Perceived Socio-cultural Barriers to Children ' s Acquisition of Kiswahili Pre-Reading Skills in Rural Pre-primary Schools in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper explores socio-cultural barriers to children ' s acquisitionof Kiswahili pre-reading skills in rural public €“pre-primary schools inTanzania. Purposive sampling was used to obtain 48 pre-primary schoolteachers, head teachers and parents. Data were collected through semistructuredinterview and focus group discussion methods. Thematic analysiswas utilised in data analysis using NVivo-12 software for qualitativeand non-structured data. The findings revealed that mother-tongueinterference, limited parent-teacher collaboration and community beliefsabout children ' s education were the perceived socio-cultural barriers tochildren ' s acquisition of Kiswahili pre-reading skills. The paper concludesthat children ' s acquisition of Kiswahili pre-reading skills was hamperedby the presence of various socio-cultural barriers. The paper recommendsthat pre-primary school learning environments in rural areas should beimproved for children ' s successful acquisition of pre-reading skills.Keywords: early childhood education, Kiswahili language, marginalisedschools, reading acquisition, socio-cultural barriers