Workshop: Observatoire Psycavi & IRDP

Can intergenerational transmission of trauma partially explain low levels of school achievement in Rwanda?

The Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP) contributes to building sustainable peace in Rwanda through participatory action research, the promotion of a culture of debate and dialogue on issues related to peace and by sharing experiences with other peace initiatives. - www.irdp.rw

The goal of the workshop?

1. Fournir une formation aux enseignants pour collecter des données pilotes sur les fonctions cognitives de leurs élèves.
2. Get the teachers' input from their expertise and knowledge to help shape the project.

Did you know?

The teachers have met many children at the school whose parents have experienced genocide (with significant trauma including rape, imprisonment, and family separation). The children particularly suffer from the lack of extended family and higher rate of divorce.

This may lead to higher levels of post-traumatic symptoms, depression or substance abuse, and a desire to relocate away from places associated with the 1994 genocide (which could be a form of avoidance, one of the important symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder). This may also lead to academic difficulties.

Teachers observe that academic performance suffers especially during commemoration periods, affecting concentration and overall grades.

There is a need to investigate how the parent's experience during the 1994 genocide impact children's academic performance.

Teachers lack resources like psychologists to help traumatized children effectively.

Comparisons between different genocides (e.g., Holocaust vs genocide of the Tutsi) highlight the particularity of the ongoing trauma in Rwanda, where some perpetrators live next to their victims.

Workshop plan:

• Presentation of current research on intergenerational transmission of trauma and cognition, the current Psycavi project, and considerations for collecting quality data.
• Hands-on practice with performance-based measures.
• Discussions about self-report measures, links with classroom experiences, measuring school achievement.

Workshop Feedback:

It is important to work with local communities and to include them in the discussions about study designs so that there is more cohesion between theory, research, and practice.

There was a lot of interesting discussions between researchers and teachers. For example, we discussed:

• Parallels between the cognitive tasks / functions presented and school requirements.
• Teaching methods that encourage reasoning skills include abstract thinking exercises (e.g. finding examples of a general rule).
• Traditional gender roles, questioning the impact of stereotypes and societal expectations of men and women.
• How teachers can understand the core construct behind the tasks.