February 28, 2018

Matthew Kearney, MPH is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the Dornsife School of Public Health and Doctoral Research Fellow at the Drexel Urban Health Collaborative. In this blog post, he reflects on his February 2018 experience attending a weeklong research methods workshop series in Dakar, Senegal. Mr. Kearney's doctoral research is centered on using novel research methods that incorporate mHealth and social media to evaluate school-based health programs and assess adolescents' health seeking behavior and health literacy. This blog entry touches on the applicability of the Senegal workshop to Mr. Kearney's doctoral research.

Earlier this month, I participated in a weeklong research methods workshop series with graduate students in Dakar, Senegal. The students had recently used tablet computers to collect intercept survey data at a local market, the second such survey they’d conducted, to evaluate the impact of “C’est La Vie” (CLV), a serial health education drama and transmedia program produced by RAES, our local NGO partner, in Dakar, Senegal, now entering production of its third season. My advisor, Drexel University assistant professor Philip Massey, PhD, MPH, and his doctoral advisor and now colleague, UCLA School of Public Health professor Deborah Glik, ScD, FAAHB have been involved with CLV since its inception, and offered me an opportunity to participate in this project as a teaching/research assistant. We would travel to Senegal and work with university students to analyze survey data collected before and after the first season of CLV.

The students attend the Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar – Sénégal (UCAD), which hosted the workshops, and were working with Dr. Cheikh Niang, a professor teaching social science research methods and medical and social anthropology at UCAD and partner in the CLV evaluation. Prior to our arrival in Dakar, the students, along with our local non-profit partner organization, Réseau Africain pour l'Éducation, la Santé et la Citoyenneté (African Network for Education, Health, and Citizenship, RAES) – had completed data collection for the surveys, referred to as “opinion polls”, which are one of the data collection instruments for evaluating the impact of CLV. The research methods training workshops were to build the capacity of UCAD students to manage and analyze their data. Beyond the workshops, the CLV evaluation team held meetings with Dr. Niang and RAES to identify future training needs related to the CLV evaluation.

Reflections

Traveling to Senegal was my first trip to a francophone country, as well as to the African continent, and first time in front of the classroom in almost four years. Even though sorting through the logistics of short-term international travel may seem daunting, as a former high school teacher how could I say no? And so it was that just two short weeks later we were touching down in Dakar! I can only hope that this is the first of many trips, because working with students was one of the most rewarding parts of my Senegal experience. This experience has opened up new avenues for exploration as I train to become doctor of public health, such as building long-term relationships in West Africa by learning French, translating my background as a teacher and evolving skills as a researcher into practical lessons for UCAD students, and, perhaps most importantly, expanding my perception of the ways in which my work can impact urban health.

In my application to be a member of the first pre-doctoral fellowship cohort at the Urban Health Collaborative, I identified the creation of innovative methods for program evaluation – albeit within the limited context of adolescent sexual health education in Philadelphia – as one of my primary fellowship goals. While the specific context of my research has changed, the overall field remains quite similar: Senegal is a developing country where nearly half of the population is under 18 years old, and the majority (58 percent) reside in urban areas. More broadly, Dakar resembles other urban areas in that the youth and young adult populations will only continue to increase over time. Given this demographic structure, CLV seeks to provide health education at the population-level, and my continued participation will move me closer towards realizing my fellowship goals. The CLV evaluation builds on skills that I’ve honed these past 18-months, in particular survey development (West Philadelphia Promise Neighborhood community survey), capacity building (Bucks County YWCA Evaluation), and quantitative methods (schools of public health Twitter study).

By participating in the ongoing evaluation of CLV and UCAD training workshops, the scope of my work will expand once again to the classroom, as well as beyond. Having been a recipient of UCAD’s overwhelming hospitality, I hope to use my remaining time as a UHC fellow and Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health doctoral student to forge more connections between UCAD and Drexel students, such as exploring the “Global Classroom” program or courses in the UHC Urban Health Summer Institute, inviting UCAD peers and collaborating researchers to submit research to the UHC’s 2019 Symposium – and, of course, keeping up correspondence with UCAD students en français!