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Think piece: Tanzanian children’s experience of violence – implications for practice and programming

This think piece explores the implications for programming of a piece of research that explored with children their experience of harm in school settings and started to investigate whether punitive practices are caused and maintained by social norms.

This paper draws on three frameworks that underpin the thinking on how best to meaningfully engage children, their families, and school communities in creating safe and inclusive schools. The frameworks are the 3Ss (space, support, system change), the power framework, and the complexity navigator.

The purpose of the paper is to recap the findings from a survey and appreciative inquiry process that was facilitated with 188 Tanzania children; to raise questions for programme design and implementation; to identify the power shifts that will be required if young people are to be meaningfully engaged in building safe and inclusive schools; to theorise about change; and to identify the impact chains that may underpin the process of creating safe and inclusive schools.