International Journal of Educational Development in Africa

A Planet in Distress: Cross-Curricular Integrations of Visual Texts in the Mainstream Learning Context

Nicholas De Jager — 2023-06-07

This article aims to explore the affordances of employing the visual mode— specifically the medium of drawing—as a multimodal pedagogy to raise awareness of deforestation and climate change in the South African mainstream school context. Conducted at several public and private schools in the Gauteng and the North West provinces, the research follows nine learners between the ages of 10 and 18, who have volunteered to participate in a three-week enrichment programme involving the multimodal reimagining of a non-curricular narrative into a series of drawings, paintings and collages. The narrative, which also serves as the primary source text during each participant’s artefactual redesign journey, is a wordless picture book that explores the concept of exponential environmental change. With this visually engaging text merely acting as a springboard for the making of new meanings in the Grade 5 to 11 Social Sciences/Geography classroom, participants are granted complete autonomy in their visual representations of how the exhaustion of our natural resources and moreover the threat of global warming may be impacting upon our daily lives on a spiritual, emotional and corporeal level. Finally, each artefact is presented as primary data to offer a tripartite focus on the latter learner experiences, the expressional properties of art, as well as the viability of the proposed pedagogy in future practice.

The E-Tutor in the New Normal: Analysing the Changing Roles of Tutoring in an ODeL Environment during and post Covid-19

Deborah vimbwandu Sanoto — 2023-08-17

This article reports on a study that explored how an open distance learning (ODL) institution is integrating its online processes in handling e-tutors’ experiences as they transition from face-to-face to blended facilitation. The study examined the following key issues: firstly, conceptions of how the university strategy transitions conventional tutors into its open distance e-learning (ODeL) system; secondly, conceptions of how e-tutors bridge the gap between facilitation and student support; and thirdly, how e-tutors are integrated in the ODeL institution’s system in relation to their personal academic development. The study adopted a qualitative exploratory approach, which relied on documentary sources and the experiences of university e-tutors at the Botswana Open University (BOU) captured through telephonic and online interviews. It is argued that the world is changing due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The changes have been fast, radical, demanding and uncertain. However, ODeL institutions can do more to confront these challenges. The study findings indicated that BOU has positively responded to these changes by relying on its capabilities and strengths. The article provides insights for improved access, success, tutor identities and development. The article ends with recommendations on what could be done to improve learning, teaching and practice as facilitated by e-tutors within ODeL institutions as they recover from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Importance of Theories to the Processes of Educational Policymaking and Planning: A Case Study on the Recent Educational Developments in Ghana

Ruth Donkoh — 2023-06-07

Although theories and processes of educational policymaking and planning are relevant in educational development, an assessment of them in Ghana revealed that they are boycotted; hence, the inability of educational developments to achieve their objectives. This article reports on a study that analysed the theories, and processes of educational policymaking and planning on the recent educational development in Ghana. From the findings, the article argues that the recognition of theories and approaches to policymaking and planning can help to bring sanity to the situation and overhaul Ghana’s educational system. This can be achieved by allowing educational stakeholders to do due diligence on their work in order to achieve their educational objectives.

Preference for Mathematics Textbook Illustrations among Primary School Pupils in Ibadan: Implications for Counselling Psychology

Dr. Muraina Kamilu Olanrewaju — 2023-05-10

The purpose of this study was to investigate the preference among primary school pupils in Ibadan in terms of mathematics textbook illustrations and its implications for counselling psychology. An ex post facto descriptive research design was used in the study. One hundred and three (103) respondents were selected from public primary school pupils in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The respondents were measured with self-developed scales and the data obtained was analysed using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC) and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Two (2) research questions were raised and answered in the study. The results show that there is a significant relationship between paper quality and preference for mathematics textbook illustrations (r = .712; P<0.05), and there was a significant relationship between colours used in the book and mathematics textbook illustration preferences (r = .841; P<0.05). In view of these findings, the study stresses that educational stakeholders and counsellors should intensify their effort to organise conferences on the implications of these factors (e.g., colour and paper quality, among others) relating to the pupils’ preferences for textbooks, which invariably affect reading comprehension of the pupils.

The Quality of School-Based Practices in Enhancing Secondary School Students’ National Examination Achievement in Ethiopia

Endalew Kufi — 2023-09-01

This research dealt with identifying the predictive quality of secondary school students’ classroom achievement on national examination results. A correlation survey design with a concurrent mixed approach to data was used. Data were obtained from existing school archives through careful identification of subjects where the 25 top achievers in each one of the four sampled schools were considered (n=100). Moreover, references were made to key-informant principals (n=2), officers (n=2) and secondary school teachers (n=40) for complementary purposes. The findings revealed that students’ school-based achievements were strong predictors of the national examination results in some schools (r²=.82) whereas they were weak predictors in others (r²=.29). In that, there was a significant difference between public and private schools on the level of prediction. There was also a significant difference in the level of prediction among private schools themselves. Findings showed a shortage in classroom arrangements and facilities, weak experiential exchanges and guidance services, and a shortage in identifying model skills among teachers and students to have been the bottleneck issues in enhancing the quality of school-based preparation for the national examination.

Exploring the Impact of Quality Education Management on Pupils’ Academic Performance. A Case Study of Basic Schools in Ghana

Ruth Donkoh — 2023-05-10

Generally, research on educational management omits its impact on pupils’ academic performance in basic schools. This research fills this gap by assessing the effect of quality education management functions on the academic performance of pupils in government basic schools in Ghana. A questionnaire was used to obtain data from headteachers, teachers, pupils, and the Parents’ and Teacher Association, totalling 240 respondents from 15 schools in Accra-Ghana. The findings indicated that teachers’ effort has the highest impact on pupils’ academic performance among all the managerial function variables in the research. The research recommends that the Ghana government and educational stakeholders emulate Singapore’s system of teacher development, which has enabled them to achieve educational excellence acknowledged across the globe.

Disrupting Whiteness as Higher Education: Towards a Systemic Decoloniality

Christopher Knaus — 2023-05-10

This creative conceptual paper expands traditionalised academic approaches through integrated narratives, plays, lyrics, and poetry as decolonial method. Based in first person narratives, informal interviews, artistic expression, and music-integration, the author clarifies tensions in decolonial strategy, including moving beyond racial representation to acknowledge and respond to racialised poverty, racism built into the fabric of higher education, and an overarching denial of racial disparities. The paper begins with a discussion of the student-created and produced play, The Fall, which brings the #RhodesMustFall movement onto the stage. Integrating student discussions and reactions to the play, the paper echoes themes from The Fall, suggesting that strategies which interrupt coloniality, while necessary, are insufficient to transform from formal education’s capitalistic and exploitative foundation. In centring USA and South African writers, the paper highlights that the purpose of education remains a White supremacist vision and that to move from such anti-Black infrastructures, transformation must align directly with ongoing, student-led decolonial approaches. The paper then parallels higher education protests to the context of the 2010 World Cup’s artistic exploitation of South Africa, warning of the power of appropriation, especially on a global stage. The paper concludes with the affirmation that creative, artistic, and Black-centric voices must be fostered and integrated into decolonial strategies to transform the global Whiteness of higher education.

Distance Teacher Training in Periods of Emergency (COVID-19 Pandemic)

Konstantinos Kotsidis — 2023-05-10

The closing of schools at the beginning of spring 2020 in Greece highlighted the need for school distance education to make up for lost teaching time and to maintain learners’ contact with the educational process and other members of the school community. However, the teachers needed support in this urgent situation since they did not have previous experience with school distance education. The Laboratory for Advanced Teaching Technologies for Lifelong Learning and Distance Education (E-Learning Lab) of the University of Crete attempted to contribute with its own means to the support of these teachers. Within this framework, fast-paced, distance seminars were designed and implemented to support teachers on pedagogical issues of distance education. A total of 20 distance training seminars were conducted from 19 March to 29 April 2020, in which more than 40 000 teachers of primary and secondary education in Greece participated. The overall presentation and assessment of the training actions showed not only the enormous interest of the teaching community but also the need for such training actions. The paper proposes that particular emphasis should be placed on the principles and the methodology of school distance education, synchronous and asynchronous learning environments, and the design of lesson plans based on pedagogical approaches compatible with distance learning.

Republic of Sudan Education System Reform: The Causal Effect on Welfare of Women and Children

Ayshe Yaylali — 2023-05-10

This paper explores a change in education law in the Republic of Sudan, also known as Northern Sudan, to estimate the causal effect of compulsory education on the welfare of women and children. The aim is to investigate the impact of education policies on women and children’s well-being and point out the limitations of these policies in conservative societies. The policy extended the duration of primary education from five years to eight, made it compulsory and reduced the entry age from seven to six. It was proposed in 1995 and implemented in 1998, affecting individuals born from July 1993 onwards. The birth-date Regression Discontinuity Design is implemented as the main methodology to investigate the engagement with education and outcome variables of interest after versus before the cut-off point, by using the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Survey Data. This methodology enables overcoming the endogeneity problem when dealing with observational data. The results suggest that the policy increased completion rates of primary education and participation of women in the labour force but did not increase participation in education. Moreover, there is limited evidence of any welfare effect of the policy. The paper also investigates possible reasons for the policy being ineffective in increasing participation rates. The paper recommends that before taking an essential step towards the goal of universal primary education, the government failed to address existing problems such as the unavailability of schools, long distances to schools, school fees and child labour, which discourage families from sending their daughters to school to increase the effectiveness of the policy. In Muslim societies where informal institutions dominate written rules, compulsory education policies are not likely to yield the expected outcomes, such as equal access for girls to education, unless they are accompanied by huge investment. This paper contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the impact of educational reform policies, discussing issues that limit their effectiveness and making propositions to improve the impact of these policies in such societies.

Assessment of School Health Policy in Ghana; Perspective of Teachers in Second Cycle Institutions in the Kwadaso Municipal Area, Kumasi

Juliana Akumiah Opoku — 2023-09-14

Background: The focus on school health has moved from the classroom to a more comprehensive approach focusing on students’ health behaviours and a supportive school environment in health promotion. As school health policy helps to reduce health risk behaviours, knowledge and perspectives of Teachers in school health are key.

Method: An institutional school-based cross-sectional study involving 220 teachers in second-cycle institutions in the Kwadaso Municipal-Ghana from June to August 2022. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed using STATA version 16, Microsoft Excel, and Jamovi 2.3.12. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square association tests were conducted between the outcome and independent variables.

Results: The age range was 24-56 years. Most respondents were first-degree graduates (52.5%). The study found that the school's health program covers all aspects of the health needs of the students (Mean=2.98, SD= 1.34). Also, the school health programs focused on preventive measures (Mean=2.46, SD= 1.081). Again, about 41.63% perceived that they passionately share the view that effective implementation of the health policy in their school is associated with their classroom responsibility (Mean=2.34, SD=0.918). Items such as 'My school has adequate classrooms’ (110 [50.2%], Mean=2.33, SD 1.169, 'My school has friendly facilities for People Living with Disability (84[38.0%], mean=2.70 and SD of 1.315) have seen a high agreement. About 44.3% of the respondents believe that the school health program has improved their knowledge.

Conclusion: Most teachers had adequate perspective in the school health program due to their high knowledge of school health issues.