Education, daily routine, and prospects of primary school teachers in Haiti: delay, drudgery, and dreams [Elektronische Ressource] / von Gertrud Thiel, geb. Sauer

Gertrud Thiel

Informations

• Publié par: humboldt-universitat_zu_berlin
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Education, Daily Routine, and Prospects
of Primary School Teachers in Haiti:
Delay, Drudgery, and Dreams


Inauguraldissertation

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades

Dr. phil.


eingereicht im Fach Erziehungswissenschaften
an der Philosophischen Fakultät IV
der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin


von
Gertrud Thiel, geb. Sauer
18.06.1953, Göttingen
Präsident der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christoph Markschies

Dekan der Philosophischen Fakultät IV
Prof. Dr. Elk Franke
Gutachter:
1. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Henze
2. Prof. Dr. Ortfried Schäffter


Eingereicht am: 23. Januar 2008
Tag des Rigorosums: 17. Dezember 2008






Dedicated to my parents
Heinz and Elisabeth Sauer
2
Table of Contents
1 Introduction 6
1.1 Background of the Research 6
1.2 Purpose and the Research Question 8
1.3 Thesis Format 9
2 Literature Review 11
2.1 Global Guidelines 11
2.2 Global Agenda versus Local Reality 15
2.3 Teachers in Developing Countries 23
3 Methodology 31
3.1 Theoretical Considerations 31
3.2 The Research Process 35
3.3 Data Collection and Data Analysis 37
3.4 Limitations 46
4 A Nation of Artists of Survival 49
4.1 Basic Data about Haiti 50
4.2 Haitian History 56
4.3 Haiti’s Spirituality 67
4.4 Personal Observations 76
5 The Rural Space 81
5.1 Reproductive Concepts in Northern Haiti 82
5.2 Lessons from Haitian Peasants 86
5.3 Social Capital in Grass Roots Organizations 90
5.4 Concepts of Development in Central Haiti 92
6 The Emergence of the Haitian Education System 96
6.1 Education Before and During Colonial Times 96
6.2 The First Century after the Independence 101
th6.3 Consolidation of Foreign Influences in the 20 Century 104
6.4 Dramatic Rise in Primary School Enrolment 110
6.5 Attempts to Reform the System 112
6.6 Language and Education 114
3
st7 Haitian Education in the Beginning of the 21 Century 117
7.1 Characteristics and Structure of Haiti’s Education System 117
7.2 Demand, Supply, and Selection 121
7.3 Unequal Opportunities 124
7.4 Education Reform and Reality 127
7.5 The Teachers 129
8 Teachers in Port-au-Prince 135
8.1 Observations 135
8.2 Interviews in Port-au-Prince 138
8.3 Pilot Interviews 147
9 A Teacher Training Project in the Province 150
9.1 The Setting 150
9.2 Working Conditions for Teachers in the Area 151
9.3 Conceptualization and Realization of the Project 156
9.4 Interviews with Foreign Staff 162
10 the Haitian Teachers 168
10.1 Portraits of Long-Term Teachers 168
10.2 Themes Common to Teachers Lives 173
10.2.1 Educational Delay 174
10.2.2 Hardship in Everyday Life: Drudgery 181
10.2.3 The Gift of Dreams 186
10.3 Illustration of Themes Using Several Portraits 187
10.4 Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment 191
11 Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations 196
11.1 Summary of Background Research 196
11.2 Essence of Findings 199
11.3 Conclusions and Recommendations 202
11.4 Haiti in a Global Context 208
List of References 212
Appendix A – Expert Interviews 231
Appendix B – Profiles of Informants 243
Glossary of Creole Words 249
4
Acknowledgements 252
Declaration / Erklärung 253
5
1 Introduction
Last night in sleep

I saw people

Starting to live as people

Each one

Living for everyone

Everyone

Living for each one

Then like a miracle

The tears in life’s eyes dried

Death stepped aside

For the open gate to let life pass

And take liberty by the hand

To go party

1 To go dance

1.1 Background of the Research
The idea for this research project developed during a four-year sojourn in
Haiti from 1997 to 2001. In 1997 and 1998, I explored the educational
opportunities of Haitian children with a focus on access to primary
2schooling. For my thesis, I consulted respective literature, and I



1 Désiré, Jean R., 4th and 5th stanza of his poem “Dream”. In Laraque &
Hirschman (Eds.). Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry. 2001,
pp.114-117
2 Thiel, Probleme des Schulzugangs in Haiti [Problems of Access to Schooling in
Haiti]. 1998
6
interviewed children, parents, teachers, Education Ministry staff, and other
professionals in different organizations involved in primary schooling.
When scheduling interviews with children and young adults about their
educational experiences, I sought out divergent samples. A thirteen-year-
old girl had the least formal education, having never attended school, but
could calculate astonishingly well--a skill learned from selling bananas with
her mother. At the other end of the scale, was a young man whose father
was an attorney and who attended one of the private elite high schools. All
the other informants were situated between these two extremes, for
example:
• A fourteen-year-old boy lived by himself in a small tin hut. His mother
had died and his father worked in the Dominican Republic. He carried
sacks of flour in a bakery to make some money, and his father
occasionally supported him. The boy attended a school associated with
the school network of the Salesian order. His dream was to become a
pilot one day.
• A fourteen-year-old girl came from a family with ten children. She had
been given away to work in a household as a restavèk (“child servant,”
see explanations in 4.1) when she was twelve years old. Two years
later, she was passed on to work for a woman in Port-au-Prince. She
was fortunate to be included in a school project for “at risk” children.
After she cleaned, washed clothes, and fetched water in the morning,
she could go to school in the afternoon.
• A young man, who had graduated in civil engineering, described how
his illiterate mother had worked hard to finance her childrens’
schooling by cooking and selling food in a small restaurant. It was
extremely difficult for her to pay even the small annual fees for the
public school. After primary school, he competed against more than a
thousand other students in an elimination test, and qualified for one of
twenty spots available in the public lycée of his hometown. There were
twenty more spots, available without testing, for children who had the
3“right” connections .
I visited most of the schools that my informants had attended and talked
to their teachers or directors. While doing so, I realized that “going to
school” in Haiti did not mean that everyone received an education of same
quality. I became curious about the teachers: Why were the educational
levels of teachers in different schools so divergent? After a discussion with
personnel in the Ministry of Education (see 8.2), it became clear that even
the government professionals did not know much about teachers in the
countryside: Why else would they be shocked at the low level of education



3 During the Duvaliers’ dictatorship children of macoute-officers (see 4.2) had
preferential access to public schools (see 6.3).
7
attained by their compatriots? Obviously, there was a difference between
working with statistics and working directly with rural teachers.
Family income and proximity to a school were the factors that most
influenced whether a child was able to attend school. For those who were
able, the Haitian primary schools varied significantly in quality. Poor
children and those who lived in remote areas were least likely to attend a
school of good quality. Another decisive factor that regulated access to a
good education was a child’s fluency in French, which is spoken by the
elite, as opposed to only speaking Creole, the mother tongue of the
majority. An educational reform that mandated Creole as a language of
instruction and a subject in primary schools was regarded by
disadvantaged parents as a deliberate attempt to exclude the poor from
learning French and thus was applied only half-heartedly by most of the
private schools. Haiti’s unique school landscape, comprised of nearly 90% te schools, had developed in response to high demand for schooling
and a low supply of public schools.
After finishing my studies, I taught in the education department of
Quisqueya University in Port-au-Prince, over a period of six semesters,
from 1998 to 2001. Most of my students were in their mid-to-late twenties
and were already working as teachers (in some cases even as directors).
Others were involved in teacher-training projects for disadvantaged
schools. In the seminars, their experiences provided for practical, down-to-
earth discussions from which I could learn a lot. To gain a better
understanding of their individual viewpoints and experiences, I interviewed
some of my students in 2001 and resolved to do more interviews with
teachers in the countryside. In November 2001, how