Mixed-Methods Study on Role of Extreme Poverty Background in Social Skill Development and Academic Performance of Elementary Students in Central Angola

The purpose of my mixed-methods approach with an explanatory sequential design study was to explore what role extreme poverty backgrounds play in social skills development and the academic performance of children in a rural central region of Angola, in southern Africa. Therefore, triangulation of interview data was achieved by a quantitative archival data focus on how students living in backgrounds of extreme poverty in central Angola perform academically across four schools, three core subjects, three teachers per school site, and three 2018, 2019, and 2020/2021 academic school-years. A quasi-experimental ex post facto design was applied in my quantitative strand, which involved archival data from the four consenting schools in the same central region of Angola. A phenomenological design was applied in my qualitative strand, which consisted of individual in-depth interviews with 12 elementary teachers who worked in the same four consenting schools in the central region of Angola, and who completed brief scheduling survey responses. Study results revealed that extreme poverty backgrounds play a debilitating role in the social skills development and academic performance of the students, especially in relation to linguistic barriers, extreme hunger/lack of nutrition, severe resource shortfalls, lack of parental involvement, constraining teacher training deficits, constraints to social emotional wellbeing of students and teachers, and misaligning cultural differences among others. These results highlight the importance of providing extreme poverty mitigating resources to support these students who are at greater risk of falling behind in potentially life transformative academic mastery/ performance and social skills development. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]