More Clever than the Devil: "Ujanja" as Schooling Strategy in Tanzania

Autor/in	Vavrus, Frances
Titel	More Clever than the Devil: "Ujanja" as Schooling Strategy in Tanzania
Quelle	In: International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), 28 (2015) 1, S.50-71 (22 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0951-8398
DOI	10.1080/09518398.2013.847508
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Student Improvement; Success; Longitudinal Studies; Interviews; Defense Mechanisms; Coping; Biographies; Secondary School Students; Concept Formation; Peer Influence; Sexual Harassment; Interpersonal Relationship; Cultural Context; Social Mobility; Daily Living Skills; Educational Research; Student Attitudes; Educational Strategies; Tanzania + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Erfolg; Longitudinal study; Longitudinal method; Longitudinal methods; Längsschnittuntersuchung; Interviewing; Interviewtechnik; Abwehrverhalten; Bewältigung; Biography; Biografie; Biographie; Sekundarschüler; Concept learning; Begriffsbildung; Sexuelle Belästigung; Interpersonal relation; Interpersonal relations; Interpersonelle Beziehung; Zwischenmenschliche Beziehung; Soziale Mobilität; Alltagsfertigkeit; Bildungsforschung; Pädagogische Forschung; Schülerverhalten; Lehrstrategie; Tansania
Abstract	This article explores the concept of "cleverness" as it is employed by Tanzanian youth to improve their likelihood of succeeding in school. It analyzes the Swahili term "ujanja," which combines cleverness, opportunism, and deception, while it also illustrates an educational anthropologist's ongoing process of familiarization and defamiliarization with this culturally salient concept over many years of fieldwork and engagement with key participants. Specifically, the study draws on interviews with youth participating in a longitudinal study on Mount Kilimanjaro and an extended life history interview with a close friend and research assistant. The interviews reveal the strategies used by some youth to evade peer pressure, thwart sexual advances, and cultivate relationships with school sponsors. The article concludes with a call for greater use of life history methodologies in the study of complex cultural concepts like "cleverness" and of textual forms that elucidate the emotional complexity of narrator/interpreter relationships. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10