Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence with Interdisciplinary Research Projects
We present the research project “Making a Living: Learning trajectories towards the ability to earn a livelihood”.
The research project “Making a Living: Learning trajectories towards the ability to earn a livelihood”
Research Section: Learning
The education landscape in rural West Africa is currently undergoing a unique
historical process. Between the years 2000 and 2015, the United Nations
launched several large-scale, global campaigns as part of its UN Millennium
Development Goals II: The intention was to allow children all over the world,
especially girls, to attend school. These campaigns were successful. Today
there is a generation of young adults who can look back on a period of school
attendance – albeit sometimes short. Many of them were the first family member
ever to attend school and have become “pioneers” in their communities in terms
of schooling and education. In this way, a whole age group of young people has
emerged in Africa, who have been lastingly influenced by the campaigns of the
United Nations, and who associate their education with corresponding hopes and
expectations. However, only a small proportion of these young people have
actually completed secondary school. "Making a Living: Learning trajectories towards the ability to earn a livelihood” is a research project of the Research Centre “Learning” of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence.
Erdmute Alber
Within this unique historical context, the Bayreuth Cluster of Excellence research project “Making a Living: Learning trajectories towards the ability to earn a livelihood” is investigating what role various learning processes inside and outside school play when it comes to
- growing up,
- taking up a profession and
- making a living
in
the francophone West African country of Benin. The research team understands “making a living” as a relational and
multi-layered process that is subject to socio-economic conditions and goes
hand-in-hand with belonging in a social fabric as well as individual hopes for
social mobility. The researchers investigate to what extent the general and
abstract promises of the school campaigns and hopes of the young people
coincide with actual biographical developments. Population growth, land
scarcity, the growing relevance of formal exams, and the specific problems of
the labour market seem to be obstacles in the endeavour to find one's place in
adult life.
The research team consists of the researchers Erdmute Alber (Social Anthropology), Iris Clemens (General Education), Sabrina Maurus (Social Anthropology) and the researcher Issa Tamou (General Education) - all from the University of Bayreuth.
Further information on the Research Sections and the Cluster’s research projects can be found here:
www.africamultiple.uni-bayreuth.de/en
Sabine GreinerScience journalist
Cluster of Excellence Africa Multiple
University of Bayreuth
Phone: +49 (0) 921 / 55-4795
E-Mail: sabine.greiner@uni-bayreuth.de
www.africamultiple.uni-bayreuth.de