The Figured Worlds of Schoolgirls in Kono, Sierra Leone
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses Fall August 2014 "For a future tomorrow": The figured worlds of schoolgirls in Kono, Sierra Leone Jordene Hale University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the African Studies Commons, International and Comparative Education Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Hale, Jordene, ""For a future tomorrow": The figured worlds of schoolgirls in Kono, Sierra Leone" (2014). Doctoral Dissertations. 89. https://doi.org/10.7275/vb55-cv35 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/89 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “FOR A FUTURE TOMORROW”: THE FIGURED WORLDS OF SCHOOLGIRLS IN KONO, SIERRA LEONE A Dissertation Presented by JORDENE HALE Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION May 2014 Language, Literacy, and Culture Concentration Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies College of Education © Copyright by Jordene Hale 2014 All Rights Reserved “FOR A FUTURE TOMORROW”: THE FIGURED WORLDS OF SCHOOLGIRLS IN KONO, SIERRA LEONE A Dissertation Presented by JORDENE HALE Approved as to style and content by: ____________________________________ Meg Gebhard, Chair ____________________________________ Ralph Faulkingham, Member ____________________________________ Maria Jose Botelho, Member _____________________________ Christine B. McCormick, Dean College of Education DEDICATION To David, Sophia Maxine, Chana Rose and Adama ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My Sierra Leone families housed me, fed me, and taught me to live and love- Salone style. With love, I thank my Freetown family: my sister Marie Jalloh and our children, Edna, Little Mama, Fuad, and Alim. In Kono, I thank Patrick, Mariama, Regina, Fatu, Annie, Grace, and PaAbu of the Lamin-Tongu family for taking such good care of me. I am especially grateful to Patrick for his anthropologist’s eye, his commitment to social justice, and sharing his passion for his beloved Kono. I thank Komba Boima and Fasali Marrah for their laughter and love. I thank Sunshine for feeding me, Matia for welcoming me, and Emmanuel Tomme for giving me his beautiful home with its very important porch. I thank Jim Higbie for our long discussions over dinners at Aries. I thank Baba for his generosity with vehicles. Most of all, I thank the girls and women of Kono for welcoming me onto their porches: Kadiatu Amara, Jeneba L. Bah, Binte Conte, Olivia Dauda, Salamatu Kabba, Mariama Marrah, Adama Menjoh, Sia Momoh, Fatu Sam, Aminata Sessay, Dumbia Musu Wuseni, Princess Pratt, and Mary Yamba. I want to thank Alane Paul Castro and Marina Goldman for taking the journey with me. May we always have such meaningful adventures. I thank Lianne Suarez, Ruth Harman, Dong-Shin Shin and the rest of my fabulous LLC cohort for our critic thinking after class sessions. I appreciate Susan Holck’s close reading of many rough drafts. I thank my wonderful spiritually supportive chavurah for all their concern, guidance, and pep talks during the long and winding process. I thank Elsa Wiehe for her spirit, her clarity, and her love. I thank Alan Peterfreund for his tenacious encouragement and Irv Seidman for convincing me to v pursue my doctorate. I thank my committee Maria Jose Botelho and Meg Gebhard for their endless patience. I thank Ralph Faulkingham for his belief in me and this work. Finally I thank my loving husband, David Rabinovitz, who never doubted me and our two daughters, Sophia Maxine and Chana Rose for exemplifying unconditional love and support. vi ABSTRACT “FOR A FUTURE TOMORROW”: THE FIGURED WORLDS OF SCHOOLGIRLS IN KONO, SIERRA LEONE MAY 2014 JORDENE HALE, B.A., HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE M.A., BOSTON UNIVERSITY ED.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by Professor Meg Gebhard Current research in Sub-Sahara Africa suggests that young women face challenges in accessing and completing schooling, due among other things to gender related school based violence (Bruce & Hallman, 2008; Dunne, Humphreys, & Leach, 2006; Lloyd, Kaufman, & Hewett, 2000). These studies, while valuable in providing documentation on school enrollment and school leaving, do not explore the motivational framework where young women remain in school. The purpose of this dissertation is to trace how schoolgirls’ identities or “figured worlds” (Gee, 2011) are co-constructed in particular contexts by the same cohort of schoolgirls, their teachers, households, and communities through an ethnographic case study conducted over a period of three years from 2010 to 2013 in Kono, Sierra Leone. The unit of analysis is the experience of the individual schoolgirls rendered in detailed portraits. The central research question addressed is: What are the ‘figured worlds’ that these schoolgirls inhabit that compels them, in the face of overwhelming odds, to commit to schooling? What is the role of “imagined communities” for these schoolgirls (Anderson, 1991; Kanno & Norton, 2003)? vii Further, how do the schoolgirls utilize the liminal space of schooling (Switzer, 2010)? Employing the portraiture methodology (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffman Davis, 1997) this research focuses on three schoolgirls, their communities, and their relationships with the researcher. This research analyzes how for schoolgirls in sub- Sahara Africa, the figured worlds of schoolgirls, is an identity that despite the physical risk, economic loss, and unlikely career success, becomes compelling. This dissertation contributes to research seeking gender equity in education in sub-Sahara Africa. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 1.1. Preface......................................................................................................................1 1.1.1. Vignette ..............................................................................................................1 1.1.2. Introduction ........................................................................................................3 1.1.3. Focal schoolgirls ................................................................................................5 1.1.4. My role ...............................................................................................................7 1.2. Previous Research on Schoolgirls ...........................................................................7 1.3. Theoretical Foundations........................................................................................11 1.3.1. Figured Worlds: Gee ........................................................................................12 1.3.2. Imagined Communities: Norton ......................................................................17 1.3.3. Liminality .........................................................................................................19 2. RESEARCH SITE .........................................................................................................22 2.1. The Civil War .......................................................................................................25 2.2. Gender issues in Sierra Leone...............................................................................32 2.3. Education in Sierra Leone ....................................................................................35 3. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................44 3.1. Sierra Leone and my story ....................................................................................44 3.1.1. From researcher to NGO .................................................................................52 3.1.2. Sponsor and researcher ...................................................................................56 3.1.3. Class and Race ................................................................................................60 3.2. Research Design....................................................................................................65 3.2.1. Data Collection ...............................................................................................66 ix 3.3. Data Analysis Methodology .................................................................................71 3.3.1. Phase One: Generative coding ........................................................................72 3.3.2. Phase Two: Writing portraitures .....................................................................73 3.3.3. Phase Three: Figured Worlds and Imagined Communities ............................76 3.4. Member checks .....................................................................................................77 3.5. Transcription .........................................................................................................78