Pathways to young Namibian mothers’ high school engagement: The role of Afrikan wellbeing practices

Abstract Across diverse communities, girls who leave school without a high school diploma are at risk for a wide range of problematic developmental outcomes. Yet, most research on educational engagement and resilience is conducted from a western perspective and within western contexts. Sensitized by Afrocentric frameworks, Ubuntu and Afrikana womanism, this study uses postcolonial indigenous research methodologies to examine the experiences of young, Namibian mothers enrolled in school. Thirteen young mothers participated in talking circles and individual, conversational interviews. Inductive analyses of transcribed interviews revealed challenges and facilitators to school engagement that resonate with the international literature including: poverty, stigmatization by educators, and othering by peers, psychosocial, and economic support from the baby's father and extended family, and school based psychosocial and educational supports. Analyses also revealed several distinctly Afrikan practices that young mothers described as supportive of their school engagement including ‘truth-telling-talk’, frank discussions with elders, ohungi (evening-talk), a traditional context in which elders provide guidance, and omayeletumbulo [wisdom sayings], proverbs that give meaning to complex life challenges. We discuss the implications for expanding western theories (e.g. resilience), practice, policy, and research.