The role of formal and non-formal education for children’s empowerment and as a prevention tool from violence

Abstract

This work is part of an on-going anthropological research, with marginalized children and adolescents in Central America and, in particular, in the Dominican Republic. It builds upon a previous ethnographic field research, by the author, whose core acquired data and research findings constitute a parameter and an interpretation tool for current qualitative analysis and updating, on this subject. The qualitative analysis of this work develops in the overall framework of the international legal standards for children’s rights and their local implementation. This article analyses the case of the Dominican Republic, where school’s failure in giving appropriate rights-based and life skills-based education, often affects children’s fullest development and their access to a free choice for their future life. It also intends to underline the role played by a few local associations offering non-formal education and trying to compensate the gaps of formal education, at school, and of informal education, within family, in the purpose of achieving children’s empowerment. This work is also an introduction to the approach, developed by the author, of anthropology of/for children’s rights.