Local Utilization of NGO Presence in Changing Discourses of Education in Malawi

The paper examines the utilization of NGOs in changing conceptions over what makes a person educated and the advantages and liabilities that presenting one's-self as educated provides among Malawian small farmers. Through an ethnographic account it will be demonstrated that locally embedded actors incorporate the presence of a variety of NGOs in their education related negotiations and meaning making. It is argued that the presence of NGOs provides opportunities for many of the less enfranchised to challenge the notion (often presented by rural Malawian elites) that only those who go to schools are educated. Such claims assist people to claim resources that are either divided among the community or family. Nevertheless, not all poor are in a position to make such claims, for example, female members of poor male-headed households.