A University of Sussex PhD thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. 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Signature …………………………………………………………………. 2 UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX ANNEKE NEWMAN THESIS SUBMITTED FOR DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ANTHROPOLOGY FAITH, IDENTITY, STATUS AND SCHOOLING: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF EDUCATIONAL DECISION-MAKING IN NORTHERN SENEGAL SUMMARY This thesis investigates how families in northern Senegal negotiate between state and Islamic schools. Studies of education strategies within anthropology of education predominantly employ Bourdieu’s concept of capital. These studies are useful for illuminating the role of education within people’s strategies of social mobility, but tend to render invisible preferences based on non-material considerations like spiritual benefits. To overcome this challenge, this thesis uses economic theory which acknowledges both intrinsic and material factors informing school choice. It draws on fifteen months’ ethnographic fieldwork comprising life histories, informal interviews and participant observation. The thesis contributes to several debates in anthropology of development and education. Findings reveal the importance of a caste-like social hierarchy in shaping education strategies, and challenge simplistic predictions common in development discourse about how gender or being Muslim influence educational trajectories. Results also show how education preferences reflect context-specific routes to social mobility. In northern Senegal, lack of formal sector employment makes the secular state school’s promises of economic advancement largely inaccessible. Qur’anic schools present a more certain investment for men of privileged social groups who monopolise access to this education, for the prestige of Islamic knowledge and insertion into trade and migration networks. Intrinsic benefits of Qur’anic schooling, like blessing and moral education, also inform school preference. These factors are neglected in development discourse and state education provision - including recent reforms to engage Islamic knowledge to meet Education For All and the Millennium Development Goal – due to secularist and rationalist biases. This undermines families’ access to affordable schooling that combines the intrinsic and material benefits which they prioritise, and privileges those who can afford private alternatives. Inspired by applied anthropology committed to social justice, this thesis draws on people’s strategies to overcome these challenges to recommend non-formal alternatives to enable education provision compatible with popular worldviews. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................................... 6 NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTION AND ORTHOGRAPHY ...................................................................... 7 LIST OF MAPS AND TABLES ............................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1. EDUCATIONAL DECISION-MAKING AND DEVELOPMENT: UNDERSTANDING A PARADOX .......................................................................................................... 9 1.1 “O NLY POOR PEOPLE ATTEND QUR ’ANIC SCHOOLS ”: ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT SCHOOL CHOICE IN SENEGAL .................................................................................................................................................. 9 1.2 UNDERSTANDING SCHOOL PREFERENCE : DEBATES SURROUNDING “QUALITY EDUCATION ” ............. 17 1.3 THE ROLE OF IDENTITY IN SHAPING PREFERENCE ............................................................................. 29 1.4 UNDERSTANDING EDUCATIONAL DECISION -MAKING PROCESSES ..................................................... 36 1.5 TOWARDS AN APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY OF EDUCATION ................................................................... 44 1.6 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ............................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER 2. THE EVOLUTION OF KNOWLEDGE, POWER, SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL DECISION-MAKING IN SENEGAL ..................................................................... 49 2.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 49 2.2 THE QUR ’ANIC SCHOOLS : 1000 TO 1890 .......................................................................................... 51 2.3 THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION UNDER FRENCH COLONIAL RULE : 1890-1960 ................................ 59 2.4 SCHOOLS IN SENEGAL AFTER INDEPENDENCE : 1960 – 2014 ............................................................. 70 2.5 UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL CHOICES ............................................................ 76 2.6 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................... 85 CHAPTER 3. SITUATING LEARNING IN MEDINA DIALLOBÉ: METHODOLOGY, ACCESS AND CONTEXT ...................................................................................................................................... 88 3.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 88 3.2 LEARNING ABOUT LEARNING IN MEDINA DIALLOBÉ ........................................................................ 88 3.21 Understanding across epistemologies: Methodological reflections ......................................... 88 3.22 Building relationships as the basis of dialogue ........................................................................ 91 3.23 The politics of language and interpretation .............................................................................. 97 3.24 Methods .................................................................................................................................... 99 3.25 Situating ethics ....................................................................................................................... 103 3.3 THE CONTEXT FOR EDUCATIONAL DECISION -MAKING IN MEDINA DIALLOBÉ ................................. 107 3.31 Social, economic and political context ................................................................................... 107 3.32 Educational infrastructure ...................................................................................................... 112 3.4 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 117 CHAPTER 4. LONG-TERM STUDY IN THE QUR’ANIC SCHOOL OR DAARA ...................... 119 4.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 119 4.2 LIFE AS A STUDENT IN THE VILLAGE DAARA .................................................................................... 120 4.3 THE MULTIPLE VALUES OF A DAARA EDUCATION ............................................................................ 122 4.31 Blessing and moral education ................................................................................................. 122 4.32 Status and identity................................................................................................................... 126 4.33 Economic benefits ................................................................................................................... 135 4.4 CHOOSING THE DAARA : AN INCREASINGLY CONTESTED DECISION .................................................. 139 4.5 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 145 CHAPTER 5. ATTENDING STATE SCHOOL (I): DROPPING OUT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL................................................................................................................................................. 148 5.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 148 5.2 SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MEDINA DIALLOBÉ : RECENT AND DISRUPTED ........................................ 149 5.3 LEAVING SCHOOL TO WORK: BOYS WHO DROP OUT OF COLLÈGE .................................................... 153 5.4 THE COMPETING IDEALS OF MARRIAGE AND SCHOOLING : GIRLS WHO DROP OUT OF COLLÈGE ....... 162 5.41 Girls’ and their parents’ preferences ..................................................................................... 162 5.42 Husbands’ and in-laws’