Female Education in Liberia - Capstone Project Example

Human Motivation My final project will discuss the education of teens in Liberia with an emphasis on female teens. The project will also discuss the nature of education in Liberia and what teens need in terms of education. As I continue my research, I wonder how these children will be motivated to change their lives. Girl Child Education in Liberia and Challenges that Girls Face in seeking Education Liberia is a country that has seen the worst of civil wars. As a result of the civil wars, the country’s economy went spiraling and crime was the order of the day during and immediately after the period of the unrest. Even though the great majority of the population suffered greatly from the unrest, women and girls must have found it most difficult having to undergo the worst of man’s unethical behavior – rape. To-date, sexual violence remains prevalent in the country according to Ackerman (2007). As a direct consequence of Liberia’s instability, many teenage girls and young women are not educated. In fact, statistics show that 60% of Liberian women cannot read (Ackerman, 2007). There are several reasons that have led to this state of affaires in the country. In many schools, there are no proper washrooms and girls either have to share such facilities with boys, use open fields or coed bathrooms that are devoid of privacy. This one reason has led many a girl to avoid schooling. In some cases, taking a break to the toilet would end up being a chance for wicked men to engage the young girls in sexual violence and rape. For this reason, many parents prefer to stay with their girl children at home just in case they get attacked while away at school. Closely related to this is the issue of early pregnancy that forces young girls to drop out of school often against their wishes as noted by Allen (2010). Another factor that has led girls to remain uneducated is poverty. With most of the general population earning less than $1.25 a day, it is no secret that many families cannot afford to keep their children in school. Instead the children remain at home helping their parents in the farms or in performing household tasks (Ackerman, 2007). Indeed, many mothers expect that their young girls should perform all household duties before they can go to school. This is a factor that is closely linked to the cultural beliefs of the population that the woman’s place is at home, in the kitchen. Apart from working in the kitchen, girls are expected to clean, sell water and food along the streets. One other reason behind the high illiteracy levels for girls is the issue of early marriage. Traditionally, girls are believed to be ripe for marriage as early as 15 years as noted by Ackerman (2007). Forced marriage in many Liberian villages is the norm as the girls and women are expected to be submissive and without the rights to make choices on issues that affect their lives. This is also coupled by the belief that girls cannot, or rather will not “go far”. This way, the women face a lot of discrimination and are subjected to numerous harmful traditional practices in the society. The schooling environment in many cases is not appealing. For one, there are very few schools in many locations. This means that students have to walk long distances to access learning facilities. School children have to learn with very little resources such as books, classrooms and teachers. Furthermore some teachers in fact engage in sexual violence against their female students. The girl child is sometimes forced to trade sex for a better grade with their teachers as noted by Allen (2010). . The Self-efficacy Theory and Girl Child Education in Liberia Self-efficacy may be defined in several ways. One simple definition of the term is the belief that one is capable of doing one or more activities so as to achieve certain specific goals (Banduras, 1977). The self-efficacy may also be defined as the belief in an individual’s effectiveness in doing specific tasks (Reeve, 2009). When thinking about self-efficacy theory, it is important to understand how social issues can be tackled by the application of this theory as noted by Matsushima and Shiomi (2003). The new president of Liberia has made the education of female children a priority. In order to understand the reason one has to look deeper into what has happened for these teens. Many girls have had to fight in their civil war. Other girls have also been victims of rape, abuse and other criminal activity against them. The challenge for many children in this type of situation is to overcome these situations. Many will go to counseling and this may be something that would need to be factored in their education. When looking at behavior change for these children I think that they must first have an intrinsic need to change. This would come from a deep understanding that they could move out of any negative situation. According to Johnson (2004), behavior change comes when a situation happens that creates a feeling inside an individual that moves them forward. When I look at my own teenagers, I understand that they do not change their behavior until they find a need to change their behavior. My Personal Perspective As an example, my girls used to fight between them until one of my girls felt they were hurting the other ones feelings. When this hit home for them, they began to get a long better. My children understand that there are other ways to work out their differences. When I think about the teenagers in Liberia, I understand that there needs to be a reason for them to change. The challenge may be that they have not had the experiences to move them to behavior change. However, through education, they may find a reason to smile with hope for a better life. The knowledge of self-efficacy theory will help me become more motivated to help teens in whatever country I decide to teach in. In order to motivate myself, I have an intrinsic need for helping people. I am a volunteer on many occasions and I feel that I have a real talent for helping people. I believe that self-efficacy can assist teens in changing when they realize that where they are today is not where they will be forever. The teens in Liberia may need to find some common ways to open themselves more fully for them to want to make a change in their behavior. Often, education is the one thing that can open an individuals mind and show them that they have many options. Behavior change often comes when people are introduced to education. Conclusion Teenage girls in Liberia go through a lot of challenges in their daily lives. Some of these challenges are as old as their traditional cultures from which they emanate. Although the government of Liberia is trying to do a lot in ensuring that the girl child gets enlightened and has a better future (Johnson, 2004; Allen 2010), many girls still do not enjoy the privileges that have been set before them today. In this respect, they still opt to stay at hope for a myriad of reasons. In as much as the government and many other parties is trying to motivate them extrinsically, they lack intrinsic motivation. Teen in Liberia need to realize that their future lives may not be much promising without proper education. This realization in itself has been a motivating factor to some girls in the same situation. With self-efficacy, girls in Liberia can overcome the challenges that they face, get educated and live better lives in the future. References Ackerman R. (2007) Liberia removing barriers to girls education: Making schools safer is part of push to improve literacy. Retrieved 22nd February, 2011 http://journalism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/portfolio/bestof/2007/001874.html Allen B. (2010) Universal Education an Empty Promise for Liberias Girls. Retrieved 22nd February, 2011 http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51596 Banduras, A. (1977) “Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change”, Psychological Review, 84(2): 191-215. Johnson, T.C. (2004). Education and social change in Liberia: new perspectives for the 21st century. IN: Authorhouse. Matsushima, R. & Shiomi, K. (2003). Social self-efficacy and interpersonal stress in adolescence. Social Behavior and Personality. New York: McGraw-Hill. Reeve J. (2009). Understanding motivation and emotion (5th ed.). CA: Wiley. Read More