Out-of-school girls’ lives in Zimbabwe: what can we learn from a storytelling research approach?

Abstract

This paper focuses on the experiences of out-of-school girls in Zimbabwe. It draws on a research strand of SAGE (Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education), a UKAid programme funded through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) initiative. Using a digital storytelling approach the research highlights critical events that have changed girls’ lives and impacted on how they see their futures. The paper explores insights made possible by this alternative methodology. Crucially, it challenges the often-static representation of ‘marginalised’ and ‘out-of-school’ girls in Sub-Saharan Africa by illustrating the unpredictability of individual circumstances and girls’ perceptions of these, within broader contexts of persistent vulnerability factors. Drawing on the capability approach the paper also offers new insights into the perceived value and purpose of school for out-of-school girls. The findings have implications for conceptualising more creative, contextually appropriate policies and practices for young people who miss out on formal school. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

capability approach Zimbabwe storytelling Girls’ education non-formal schooling

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

Education and Language Studies, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom

Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa

Plan International UK, London, United Kingdom

Plan International Zimbabwe, Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe

Funding & Acknowledgements

Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering, Newcastle University, SAgE

This research was funded by SAGE (Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education), a UKAid-funded programme through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Girls’ Education Challenge initiative. We are grateful to the FCDO for their feedback on a draft of this paper, but would like to emphasise that the views expressed are those of the research team and not necessarily the FCDO. We would like to thank Lizwe Sibanda, Tafadzwa Mhou and Precious Babbage from Plan International, Zimbabwe for their valued research support. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their contributions and insights. Most of all we thank the 11 girls who shared their stories. Thank you to Dr Joanna Wheeler who was an advisor for the research and helped to adapt the storytelling approach.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, FCDO

This research was funded by SAGE (Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education), a UKAid-funded programme through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Girls’ Education Challenge initiative. We are grateful to the FCDO for their feedback on a draft of this paper, but would like to emphasise that the views expressed are those of the research team and not necessarily the FCDO. We would like to thank Lizwe Sibanda, Tafadzwa Mhou and Precious Babbage from Plan International, Zimbabwe for their valued research support. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their contributions and insights. Most of all we thank the 11 girls who shared their stories. Thank you to Dr Joanna Wheeler who was an advisor for the research and helped to adapt the storytelling approach.

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Out-of-school girls’ lives in Zimbabwe: what can we learn from a storytelling research approach?

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