Summary

Motivation

The development of life skills has been increasingly recognized in formal and non-formal education programmes as critical to enabling young people to flourish in personal relationships, the workplace, and wider society. Recent competency-based curricular reform reflects a growing consensus on the importance of developing a combination of socioemotional, cognitive, and practical skills to overcome contemporary social, environmental, and economic global challenges. Yet there is limited research examining the pedagogical practices that lead to the effective development of such skills.

Purpose

This article seeks to fill that gap by drawing on lessons from Rwanda’s 12+ programme, a non-formal life skills programme for adolescent girls. Examining potential links between pedagogical practices and the programme’s impacts on adolescent girl participants, it enquires into lessons that can be learnt for both formal and non-formal schooling.

Methods and approach

Insights from focus groups and interviews with 12+ graduates (ages 15–17) and mentors were triangulated with analysis of project documentation including teaching and learning materials.

Findings

Five insights are highlighted: structured teaching and learning materials and scaffolded support for mentors; the use of dialogic teaching; experiential learning opportunities; the importance of safe spaces and trusting relationships; and the engagement of mentors as role models. These combined ingredients of effective life skills programming were perceived to have led to the development of adolescent girls' skills, knowledge, and attitudes, including confidence, voice and agency, financial literacy, self-efficacy, and self-care.

Policy implications

Teacher education and ongoing professional development should focus on strengthening teachers' capacity to use learner-centred, interactive methods, and to foster positive social relationships with and among learners. Sharing of materials and approaches between non-formal programmes and the formal education system should be encouraged.

1 INTRODUCTION

What sorts of teaching methods help learners develop key life skills? In the past two decades a broad consensus has emerged on the importance of education fostering a varied skill set that allows young people to thrive personally and contribute to their societies as healthy, productive, and socially engaged members (Care et al., 2019; GPE, 2020). In particular, a set of skills that combines socioemotional skills, such as communication and collaboration, and cognitive skills, such as problem solving, has garnered growing policy attention. These skills, variously termed soft skills, 21st-century skills, or life skills—henceforth life skills—are increasingly viewed as critical to help tackle pressing contemporary problems, from climate change to fostering peaceful, equitable and gender-just societies (GPE, 2020; UNICEF, 2019). Much of the literature has considered both critical ingredients of and definitions for this skill set.1 In this article we draw on Dupuy et al.'s (2018, p. 9) definition of life skills as, “the combination of skills (what one has), knowledge (what one knows), and attitudes (what one believes and values) that constitute a set of competencies (what one can do) that enable youth to adapt to, function and thrive in society.”

Both academic and practice-based literature stress the importance of learner-centred, interactive pedagogies in helping young people develop these vital skills (Care et al., 2018; UNICEF, 2017b). Although these pedagogies are not new, they have received new impetus, as life skill development has risen rapidly up policy agendas and is increasingly integrated across curricula. In this context, teaching methods that prioritize problem-solving, collaboration, and communication are seen as playing a vital role—but research on their effectiveness in supporting skill development is limited (Alexander, 2015). Few studies have probed the sorts of approaches that educators—whether in formal education systems or non-formal programmes—are taking to facilitate life skill development,2 and how participants perceive their effectiveness. Similarly, very few studies have examined in detail the kinds of training and support that educators receive to equip them to foster life skills development.

We seek to help fill these gaps by focusing on the 12+ programme, a non-formal life skills programme for adolescent girls in Rwanda. Drawing on qualitative evidence from both former participants and mentors, we ask which pedagogical practices appear to have contributed most to participants' learning, and what aspects of training and support played the greatest role in enabling mentors to facilitate learning. Examining the content of the 12+ curriculum and its potential impact on participants' development of life skills is outside the scope of this article.

Section 2 synthesizes insights from and gaps in the literature on life skills programming and provides a brief background to the 12+ programme. Our methodology follows in Section 3, and in Section 4 we elaborate upon our findings, based on five key pedagogical insights. In the final discussion in Section 5, we reflect on the implications of these insights for both other non-formal initiatives and formal education systems.

2 BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW

The growing consensus that education should foster a range of skill sets alongside core bodies of knowledge has led increasing numbers of education systems to adopt competency-based curricula (Mastercard Foundation, 2020; Munsi & Guha, 2014). Rwanda—the focus of this article—has followed this trend, and its curriculum documents stress the importance of learner-centred pedagogies and active learning. Training in active and learner-centred pedagogies commonly forms part of teacher education programmes. However, a confluence of factors—related to resourcing, cultural fit, the pressures of high-stakes exams, among others (Altinyelken, 2010; Schweisfurth, 2013; Vavrus & Bartlett, 2012)—mean that in many countries, including Rwanda (Nsengimana et al., 2017; Otara et al., 2019), practice lags behind aspiration (Soares et al., 2017).

Alongside these trends in formal education systems, the past two decades have seen parallel growth in the numbers of non-formal education initiatives involving adolescents (Catino & Battistini, 2018; Soares et al., 2017). This growth responds to a “perfect storm” of factors—high rates of youth unemployment, substantial numbers of young people outside education or training, and growing concern over adolescent girls as a specific disempowered group. Non-formal initiatives working with adolescents and young people have diverse goals, such as enabling successful transitions to employment or entrepreneurship, promoting gender equality, fostering sexual and reproductive health, and encouraging active and engaged citizenship (Dupuy et al., 2018; Marcus et al., 2017; Soares et al., 2017). Over time, there has been a detectable increase in these programmes' aim to support young people’s development of life skills, perhaps reflecting evolving thinking in the field and funders’ priorities (Soares et al., 2017; UNICEF MENA, 2017a).

While much of the thinking and advocacy for a diverse set of life skills has been framed in universal terms as beneficial for all young people, a growing body of literature delves into the gendered implications. Though patriarchal gender norms and power inequalities take different forms in different social and economic contexts, there are several commonalities in terms of the potential gendered benefits of life skills development initiatives. The sorts of skills that life skills programmes attempt to foster may prove particularly empowering for marginalized adolescent girls in highly patriarchal contexts that limit girls' development of self-confidence, aspirations, self-efficacy, communication, and leadership, among others (Dupuy et al., 2018; Kwauk & Braga, 2017; Marcus et al., 2017). As well as these cross-cutting skills and competencies, life skills programmes typically aim to equip adolescent girls with empowering knowledge: about puberty, menstruation, and sexual and reproductive health, their rights and support services (for example, in the case of forced marriage or sexual assault), and financial literacy.

Much of the discussion of adolescent life skills programmes has focused on assessing their impacts, including those on gender equitable attitudes and behaviour, and on broad design features or aspects of implementation that underpin impacts. Typically, evaluations of life skills programmes measure changes in the building blocks of 21st-century skills, including knowledge, attitudes, and indicators of psychosocial wellbeing, such as sense of self-efficacy.3 Some also measure the application of skills (e.g., Banati et al., 2021). While most initiatives find evidence of change on at least one indicator, many studies suggest that impacts vary considerably across different dimensions of life skills and among different groups (Baird, Camfield, et al., 2021; Baird, Dutton, et al., 2021; Dupuy et al., 2018; Kumar et al., 2021; Marcus et al., 2017).

Clearly, the content of a programme’s curriculum and broad aspects of its design, such as the number of sessions participants attend, or the frequency of sessions, contribute to its perceived impact (Boender et al., 2019; Marcus et al., 2017). Factors related to quality of implementation are increasingly recognized as having a critical impact on participants’ experiences and learning. These include: facilitators’ commitment and professionalism (punctuality, attending all sessions, fully covering curriculum content) and the nature of relationships between facilitators and participants; for example, the extent to which mentors act as role models and were able to build warm relationships (Baird, Camfield, et al., 2021; Baird, Dutton, et al., 2021). Paralleling the shift in formal education system towards learner-centred pedagogies, literature on non-formal life skills programmes also emphasizes the importance of interactive, learner-centred methods (Boender et al., 2019; Temin et al., 2018). These insights are consistent with those emerging from literature on the ingredients of effective learning, as identified, for example, by Westbrook et al. (2013).

Despite this growing consensus, empirical studies of life skills education to date have paid limited attention to the pedagogical practices that underpin learning. Dupuy et al.'s 2018 study of 103 non-formal life skills programmes in low- and lower-middle income countries is unusual in that it maps the teaching methods these initiatives use. Drawing on a survey of programme administrators, Dupuy et al. find that 80% report using a combination of interactive teaching methods, including “participatory” methods and group discussions. Over a third reported also using lectures as a means of imparting information, and 14% report “practical/field training.”4 Alongside group discussions just over a third reported using methods such as role plays and drama to support learning. However, Dupuy et al.'s survey was not able to probe the linkages between teaching methods and learning outcomes.

Given this gap in the literature, this article explores potential linkages between pedagogical practices and skill development, focusing on a life skills programme for young adolescent girls, the Rwandan Ministry of Health’s 12+ programme. Conceived as a way to implement the Government of Rwanda’s commitment to rights and gender equality, 12+ was funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and implemented between 2012 and 2017 by three non-governmental organizations (NGOs): Imbuto Foundation, World Relief Rwanda, and Caritas, with technical assistance from another girl-centred organization, Girl Effect Rwanda (GER). It aimed to build the self-esteem and “social, health and financial assets” of girls aged around 11 years through group life skills sessions (DFID, 2016).5 Every weekend, for a period of 10 months, groups of 25 girls met in safe spaces in their communities with their assigned pair of mentors—young women aged 18–25.6 Lessons covered different topics, including sexual and reproductive health, financial literacy, gender-based violence, nutrition, and education. The project encouraged experiential learning and was designed to support facilitators to help participants develop new knowledge and skills through discussion, games, and field trips. Over its five years of operation, it reached 92,000 girls across the country (DFID, 2017). In its focus on young adolescent girls, active and participatory learning, and health and financial literacy, 12+ was innovative and unlike previous programmes (DFID, 2015).

In this article, we ask what evidence there is that these approaches contributed to the impacts that participants and mentors identified. We explore the perceptions of 12+ adolescent participants and mentors, the two actors most intimately involved in the teaching and learning processes. Recognizing that life skills programmes, which are often relatively small-scale and externally resourced, can often constitute “islands of excellence,” we then reflect on potential lessons for formal education in Rwanda, and beyond.

3 METHODOLOGY

This article draws on qualitative data collected by the Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence (GAGE) consortium in Rwanda, as part of its broader research on the factors that contribute to adolescents' development of various capabilities.

3.1 Research sites and participants

The 12+ programme took place in four provinces and Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. This article draws on data that were collected in the Southern Province (Huye district), the Eastern Province (Ngoma district), and Kigali city (Gasabo district). Table 1 describes these three research sites. The total sample was 33 participants, including 23 adolescent girls (ages 13–17)—graduates of the 12+ programme—and 10 young women who had worked as mentors (ages 25–30). The research participants were recruited in collaboration with the programme implementing organizations; participation was voluntary.

Table 1. Summary of research sites and participants

Research siteDescriptionParticipants

Kigali city (Gasabo district)Urban area in Kigali’s Rutunga and Jali sectors. Adolescent girls migrate to these sectors for domestic work. There is more developed infrastructure, including schools, health centres, busy trading centres, and offices.

• 4 mentors
• 8 adolescents

Southern Province (Huye District)Semi-urban area of Tumba sector. There is more developed infrastructure with electricity, university nearby, secondary and primary schools, and health centres as well as a hospital.

• 4 mentors
• 7 adolescents

Eastern Province (Ngoma District)Rural area of Kazo sector. Remote site with limited infrastructure. No paved road and there is one primary and one secondary school.

• 2 mentors
• 8 adolescents

3.2 Methods

The research involved three focus groups (one in each region) with adolescent participants, as well as six focus groups or interviews (two in each region) with mentors. All interviews and focus groups were conducted in 2020. This means that research participants were interviewed between three and six years after graduating from the programme or finishing their time as mentors. The implementing NGOs supported the recruitment of mentors to the study, and mentors recruited adolescents, both on a voluntary basis. The interactions were conducted during school hours and the interviews were held at the schools. Adolescents participated in focus group discussions and the mentors were grouped in pairs where applicable. Interviews and focus groups were semi-structured and conducted following GAGE’s research methodology (Baird, Camfield et al., 2021; Baird et al., 2020), which included participatory and arts-based methods. For example, in focus groups, mentors and adolescent girls were asked to draw pictures in response to questions, such as “what do you see as the best changes which are still there as a result of the 12+ programme?” They could then present their perspectives to the group. After each participant presented, the group then had to discuss the various changes and rank them in order of importance. All interviews and focus groups lasted between 56 and 112 minutes and were conducted in Kinyarwanda.

3.3 Data analysis

All interviews and focus groups were conducted by local facilitators in Kinyarwanda, recorded and transcribed into English word-for-word. The data were then coded thematically through inductive and deductive analysis by the three authors, with a particular focus on quotes that provided insights into pedagogical activities. Thematic coding was used to draw out key themes around teaching and learning. Findings were triangulated with analysis of documentation, particularly the 12+ facilitator manual. Excerpts from these materials are included to add depth and nuance to the analysis.

3.4 Ethics

Ethics approval was obtained from the Rwandan National Ethics Committee, the George Washington University Ethics Committee, and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Research Ethics Committee. To ensure protocol was followed, data collection was conducted by experienced facilitators who received refresher trainings on ethical issues, such as safeguarding, privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity. In addition, interviews with girls were conducted by female facilitators, and key informant interviews (KIIs) with mentors were conducted with an experienced facilitator. Further, all participants gave informed consent to participate and for interviews to be recorded before interactions started. The participants were also provided with an information sheet that explained the interview process and the purpose of the research (see Baird et al., 2020 for more detail).

3.5 Limitations

The teaching methods and their impacts discussed in this article are based on the perceptions of participants and mentors—they are self-reported and not measured. Participation in the research may have been skewed towards participants and mentors with positive views of the programme and its impacts. Due to the small data set, there was limited variation in responses, and therefore we could not systematically analyse reasons for such variation. Finally, data collection—in which one of the authors took part—did not primarily focus on the impacts of particular design features or pedagogical approaches, but rather on perceptions of change resulting from the programme. The data were re-analysed by the authors to draw out insights on these issues.

4 FINDINGS: WHAT DESIGN FEATURES AND TEACHING METHODS CONTRIBUTED TO PERCEIVED PROGRAMME IMPACTS?

In this section we examine the ways that the delivery of the 12+ programme contributed to the impacts reported by participants and mentors. Drawing on adolescents' and mentors' experiences, it explores five key elements: (1) structured teaching and learning materials; (2) dialogic teaching; (3) experiential learning opportunities; (4) safe spaces and trusting relationships; and (5) the role of mentors. We discuss each feature separately, while recognizing that it is a combination of these elements that led to the programmes' perceived impacts. Given the scope and purpose of this article, however, we do not expand on challenges that are not directly related to teaching and learning, such as family and community buy-in or the role of discriminatory gender roles shaping girls' workload at home and participation in the 12+ programme.7 Nor do we discuss the content of the 12+ curriculum, though we acknowledge concerns that choices about curriculum content may have limited the programme’s gender transformative potential (Baird et al., 2020). In particular, through its primary focus on building self-confidence, providing health information, and financial literacy, it may have missed opportunities to challenge some gendered taboos and social norms.

4.1 Structured teaching and learning materials and scaffolded support

The 12+ teaching and learning materials were central to the success of the programme. Each mentor received a programme guide or “toolkit” created by local and international partners, including the Rwandan Ministry of Health and the Maternal and Child Health Director, Girl Hub Rwanda, and DFID. The guide served as a bespoke teaching and learning material, with images reflecting the lives of Rwandan adolescent girls. Indeed, it was designed to ensure that “the realities of 12+ program girls' lives were addressed” (Ministry of Health, n.d., p. ii). Eight core “Rwandan values” were also highlighted in the guide: unity, respect for others, integrity, responsibility, self-respect, hard work, patriotism, and love.

The guide was divided into four modules: Starting a Rwandan Girl’s Journey; We are Rwandan Girls; We Are Growing Rwandan Girls; and Our Rwandan Community. The first module was an introduction to the 12+ programme, and each of the three subsequent modules included at least one session that involved a fieldtrip to, for example, schools, financial centres, health centres, a local market, and a home garden. These trips were essential to the development of adolescent girls’ skills and knowledge, and they are explored in more depth in section 4.3. Interview data also points to how the guide itself was a critical factor in supporting mentors to provide spaces and opportunities for adolescent girls’ voice and participation.

The prompts that students were provided with for questions to ask during field trips were an important aspect of the toolkit. The girls were encouraged to ask questions during their visits to the local financial centre, market, or hospital. If they could not think of their own questions, they could choose from a list in the toolkit. In their interviews, mentors often referred to how 12+ participants had the opportunity to either choose a question or come up with their own. For example, two mentors from Eastern Province referenced a combination of both scaffolded support from the questions written and freedom to create and imagine “any other question which was not even written.” During the trip itself, one question would lead into follow-up questions so that girls continued having a space to explore and enquire. The mentor from Eastern Province went on to explain how this brought “good consequences” because girls would ask questions that mentors did not know the answer to, and both mentors and girls would learn. Mentors were taught to “be ok with not knowing”—thereby combatting hegemonic structures of power related to the role of the teacher (or in this case facilitator/mentor) as the holder of knowledge (van de Kuilen, 2020). Ultimately, this helped develop girls' curiosity and passion for learning.

The training and support that mentors received may also have been an important factor in their capacity to implement the positive pedagogical practices outlined in the toolkit. Prior to starting the responsibilities as mentors, they were trained on the whole programme and went through the planned lessons so they could deliver trainings accurately. As many studies of life skills programmes have shown, adequate preparation to teach factual content, especially content that is taboo or embarrassing to discuss, such as materials on sexuality, is vital to reduce the risk of miscommunication (Baird, Camfield, et al., 2021).8

12+ mentors also received phones and a modest monthly stipend to pay for calling credit or internet data (though they did not always find this sufficient). Mentors described how this enabled communication and collaboration among them. For example, a mentor from Eastern Province explained, the phones served multiple purposes:

To call our leaders and to call one another because sometimes, you could not understand the lesson that you were supposed to teach, and since other people had worked there for two or three years, you could call her to help you and you could ask her how they teach a certain lesson, or you could call a leader. Another thing, phones were helping us to submit reports of present children every day.

Phones allowed 12+ mentors to form remote communities of practice, and this was essential to ensure mentors were continuously supported in performing their role well. In addition, supervisors played a role in building mentors' capacity. The supervisors supported through in-field trainings as well as providing constructive feedback. Mentors could reach out to supervisors for support on a specific topic and gain more insights into how to deliver that topic. Also, the supervisors used to regularly visit mentors in the field—up to three times a week—and could make phone calls to check on how the sessions progressed.

4.2 Dialogic teaching

In addition to the questions which served as prompts for students, all toolkits were structured so that they provided scripted and scaffolded support for mentors to facilitate dialogic teaching. They included 10 “facilitation reminders” (Ministry of Health, n.d., p. 7), clearly outlined learning objectives, and provided prompts or suggestions about what mentors could say or ask adolescent participants. Facilitation reminders addressed a range of topics including developing girls' positive sense of self, creating spaces for exchange, fostering a safe space for dialogue, and handling difficult questions.

The teaching and learning materials—with scaffolded guidelines for mentors on how to foster safe spaces and facilitate conversation with adolescent girls—was vital for their development of capabilities related to voice and participation. The toolkit described the role of mentors to “support [adolescent girl participants] to think creatively, to have fun, to gain confidence, to learn new things, to build some skills, and make friends” (p. 1). In the instructions about developing “girls' positive sense of self” the manual outlined the importance of letting girls “try ideas and ways of doing things without [mentors] falling in the temptation of saying something is ‘wrong’. Rather, invite girls to try something again and coach them individually on a difficult or challenging task” (p. 4). Mentors and participants explicitly referred to both of these aspects. One mentor from the Eastern Province recalled:

There was a system that if a child gives the wrong answer, you don’t have to tell her that it is wrong. All answers were taken… when we started, many children were having complexities…It required to dance with them, laugh with them, to let them [be]free…we ended with each child, and they were able to speak, and they were open.

The structured teaching and learning materials played a role in supporting mentors to encourage dialogue and facilitate conversations among the 12+ participants. For girls who were shy or who struggled to participate, facilitators reported using fun and laughter to ease their nerves, allowing them to find their voice in the groups. Mentors viewed these conversations as foundational for learning as they often inspired adolescent girls' motivation and interest. As one mentor from Kigali recounted:

The more we converse them about the future vision, the more they started to choose what to be in the future based on their interests. For example, there were some who were interested to be soldiers, nurses, doctors.

Through structured support in the form of a teaching facilitation toolkit, mentors were able to foster spaces for young people to imagine their future and to identify their goals and aspirations.As girls participated in these conversations, they also developed more confidence in using their voice in other spheres of life. Both mentors and girls explained how 12+ participants learnt to participate more in school, to talk to their parents and family members and ask them questions, or even to speak up to community leaders. As a mentor from Eastern Province noted:

As they [12+ participants] would go to schools, we’d talk to their instructors and they would tell us that girls have changed a lot since they now perform better than their brothers, because they now hit the books and they are bold to that point that when a question is asked, they participate more in class than their brothers.

A mentor from Kigali described how adolescent girls' voice and participation in the community also resulted in changes to community leaders' strategies for responding to crimes of abuse:

It has changed because the children became open-minded, and they are confident to raise their voice. Because of that, the local leaders were able to ask the children what [was] wrong and the children would respond confidently.

Mentors and girls also described how 12+ participants learnt public speaking skills and developed “fearlessness.” Through the 12+ programme, girls developed both the skills and confidence to use their voices as agents of change within their homes, schools, and communities. A 15-year-old programme graduate from Eastern Province described how mentors taught them to “speak for themselves” at home, to “be brave about their rights,” and defend themselves. One of her peers, just one year older, echoed this when she explained an observable difference between 12+ participants and girls who did not participate in the programme: “For example, in school clubs we go in front and talk to the public without fear, whereas it is hard sometimes for other [girls] who did not attend.” The ability to act without fear, and to make choices about one’s life free of fear is central to girls’ empowerment; it equips girls with agency and decision-making power (Klugman et al., 2014, p. 3).

5 Experiential learning opportunities

As the 12+ programme recognized, opportunities for experiential learning through field trips, project-based activities, or learner-centred pedagogy are critical for developing life skills. Participants often recounted moments of experiential learning in relation to financial literacy skills. They described how an impact of the programme was the “culture of saving” fostered among participants; they shared stories of how they learnt to earn and save money, and to use that money for their education and basic necessities. Through trips to banks, markets, and vegetable gardens, and the establishment of tontines or small savings groups, adolescent girls developed skills, knowledge and values related to personal finance. Several 12+ graduates from Eastern Province recounted the small saving groups activities in their focus group discussion: “We formed a group for saving a coin of 100 Rwandan francs and we voted an accountant and the supervisor and agreed that when the programme finishes, we shall share the money” (Girl 1, 16 years old). The girls described how they each earned between 800 and 1000 Rwandan francs (RWF) (equivalent to approximately one US dollar) each time they split their earnings among their peers. They bought chickens or rabbits with their earnings and went on to describe how their mentors taught them how to raise this livestock to earn more money:

Girl 1 (16 years old): “They taught us how to save with different examples and one day they put us in groups with some having chickens and eggs. And one of us had a chicken that her aunt gave her, and they showed us how it can be productive from its eggs.” Girl 2 (15 years old): “If someone reared a hen and give birth, she would sell one of them to afford a pad or anything else her parent cannot afford. Or start a small business, like selling tomatoes.”

12+ participants learnt how to budget the money they saved, and they often spoke of using their savings to buy school materials, uniforms, or shoes, clothes, and other necessities. A mentor—also from Eastern Province—described the impact the 12+ programme had on the households: “girls would buy things for themselves, then it becomes helpful to the whole family.” This mentor, and others, suggested adolescent girls' new-found financial literacy skills contributed to parental buy-in for the programme. As a mentor from Southern Province noted, “parents understood the importance of what their children were taught in 12+. Some parents would say that they didn’t even know the importance of saving groups. They benefited from what their children learnt.”The savings groups and girls' newly developed financial literacy skills led to observable impacts in the community even years after the programme ended. A mentor from Kigali expanded upon this:

Once we taught children about saving…and took them to financial institutions and they loved it. Right now, some children took it as a culture and continue to save by grouping themselves in small groups of children.

In addition to field trips and savings groups, the 12+ programme provided participants with interactive and hands-on learning opportunities, such as games, song, and role play, during their regular classes. A mentor from Southern Province recalled using games to “teach girls how to ask for things politely.” A 12+ graduate spoke of role playing, “we did learn it through plays that could play in different groups. The games that we played had a purpose that could teach us something in the end.” Her peer added, “the mentor would in return ask us what we learnt from the game. She would later on make [a] summary of what we said and add her own remarks.” This notion that the game “had a purpose” illustrates that the games were carefully structured to provide meaningful learning opportunities to 12+ participants. In addition, the support of the mentor was vital, as she often made these links to the curriculum and learning objectives more explicit. Mentors also often referred to the vegetable gardens as important in developing skills, not just in agriculture but also in terms of healthy diets and nutrition; and a mentor from Southern Province recalled how she used song with the 12+ adolescent participants to teach them to speak out against people who might expose them to gender-based violence or abuse.

5.1 Safe spaces and trusting relationships

Fostering safe spaces and trusting relationships is key to creating environments conducive to learning. As young women who were 10–15 years older than the participating girls, mentors were simultaneously “teachers” with authority and also related to the girls in a more informal way, like older sisters or aunts. They viewed and tried to position themselves as trustworthy adults to whom the girls could talk about problems. For example, reflecting on teaching the girls about different kinds of violence and abuse, a mentor from Kigali described:

[If a case of abuse] happens, we used to tell them that, as we want [them to have] a strong relationship with their mentors, they could come to report it to us or to their mothers or another person that they trust.9

Mentors particularly highlighted the importance of warm and trusting relationships in the parts of the curriculum that covered taboo or challenging issues such as sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender-based violence. A mentor from Southern Province recounted:

Sexuality is a taboo for parents. When an adolescent asks questions about it, parents silence her whereas the adolescent had a curiosity about something. So, we had the opportunity to discuss openly with them, and they also become open while sharing their views and experiences. So, we had open conversations and became like their elder siblings.

Beyond personal hygiene (see Section 4.5), what both girls and mentors appear to have taken away from this part of 12+ was a focus on the importance of abstinence and avoiding “temptation.” Both girls and mentors recounted how 12+ participants developed skills to abstain from risky behaviour.10 As one 12+ graduate from Southern Province said, “Since I know all the consequences [of sex], it helps me know how to behave, because I can say ‘no’ to boys.” A 15-year-old from Eastern Province echoed this, describing how the 12+ programme helped her develop critical thinking skills to “analyse a situation” and “foresee an end result [or] the consequences of what is happening in the moment’ so that she can ‘quit early’ or make a decision to ‘avoid unwanted pregnancies.’” Mentors from all three field sites described an observable reduction in adolescent pregnancies in their communities, and attributed this to the 12+ programme. When asked what the “main driving factor of that change” was, a mentor responded, “those discussions we had during the programme.” The interview data suggest that both participants and mentors viewed avoiding unwanted pregnancy as girls’ responsibility, and emphasized the skills and mindsets to this end.Efforts to build trust and rapport extended to relationships between peers. Research participants described how adolescent girls learnt to care for one another, trust each other, and work together. A 15-year-old girl from the Southern Province, for example, said, “we were taught to help our colleagues in case they face problems without gossiping it in the public.” She went on to describe how her relationship with her peers changed over the course of the 12+ programme:

Before this programme, I was not used to hanging around with girls, I couldn’t have conversations with girls, I was nervous. [I learnt] to love and care [for] my colleagues. I have also learnt to make good friends by hanging around with only good people with good manners. That was the most important thing that I learnt.

In the focus group in Southern Province girls commonly described “loving one another” and “working together” as lessons they learnt during their time in the 12+ programme. Mentors often reported changes in girls' behaviour as they learnt to get along and treat each other with respect, including one case of a participant who had previously hit others in the group. The mentors recounted how they had drawn on their training to help her respond calmly when annoyed, and to stop hitting others, ensuring a safe space for all participants. The 12+ programme thus attempted to foster compassion and empathy, as well as skills in teamwork and collaboration.

Mentors reported that they tried to foster a warm and inclusive environment for all learners. A mentor from Eastern Province described the impact that the 12+ programme had on an adolescent girl with disabilities: “she had this inferiority complex…Therefore, we told her that she’s able and that there’s nothing others can do that she can’t. This would allow her to feel confident and even outperform.”

5.2 Mentors as role models

12+ programme mentors were hired through a comprehensive process that considered their skills, knowledge, and values. As one mentor from Eastern Province described:

‘

They [recruiters] consider your trustworthiness in your village where you are from…You see as for us young girls, sometimes, you may not be behaving well in the village…being selected would require parents having confidence in you…in [the] case they trust you due to the behaviour you display in your village, you fulfil the criteria of selection, and you are blameless, you’d easily land the job.

Mentors acted as role models for adolescent girls, leading by example in behaviour and conduct. When asked “What has contributed to having that discipline? What has made them change?” another mentor from Eastern Province replied, “The thing which made them change is us who could have discipline before them. If a child steps on you, you don’t immediately talk to her in a bad way. If she sees that it’s you, you have discipline, it makes her have it too.”

Mentors also modelled behaviour that they saw as contributing to self-respect. A mentor from Eastern Province stated that to her, self-respect is reflected in dress, demeanour, and other forms of behaviour that may lead others to regard them highly. When discussing how to develop adolescent girls' self-respect during life skills lessons, mentors linked effective communication and positive behaviour management to self-respect. One mentor from Eastern Province said, “the way you speak to [girls] and the way you treat or punish them are parts of self-respect and this causes the girls to respect you back.” A mentor from Southern Province described how this role modelling was part of: “helping [12+ participants] to know the values of a Rwandan girl. How she should behave, where she is, what she should say or not say, everything. Showing them how a Rwandan girl should behave and that is how they behave till now.” The girls from Kigali used similar words, alluding to the concept of Nyampinga.11 A 14-year-old said the programme helped her understand what Nyampinga is, and later described Nyampinga as “A beautiful girl in and out, who’s good at making decisions.” Her 13-year-old peers chimed in to add to the description, “kind-hearted, respectful and gentle,” “who does not get distracted,” “who is clean and has respect.” The girls considered that the ways they carried and cared for themselves were critical for both their own self-respect and to have the respect of others.

Self-care was another skill that mentors modelled, particularly in terms of hygiene and managing menstruation. Mentors recounted the various lessons they taught adolescent girls about washing their hair, brushing their teeth, or cutting their nails. They explained the importance of clean clothing and noted an observable impact as a result of the 12+ programme. One mentor described a change in a participant’s habits: “upon arriving at home, she would go fetch water to bathe, in the morning before going to school, and for washing.” Mentors described a certain sense of pride that came with cleanliness and hygiene; a girl who used to feel “ashamed” sitting near her peers transformed to a girl who “knows how to be clean and take care of herself.” In all interviews, 12+ graduates recounted learning safe menstrual hygiene practices, such as using sanitary products, cleaning them, and hanging them to dry. A mentor from Southern Province described how she brought in a pad to model how to use it—but that one major challenge was the lack of resources to provide girls with their own. Mentors also mentioned that they modelled avoiding unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), in favour of focusing on the girls’ studies and long-term career goals.12

Another way in which mentors modelled desirable behaviour was through punctuality, arriving at the sessions on time to encourage participants also to be punctual. One mentor from Southern Province said:

As a role model, I could not…arrive late whereas the child was punctual. For them, they would always want to be there before me. So, I would also make sure to arrive on time to begin the sessions.

Mentors from all three regions also reported that they stayed active in the communities through supporting graduates and community members, via different community leadership roles. One mentor in Eastern Province reported being contacted by participants and asked for advice on different issues. The mentors in Kigali recounted that they continued to support 12+ graduates in their saving groups. In addition, one of the mentors in Kigali took up a leadership role in local governance.While the attributes and values modelled by mentors did not necessarily directly challenge gendered social norms, particularly around sexuality, as young women entrusted to teach others and to travel from community to community they represented an expanded vision of what a girl can do and be. A 17-year-old from Southern Province described how the mentors inspired them:

There are some of us who were aspiring to become mentors and we knew that the only way to make it was to study hard and be able to develop skills that will make a mentor. That also added something to our skills because we developed thirst to know more. The main idea was to be able to stand in a position where you can spread the message and teach other young girls how they can protect themselves.

6 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The practices identified in the previous section as underpinning girls' development of key skills and knowledge are consistent with well-evidenced good practices for learner-centred pedagogy both globally (Schweisfurth, 2015) and in Rwanda (van de Kuilen et al., 2020). Historically, analyses of the factors contributing to life skills programmes' impact have tended to emphasize overarching design features, such as the number, location, or timing of sessions, the need for multi-sectoral approaches and system alignment, or integration with other activities, such as cash transfers or vocational training.13 Other than rather general recognition of the value of participatory and interactive approaches, the pedagogical practices used in life skills programmes have received little critical examination. In recent years this has started to shift, with the development of frameworks such as YouthPower’s Guiding principles for building soft skills (Soares et al., 2017), and the conceptual and programmatic framework of UNICEF’s Life Skills and Citizenship Initiative (UNICEF MENA, 2017b), both of which strongly emphasize the role of pedagogy in learning and skill outcomes.

The findings of the few empirical studies that probe pedagogical practices in life skills education are largely consistent with our analysis of 12+. For example, they emphasize the importance of participatory and dialogic approaches for building self-confidence, allowing learners space to make mistakes and to challenge themselves in new activities and situations (such as visiting a bank, running a savings group, or making a presentation to a group of peers) (Marcus & Stavropoulou, 2020). This literature also underlines the importance of reflective processes and discussion in safe spaces, for challenging previously held ideas (Jejeebhoy et al., 2017; Muthengi et al., 2016). In the case of 12+ for example, our interviews found that a supportive atmosphere enabled mentors and participants to challenge taboos around adolescent menstruation and to speak out about sexual abuse or assault.

It is also important to acknowledge that practice may not always be as participatory as programme designers intended. Particularly where programme conditions (e.g. delays in payment or insufficient travel stipends) undermine their motivation, the wider literature documents examples of facilitators not turning up for sessions, cutting them short (Baird, Dutton, et al., 2021; Muthengi et al., 2016), or simply reading from a manual, rather than discussing content with participants (Kalyanwala et al., 2006). It is unclear from this study how far mentors went off-script, engaging participants in a deeper and perhaps more tailored discussion, or conversely teaching more didactically than was intended.

Consistent with emerging guidelines, such as those in International Rescue Committee’s Girl Shine programming manual (Foulds et al., 2018), our analysis highlights the importance of emotional connection between mentors and participants for effective learning. The relatively small age gap between participants and mentors may have helped foster these relationships—mentors were seen as both “elders” who were worthy of respect from adolescent girls, but still young enough to cultivate an egalitarian relationship that instils comfort and confidence.

Equally important was the training mentors received in enabling them to perform their roles effectively. This helped them understand the programme’s values, such as “no wrong answers,” ways they could make learning joyful through integrating song and dance, and how to respond sensitively if a participant was aggressive. Mentors’ own commitment—fostered by regular supervision and the status attached to the role—was also crucial. The understanding, skills, and commitment that underpin effective teaching can and must be cultivated. They do not emerge automatically, just because mentors and participants are relatively close in age.

Like many non-formal life skills initiatives, 12+ was a well-funded, externally financed programme, with an emphasis on learning being fun, rather than simply “more school.”14 Groups were limited to 25 participants, with two mentors running sessions, compared with average class sizes in 2017, when the programme ended, of 88 and 35 in primary and secondary school respectively (National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, 2020). How far, then, are the pedagogical insights relevant to cash-strapped formal education systems?

It is important not to underestimate the very real challenges of integrating discursive and experiential approaches in classrooms where large numbers of students are squeezed into a small space. For example, lack of space can limit opportunities for group-based learning, as learners may struggle to hear clearly and participate fully, and teachers may be constrained in guiding discussions. In Rwandan secondary schools, learner-centred pedagogies demand discussion and critical thinking in English, a language in which many learners (and teachers) are not fluent. Power hierarchies based on position and age inherent in formal education can make fostering warm, trusting relationships a considerable challenge (van de Kuilen et al., 2020). In Rwanda these are exacerbated by gendered power hierarches—65% of secondary school teachers are men (World Bank, 2021). The risk of expanding teachers' workloads still further is another obstacle.15

But school-based mentorship programmes could be an alternative. The benefits of diverse forms of mentoring for girls (e.g. individual, group, peer-to-peer, teacher-to-peer) in school and community settings have been documented (Archard, 2012; Plourde et al., 2017). It is less clear how effective these programmes are in mixed-gender settings or low-income contexts, such as Rwanda, however; nor do these studies explore the training or preparation required to ensure that mentors effectively perform their roles.

But these need not be insuperable obstacles. Rwanda’s competency-based curriculum and commitment to learning-centred approaches emphasize the importance of developing students’ skills in communication (Rwanda Education Board, 2015). Both pre- and in-service training has started to equip teachers to use learner-centred pedagogies (Nsengimana et al., 2017; Otara et al., 2019; Peeraer et al., 2015). As van der Kuilen et al. (2020) show, in some cases teachers recognize the potential benefits in helping students develop skills to succeed in work and build a peaceful society. And this has led to the teachers in this study working hard to create warmer classroom environments, with “joy and laughter” (van der Kuilen et al., 2020, p. 12). Another study of Rwandan secondary school teachers shows that many emphasize the importance of being role models, inculcating cultural values, and actively engaging all students (Carter et al., 2021).

These are encouraging signs and there is scope both to extend and deepen these practices (van der Kuilen et al., 2020). Giving continued emphasis to building warm, constructive relationships, creating environments where students can risk giving wrong answers and can ask questions of teachers, may be feasible even in under-resourced schools. Materials devised by non-formal programmes, such as 12+ could be shared through pre-and in-service teacher education—and could provide inspiration for new ways to teach curriculum content that simultaneously builds life skills, such as games or role playing.

Echoing prior research (Soares et al., 2017), our analysis showed the value of field trips to community facilities. These allow learners to integrate learning across contexts (e.g. classrooms/communities) and contribute to practical knowledge, for example about saving. These, and other practical projects, such as kitchen gardening, could be integrated into school timetables—for example in compulsory entrepreneurship classes—and need not be resource intensive. Particularly where non-formal programmes are time-bound, strengthening linkages between such programmes, schools, and teacher training institutions may be one way that lessons can be sustained beyond the programme’s lifetime (Wekesah et al., 2019).

Through a case study of Rwanda’s 12+ programme, this article has probed some of the ways in which different pedagogical practices may help adolescents develop key life skills to overcome contemporary social, economic, and environmental challenges. Much remains unknown about how such practices could be integrated at scale into formal education systems. If the global community is to truly equip all adolescents with the life skills necessary to thrive and promote sustainable development (SDG 4.7), innovation to address this gap is urgently needed.