The journey to school : space, geography and experiences of rural children

This paper gives prominence to rural children's accounts of their journey to school. Twelve children (male = 6; female = 6) from three different rural villages in Lesotho participated in the study. Individual and focus group interviews were used to generate data, and these were preceded by thre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Perspectives in education 2012-03, Vol.30 (1), p.90-100
Main Authors: Muthukrishna, Nithi, Morojele, Pholoho
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to education
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
Agency
AIDS
Child Advocacy
Children
Children's geographies
Childrens Rights
Elementary School Students
Elementary Schools
Families & family life
Family (Sociological Unit)
Family Characteristics
Females
Focus Groups
Foreign Countries
Forests
Freehand Drawing
Geographic location
Geographic mobility
Geography
Grade 6
HIV
Human Geography
Human immunodeficiency virus
Interviews
Journey
Lesotho
Participatory Research
Peer Groups
Poverty
Research Design
Rural areas
Rural Population
Rural Youth
Rurality
School
Schools
Semi Structured Interviews
Social Environment
South Africa
Studies
Travel
Urban Areas
Urban Schools
Villages
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Summary:This paper gives prominence to rural children's accounts of their journey to school. Twelve children (male = 6; female = 6) from three different rural villages in Lesotho participated in the study. Individual and focus group interviews were used to generate data, and these were preceded by three participatory research techniques: family drawings, route mapping and diamond ranking, to engage children in dialogue and discussion. The study provided insights into the implications of family dynamics on children's school journey and the meaning of the school journey to the children. It illuminated how children actively define and re-define the varied places, power-laden spaces and social relations embedded in the journey. The study also highlighted how children's agency is expressed in their negotiation of the school journey, and represented rural children as heterogeneous with the capacity to navigate their localities in complex and autonomous ways.
ISSN:0258-2236
2519-593X