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There are too few teachers and schools to meet the need for quality universal basic education. Therefore, alternative approaches to education provision need to be explored, such as open and distance learning methods and development and provision of curriculum-based Open Educational Resources (OER). However, distribution of printed materials is increasingly costly, and distribution of digital resources remains a challenge in areas with little or no connectivity. This case study explores the potential of using offline strategies to share digital OER. It suggests it is possible to provide access to digital learning resources even in the most remote areas by using appropriate technology, like the Commonwealth of Learning's Aptus device.

Partnerships are understood to be one of the strategies for internationalisation of higher education institutions. In recent years, there has been a slight shift in trends, with diversifying partnerships among African universities and with countries that do not have colonial ties. These include the USA, Canada and Scandinavian countries, among others, labelled as North-South partnerships. With the scarcity of empirical research on the subject matter, the impetus of this study was to explore the rationales, benefits and success factors for North-South partnerships across higher education institutions as perceived by administrators and academics from one Northern country, Sweden, and one Southern country, Mozambique. The study applied a mixed methods approach eliciting the experiences of 77 people in the two countries who are engaged in some form of North-South partnerships. The results showed that North-South partnerships are motivated by four rationales: academic, economic, social-cultural and political, enhanced by the success factors, among which are communication, trust, participation in decision-making, mutual respect, and attainment of goals and resources. Collaborative advantages across these partnerships were noted but some practices could be more decolonised.

Few studies on the development of forgiveness involved young children and adolescents, and very few involved samples from non-western countries. This study focused on the development of willingness to forgive a particular transgression in participants aged 4 to 12 years and from two different cultures: a South African culture (Mozambique) and a Western European culture (France). Overall, 153 pupils from Mozambique and 107 pupils from France were presented with eight vignettes depicting a situation where a young child, intentionally or accidentally, dropped a small radio that they borrowed from another young child. These vignettes were composed by applying an orthogonal Intent × Consequences × Apologies, 2 × 2 × 2, design. Participants expressed what their willingness to forgive would be in each case on a continuous response scale. Through cluster analysis, four main positions were identified. They were labeled: "Almost never forgive" (11% of participants), "Depends mainly on consequences" (22%), "Depends mainly on intent and apologies" (57%), and "Almost always forgive" (2%). The first two positions were typical of 4-7-year olds, and the third one was typical of 8-12-year olds. No significant differences in cluster composition were found between the Mozambican and French participants. Up to the age of four, most children probably do not have access to the notion of forgiveness. From the age of four to seven, this notion begins to appear, in particular through a gradual taking into account of circumstantial factors other than the severity of consequences of a transgression. This development is quite rapid - probably during the 7-year period, from 0 to 7 years. From the age of eight onwards, a forgiveness schema similar to that observed in adults is operational. This developmental trajectory is probably very general. It seems to depend little on the type of culture in which it develops.

This paper explores the thesis of de-globalisation in relation to international education. Through interrogating accounts of international school leadership during the COVID-19 crisis, the tension between international expectations and localised realities is charted, with four central tenets of internationalism undermined by the pandemic experience. It is argued that the COVID-19 crisis, ostensibly a single global event, resulted in the fractalisation of international education; the conceptualisation of unified internationalism was undermined by the inherently localised material effects of the pandemic. In place of an internationalism that is unified, transcendent, inclusive and connected, international school leaders' accounts of leading through the pandemic focused on their sense that their schools were fractured, rooted, privileged and isolated. It is suggested that this international crisis demonstrates the precarious nature of the respatialising of the global that is intrinsic to international schooling.

Objective: To explore the ADHD diagnostic performance of a screening instrument, and which DSM-5 ADHD number of symptoms (criterion A) was best associated with impairment in a sample of students from 106 primary schools in Nampula, Mozambique. Methods: A random sample of 748 students were assessed using SNAP-IV and 152 youths (76 positive and 76 negative screeners) were invited for psychiatric diagnostic confirmation. Results: The performance of the screening instrument for predicting ADHD diagnosis was poor (all AUCs < 0.53). No other cut-off worked best in predicting impairment than the six symptoms cutoff suggested by DSM-5 for both inattention (AUC = 0.78; 95% CI [0.69, 0.86]) and hyperactivity/impulsivity (AUC = 0.75; 95% CI [0.67, 0.84]). Conclusion: Our findings highlight the adequacy of the DSM-5 ADHD criterion A in an African culture but indicate low diagnostic performance of a screening instruments only based in parent or teacher reports on symptoms to predict ADHD diagnosis.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the gendered motivations of students to undertake doctoral research in a low-income country (LIC), Mozambique. Most research on PhD student motivation is done in high-income countries where the drivers for doing a PhD are quite different from those of people living in LICs. Drawing on original empirical research in the form of semi-structured interviews with PhD students from Mozambique, and utilizing the concepts of 'altruistic' and 'self-concerned' motivations, this article argues that context is a powerful determinant of motivation. The findings of the research highlight the need for scholarships as a major driver for undertaking a PhD in an LIC. Further, PhD students' motivations, unlike those in high-income countries where the self is at the heart of decisions to do a PhD, include altruistic motives such as the desire to serve one's country, institution, community, and people as well as having a voice in the public sphere. These altruistic motivations are more important than the more self-referential factors such as 'intrinsic interest in the subject' and 'self-fulfillment' that dominate the literature from high-income countries. This implies that donor countries, the common suppliers of scholarships for PhD students in LICs, need to ensure that scholarships are adequate to enabling PhD students from LICs to complete their degrees both in terms of duration of scholarship and in terms of amount. Without this completion rates are likely to be slow and low. The article calls for more research on this issue in LICs.

Children in sub-Saharan African countries face higher exposure to gender-based violence (GBV) compared to their counterparts in other world regions (United Nations Children's Fund [UNICEF], 2014). When GBV occurs in schools, it severely endangers access to education. Using the third round of data of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) from over 60,000 Grade 6 learners across 14 countries, we examined the relationship between GBV in primary schools and learners' absenteeism. Findings indicate that sexual harassment perpetrated by teachers significantly increases learners' absenteeism. In contrast, effects were less clear when the perpetrator was a fellow learner. Effects found are similar in magnitude for girls and boys. Violence prevention education programmes and stricter punishment for offenders are needed to establish a safer school environment and overcome harassment-related barriers to learning.

Previous studies have paid considerable attention to the impact on a child's primary education of attending pre-primary school. Researchers have asserted that early educational intervention can compensate for the effects of poverty and inadequate learning environments on child development and school success. This study analyzes the relationship between pre-primary education and student reading and mathematics achievement in the sixth grade, focusing on disadvantaged children, in countries that participated in the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) III project. The results show that the achievement of children who attended pre-primary education is higher than that of those who did not. The achievement of children who have many home resources for learning is better than that of children who have a few such resources. In almost all countries, disadvantaged children's achievement is increased when they attend pre-primary education. However, the contribution of pre-primary education to ameliorating social inequalities is different in the various contexts of different countries. These findings contribute to the discussion on the importance of early childhood care and education, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

This study seeks to understand the role of family language policy (FLP) in the process of language shift from Bantu languages into Portuguese, the powerful and prestigious language in Mozambique. The study is based on thematic analysis of semi-structured focus group interviews with urban middle class parents of young citizens born after the independence of the country in 1975. Drawing on a critical, multi-layered approach that recognises the national, institutional and interpersonal layers of language policy work, where FLP is located, this study contributes to question Fishman's (Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of assistance to threatened languages, Multiling Matters, 1991; in: Bathia TK, Ritchie WR (eds) The handbook of bilingualism, Blackwell, 2006) view of family and intergenerational transmission as central for language maintenance, and to move beyond Spolsky's (Language policy, Cambridge University Press, 2004; J Multiling Multicult Dev 33:3-11, 2012) tripartite model of language policy. We found that, pressured by a combination of instrumental, sociodemographic and politico-ideological forces, urban middle class parents choose to invest in the transmission of Portuguese to their children at the expense of Bantu languages, which is often in conflict with their sociocultural desires, particularly the desire to preserve their native languages and cultures, and to ensure intergenerational ties. We argue that this preference for the Portuguese language is contributing to pave the way for language shift in Mozambique. This is the first study to explore the drivers of language shift in the family context in Mozambique, contributing, among others, to understand the dilemmas and challenges faced by families in the management of bi/multilingualism in diglossic postcolonial contexts.

To understand the evolution and current status of qualitative research in School Psychology, we reviewed 4,346 articles published across seven school psychology journals between 2006 and 2021. The bibliometric analysis indicates that publication of qualitative research has increased over the years, but remains small (3%) when seen against the total volume of journal publications. Less than 5% of articles in all but one journal were qualitative. The most commonly explored topic was diversity, equity, and social justice accounting for 23% of the qualitative articles. In total, 55% of the studies were conducted in the United States. Although many studies did not specify participants' race and gender, the most commonly reported research participants were K-12 students, female, White, and from the United States. We discuss these findings and provide recommendations.

This article describes part of the results, taken from ongoing initial research, on the potential of new media in distance education. The article explores the technological conditions that students involved in Open and Innovative Schooling (OIS) experience, focusing on the fifteen schools in Mozambique. Participants were selected by intentional sampling and a mixed method research approach was then followed. The results revealed that, in general, minimum technological conditions were created at schools for the distance learning process, despite some asymmetries between schools and students. These findings are useful for documenting and sharing the real condition under which OIS operates in the Mozambican context. Furthermore, it is key to influencing educational policies in order to include training in digital literacy, as well as strategies for technology distribution for students from the mentioned schools. These are also crucial for an in-depth reflection on the aspects to be improved for a better implementation of OIS.

In 2007, some curricular changes of teacher training system were initiated in Mozambique with teacher training course model 10+1. The changes included the teaching of English together with other new subjects that required the training of teachers capable of implementing them to meet the needs of primary education curriculum. In order to examine the implementation of the curricular changes in primary teachers' institutes, an in-depth study was conducted with attention paid to the integration of complementary subjects for English course at Chicuque teacher-training institute, using a qualitative study. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and document analysis. During the fieldwork, qualitative data were initially analysed through manual methods of coding, clustering and summarizing. At the later phase, electronic methods were used for data processing in Word and Excel software. The personnel's qualifications, specialization and position were used as the criteria for inclusion of 37 participants involved in curriculum design, Education management and teachers of English in primary schools based on a non-probability and purposive sampling technique. The results indicated that curricular change in study has never been implemented owing to the flaw found in the policy formulation. This article claims that if the curriculum itself is designed with omissions of key guidelines, it will be unlikely to have an effective implementation and suggests a deep evaluation of teacher training policies to review the study plan of the English Course for primary education.

Higher education strategies focusing on either internationalization or community-university partnerships are often regarded as distinct from each other and dichotomous. The former usually are concerned with international knowledge, the latter, with local knowledge. This article presents a case study to argue that the two approaches can intersect, presenting an opportunity to improve the process of learning and teaching in higher education. As part of its strategy to internationalize, Lurio University, Mozambique, is part of a partnership through the Consortium of New Southern African Medical Schools (CONSAMS). Lurio University also has an established community engagement program, One Student One Family. Drawing on relevant literature, we argue that universities can benefit from viewing these strategies as interconnected and complementary approaches that bolster knowledge processes and advance learning. When both approaches are used to inform curricula and improve pedagogy, synergetic and much improved higher education systems can be achieved.

The potential of electronic books (ebooks) has been discussed widely, due mainly to their role in helping the user transform passive reading into interactive and dynamic learning, while promoting better retention and appropriation of materials. Taking this premise, the present study follows an exploratory and qualitative approach, discussing how the use of ebooks can improve learning, motivation, dynamism and interactivity in Distance Education. This study was supported by a bibliographic review and a survey method through an online questionnaire used as data collection instruments. The sample consisted of students who attended distance courses taught by the Open University ISCED -- UnISCED in Mozambique. The scientific literature studied, and the results from the field research, show the practicality of using ebook as a learning resource and they facility the interactivity.

It is contended that Lusophone universities are to a certain degree deprived access to American and European scholarships in the 21st century. We examine the validity of this statement, focusing on the barriers scholars often face when accessing scholarships using English. To explore the constraints English language imposes on Mozambican lecturers pursuing international scholarships, the study employed qualitative research methods using structured interviews. The sample of interviewees included university lecturers from Eduardo Mondlane University. The discussions of the study were guided by two dominant themes: language coloniality and academic oppression (Lack of accessibility). Participants had their unique experiences while attempting scholarship applications and this study also captured their challenges. Eighty percent of participants could not express themselves fluently in English and the researcher had to switch to Portuguese to get quality responses. The study contributes to International comparative higher education language policy development by presenting the impediments posed by the English language to Mozambican universities seeking European and American scholarships.

Internationalisation is transforming higher education institutions worldwide. However, the understanding of internationalisation, the rationales presented, the strategies applied and the challenges encountered differ between contexts. One challenge, especially for universities in the Global South, is how to consider internationalisation with a decolonised approach. This study explores internationalisation in two major universities in Mozambique through documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with academics and managers. The study was guided by two questions: (1) How have Mozambican universities undertaken internationalisation in terms of understanding, rationales, strategies and challenges? (2) How are global ideas of internationalisation interpreted and translated into local practices? The results are interpreted with a theoretical lens combining neo-institutionalism and decolonisation theory, both providing arguments for translation and adaptation of ideas and practices to the local context. The findings suggest that the approaches to internationalisation emphasise the adoption of Western templates and values and can be more deliberately decolonised.

The learning gap between urban and rural areas is a persistent problem in many sub-Saharan African countries. Previous studies have found that the urban-rural learning gap is attributed to the fact that student characteristics and school resources are different in urban and rural areas. Our study updates this finding by using the latest dataset and further examines the changes in the attributed sources over time. Using 15 educational systems in sub-Saharan Africa, we examined 4 potential sources of the gap: student, family, teacher, and school characteristics. Our results reveal that the urban-rural learning gap in recent years is attributed mostly to differences in school and family characteristics. We also found that the attribution remains the same over time from 2004 to 2011 and that the attribution to family characteristics' differences became slightly greater than the one to school characteristics' differences.

Education in all societies is one of the requisites for changes and development, particularly in the current context influenced by globalization and rapid changes in which knowledge and technology became essential tools for life. In this context, Mozambique has been and continues promoting education, including Classroom Teaching Adult Education and Distance Adult Education (DAE) to satisfy people's learning needs and improve their capacities towards changes. DAE is considered a way to open opportunities of education for youth and adults who by different reasons cannot participate in classroom teaching. This study seeks to explore the perceptions of youth and adult students in DAE at Eduardo Mondlane University (EMU), about their learning process. The study applied qualitative approach, based on semi-structured interview administrated to twelve students from the 3rd and 4th years of the undergraduate program in Organization and Management of Education in Distance Education (DE) modality. The findings of this study point out that DAE is perceived as a relevant and useful modality of education, particularly for adult learners. However, the study identifies contextual challenges associated to individual and professional issues, pedagogical and organizational issues as well as gender division of labor within the families, impacting the student's performance in DE in the selected higher education institution.

This study is aimed at analyzing trends of gender equity in admission and graduation, during the twenty years (2000-2020) of higher education (HE) strategic planning in Mozambique, to ascertain the extent to which gender equity is being achieved. I also examined a possible association between admission and graduation rates. To address these trends, I adopted a basic research design with three characteristics: quantitative, descriptive, and correlational. The sample consisted of the entire population of students, from public and private higher education institutes. The main conclusions are: (1) male students outnumber female ones, in admission and graduation although in 2011 and 2018 female students outnumbered slightly male ones. This means that the system fails to promote gender equity in both dimensions; and (2) there is a statistically significance (at [less than or equal to] 0.05) and strong relationship between admission and graduation, meaning that the normal flow of students is under the risk of system congestion since graduation rates are about 63.7% of new admission. The study recommends legal effort to rule gender equity achievements as well to revise admission policy to make it more sensitive to gender equity.

This case study explores the open and innovative schooling model piloted in fifteen secondary schools across all regions of Mozambique in the period 2018 to 2020. The model involved provision of access to curriculum-based digital Open Educational Resources (OER) using an Aptus device to enable sharing offline. Learning support centres offering access to some ICT as well as opportunities for individual use or structured tutorials were established in fifteen schools around the country. A mixed methods tracer study was designed and implemented using quantitative analysis to ascertain student enrolment, retention and success and then used qualitative focus surveys and focus groups to gauge the satisfaction of students, teachers and managers with the OIS model to inform future planning. While the pilot was generally considered successful in augmenting existing secondary schooling provision, access to devices, teacher development and support and expansion of curriculum coverage were all found to be in critical need of improvement if the model is to be scaled.

Although the internationalization of higher education through the standardization of English language is considered progressive, unfortunately, for Lusophone universities it remains a deterrent for scholars' career progression. The evidence of lived experiences in Mozambican universities suggests that the relationship between English language competence and professional status remains inconclusive. The study explores the impact of English language for career development in two Portuguese language-speaking universities, namely Eduardo Mondlane and Catholic universities in Mozambique. Case study design, purposive sampling, semi-structured interviews with scholars, documents reviews and content analysis approach will be employed. Career construction theory and practice (Savickas, 2013), is considered ideal based on its fundamental premise of individual and social constructivism of knowledge through which individuals construct themselves. The study contributes to a comparative higher education career research by guiding the formulation of language policy for career development in Lusophone countries.

The COVID-19 outbreak had a significant impact on social life and the education system, leading to the suspension of face-to-face classes and the adoption of online learning as a strategy to continue the teaching and learning process in many countries around the world, including Mozambique. Thus, we conducted the present study to analyze the teaching and learning process using digital platforms during a state of emergency due to COVID-19. We inquired 417 academics who responded to an online survey open between the 4th and 12th of May 2020 and released via WhatsApp and email. For data analysis, we used descriptive statistics to present the results in simple tables. 263 (61.3%) were male, and the average age was 39.7 years. Seventy-one percent (71%) of the academics received guidance to proceed with the teaching and learning process during the emergency, and several platforms were used for this purpose, where WhatsApp and email (49.2%) were the most used. About 67% of the academics faced some difficulty with the digital learning platforms, and half managed to teach all classes. This process challenged the academic staff, who had to rely on several learning platforms and adopt different teaching strategies in conditions never experienced before.

Since the Community of Portuguese Speaking Nations (CPLP) was created in 1996, environmental education (EE) has gained recognition for enhancing multilateral cooperation on environmental protection and sustainability promotion. Conducted online in 2020 in all member states during the COVID-19 pandemic, this second Environmental Education Survey of CPLP explores the conditions and approaches of EE within the overall setting of the 2030 UN Agenda, taking the concepts of Canaparo's geo-epistemology and Öhman and Östman's selective traditions as the underlying framework of analysis. The survey received 196 valid responses from EE Experts and Promoters who hold positions in various institutional backgrounds. Addressing the current state of EE in all nine countries, a picture emerges of significant and ecologically prudent human intervention based on fact-based, normative, and pluralist EE approaches. Most encouraging is the overall finding that EE is vibrant, relevant for sustainable transformation, young people focussed, and in good heart.

This paper analyses the current state of postcolonial and decolonial science teaching, based on a systematic review of the literature, with a special focus on the European context. It shows that currently, a very narrow view on postcolonial science teaching prevails, limiting its scope to former colonies. A total of 227 articles published 2013-2022 were identified using meta-interpretation combined with systematic searches. 43 of these articles were selected for the sample and analysed. Included were only articles reporting on teaching practice in regular science classes in secondary school. The analysis identified as the main theme the question of how to coordinate Indigenous knowledge systems and Western science in the classroom. Further, translanguaging and pedagogy of justice are used as approaches toward decolonising science education. One striking finding in the analysis is the absence of de-/postcolonial approaches from European countries. This indicates that teaching practice in Europe might currently not undergo decolonisation. This contradicts Aimé Césaire's observation that both the colonised "and" the colonisers were decivilised during colonialism and need decolonisation [Césaire, A. (1955). "Discours sur le colonialisme" [Discourse on colonialism] (6th ed.). Présence Africaine]. In this article, the different approaches toward decolonisation and an outline of decolonial science teaching for the European context are presented.

Student engagement research in university students has been scarce, despite its major positive role on performance, degree completion and mental health. Social and emotional competencies, which are currently called twenty-first-century skills, exert some impact on student engagement in youth. Since engagement is cultural-sensitive, individual (social and emotional competencies) and cross-cultural (human developmental index and unemployment rate) characteristics were examined in association with student engagement in youth. This study included 2,092 participants from nine countries/regions, aged between 17 and 27 years (M = 21.52, SD = 2.27), mostly cisgender woman (n = 1,035, 68.7%) and undergraduate (n = 1,401, 96.2%). Data were collected using a cross-sectional online survey that included the Student Engagement Scale, the Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire, and the prosocial behaviour/resources subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Multilevel-models showed that social and emotional competencies were relevant predictors of student engagement independently of the country-level variables. Moreover, student engagement varied with country/region human development and unemployment rate, with students from higher developed countries/regions and lowered unemployment reporting lower engagement. This study reinforces the need to implement evidence-based social and emotional learning programmes in universities worldwide, as well as public policies that can influence engagement and protect youth.

Internationalisation of the curriculum has been the subject of various debates in recent years in higher education institutions. In particular, the need to incorporate local knowledge systems when internationalising the curriculum continues to be a major challenge in African universities. This study explores faculty members' experiences inherent in the internationalisation of the curriculum at one Mozambican university. On the basis of semi-structured interviews with eleven faculty members, two research questions were investigated: (1) How do faculty members understand the internationalisation of the curriculum in their university?; and (2) How are local knowledge systems embedded in the internationalisation of the university curriculum? The findings revealed that the internationalisation of the curriculum is mainly understood in terms of developing intercultural knowledge, skills and values; mobility of students, teachers and academic programmes; and teaching international students and languages. Some practices suggest opportunities for a more decolonised approach in the internationalisation of the university curriculum, such as the integration of local languages and the practice of ethnoscience, with the main focus on ethnomathematics.

Refugee adolescents have experiences that affect their abilities to acculturate successfully into a new society. This study highlights how the transition into a new culture might affect adolescent refugees' abilities to form meaningful relationships. It was intended to be a catalyst for empowering this underserved population, to equip school counselors and researchers in the education and clinical fields to develop programs and interventions to support this population. Study results indicated a multitude of experiences from refugee adolescents' perspectives. This article also discusses implications for school counselors and counselor educators.

Anchored on Mondlane's biological mother's advice that he ought to 'go to school in order to understand the witchcraft of the white man, thus being able to fight against him' and on the argument that what he learned as a child informed his learning as an adolescent and as an adult, this study developed a profile of Eduardo Mondlane as a lifelong learner, adult educator, and African scholar-revolutionary. The study is based on a critical documentary analysis of primary sources found in the archives of Northwestern University, Syracuse University, and Oberlin College, and corroborates the fact that most of Mondlane's education in Western academic institutions took place during his adulthood. For instance, he completed high school already as a 27-year-old adult, began higher education in his late 20s and completed a bachelor's degree at the age of 33, a master's degree at the age of 36, and a Ph.D. at the age of 40. The study concludes that the trajectory of Eduardo Mondlane provides insight into the complexity and richness of the lifelong learning journey for ordinary people, especially those from communities around the globe whose education is relegated to informal, therefore inferior status.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) among young women is of serious concern due to the early age of occurrence. This study explored young women's views about IPV in Maputo City, Mozambique. An explorative, qualitative study design was employed using purposive sampling. The themes were developed in line with the socio-ecological model and the data were analyzed using a thematic content approach. Four themes emerged: (1) Individual level, related to the knowledge of young women about IPV; (2) Relationship level, related to the influence of friends; (3) Community level, related to the religious beliefs; and (4) Societal level, related to factors promoting acceptance of IPV. There is need for an integrated approach to address the individual, relationship, community and societal concerns about IPV among young women in Mozambique to improve skills to challenge the dominant male norms and enhance their autonomy to manage and end violent relationships.

Mother-tongue or first language (L1)-based multilingual education programs are necessarily complex and may require a more nonlinear approach to program design. These programs operate within and act upon a range of psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, and sociopolitical issues that include language structure and literacy assessment, language policy and politics, and cultural and social behavior change linked to literacy expansion. The broad use of one-size-fits-all outcomes-based design approaches for L1-based multilingual education programs often result in designs that are retrofitted to new country settings and ill-suited to the context in which they are implemented. This paper looks at some of the many features that can be used to inform the development of L1-based multilingual education in the context of early literacy programming. Specifically, it examines the use of alternative approaches in the development of flexible theory of change design that integrate early literacy and L1-based multilingual education program design frameworks to more suitably address the sociolinguistic, sociopolitical, and psycholinguistic assumptions underpinning multilingual education approaches.

In recent years, much attention has been given to extremely poor levels of learning outcomes in low-and lower-middle income countries. Citizen-led assessments have played a vital role in highlighting this "learning crisis." Having developed these citizen-led assessments, members of the People's Action for Learning (PAL) Network are now increasingly devising and implementing actions aimed at tackling the learning crisis in different country contexts. This article documents the process we undertook of developing theories of change with PAL Network members across 10 countries to inform their shift from assessment of children's learning to action aimed at raising learning outcomes. The article highlights, in particular, the importance for theories of change to take account of context in identifying appropriate actions. Based on their country circumstances, the actions identified by PAL Network members vary, for example, from using assessment data to influence national government reform, to more localized activities associated with "teaching at the right level." For appropriate actions to tackle the learning crisis to be identified and successfully implemented, an important lesson from the PAL Network experience is the need to enable South-to-South learning and adaptation. As such, the article highlights a pressing need for flexible and iterative theories of change that reflect contextual realities.

The paper firstly clarified the characteristic of competencies being discussed in African countries by comparing them with competencies being discussed in developed countries. It has become clear that both countries are very similar. In other words, against the background of rapidly increasing internationalization and globalization, the competencies required to live in the society of the future are the same across borders, regardless of whether in a developed country or a developing country. Secondly, using Mozambique as a case study, how the competencies are actualized and what kind of challenges they face are discussed by analyzing primary mathematics curriculum, textbooks and in classes. An emphasis was placed on the ability to use social, cultural and technological tools used in an interactive manner in the competencies that were contained in the 2015 curriculum. However, most of the contents of the new textbook focus on "basic competencies" centered on basic knowledge and skills. Furthermore, there were many classes where teachers presented questions listed in the textbook as they are. Hence, it became apparent that the nurturing of practical competencies listed in the curriculum was largely reliant on the abilities of the teacher.

Scholars and policy makers alike are increasingly interested in understanding how social capital shapes people's economic lives. But the idea of social capital is an amorphous one. In this article, economists Judy Hellerstein and David Neumark define social capital as networks of relationships among people who are connected by where they live or work. Thus social capital, in contrast to human capital, resides in the connections among people rather than their individual characteristics. The authors draw on survey evidence, case studies, and administrative data to document that social capital networks play an important role in improving wellbeing, especially in terms of better labor market outcomes. Labor market networks, they write, provide informal insurance or risk sharing, and they facilitate the transfer of information (about job opportunities for individuals, and about potential employees for businesses). Moreover, networked individuals' choices and outcomes affect others in the network, a phenomenon known as "peer effects." The evidence suggests that when it comes to getting a job, networks are especially important to low-skilled workers and immigrants. Hellerstein and Neumark also report some limited evidence on how neighborhood networks may shape children's health and educational outcomes. Throughout, they discuss how policy might strengthen (or inadvertently weaken) the beneficial effects of networks.

Background: The healthcare professionals are in a vital position in providing apt and reliable support to HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis patients. However, there is dire need to carefully examine cross-disciplinary approaches to combat the burden of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in sub-Saharan African countries. In resolving this gap, e-learning a cross-disciplinary approach provides a self-flexible learning approach to help bridge this gap. Aim: This study aims to assess the influence of e-learning on the individual performance of healthcare professionals (HCPs) in providing support for HIV/Aids and Tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa. Method: To ensure a comprehensive and in-depth evaluation, a robust strategy was adopted to achieve a detailed analysis via the research design approach. Consequently, an e-learning study site was used with participants from Malawi and Mozambique to gain in-depth insights into the experiences of using the resource. Nine HCPs were selected and data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews. Data gathered was analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The study revealed that in sub-Saharan Africa, e-learning could be used to strengthen the capacity of HCPs to combat the high burden of diseases if attention is paid to the alignment between the learning task demands of the e-learning module and the technological infrastructures provided to enable the accomplishment of such learning tasks while adapting the learning process to cater for the individual diversity and contextual limitations of HCPs. Conclusions: The study has shown the benefits of an e-learning resource for healthcare professionals to support HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis patients in sub-Saharan Africa. Positive attitudes and potential improvements in the knowledge base and changes for healthcare professional practice were demonstrated. Further research is required to gauge the appropriateness of e-learning which relies on the contextual environments and individual characteristics of learners.

The misalignment between information technology (IT) and institutions continues to be a major problem, more particularly in higher education institutions. This state leads to a lack of technology value addition and poor institutional performance. Prior studies proposed models and frameworks with various organizational practices of IT-Business alignment. However, similar research, considering higher education institutions, is scarce. Therefore, this study explores and identifies the dimensions and practices of IT-institutional alignment from a higher education context. An exploratory embedded multiple-case study strategy is used on the two largest universities in Rwanda and Mozambique. Document survey and interviews are used for data collection. The literature and 14 interviews were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach to identify patterns related to the alignment practices. This study identified 45 IT-alignment practices reflected from both institutions, and they are classified into six metrics as presented in the framework. Of these alignment practices, 27 reflect exceptionally the higher education context of teaching, learning, and research. The identified alignment practices can serve as a frame of reference for creating and assessing the alignment between technology and university activities in the case study of institutions or similar contexts. A statistical test and validation of these alignment practices are recommended.

Technology-enhanced learning generally focuses on the cognitive rather than the affective domain of learning. This multi-method evaluation of the INBECOM project (Integrating Behaviourism and Constructivism in Mathematics) was conducted from the point of view of affective learning levels of Krathwohl "et al." (1964). The research questions of the study were: (i) to explore the affective learning experiences of the three groups of participants (researchers, teachers and students) during the use of a mobile game "UFractions" and an intelligent tutoring system "ActiveMath" to enhance the learning of fractions in mathematics; and (ii) to determine the significance of the relationships among the affective learning experiences of the three groups of participants (researchers, teachers and students) in the INBECOM project. This research followed a sequential, equal status, multi-mode research design and methodology where the qualitative data were derived from the interviews with researchers, teachers and students, as well as from learning diaries, feelings blogs, and observations (311 documents) across three contexts (South Africa, Finland, and Mozambique). The qualitative data was quantitized (Saldaña, 2009), i.e. analysed deductively in an objective and quantifiable way as instances on an Excel[TM] spreadsheet for statistical analyses. All the data was explored from the affective perspective by labelling the feelings participants experienced according to the affective levels of the Krathwohl "et al." (1964) framework. The researchers concluded that: (i) the research participants not only received information, but actively participated in the learning process; responded to what they learned; associated value to their acquired knowledge; organised their values; elaborated on their learning; built abstract knowledge; and adopted a belief system and a personal worldview; and (ii) affirmation of affective learning at all five levels was recognised among the three groups of participants. The study raised a number of issues which could be addressed in future, like how affective levels of learning are intertwined with cognitive levels of learning while learning mathematics in a technology-enhanced learning environment; and how pedagogical models which take into account both cognitive and affective aspects of learning support deep learning.