Examining northern Namibian teachers' impressions of the effects of violence, gender, disability, and poverty on young children's development: School-based countermeasures

A donor-funded basic education support project in Namibia equipped grade one teachers in the northern district, mostly Owambo- and Kavango-populated and widely affected by relatively recent warfare in the region, with teachers' guides, posters, and materials for lessons, while also training teachers and introducing them to the basic practices of continuous assessment. Evaluative research assessed the efficacy of training and surveyed teachers' experiences with using continuous assessment by means of classroom observations, teacher interviews, and focus groups. As an extension of the construct of continuous assessment of cognitive ability, preliminary qualitative interview probes inquired about teachers' awareness of and ability to assess the potential impact of gender and disability on classroom performance and also their ability to assess the psychosocial problems of learners whose classroom behaviors may be affected by exposure to trauma in the home, village, and/or extended environment. The findings of this educational anthropology study mainly reflected the teachers' descriptions of the educational effects of trauma-related psychosocial factors on children; their perceptions of the effects of gender, disability, and the region's poverty; and the ameliorative effects of school-based countermeasures. Crosscultural and policy implications are explored and discussed.