ve musyai ungi unambiiy’e mai kwika nesa muno ivinda yii. MD: Lakini eka ndyiikuminiite life ingi yi vaa in our Toyi area. Musyai eweka kana musyai niwenukisye muka. Musyai athi wiani syana saa muonza siina mundu wa kusiuwia. Na ndanatia mbesa sya lunch. Hakuna. ...Nanyie syana isu nundu nyie nina project ingi ninaendaa okuu vijijini ya church, na ninadealia na widows na orphans. Nakwia kila ninaleamiie ona vala tuinae vaa vakuvi tunai kuuya X. Syana isu nanyie niniendaa kuvundisya syana isu namonaa ngamewia
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 226 tei. Ingi syikalaa na usue nundu sii parents na asusu asu mokaa utuku manywite na imwe maukuthuwa musyi na maitavw’a suo itavita. Ta musyi umwe, I donated even a blanket. [Interruption from daughter],.. andu asu nyie nakwia usue yii nuthukumaa lakini amina wia aivitila kilabu kunywa. Ayuka utuku ndesi syana syiiye ki. Nayu kwi andu manadonatea mutu, nini, na yu avika musyi ayosa mutu aithi uta nikenda akanywe onaethwa ni ivula aimavena yivula. Nininoonie life! R: Ni parents mbingi sya muthemba usu? MD: Ni mbingi X. Syana ila itiitwe syi orphans ni mbingi muno. R: Ni kyau? MD: Ni AIDS. Na angi mama nde wiani. Na angi mundu ni muwau akavinyiiwa vyu. ... Na ivinda yiu ninai na project isu nituna donatea ngua muno Saturdays. Lakini ona watwaa ngua isu siikona wa uvua. ... R: Ni parents aingi poor muno vaa? MD: Mevo. Lakini ve angi o careless. Angi maijalia. Nundu syana imwe nituneeaw’a muikaeke syana siende sukulu na ngua ndembuku ndakeew’aa nthoni na kwiwa ta munini kute andu ala angi. MD & R: [pause] R: Ve kaundu kangi ukwenda undavya nundu nyie niona ta namina makulyo makwa? MD: Sukulu isu syonthe vaa ni Day. Usu wa Form three aamukaa saa kenda asome na akoma tene aimbia nimuamukye saa muonza. Ena saa ya alarm. Na nivokaa vakoma. Na school fees syina vinya Fees structure ya X ya shilingi 29,000. Na ndyai nasyo.... Na apangaji maasyaa “isu twikwiw’a nivitite ikaenda masukulu maseo nitukwona makaiva naki”. Na nuona spiritual understanding ni nzeo nundu ninakatie maundu maingi na andu ma nza maieka kuusumbua nundu nimeona ona maasya ata nduumajali, level yoo niwauma. Syana syakwa nimatavasya level yoo ni ya syana ila syi sukulu. Syana ite sukulu syimanangia saa. Nundu andu masomaa maundu kuma kula kwi ala matindanasya.
(July 26, 2002. The interview was conducted and is presented here in Kikamba, a Kenyan ethnic language).
[R: Your children have been doing so very well in Toyi although some parents and even other people who are not parents say the school is not very good, how do you explain their performance or how would you advise other parents? MD: In Toyi they encourage children. And parents, especially, during my time [her children’s time in the school - her youngest child left the school in 2000], we used to buy our children assessment papers, even for standard one. So, there was competition in every class. Part of the cooperation is from parents. I don’t stress the children but I encourage them. During my time, the teachers used to tell us, “Make goals for your children”. You see like that box you see here [pointing at a TV], that box you see here, I tell you even today it has no battery. This is a very bad thing [object] that can make your child not study. When we get to the house,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 227 let the children study. If you want to watch TV all night the day you will do your exams, that’s fine. You see like X [one of the children], the one you interviewed? I found him here in the morning, the day he sat for his exams. I asked him, “What are you doing here?” But we were only joking, he had done his exams so TV was not prohibited. When they finish their homework, they can watch nine o’clock news but other things, no. Now, I don’t care whether they watch or not because I have given them guidelines [guidance] and they also got smart, they know that there are always things that should be done first.... He [husband] was doing some trade and I was with him in town doing the selling 24 hours. Then I was informed that the children used to watch TV in a neighbor’s house until midnight. Then I thought that it was better to lose a husband then take care of the children because they are more important. Another man here asked me, “How can you leave the children alone?” When I made a decision, because they had a grudge with my brother because he was trying to show them the right thing to do, but they look at him and say he is not their parent. He had gotten tired. And then I took steps up to today Because I attended all the meetings in schools even the parents in the school don’t know him [husband]. I go to all the schools, primary and secondary, I’m the one who goes. Because when you invest in children, eventually, you’ll harvest the fruits. R: I see that you have many ideas about schools and children. Have you attended any courses or training on parents’ cooperation in schools? MD: No, I have not received any training. And you know, even the way people are given advice, my mother died when I was ten years. That’s when I was left, a second born, taking care of the younger children. Sometimes food would only be ready at one o’clock. And the following day, we are in school at six. I think I didn’t really do well in Form four [high school] because of problems. I learnt from my experience. There is transfering of teachers ... second, having no food. Going to school without [eating] any food and then you stay throughout the day. .. .But I told God that where I did not reach [what I did not achieve], you have to reach [achieve], I want you to be more than me. R: Yes. But there is another parent who told me they are not doing very well these days. MD: But, just wait, I had not finished with some life that is here in our Toyi area. A parent is alone or he took his wife home [to the village]. When the parent goes to work, the children have no one to cook for them over lunch time. And he doesn’t leave any money for lunch. There is nothing.... And those children, because I have a church project that I was working on, dealing with widows and orphans. I tell you what I learnt, although we were not close by, we were at X [bus route # X]. Those children, I go to train them, those children, I would see them and feel sorry for them. Some of them live with grandparents, they have no parents and those grandparents sometimes come home drunk in the night, and sometimes they would be chased away from home, and they would be given insults, some of which cannot even be pronounced. Like one family, I even donated a blanket. [Interruption from daughter]. Those people, I tell you, yes, the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 228 grandmother works but when she finishes her work, she passes through the club to drink. She comes late in the night, not knowing what the children ate. Now, there were people who were donating flour, and other things, and now , when she gets home, she takes the flour and goes to sell it, even if it is a blanket, she takes it away from them. I saw life! R: Are there many parents like those? MD: There are many in X. There are many children, left as orphans. R: Why? MD: Because of AIDS. And others, their mothers are unemployed. And others are too sick And when I was with that project, we were donating clothes, especially on Saturdays. But even if you take the clothes, no one will ever wash them...... R: Are there many parents who are very poor here? MD: There are. But others are simply careless. Some don’t care. Because some children, we would be told not to let children go to school in tattered clothes, so they don’t feel ashamed and feel small infront of the other people. MD & R: [Pause] R: Is there anything else you would like to tell me because I think I am through with my questions? MD: The schools here are all day schools. The one in Form three wakes up at three so that he can study, and when he sleeps early, he asks me to wake him up at one oclock. He has an alarm clock. And sometimes it gets difficult. And school fees is high .... Fees structure for X was Ksh. 29,000. And I didn’t have the money. ... And the tenants said, “Those ones that we hear have passed and have been admitted to good schools, we shall see what they will pay [fees] with”. But you see, spiritual understanding is good because I’m disinterested in many things and outside people don’t bother you anymore because they can see that whatever they say, you don’t care, you have left their level. I tell my children their level is for children who are in school. Children who are not in school are a waste of time for them. Because people learn things from those they associate with.] (Mama Daudi; July 26, 2002: translated by author).
When I asked the interviewee whether the head teacher in Apollo school ever
approached her to “poach” her smart children from Toyi to Apollo (it was claimed that
the head teacher of Apollo used to poach the smart children from Toyi school), she said
she was never approached. We may note here that she and her family were also victims
of the 2001 ethnic clashes of Toyi slums habitation and her tenants were no longer paying
for the mud rooms she used to rent to raise an income for the family. They claimed
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. “original habitation” and therefore entitlement to ownership of the properties (please refer
to the sub-headings From Toyi to Apollo - in chapter four - andRejection o f Slum
Ideology - chapterin six - for details on the conflict). At the time of research she was
raising funds from selling water in the slums - she had two water harvesting tanks. The
water was not enough to raise funds for her children’s school fees. I viewed the
interviewee as an organic intellectual (Gramsci 1999:3-6), who was using her agency
towards promoting the success of her children and was educating her community about
the power that parents have in the transformation of the community. The story of the
family provides a counter example of the ideology of slum failure and shows what
schools and parents are capable of doing, even when they have meagre resources, as long
as they are committed to transforming schools into institutions that embrace the success
ideology. The exceptional family also gives a first hand account of the practical
challenges that students living in the slums of Nairobi face and thus provides the difficult
background against which Apollo’s success can be viewed.
This chapter underscores a theme that runs throughout this study - that languages
are tied to cultures, histories and larger socio-cultural and political landscapes. The
chapter also explores how the success ideology is mapped in linguistic practice and how
ethnicities, nationalism and internationalism are negotiated in the articulation of practices
that promote success. The negotiation and rejection of the slum ideology of failure
demonstrates the flexibility and unfolding nature of meanings. “The unfolding nature of
meanings” further highlights the importance of language in the creation, and maintenance
but also change of meanings and relationships. The same language that is used to create
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. an underdogged position for populations in the slums is used by the underdogged
themselves to question the ideology of slum failure. The narratives of the exceptional
family bring out the constraints that a family in the slums overcame and highlight the
difficulties that accompany the choice of the ideology of succcess. As the accounts of the
family summarize some major points that have been discussed in the earlier chapters, they
anticipate the conclusions of this study.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSIONS
This research has examined the ideology of education success in Apollo school.
The ideology has been examined at five levels. First is an examination of the
assumptions of what educational success means in Kenya in general and in Apollo
community in particular. It has assembled the politics of community needs in education
and examined Apollo school’s attempts to respond to the needs. Second is an
examination of what perceptions the Apollo population has about their own physical and
social location vis-a-vis their chances of achieving success in education. Their positive
interpellation of their position in the slum ideology facilitates an approach that embraces
values that promote success ideology. Third, the study situates the success and failure
ideologies within broader socio-political and cultural discourses in education, language
and culture - discourses that negotiate ideological messages of inequality. Fourth, the
study has examined how the success ideology plays out in actual linguistics practice.
Finally, the research examined the underside of success, the practical realities of what the
success ideology entails for the teachers and students within the understanding that “the
roots of education are bitter but its fruits are sweet”.
The dissertation has elaborated on the school as a battleground, a place where
contestation of meanings and subjectivities abound. In the Apollo case, the ideology of
success in a slum environment is strongly contested by prevailing assumptions of the 231
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 232 ideology of slum failure. Also contested are the assumptions of the best methods of
achieving success. Central in the contestation of meanings is language both as a stake as
well as a site of struggle. The strategic choice of English as a language of priority further
advances the success in the school. Language is also seen in this dissertation as a tool
that is utilised to create success messages in Apollo school; it is used in the process of
ideological struggle to change prevailing assumptions that associate low income schools
with failure. In Apollo, the struggle itself is manifested in fluid, uneven and multi-linear
forces that are best understood in terms of Williams’ “structures of feelings” (1977: 128-
135).
One way of understanding Apollo as a battleground is by looking at what goes on
in the school within the organizing theory of Border Pedagogy. Border Pedagogy offers a
method of explaining the positive transformative processes that Apollo goes through and
reinforces the expectation that school is a place of equal opportunity, thus, asserting the
ideology of school success. Social Reproduction, on the other hand, offers one way of
understanding elements that threaten the success ideology, thereby working towards
reproducing the ideology of slum failure. In Apollo, elements that threaten the ideology
of success are very strongly contested.
Education in Kenya is seen as an important tool for upward mobility. In Apollo,
it is virtually seen as the only tool capable of breaking the cycle of slum poverty and
apathy. Apollo students have strong faith in the ability of their teachers to steer them
away from poverty by providing an education that enables them to make a smooth
transition to the next level of education - secondary education. Apollo teachers, on the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. other hand, have great confidence in their ability to fulfil that role. They reject the
ideology of failure. The head teacher is unequivocal about the students’ ability to do as
well as, if not better than, the better off schools that have superior facilities. Some of the
teachers, however, are not completely weaned off the ideology of slum failure.
Paradoxically, the partial belief in the slum ideology energizes them in their ambition to
assist the students reach their goals. They also see their fate, prestige and recognition as
intertwined with that of their students. This study argues that the way the teachers and
students interpellate their position in slum ideology assists them model their approach
towards embracing values that advance the success ideology. Their positive interpellation
provides a counter narrative to slum habitation and its associated ideology of failure and
helps them rise above its confining chains. The renaming of the school from “New Toyi”
to Apollo and the rejection of slum habitation are seen as strong symbolic breaks from the
ideology of failure.
The ideology of success translates into difficult work for the students and
teachers. Through a mixture of the assumptions of what it means to get ahead in Kenya ,
religious notions of hard work, selflessness and brotherhood, the teachers move to center
stage and establish the tempo of activities in the school. They establish a spirit of
positive competitiveness and monitor their own achievement through the performance of
their students. The periodic board analysis discussions are the culmination of the
monitoring and evaluation of teachers’ and students’ progress. Board analyses also
provide a central rallying point for renewing values that are consistent with good
performance: discipline, hard work, continuous teacher and student attendance and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 234 teacher performance of a multiplicity of roles in the school. Board analyses typically end
with a mapping of steps to be taken by both teachers and students in order to improve on
performance. The teachers jealously guard their hard earned success and mold ways of
maintaining and nurturing it; they promote great expectations in the school, create an
aggressive work ethic, strengthen their school cohesiveness by defining their colleagues
as kin and create an antithesis of success, a rival school.
However, Apollo also realizes that the roots of education are bitter. To achieve
the goals in the success ideology, they have to instill similar work ethics and
uncompromising discipline in their students. This occasionally requires them to
punish/discipline their students and, in addition, use language that may not be so pleasant
to the students. Though their methods of pedagogy are mentioned by other schools as a
criticism, this study did not capture the flaws mentioned, during class observations.
Low staff turnovers, minimal teacher and student absenteeism and a mixture of
teaching methodologies added to the above mentioned factors that contributed to success
in Apollo school. Though Apollo is a low income school, there were no derogatory
remarks from the teachers to the students concerning their disadvantaged status and
therefore inability to succceed. This created a positive and optimistic environment in the
school.
While the above factors were invaluable in contributing to the success in Apollo
school, this research argues that the charismatic leadership of the head teacher of Apollo
school was instrumental in navigating the process through which exemplary performance
was achieved. That the school was started by teachers (including the present head
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. teacher) who already had a vision of a successful school in the slums was significant.
Thus, from the very start, the challenge was very clear - moving towards a successful
school in the slums. The head teacher fully believed in the ability of her students to excel
and made it clear that the students in the school were not at all unlike those in the
expensive private schools: their family problems rather than being unique to the low
income groups were in all economic groups. Even their native languages could not be
cited as causes for English language learning difficulties since the students in expensive
schools were speaking Sheng, a language perceived as shoddy English in formal arena
since it deviated from standard English. The head teacher’s expectations, as seen
throughout the chapters, confirmed her unfathomable belief in her leadership, her students
and her teachers. The very idea of establishing a successful school in the slums is
transformatory and offers a counter approach to the expectations of student performance
in low income schools. It is a paradox, though, that a somewhat tacit approval (heavily
contested though it was) that slum students are limitted by their environment is part of the
reason why many teachers in Apollo believe they have to work so much harder to deliver
the students from their disadvantaged position. Teachers’ versions of slum success were
so contested that there were many voices, often from the same teacher. In various cases,
they indicated that their students were “handicapped” by their slum environment. But
they also believed that the “handicap” was a challenge to the teachers themselves. That
was an implicit approval that the students’ low income status was not a life sentence. By
preparing the students to succeed through hard work, the teachers in Apollo question the
institutions that view success as a monopoly for the better off schools.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 236 Language was used in all aspects in the Apollo school to create, maintain or
change relationships; it was used to re-define kinship and establish that those who were
not related by blood or even by marriage could be connected firmly through friendship
and similar goals and vision. Language was effective in creating an “other” who was the
embodiment of all that which was undesirable in Apollo: laziness, lack of dedication and
commitment, misery, apathy and despair - Toyi School. Language was also a part of the
transformation of the school from slum status (as “New Toyi”) to a successful school (as
Apollo). It was effective in giving authenticity to a tradition that expects excellent
performance from teachers and students. The performance of that unique position of the
school was enacted almost on a daily basis. Not a single week passed by without hearing
expressions of the uniqueness of Apollo - from the teachers, the students, the parents and
the community.
However, nearly everything was contested, sometimes in the narratives of the very
same respondent. There seemed to be conflicting interpretations of similar issues,
sometimes from the very same person. Why would a teacher use mother tongue to clarify
sums to a student in a class, yet assert that she does not teach “that language” to her
children because she “does not find it useful” to them? Then several hours later she is
found speaking her mother tongue to the very children! Was she lying? Was there
another way of explaining the phenomenon? Would it be because the teachers and some
parents claim that local languages interfere with the smooth learning of English? Was it
because local languages were considered “inferior”? Was it because she wanted to
identify with other languages that were probably linked to greater power - socially,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 237 politically and economically? English was certainly “more useful” in terms of
“marketable capital” and it was also the strategic language choice in advancing the
success ideology.
In my discussion about punishment, a former student explained that she did not
support corporal punishment; she did not- think it was helpful to the students. It was not
good; it was not effective and after class five, it is absolutely ineffective. But in the
course of the very conversation, she asserts that punishment was effective in helping her
pass standard eight national examinations (please refer to Example 5.11 for the
conversation with the student). Why would a former student criticize punishment and
then assert that it helped her pass her national examination? Were they lying? It did not
seem to me that they would deliberately lie about such matters. Were they then
experiencing different realities, sometimes simultaneously? Rather than viewing
respondents as if they were lying, I looked at the contradictory messages as multiple
perceptions within the framework of contested terrains (similar to Raymond Williams’
‘structures of feeling’ - Williams 1977). Success in Apollo School is not negotiated in a
unilinear process, in narratives and discourse as well as in day-to-day practice. Some
negative association with slum “culture” and failure, for example, still lingers on, but it is
strongly contested in Apollo in both explicit and implicit terms. When the Apollo
community decides that the students can do well through teachers’ intervention, they are
challenging, albeit in an implicit manner, the determinism that accompanies slum failure
discourse.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 238 In Apollo, the success ideology was given greater consideration than in Toyi. One
way of understanding Apollo’s approach is by explaining it within the framework of
Border Pedagogy. Teachers with mentoring roles were not altogether absent in Toyi, but
Toyi school in general allowed themselves to be so demoralised by the ideology of slum
failure that the task of guiding their students to success looked too far-fetched and
overwhelming.
I have also argued that a somewhat intriguing psychological rejection of
association with the ideology of slum failure by claiming different habitation was a
strategy that provided energy and motivation to work towards and maintain the success
ideology in the community. The Apollo community creates an “other” who occupies that
ominous slum seat, thanks to different ethnicities, religion, initial origin, and
chronological time of slum habitation. But for the majority of teachers, they are the
power that delivers the students away from “slum cycle of failure”. For all of them, the
change of name from New Toyi to Apollo is symbolic and powerful - it is the ultimate
saw that breaks the chains. However, such rejection (of the ideology) was a step lower
than what Giroux, Anzaldua and Freire would have suggested. Although it analyzed the
privileged position of the economically better off students and questioned the legitimacy
of the ideology of failure that is associated with low income groups, it did not
problematize the process through which the privileged position was created and
maintained (Giroux 1994:49, Anzaldua 1999:99, Freire 2000:44-47). The rejection of
slum habitation was also some acceptance of the ideology of slum failure; thus, some
elements in Apollo sometimes chose to dissociate themselves from the slums physically
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 239 and also psychologically rather than claiming habitation in the slums and success at the
same time. Ironically, it was the partial belief in the slum ideology that energized the
teachers; they worked harder in order to deliver their students from failure. Also, the
“break away” from the slums gave the community further reason to dissociate themselves
from failure and align themselves with practices which promote success-in their school.
This study argues that the way the teachers, students and the community interpellate their
position in slum ideology promotes values and practices which advance success. Their
positive interpellation gives a countemarrative to slum habitation and its associated
ideology of failure and helps them rise above its confining chains.
Teacher-Centeredness as Virtue
The narratives of success in Apollo were very teacher-centered. The first thing
that the students mentioned as an explanation for success in their school was that their
teachers were very hardworking. Indeed, although students in Apollo worked equally
hard, only a few students expressed that fact as the first reason for success. (There is a
cultural expectation of some modesty, and this must have played some part in this
response, but apparently, the cultural prescription was easily overlooked by the teachers).
The teachers very eagerly claimed their superior work ethic and the parents and students
concurred. The teachers repeated to themselves and to me that if it were not for their
efforts (that is, teachers’efforts), the students would fail. This seemed largely true
because the role of the teacher in students’ success is crucial in general, and also I
witnessed the many hours that the teachers devoted to their students. In addition, during
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 240 the blackboard analysis, I saw that it was the teachers, not really the students, that were on
trial (please refer to chapters four and five for more information on blackboard analysis).
I observed the unquestionable commitment to excellent performance in the
school: through interviews with teachers themselves, observations of classroom teaching
and both formal and informal teacher conversations in the staff room and the school
environment in general. The teachers’ commitment seemed to stem from the steady,
wise, and determined leadership and administrative expertise of the head teacher. The
additional payment for extra tuition provided some encouragement too. (Parents’ subsidy
for extra tuition was common practice in schools, including Toyi, the other school
examined in this research). But there was more to the motivation in Apollo than financial
encouragement. It could be explained from the fact that the teachers took center stage in
matters pertaining to the school, as opposed to student-centeredness, often recommended
in schools and teacher training institutions. Though the students’ future was stated as a
concern for the teachers, the teachers were also very concerned about their own prestige.
Their statements as they punished students, encouraged them peacefully to work hard,
and as they held conversations amongst themselves in the staff room strongly pointed to
teachers’ needs and concerns first and foremost and then to students’ needs. The
teacher’s statements refered to in chapter five as he punishes a student related to the head
teacher is a good example (please refer to example 5.3). (The parents and the students
also stressed the important role of the teachers in the school more than that of the
students). Similar conversation was made about the daughter of the Islamic religious
education’s teacher who narrowly missed punishment for not getting high grades in insha.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 241 She was told:
Example 7.1
Wewe ni mtoto wa mwalimu. Tena first born. Unatakiwa uwe example nyumbani. First bom akifanya vibaya watoto wengine watafanya nini? Ni aibu sana. Mwalimu anaona aibu ukifanya vibaya. Unataka baba aone aibu? Tena kwa shule ambalo yeye mwenyewe anasomesha. (Julai 10, 2002).
[You are a teacher’s child. In addition [you are] first bom. You should be an example at home. If the first born’s performance is bad, what will the other siblings do? It’s a big shame. Teacher [your father] is embarrassed when your performance is poor. You want your father to be embarrassed? In the very school where he himself teaches.] (July 10, 2002: translated by author).
Other teachers were saying usiniangushe [don’t let me down] as they were encouraging
students. And in an extreme case, there were whispers about a teacher that would harrass
weak students about their performance so much that some of them would end up
dropping out of school. A close examination of the conversations with teachers suggest
that the interests of the students were important but the performance of the teachers was
so intertwined with the students’ success that it was difficult to determine which one was
more important than the other. In as far as the teachers were concerned, if the students
failed, the teachers failed too. The students had to leam, not only because their future
was at stake but also so that they could be “good examples” for the schools, their parents
and their communities. At stake also was the risk of status and recognition as a great
teacher by the school, education officials and the community. This is not an altogether
senseless need considering that we have seen in chapter three that the destiny of the
teacher is intertwined with that of his/her students. Indeed, while discussing primary
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 242 education in Kenya, Somerset states that:
We have said that KCPE determines the whole destiny of a school pupil, but equally it determines the destiny of his teacher. Parents, pupils, education officials and the community at large all judge his efficiency at his job by the examination results he achieves (Somerset 1974:172).
In Apollo, teachers judge themselves and their colleagues by their ability to make
a major contribution to students’ good performance. Parents, on the other hand judge
themselves by their ability to maintain good behavior in their children which would allow
teachers to maintain discipline in school so that learning could take place. Parents
indicated students’ misbehavior was an embarrassment to them as it suggested that they
had not succeeded in teaching their children how to behave. But it was poor performance
in national exams that was of greatest concern; if a student was a disciplinary problem,
the chance of concentrating on studies was low, and that could only eventually lead to
poor performance in exams and failure in life.
The teachers who said that the slum environment was affecting children
negatively only recognized that the children can do well through teachers’ efforts. The
head teacher herself, on so many occasions told the teachers “I only succeed because of
you teachers”. When trying to correct some habit or discourage laxity, she would ask,
“Mnataka kuniangusha” [Do you want to make me fail?]. One day she was cautioning
the teachers about sending children back home to get coaching money. She asked, “Do
you want me to be terminated? Please don’t send the pupils back home in the
mornings”22 (July 8, 2002). I listened also to teachers on many occasions. In one case, a
22 Since extra coaching was supposed to take place after the official day was over, students who had not paid for coaching could only be sent away after the normal school day.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 243 standard two teacher whom I was assisting with testing her class for reading
comprehension in English told a student before the student started reading the
examination words, “I have already got 50 scores [maximum scores] from all your
classmates who have already read the words, please do not let me down!”
According to my observations, teacher-centeredness in Apollo contributed
positively towards the success of the school. I witnessed teachers’ pride so much and
teachers’ celebration of their greatness, expressed through students’ performance, that it
was clear that although it was not the only reason, teacher recognition was extremely
important in the contribution to success in the school. I suggest that the central focus on
the teacher, as opposed to student-centeredness, may be a stronger motivation for
teachers, to work harder. Althought it is difficult to separate the simultaneous benefits of
success to both teachers and students, the competitiveness and desire to be recognized as
great teachers and experts in their field is paramount in the conversations of teachers in
Apollo school. Rather than seeing the teacher-centeredness as a vice, I recognize it as a
strength that should be taken into consideration in an effort to improve performance in
schools. I suggest that it would be worthwhile to give greater attention to teacher
competitiveness, gratification, and incentives in an effort to improve student
performance. Studies on incentives to teachers suggest that increasing salaries reflects
almost negligible difference in performance (Thias and Carnoy, 1972:171) while teacher
recognition reflects significant enhancement on performance (Garibaldi 1987). In a
Kenyan study, teacher-pupil ratio was found to have no impact on examination
performance (Thias and Carnoy 1972:171). By deliberately promoting teacher-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. centeredness, we would enhance teaching and learning and are likely to get better results
in schools. In the case of Apollo, the teachers are an unquestionable facilitating force
behind the success of the students but their own status is as important to them as the
future of the students.
The discourse on teacher-centeredness speaks to the agency of the teachers in
transforming Apollo to a successful school. Teachers claim the success in Apollo school.
Some of them (teachers) are not completely weaned off the ideology of slum failure.
They compensate for this by rationalising that slum students can do very well, but only
through teachers’ intervention. They are motivated by the fact that “if it were not for the
teachers these students would fail”. Student participation and parent participation is
taken for granted but the teacher’s role takes center stage. That strategy has worked very
well for Apollo school and exemplary examination results have been attained. It suggests
that focusing on the teacher can be just as important in producing results in schools as
focusing on the student. When the two approaches are balanced, schools may be in a
better position to produce results.
Kinship Redefined
It has been pointed out in chapter four that the teachers and students of Apollo
were a very cohesive unit. They came together to help one another during both school
activities and outside school activities. The teachers had extra-formal associations that
served as insurance towards unforeseen resource-consuming events like sickness and
bereavement, but they also rallied together during celebrations of anniversaries and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. contributions for funds for higher education of their children or weddings. Many teachers
also gave “parental guidance” to students who had no parents or whose parents were
incapable of performing their roles effectively. And, often, the head teacher requested
teachers to volunteer as male mentors to students whose fathers were absent. As the
head teacher often said, “for some students, the school is the closest they have to a
family”. Teachers also intervened in their students’ family problems (sometimes even
settling parents’disputes or making suggestions about modalities of separation) in an
effort to establish stable environments for their students. Thus, the parents in Apollo had
to perform a multiplicity of roles. Like the Puerto Rican teacher in a New York school,
they found that they had to perform several of the following roles: “teacher, friend,
mother, social worker, translater, counselor, advocate, prosecutor, group therapist,
hygienist and monitor” (Montero-Sieburth and Perez 1987:183). It was mentioned
elsewhere also that parents sometimes made contributions to “thank teachers” for the very
good work they perform - often, the contributions would purchase items for lunch that
would be prepared in the school.
Before final examinations are done, a day is also set aside for prayers (for good
performance in the examination) and all parents (irrespective of whether a parent has a
candidate that year or not) participate in the occasion. This is usually a big occasion and
in addition to saying prayers, the day serves to cement the cohesiveness of the community
and their common goals.
The fact that the teachers share their problems with each other and try to solve
their students’ family problems points to an intricate relationship that does not have a
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 246 very defined private and public boundary. It does not have a defined “kin” and “non-kin”
and colleagues often take the place traditionally occupied by kin. In fact, while in
traditional convention, one’s blood kin have been the people to rally around in case of
problems or celebrations, it is increasingly clear that in Apollo, some members of the
school may even feel closer to their colleagues than to their kin. As one of the teachers
put it, “some of my brothers and sisters did not attend my anniversary but you my
colleagues did”. One teacher actually put the phenomenon more bluntly by saying:
Example 7.2
.. .some relatives may even want you to die either because they are jealous of you or because they just want to inherit the little you have. But your colleagues support you because you have similar visions and struggles and are not necessarily better than them economically. So there is very little room for jealousies. If you died, they would inherit nothing from you - ooh, maybe they would have to teach more lessons before another teacher is posted to the school! (May 6, 2002).
To cement cooperation and unity in the school, it was clear that kinship rules were
somewhat re-defined so as to promoteumoja (unity) among teachers and students.
Members of the family were seen more as those who support you in your endeavors rather
than those who are related to you by blood or marriage affiliations. This established some
sort of convergence between the private and public realms. While this transformation of
relationships may not have been unique to Apollo, it played very well into Apollo goals.
It promoted similar focus and claim to Apollo school as a gem created and maintained by
the teachers.
Thus, faced with the task of producing successful students, the parents, teachers,
pupils and members of the Apollo community devise, sometimes unconsciously, all ways
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 247 they can think of to facilitate success in the school. Not surprisingly, rejection of slum
ideology, strengthening community ties by taking colleagues as “kin”and putting the
teachers at center stage, are some of the adjustments that the community makes so as to
challenge the exigencies in their lives. By constructing a narrative of cohesiveness
through the family metaphor, the teachers elicit cooperation and support from one
another, claim rights and obligations to one another and thus solidify common goals in
the school. This study argues that the cohesiveness advances success in the school. The
success in Apollo and the presence of slum schools in the neighborhood that continue to
perform poorly somewhat fuel the myth that Apollo is not a part of the slums. With that
myth, Apollo further distances herself from poor performance.
Language(s) in Kenyan Schools
Languages in Apollo school are as contested as they are in Kenya, and indeed in
post- colonial Africa, in general. The role of languages in post-colonial Africa has
occupied debates in universities, especially in literature and English (or French)
departments, depending on whether the country in question is Anglo-phone or Franco
phone. Which language should be the medium of instruction in schools in a newly
independent country? Which language should be the language of official transactions?
Language has also occupied an important space in the political arena. At stake is what a
language means in terms of local, national and international participation as well as self
definition. At the heart of the struggle for the meaning and relevance of education in
Kenya is the place of the different languages in schools. Presently, English is given
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 248 primacy as the medium of instruction and the official language as well as the gateway to
international communications. Kiswahili follows as a language of national identity, unity
and appeal. Indigenous languages occupy a third position and they are mainly useful in
rural settings and specific ethnic pockets in urban centers.
Languages in Kenya are symbolic testimonies of the upheavals of the 14th century
Arab trade and subsequent rule (by the Sultans of Oman) on the coast of East Africa23 and
the British colonial rule in the 19th and 20th centuries. Their social meanings are still
contested. Thus, focusing on Kenya in particular, but addressing the issue of language in
general, one of the proponents of the use of indigenous languages in the writing of
Kenyan and African literature in general states: “The choice of language and the use to
which language is put is central to a people’s definition of themselves in relation to their
natural and social environment, indeed in relation to the entire universe” (Ngugi wa
Thiong’o 1981:4). He sees language as a carrier of culture and through oral and print
literature, culture expresses “the entire body of values by which we come to perceive
ourselves and our place in the world” (Ngugi wa Thiong’o 1994:441).
Contrary to traditional beliefs that generally view languages as neutral tools of
communication, languages in Kenya and elsewhere can be strong statements of historical,
political, cultural and economic positions. Languages matter so much that at a time when
the British government was cutting aid to all other sectors in Tanzania, it offered to inject
1.46 million pounds sterling into an English language project. The project specifically
targeted the improvement of English in secondary schools through provision of books,
23 Kiswahili is a mixture of Arabic and Bantu.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 249 syllabus development and teacher training (Roy-Campbell 1991:218-219). Roy-
Campbell adds that the “project seeks to ensure that cultural reproduction in the society is
not totally beyond British influence” and “it is through such forces that external elements
such as the British Council and the World Bank have been able to influence educational
policies in Tanzania” (Roy-Campbell 1991:218-219). Similarly, French and English
speaking hegemonic powers compete with each other and use millions of dollars to
spread their languages to the world. In a relevant case not so far away from Kenya and
not so long ago, the apartheid system and the black youth of South Africa demonstrated
how important language is. It was resistance to the use of Afrikaans in black schools that
provoked the extreme apartheid state repressive measures that culminated in South
African Soweto massacre of students, youth and adults in 1976 (Mokadi 2003:62-65).
However, language is not, in essence, what is contested. It is what a language signifies
that is in contestation, the power behind that language. In the Soweto Massacre’s case, a
new regulation had been enacted that required students to be taught in Africaans, instead
of English, in the key areas of maths, and social studies (history and geography).
Tensions rose in the black community because “Afrikaans had always been an unpopular
language among Blacks since it was seen as one of the symbols of repressive state
authority. It was the language spoken in pass offices, police stations, and other places of
State bureaucracy” (Mokadi 2003:63).
In Apollo, and in Kenya in general, languages remain important in the articulation
of ethnicities, nationalism and internationalism. As in Apollo’s case, a school’s success
partially depends on how well they strategize local, national and international choices of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 250 language, depending on their market value. For purposes of passing examinations and
joining prestigious institutions for further education and, eventually, jobs, English
remains an important language, and its importance is reflected by the allocation of more
teaching time in the curriculum. Activities that enhance the understanding of the
language are also given importance, for ex-ample, debating and poetry competitions.
Needless to say, English is a valuable integral part of the success ideology in Apollo. As
the language is accorded greater status, the students, especially in the rival school, feel a
great need to be a part of the status by claiming English as their language of choice.
Outside the classrooms, however, the language’s supremacy is strongly contested by the
national language, Kiswahili, and to some extent by the indigeneous languages. Though
Sheng is despised by “professionals” and the older generation (since it is perceived as a
language of urban youth), it is also a challenge to the supremacy of English.
Related to the place of choice of language/s in schools is the question of how
democratic and independent a country’s education can be, especially for countries with a
history of colonialism in the recent past, from which the educational system is derived. A
more pressing issue may even be the continued dependency of such countries on
economic aid. Can they purge dependency in education sector planning while their other
sectors are still dependent? Ngugi wa Thiong’o struggles with this ‘quest for relevance’
as he points out that:
I shall attempt to sum up what we have so far been discussing by looking at what immediately underlies the politics of language in African literature; that is the search for a liberating perspective within which to see ourselves clearly in relationship to ourselves and to other selves in the universe. I shall call this ‘a quest for relevance’ and I want to look at it as far as it relates, not to just the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 251 writing of literature, but to the teaching of that literature in schools and universities and to the critical approaches (Ngugi wa Thiong’o 1997:87).
As long as the premium is very high on passing examinations and teachers’
success is judged by all concerned according to how many students make it to good
secondary schools, teachers will use all their ingenuity to satisfy this insatiable
community need. The pressure on teachers has been illustrated well by Somerset who
argues that the Certificate of Primary Education examinations determines not only the
destiny of a student but that of his teacher (Somerset 1974:172). Thus, in as far as the
parents and the general community are concerned, the process may not be as important as
the product. In view of that fact, and also in view of a centralised curriculum and
examinations, Apollo and other schools have hardly any choices in terms of pedagogy.
However, schools can make choices about what methods are effective in teaching the
centralised curriculum to their students. Apollo uses several methods that include
demonstrations by teachers during science lessons (with limited equipment as there is no
science lab), teaching from the syllabus topics, student discussions as well as use of past
examination papers for student practice. There is also great attempt to encourage students
to get involved in any extra-curricular activities that promote the subjects that are tested
in national examinations (specifically debates and poetry competitions in both English
and Kiswahili).
While many parents and teachers and some students said that discipline and
physical punishment is effective, more students said it was the one thing that they wanted
eliminated in their school. Based on the many current students that recommended
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 252 changes in this area, I suggest it is an area that needs further discussion. The question is
how discipline can be balanced with respect for children’s rights, dignity, protection, and
development without compromising respect for teachers, the learning process and
excelling in national examinations. The parents, teachers and most former students see
discipline and punishment as an important part of the success ideology in Apollo.
Through influence from international organizations (World Bank, UNESCO,
UNICEF), Education For All (EFA) is a stated major goal for education in Kenya and the
developing world, in general. One of Kenya’s education objectives, for example, is:
To provide, promote and co-ordinate lifelong education, training and research for Kenya’s sustainable development. To focus on priority areas within overall education goals, notably towards attaining ‘universal primary education’ by 2005, within the context of the wider objective of ‘Education for All (EFA)’ by 2015. (GoK,MoEST:2004, quotes in the original). www.education.go.ke/Mission.htm (downloaded May 28, 2004).
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology also has promotion of
“access, equity and quality in Primary and Secondary Education” as a major objective.
Toyi School argues that they give access to education to more students because they allow
weak students to remain in school while Apollo ejects them or gives them the option of
repeating. Relying on the same argument, it would look like quantity compromises
quality and vice versa. However, Apollo admits more students than Toyi and their
examination classes’ enrolments are even larger. When I did research (in 2002) there
were 210 and 129 candidates in Apollo and Toyi, respectively, and gross enrollment was
1750 and 1343.
Also, the fact that schools are institutions that legitimate both success and failure
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 253 contradict the stated national goals of many countries that wish to promote educational
access, equity and quality in elementary and secondary schools. And developing
countries are not spared this creation of inequality. In discussing education in general and
Kenyan education in particular, Prewitt points out that “Education simultaneously
promotes the condition of equality and the conditions of inequality” (Prewitt 1974:201). -
This points to the contested terrains and ideologies in schools. Both Toyi and Apollo
participate in somewhat different ways in the creation of inequality. While Apollo
produces more students who are likely to eventually join high income careers, Toyi
produces just a handful of them.
Effective Schools Contrasted
What suggestions can the Apollo study give to schools? Studies on the success of
schools highlight parents’ participation in their children’s learning as an important quality
in improving success in school (Garibaldi 1987, Sizemore 1987, Noblet and Pink 1987).
They also highlight the importance of student-centered focus in teaching and learning. In
studies of effective schools in the US, the very criteria for determining whether a school
is “effective” has been contested. However, high performance at standardized tests in
both elementary and higher levels of learning has been considered one of the major
variables that points to good performance by the schools (see, for example, Sizemore
1987:175-6, Pink 1987:218, 221 Garibaldi 1987:250, Noblet and Pink 1987:171). While
some schools have recommended that improvement in their schools’ quality would be
enhanced by a more narrowed down or more diverse curriculum (more well-rounded and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 254 competent), researchers like Garibaldi point out that “more does not always necessarily
mean better” (Garibaldi 1987:250) and others question whether more of the same is
necessarily better (Pink 1987:220). Noblit and Pink point out that many of the national
reports on effective schools are not very helpful to schools that would like to benefit from
the literature on effective schools because their data have not been derived from studies
of the schools themselves (Noblit and Pinkl987:171). Their recommendations are
“neither based on systematic observations of schools nor on asking people working in
schools how to improve schools”(Pink 1987:220).
In spite of the lack of clarity of what an effective school should be, its proponents
have been commended for their primary concern with social class and equity in the
classroom and at school in general. Criticizing the old school that argued that learning
depended on students’ social class and race, they argue that factors internal to schools
could be used to enhance school performance. They are interested in “improving the
access to learning opportunities for lower-class and minority students as well as raising
the learning rate of students performing in the bottom quartile on standardized test” (Pink
1987:219).
After examining eight effective schools (the schools considered themselves
effective because they had identified their deficiencies and were working hard to
ameliorate them) in four different states, Garibaldi reports that effective schools may be
diverse but they certainly have commonalities. Of the schools examined in the 1983
study, 21% were rural, 50% suburban, 20% mixed. Twenty-eight percent had a minority
enrollment of 25% or more; 18% had a high percentage of recent immigrants; 17% had
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 25% of students from low-income families and their enrollments ranged from 91 to 3,666
students. The attributes of success were: clear academic goals, high expectation for
students, order and discipline, student incentives and rewards, frequent monitoring of
student success, opportunities for meaningful student participation and responsibility,
teacher efficacy, incentives and rewards for teachers, concentration on academic learning
time, positive school climate, administrative leadership, well-articulated curriculum,
evaluation for instructional improvement and community support and involvement
(1987:252, 260). The indicators for success were standardized achievement scores,
performance on minimum competency tests, percentages of students who join higher
education, or training, military or find jobs, students receiving scholarships or other
awards (science fairs, essays, other competitions), low drop-out rates, daily attendance
(teachers and students), few/low suspensions/expulsions, awards for outstanding school
programs and teaching (Garibaldi 1987:252).
In all the eight schools, graduation requirements were higher than state
requirements, staff turn-over was low, schools were orderly, teachers were appreciated,
discipline was exemplary (but not oppressive), there were few absentees (teacher and
pupil), leadership and administration was commended by teachers, pupils and parents,
and teachers, parents and students were involved (Garibaldi 1987:60). He concluded that
effective schools principals recognized student and faculty needs, delegated
responsibilities to students and faculty, screen, evaluate staff, participate in school
instruction decisions and lastly but most important of all projects the belief that all
students can learn. Such schools had sound and diverse curricular, able and committed
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 256 staff, good but not oppressive discipline, effective administrative activities, involvement
of parents, diverse co-curricular activities and motivated students who had high
expectations for themselves (Garibaldi 1987:260). Similar qualities were also mentioned
by Pink (1987:246-247), Sizemore (1987:200-201) and Squires and colleagues (1984:3).
Pink adds that the interaction of different elements in different schools influence school
success, but the important point is not so much the difference in elements but rather that
“the social context of a specific school is likely to dictate a variety of ways of making
these same elements effective” (Pink 1987:248).
Similar to the effective schools in the US, my study establishes that leadership
that recognizes student and teacher needs is more likely to succeed. The study in Apollo
school suggests that cooperation between parents and teachers is easier to achieve in the
presence of exemplary leadership in the school. In Apollo school, leadership was a most
important variable in school success. Dynamic, informed and charismatic leadership that
can inspire respect and dignity for all members of the school community. Wise
leadership that can interrogate popular discourses about inequality and unearth myths in
such discourses. Leadership that is sensitive to its disadavantaged environment and is
ready to succeed, against all odds. This requires not only “knowing” (Freire 2000:44-47)
but unfathomed dedication, patience and desire to protect the gains that are already made,
with the knowledge that success comes out of commitment on everyday basis. The head
teacher in Apollo was capable of inspiring her teachers and rising above mediocrity to
move towards success. She never accepted that her students should fail just because they
were economically disadvantaged. She used language to question the assumptions of the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 257 ideology of slum failure and periodically told her teachers “Your students are what you
tell them they are”. As her words truthfully reflect, the powerful place of language in
constructing success in schools cannot be overlooked, particularly in schools with
populations that are normally associated with failure, like low income schools. Language
is all powerful because it constructs, maintains and changes meanings and relationships
(Fairclough 1996:12, Swann 2001:171). The Apollo head teacher uses it effectively as
counter discourse in her suggestion that there is another way of looking at performance in
low income schools. It is because of her unique qualities that a strong work ethic,
motivation, spirit of competitiveness, great expectations and an overall tradition to excel
persist in the school.
Apollo school, like the studies of effective schools in the US had low staff turn
over, unwavering discipline, and few teacher and student absentees, and its administration
was commended by teachers, students and parents. Similarly, the head teacher delegated
responsibility to teachers and participated in school instruction decisions and projected
the belief that all students can learn. Unlike the studies in the US, however, many parents
could not participate in actual student guidance in specific learning tasks because a
majority of them did not have the skills to do so. Also parents believed that decisions, in
the day-to-day learning and general administration of the school would be best handled by
the teachers because it is they who knew the decisions that could promote effective
learning. In addition, parents believed that teachers performed their duties best if they got
no interference from parents. Thus, parents’ decisions in the running of the school were
somewhat limited. The Apollo study does not ignore the positive effect on school
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 258 success that participation of parents can have as revealed in the case of the exceptional
family in chapter six. However, in a situation where students hardly have a conducive
home environment for studies, the commitment of the head teacher and all the teachers in
school in general can fill the gap of parents’ participation in students’ learning.
Border Pedagogy in Apollo School
Border pedagogy has been suggested as a way of challenging the anger at and
exclusion oflos atravesados, who are seen as “intruders” in forbidden territory (Giroux
1988 and 1994, Anzaldua 1999, Grossberg 1994). Since school success in Kenya is
traditionally associated with the better off schools, low income students are viewed as
“intruders”, los atravesados in the environment of success. By preparing the students to
succeed through discipline and hard work, the teachers in Apollo are offering an
alternative way of looking at low income schools and questioning the authenticity of
institutions that view success as a monopoly for the better off schools. They unsettle the
forces of class and ideology that attempt to confine their school to a non-performing zone.
The head teacher knows that it is not enough to verbally challenge the forces, “one has to
work hard for everything you get, even in private life”. But she also knows that the
psychological warfare against the ideology of failure is equally important. Like the
Puerto Rican teacher in New York (please refer to Chapter 2 for details on this), she
knows that she has to restore the teacher’s faith in the students and also the faith of the
students in themselves and their teachers. Like the New York teacher, she “aims to
strengthen the students’ morale and strengthen their sense of worth and identity, in the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 259 context of their own culture” (Montero -Sieburth and Perez 1987:185). The head teacher
and the teachers in Apollo School realize that to reach their goal, they, like the Puerto
Rican teacher, have to occupy a multiplicity of roles: “teacher, friend, mother, social
worker, translator, counselor, advocate, prosecutor, group therapist, hygienist, and
monitor” (Sieburth and Perez 1987:183).
In raising the bar for Apollo School, the teachers and students are helping achieve
“a new consciousness” as perceived by Anzaldua (1999:99). The new consciousness is
achieved when the school digs into their own consciousness, using their own resources to
make meanings of selves, to define for themselves who they are instead of listening to
other people who define them as non-achievers. Like Anzaldua they declare, “And if
going home is denied me then I will have to stand and claim my space, making a new
culture - una cultura mestiza with - my own lumber, my own bricks and mortar and my
own feminist architecture” (1999:44, italics in original). The school community and
everybody else who knows about their success can no longer be convinced that a low
income school, like theirs, cannot perform as well as the economically privileged schools.
The new consciousness is “liberating” in Freire’s sense (Freire 2000:44-47). It is also
similar to Gramsci’s organic intellectualism (Gramsci 1999:4). The head teacher in
Apollo school is an “organic intellectual” and several of her teachers are too. With a
strong vision and an unfathomable understanding that slums do not have a monopoly on
family problems, she declares that her students can succeed inspite of the low resources in
the school. The teachers are energized by various reasons, and their vision, albeit
sometimes blurred by partial belief in the ideology of slum failure, carries them through
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the task of facilitating outstanding performance in the exams. Their performance calls
into question the assumptions that privilege the better off schools and in that way, the
teachers disturb class-based power relations and hegemony. Such struggles in school
foreground the school as a battleground and in Apollo, the teachers’ and students’
challenging of subjectivities makes them proactive, instead of reactive. Being proactive
is an important tenet of Border Pedagogy as exemplified by Anzaldua and Freire and this
study recognizes Border Pedagogy as one way of offering a way to understand the success
ideology in Apollo. Border Pedagogy is also captured by Willis when he argues that:
“making (not receiving) messages and meanings is, in essence, a form of education in the
broadest sense. It is the specifically developmental part of symbolic work, an education
about ‘the self’ and its relation to the world and to others in it” (Willis 1990:136,
parentheses and quotes in the original). In addition to making meanings of the self, they
have also established that the privileged position claimed by better off schools has no
strong foundation.
Although Apollo school has challenged the baseless ideology of slum failure and
pathologization of families in the slums, and established that privileged students and
families are neither more intelligent nor more morally upright, they have not fully
unpackaged the situations that have been tapped by the privileged classes in order to
claim superiority. They have not interrogated how the privileged came to occupy their
privileged position. They have, therefore, not reached the advanced stage of Border
Pedagogy. Freire and Anzaldua argue that it is not enough to be proactive and make
meanings of oneself and one’s situation and merely unruffle class based power relations
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 261 and hegemony. In addition to that, a border intellectual has to go further and unsettle the
comfort zone of the privileged. Freire argues that oppressers need to be “liberated” too as
they are oppressed by their “oppressing power” (Freire 2000:44-47). They need to
recognize their burden. Similarly, Anzaldua asserts that border pedagogy has to demand
that atravesados “be met half-way” by interrogating the position of the privileged
(Anzaldua 1999:20). Giroux articulates this further by recognizing that, in addition to
making meanings for the self and the underprivileged in general, a border intellectual has
to problematize and destroy the myths that camouflage privilege (Giroux 1994:51). Such
myths are embedded in “the social and political realities that shape the larger society”
Giroux 1994:51-52.
The teachers and students in Apollo, in general, embrace border pedagogy by
establishing that the ideology of slum failure is baseless and also by creating meanings for
themselves and asserting that they can achieve success. They also tease the privileged
positions of better off schools, which they see as not any superior to them in terms of
performance or morals. However, they fall short of fully problematizing the privileged
positions of better off schools. The head teacher, for example, on several occasions
exposes that the privileged positions of better off schools and students are baseless and
asserts that the lifestyle in the homes of higher income parents/students is not unique
(they, too, have marital problems, and alcoholism, and even their claim to speaking better
English is a sham since what they speak is actuallySheng). However, she does not
explicitly indicate how the myths about higher family morals for the privileged were
forged (by the privileged themselves) and have evolved. In this manner, the success of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 262 Apollo school is explained within the first two stages of Border Pedagogy. Borrowing
from Freire (2000), Anzaldua (1999), Willis (1990) and Giroux (1994), my research
considers the first two stages as making meanings of self and unsettling myths of the
privileged, respectively. The advanced stage exposes how the privileged have succeeded
in claiming superior morals and class positions for themselves and how that privileged
position has evolved over the years. The third (advanced) stage of Border Pedagogy has
not been addressed by Apollo school.
This dissertation saw Apollo as a battlefield with overlapping and successful
layers of meanings. The overlapping layers have been best explained by Raymond
Williams as “structures of feeling” (Williams 1977:128-135). They are non-linear, fluid
and seemingly contradictory. Williams recognizes “the living present” as receding, in
motion, flexible and unfolding and its “mixed experiences” as having impact on
meanings (1977:128, 130). He, further, explains that structures of feeling cannot be fully
tamed; they are “not feeling against thought, but thought as felt and feeling as thought:
practical consciousness of a present kind, in a living and interrelating continuity”
(1977:132). Although the experience at that stage is not yet concrete and formalized, it is
not just “flux” but a “structure”, that is “ ... a set, with specific internal relations, at once
interlocking and in tension” (1977:132). By the time the structure gets close to being
concrete, meanings are already being re-defined and a new structure is already forming
with new meanings. The tension in the seemingly contradictory experiences in Apollo
can be explained within the rather abstract explanations of Williams’ understanding of
cultural present or on-going experience of the formation of institutions and positions.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 263 William explains “Structures of feeling” as a cultural present that understands institutions
and social formations as constantly changing and by the time they are fully formed, they
are still not completely whole. By that time, new “structures of feeling” begin to emerge.
The expectation that there would be neat divisions between experiences that can be
explained within Border Pedagogy and those that are explained within Social
Reproduction cannot, therefore, be realistic - since present, on-going formations are
typically contested.
Further, Social Reproduction offers one way of understanding the other side of the
battle field, the ideology of slum failure that somewhat still lingers on in Apollo. Some
teachers argue that the students are somewhat constrained by the environment and it is the
dedication of the teachers that rescues them from this unpleasant situation. Thus, they
actually embrace some ideas that fall within the theory of Social Reproduction to a certain
extent. It is important to note that some of the teachers who express the ability of the
students to do well nevertheless indicate (on different occasions) that the students are
slum kids who cannot do well. They also sometimes indicate that they are not really a
school in the slums. The paradox of living within slums but claiming habitation
elsewhere is a socio-psychological phenomenon that I have explained within both the
ideology of success and failure. While it does not fully negate association of slums with
failure, it allows Apollo to disengage themselves from the failure ideology and to align
and legitimate their alignment more fully with practices that lead to success. The whole
scenario was initially puzzling to me until I realized that rather than looking at the
different voices as contradictory, they are actually multiple voices that nevertheless state
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 264 realities, as experienced at different times, and, sometimes, simultaneously.
In Apollo, the ideology of failure is strongly contested by that of success; they are
in constant daily battling and while in most cases success prevails, failure is nevertheless
present. In some ways, the battling reflects the precarious balance of the power of agency
and structural pressure. They reflect the workings of implicit power or the power of
ideology in the sense described by Fairclough (1989:3-4). When the teachers still express
their doubts about overcoming the ideology of failure by stating that slum kids cannot do
well (even after more than two decades of excellent performance in Apollo), I argue that
at that specific time they are tapping their claim from the survivals of the ideology “slum
kids are failures”. But when they claim it is the dedication of the teachers that help slum
kids do well and also admit “there are some very bright kids in this school”, they
somewhat negate the same ideology. The contradictory perceptions can be explained,
again, within Raymond Williams’ explanation of the phenomena of “structures of
feelings” (Williams 1977:128-135). Overall, the consistent outstanding performance of
students in national exams unsettles assumptions of the ideology of slum failure in
general and Apollo school in particular.
In view of the different perceptions that were expressed about pedagogy itself in
Apollo school, it would be important to do some follow up research so as to examine
more closely the details of pedagogy in particular subjects, compare it to several other
schools and align it with different subject specific methods. Research focusing on a
closer analysis of discursive practices that sustain punishment ideologies in schools may
also be illuminating. A thorough study of the performance of Apollo students in post-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 265 Apollo institutions, including employment institutions would examine whether success in
Apollos has been sustainainable. As I continued interviewing students during field work,
I wondered whether former Apollos would be somewhat devalued in post-secondary
institutions due to differences in cultural capital. Those whom I met were doing very well
but, several said that they did feel somewhat discouraged in high school due to formation
of “cliques” of students that felt they were economically better off, which was an
experience they said was largely absent in Apollo. But they explained that it was not
enough to derail them from their goals. With a larger sample, there probably would be
diverse results.
Overall, both schools partially accept the ideology of slum failure to a certain
degree. However, the interpretation of the ideology is different in both schools. While
the ideology renders Toyi impotent, it energizes Apollo school so that they get to work.
The major difference between the two schools is that Toyi’s apathy chains the school to
conventional slum limitations, while Apollo creates every avenue to escape from the
chains, carving a comfortable zone for themselves where failure will not be allowed
entry. In Toyi, some individual teachers are striving to break the chains but steady
leadership is absent and group motivation is too feeble. The weakest link in Toyi is the
most important one: lack of sustained leadership. Head teacher transfers are too frequent
and “community spirit” and motivation is lacking among the teachers and parents.
Besides, the possibility of outstanding success in their school (like that in Apollo) seems
too far-fetched and overwhelming, and both the students and teachers express this fact.
Though many excuses for failure are given, and some of them may not be altogether
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 266 unfounded24, a head teacher with the desire and commitment to stay in the school for a
long time and help the school realize they “can do it” is badly needed. The teachers need
confidence in their ability to navigate disadvantaged students through the difficult terrain
of moving towards success. They need to have confidence in themselves before they can
radiate it to their students. And above all, they need strong and consistent leadership that
would help them discover that confidence. However, this research does not single out
just one factor that is a trump card to exemplary performance in examinations. While
strong leadership was seen as an important factor, the study takes into consideration all
the other factors that have been elaborated on throughout the chapters. The study
recognizes the fact that success is not attained by one factor or just a collection of factors,
but also by their interaction.
24 The scope of this research could not address them fully enough to disqualify them.
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