ABSTRACT
The chapter, “Help Isn’t Always Helpful,” is a description of experiences and lessons learned from a multiyear effort to provide culturally responsive, sustainable, and disabilities-focused technical assistance to teachers in rural primary schools in Malawi. The authors’ understanding of what is and what is not effective evolved over the course of their engagement with local stakeholders, particularly the recipients of the technical assistance. The authors explore the cultural factors that affected their decision-making and reflect on participants’ responses to interventions in order to draw lessons on the craft of developing locally appropriate development-assistance interventions across cultures.
