About the Project

The project focuses on Indigenous peoples. Broadly, Indigenous communities are found in all areas of the world and can generally be understood to include some (but not necessarily all) strong historical links to traditions, territories and languages that predate colonisation, possess beliefs or socio-economic systems in parallel to ‘mainstream’ colonial or settler power structures and systems. Many indigenous communities may have incorporated or appropriated some aspects of colonial or settler societies’ values and practices but still commit to maintaining and recreating traditions, cultures, heritage, language and so forth as a distinct community.

In the above light, this project focuses on the Kaonde people of Kasenseli and the Soli people of Chongwe. Kasenseli is situated in the Northwestern Province of Zambia. The Educational Statistical Bulletin estimates that Kasenseli is one of Zambia’s most rural and impoverished regions. Access to health care and education is hampered by poor infrastructure and distance from urban centres. Chongwe, on the other hand, is a rural region near the capital. However, despite its proximity to the capital, it is considered one of the most impoverished regions in the entire country.

Purpose of the Project

The overarching purpose of the TIR project is to contribute to a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to do so, within the context of leaving no one behind, the project seeks to understand the learning of Indigenous children (particularly girls) in Zambia during the pandemic and the impact of the underpinning restrictions. It also seeks to jointly create supporting advocacy messages from the evidence generated, that incorporates the knowledge systems of people from Indigenous communities. In these regards, the research focuses on including people/partners from Indigenous communities in establishing processes toward lasting recovery. It can be argued that one cannot expect lasting results from development interventions without recognising and incorporating the particular views, practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, know-how, and other forms of intangible heritage held by local communities. Therefore, the project is based on the understanding that if the global community must build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic, our response must include Indigenous voices.

The project is exploring the following overarching questions:

a. How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the learning of children (particularly girls) in Zambia?
b. What strategies are being or were implemented by parents/caregivers in these Indigenous communities to foster their children’s learning (especially girls) during the COVID-19 pandemic?
c. What support for learning tools can be created for an inclusive response that incorporates Indigenous knowledge and practices in Indigenous communities during the pandemic?

Project Approach

The TIR project adopts a participatory design, ensuring that people from Indigenous communities are involved at each stage of evidence generation. Yarning Circle and Photoyarn: In the project communities, family yarning circles will be conducted. Yarning circles are harmonious, creative, and collaborative ways of communicating and a proven decolonised method consistent with research in Indigenous contexts. It will also incorporate a photoyarn method that will allow participating girls to tell personal stories about their experiences of learning during the COVID-19 crisis. Each participant will be given a camera and to take pictures (or express via another method like drawing, if preferred) that represent their experiences of (remote) learning. They will be engaged individually in a yarning session based on photos they produce and what the photos reflect about their experiences. The digital cameras will be gifted to them to ensure reciprocity.

Interactions with key community and education stakeholders: The project will engage various categories of participants. These include stakeholders and families that will be engaged through semi-structured interview sessions to understand the spread of COVID-19, its impact and control mechanisms in the study regions.

Co-creation workshop: The project will organise two learning workshops. The first workshop will focus on co-creating advocacy toolkits and recommendations for an inclusive response to the Coronavirus learning crisis that was experienced in the project regions. The second learning workshop will serve as a dissemination meeting and will provide an opportunity to share evidence and outputs generated through the project with stakeholders. Families and other stakeholders that participated in the earlier phases of the project will also be invited to participate in the workshops.