Verah Atieno Owiti

Mother and Student? Pedagogical Dilemmas in Educating Teenage Mothers: the Experiences of Being a Teenage Mother in Secondary School in Rural Kenya Verah Atieno Owiti

Teenage pregnancy is a major concern in many countries and has far reaching implications. Most of what has been done on this topic mainly focuses on health, methods of sex guidance and the use of contraception. This book is a product of my Master of Philosophy in Education qualitative research which I conducted in rural Nyanza, Kenya and situates teenage pregnancy as an educational concern. It gives insights into the experiences, dilemmas and challenges of teen mothers; both as a mother and as a student. Education from a narrow view of schooling is aimed towards behavior change, knowledge acquisition and provision of skills for future job opportunities. The teen mothers are mostly seen as "problem", thus little or no support is given to them. However, this book opens up a wider and complex understanding of education which is concerned with the humanness of the teen mother and is oriented towards her whole life situation in her day to day interactions with her world. Nevertheless, this book does not offer solutions and answers on how to educate the teen mothers,rather it opens space for further discussions and also raises pedagogical questions worth reflection.