P-21 Youth voices from the classroom: Effective multi-grade education in Zambian community schools

Within the Zambian educational system, community schools have been established as a means of meeting the education needs of all Zambian children in accordance with the United Nations Millennium Developmental Goals. Located in both urban and rural areas of Zambia, community schools often operate a multi-grade system due to the lack of teacher and/or students. Previous research on multi-grade education in Sub-Saharan African (including Zambia) has focused mainly on the challenges of the multi-grade system, in particular, the lack of teacher training. Previous research has also primarily been conducted through teacher interviews. This study uncovers the educational experiences of youth attending multi-grade classrooms through the collection of narratives and drawings collected from 21 students. Peer teaching emerged as a common success of multi-grade classrooms, while student behavior issues were indicated as the primary drawback to this educational model. The student drawings echoed the successes of peer teaching, but pointed to a lack of perceived teacher presence. Implications of the study and suggestions for further research will be discussed.