In partnership with Busara, a behavioural science research firm based in Nairobi, the Keep Kenya Learning team began this sandbox with a behavioural mapping of Kenyan caregivers, surveying individuals representing 3 different “caregiver personas”. This was done in order to capture the diverse challenges faced by caregivers in different contexts, and respond accordingly. These personas were:
low-middle income urban
low income urban, and
low income rural
This engagement work was made easier by the well-established reach of community-based-organisations contributing to KKL. They were well positioned to contact parents and caregivers directly.
The survey included questions such as:
How much do you value education for your children?
Are you able support them in learning at home? How?
What (if anything) prevents you from providing support?
We learned that across urban and rural contexts and income levels, parents do value education. But many are often do not consider themselves to be well educated themselves, and often lack confidence that they can add value to their kids education. They hold back from offering support to children, for fear that their support won’t be “good enough”.
In low income communities, this lack of confidence is exacerbated by a lack of access to resources, and skepticism about the value of learning at home activities.
That said, parents and caregivers also place importance on the wider community as a potential source of support for children. Older siblings, cousins, grandparents, neighbours can be, and often are, involved in providing some support or encouragement to children while they learn.
It became clear during this early phase that it would be useful and helpful to engage with caregivers, to boost their confidence so that they felt their input would matter.
The next question was: how?