Increasingly, policy makers are pointing to schools as potential support systems for children rendered vulnerable by shocks including poverty, natural disasters, wars, inter-group conflict and discrimination, HIV/AIDS and other health challenges. These are all situations which may impede significant adults from playing an optimal role in children’s socialization, pastoral support and social protection.
Schools are normally geared around knowledge, teaching and learning, however, and it has been difficult to extend this tradition and develop the potential of schools to help children in difficult circumstances cope with hardship. This is particularly the case in developing country contexts, but also in marginalized communities in more affluent countries, where alternative support networks may be overstretched and limited.
This DFID/ESRC funded project examines, theoretically and empirically, the potential of schools and teachers in safeguarding the needs of children in difficult circumstances. It does so through impirical research from a HIV and AIDS context in Zimbabwe and through mobilising and faciltiating intellectual debate with a wider community of academics and practitioners who are experts in this area.
Schools are normally geared around knowledge, teaching and learning, however, and it has been difficult to extend this tradition and develop the potential of schools to help children in difficult circumstances cope with hardship. This is particularly the case in developing country contexts, but also in marginalized communities in more affluent countries, where alternative support networks may be overstretched and limited.
This DFID/ESRC funded project examines, theoretically and empirically, the potential of schools and teachers in safeguarding the needs of children in difficult circumstances. It does so through impirical research from a HIV and AIDS context in Zimbabwe and through mobilising and faciltiating intellectual debate with a wider community of academics and practitioners who are experts in this area.
