Enhancing Learning in Africa through Students’ Collaboration with Parents, Teachers and Peers

Education scholars agree on the positive role that parents play in fostering educational success. Much research donealso shows ways in which teachers contribute greatly to students’ performance in school. Limited research focuseson how students’ interactions with one another effect their academic performance. This study examines ways inwhich students were impacted by collaborating with their parents, teachers and with each other during a writingworkshop in one elementary school in Northwestern Tanzania. Data seems to suggest that students accessed theirparents’ funds of knowledge; they became agents of change and used each other’s academic input to improve theirwriting. Implications for research and teaching are discussed.