| This dissertation describes a systematic attempt to view the psychosocial well-being of Liberian teachers through the lens of social justice theories. This study was purposefully situated in Liberia's postwar period during early reconstruction efforts (2006), when a large international humanitarian presence continued to exist in the country. I explored Liberian teachers' self-perceptions of their well-being and of the care and quality of the instruction they provided in the context of a redeveloping educational system. I built the framework for this study on prior anthropological conceptualizations of social suffering, integrating Morton Deutsch's social-psychological descriptive framework for studying injustice and conflict. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach that included in-depth interviews, surveys, focus group discussions, participant observation, and document review, I gathered data on the perspectives of demographically diverse teachers from three counties in Liberia: Lofa, Nimba, and Montserrado. This systematic inquiry yielded three principal findings. First, early education reconstruction programs did not address the specific psychosocial concerns of Liberian teachers. Second, institutional injustices in early education reconstruction programs in Liberia jeopardized the psychosocial well-being of Liberian teachers and students. Third, injustices in early education reconstruction programs in Liberia contributed to a concern for the country's peaceful development. Based on these three findings, I argue that educational reconstruction programs may recycle forms of oppression and conflict if they do not respond to the particular needs of local teachers effectively. |
