Responses to cultural diversity in Botswana’s schools: links between national policy, school actions and students’ civic equality

Abstract

This article examines nation state policies that have prioritized toleration of diversity over recognition through comparative case studies of three junior secondary schools in Botswana. Through data collected in observations, focus groups, interviews and participatory action research, we demonstrate how the schools, which varied in the ethnic composition of their students, teachers and surrounding communities, responded differently to the reality of their multicultural student bodies. Two followed national policies closely, while the third crafted school-level policies adapted to its student population, yet tightly constricted by national policies and curriculum. In all three schools, students of ethnic minority backgrounds experienced varying degrees of shame, discrimination and a sense of exclusion from the nation and found little recourse to discuss and address these experiences within the structures of their schools. We argue that schools could better develop students’ capacity for equal citizenship were they supported by national education policies and curriculum to recognize the cultural, historical and linguistic diversity of Botswana’s ethnic minorities explicitly in schools.

Keywords:

• Curriculum
• multiculturalism
• civic equality
• Botswana

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The study was generously funded by a Fulbright fellowship from the U.S. Department of State; a Sinclair Kennedy Traveling Fellowship, Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Research Enabling Grant, and Harvard Academy Junior Faculty Development Grant from Harvard University; and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation.

Research ethics

All research drawn upon in this essay was approved by the Committee on the Use of Human Subjects at Harvard University and the Botswana Ministry of Education and Skills Development. All participants were aware of our roles as academic researchers and provided with an information sheet about the research, its potential risks and benefits and their rights within the research; adults gave their written consent for participation and children gave their assent.

Notes on contributors

Bethany Mulimbi is a postdoctoral fellow with the Botswana Educational Research Association and with the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on the interplay between how formal education systems, individual schools and teachers address the needs of students of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, particularly in Southern Africa. She holds an EdD from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Sarah Dryden-Peterson leads a research program that focuses on the connections between education and community development, specifically the role that education plays in building peaceful and participatory societies. Her work is situated in conflict and post-conflict settings and with diaspora communities. She is concerned with the interplay between local experiences of children, families and teachers and the development and implementation of national and international policies. She is on the faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2017.1398353.

Acknowledgements

We express our thanks to members of the school communities where we carried out this research—students, teachers, administrators and staff; to colleagues at the University of Botswana, especially Owen Pansiri and Lydia Nyati-Saleshando; to our Botswana-based research assistants, Moyagabo, Mosenodi, Bopelo and Kelebogile; to Pierre de Galbert for research assistance at the Harvard Graduare School of Education; to Meira Levinson, Paola Uccelli and the Mowana Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for feedback on earlier drafts.

Notes

1. This paper does not discuss recent immigrant groups, border groups or religious and racial minority groups, whose needs and demands on the state warrant their own research and debate. For a discussion of the ethical grounds for group-differentiated claims, see Kymlicka (2009).

2. Botho is roughly translated as ‘humane behavior’, but is an all-encompassing moral code for how human beings should relate to one another through courtesy, respect and compassion.

3. Due to scheduling difficulties, Vula School declined our offer to conduct a PAR club with their students but welcomed a data-sharing presentation for teachers and allowed students to complete the survey developed by the PAR clubs in the other two schools.

4. Class teachers act as the main teacher responsible for a given class of students for the three years they spend at the school. As such, they tend to know the students in their class better than any other staff member at the school.

5. iKalanga is the language of the Kalanga ethnic group.

6. Zimbabweans are looked down on in Botswana, because there is a perception that most are illegal immigrants who bring crime and violence.

7. The survey questions about teasing based on students’ ethnic groups were not included in the survey at Metsi School. After extended discussions with the research club participants at Metsi School about the pervasiveness of teasing, we agreed that these questions needed to be added to future surveys. However, 48% of students at Metsi responded on the survey that their own ethnic group was ‘treated unfairly at school’.