Numeracy and literacy programming for women in Senegal: Local knowledge for successful skills development

• In Event: Highlighted session: Literacy, language and foundational skills in Africa: learning in unexpected places

Proposal

In the range of foundational skills for sustainable economic development, numeracy skills are recognized as being among the most basic. Particularly for adults in rural environments, numeracy skills contribute significantly to sustainable success in a range of entrepreneurial vocations. However, the importance of basing numeracy programs on prior knowledge and practices is often underestimated; this is especially relevant for adult numeracy learners in the global South, who may have already have traditional numeracy practices as part of their cultural knowledge. Neglect of this crucial requirement for skills learning hinders attempts to develop strong foundational skills among these populations.

Language of instruction is also a key component of successful numeracy instruction in this context, especially for adult learners with little or no formal schooling; this is critically important for sustained use of the skills learned. From a social practice perspective, it is clear that the language used for teaching and learning numeracy skills should be the same as the language used for everyday numeracy practices.

The numeracy program for southern Senegalese women studied in this paper highlighted the alignment of skills training with existing language and cultural knowledge. The program was developed and tested in three local language communities, between 2015 and 2017, as a component of the local-language literacy classes that the women were attending. It aimed at teaching numeracy skills, as well as consolidating the learners’ reading and writing skills. The numeracy curriculum provided a bridge between the traditional numeracy practices that the women already knew and Western numeracy skills. The women students also learned to manage their finances more effectively. The teachers encouraged critical thinking and problem solving skills, through class discussions and also having the women practice these skills in the classroom.

The language of instruction was the local language in each of the villages where the classes were held. This enabled the women to express themselves with confidence when explaining their mental calculation strategies in class, as well as serving as an effective medium for learning new concepts. To facilitate the use of the local language in this learning context, each of the three local literacy program organizations had developed a list of number-words and mathematical vocabulary in the local language; they had also translated a teacher’s guide and an exercise manual into the local language.

The primary lesson of this program evaluation is that learning to think critically, solve problems and express oneself creatively happens most readily in a language in which the learners are confident. The next step in this study will be to follow the daily activities of the women in the literacy and numeracy classes, to assess the extent to which they are actually using these skills for their own economic and personal benefit. This will allow modification of the program to enhance and support ongoing use of the skills learned.

Author

• Elisabeth Gerger, SIL Africa