Pam Wadende
Dr. Pamela Wadende is a Developmental Psychologist and senior lecturer at Kenya’s Kisii University, where she teaches and supervises graduate students from East Africa and other parts of the world.
Research Interest
Pamela is interested in how human beings acquire and change behavior across the life span, and she believes that environmental factors heavily shape developmental outcomes. Successful interventions aimed at improving the human condition should therefore target individual environments and experiences in order to facilitate behavioral changes such as learning new content or embracing new health practices.
One of her current research foci is creating child-friendly pre-school environments. Her study sites include selected areas of rural Kenya and Zambia. Another surveys the conceptualizations of human flourishing, its pathway and impediments for children in rural populations in Kenya.
Current Project
Indigenous care and motivation practices as a transition strategy into formal school tasks in Kenya and Zambia.
Along with her colleague, Barnabas Simatende from Zambia, Pamela seeks to develop new ways of addressing educational inequalities in rural Africa through:
Parents recognizing the school’s priorities in order to support their child’s continuing education
Teachers understanding their pupils’ family environment so they can build on positive home experiences
Schools building on children’s existing skills and knowledge to make them thrive and become vital parts of their communities
She is an avid mountain hiker and outdoor person.