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Due to the recent developments in the delivery of teaching-learning processes when COVID-19 hit the world with a health crisis and pandemic, it is crucial to look into the quality of courses delivered via online means or through distance education modality. This paper examines implementation and application of quality assurance (QA) landscape in Distance Education (DE). A documentary review using bibliographic inquiry is used as a methodology approach to gather relevant information to address the study questions. Previous studies on QA in DE are examined and arranged into themes using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that most of the literature on QA in DE in Africa and Asia based on the reviewed Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions are basically dealing with frameworks, outcomes and performance, instructional design, student services and challenges as well as parity in terms of quality with the traditional institutions. Therefore, this paper concludes that more studies are needed for QA in DE to match the post-COVID-19 trends on improving QA. This implies that there is a need to expand research on QA in DE to include areas of artificial intelligence.

This paper investigates the potential of Ubuntu philosophy for decolonising Participatory Research (PR) in the Global South, addressing power imbalances and research process challenges. Despite PR's focus on community involvement, it can perpetuate practices contradicting its principles, hence the rise of 'decolonising research' for fair, respectful researcher-community relationships and meaningful community knowledge. The central question is, 'How can Ubuntu serve as a tool for decolonising PR in the Global South?' Drawing from decolonisation, PR, and Ubuntu literature, we offer a novel perspective on applying Ubuntu in PR. The study demonstrates how Ubuntu promotes social change and justice, challenges Western knowledge universality, and empowers marginalised Global South communities via democratic, participatory platforms. We provide theoretical insights and practical suggestions for PR stakeholders, asserting that Ubuntu adoption can foster equitable, inclusive practices benefiting communities. The paper also invites further examination of indigenous philosophies in decolonising research, enriching knowledge production in the Global South and globally marginalised communities.

The paper aims to provide a review of literature that emphasizes students' and teachers' views on the nature of science (NOS) and associated instructional approaches to develop adequate understanding of the NOS that have been employed in different contexts. One hundred and seventy-two (172) studies were selected from ResearchGate, Academia, Google Scholar, and ERIC database from the year 2000 to 2022 and few important documents published before 2000. The paper presents an exploration of NOS aspects and identifies the gaps in the previous researches. The reviewed studies inform us that students have strong misconceptions on some NOS aspects such as relationship between theories and laws, observations, and scientific method, while teachers have strong misconception on relationship between theories and laws. The NOS instructional approaches discussed in reviewed papers have a positive effect in improving the NOS understanding. Reviewed literature suggests that some instructional approaches have positive effect to teach most of targeted NOS aspects such as explicit and reflective approach. In addition, the findings indicate that explicit and reflective instruction has been more documented and tried out into different contexts in which a considerable effect on students' views on NOS was noted. Despite all efforts put in place, there is still a need for a lot to be done on active instructional approaches and interventions in this regard, particularly in developing countries with emphasis to the Sub-Saharan Africa education context.

Mentorship may be conceptualised in terms of the form it takes, function it serves or it's learning centred nature which makes research in mentoring to receive attention within different disciplines. This article attempts to understand how a mentoring programme can contribute to enhanced research capacity building in the field of Innovation and Development (I&D) studies in Africa. It does this through a qualitative study of an African-oriented research capacity building network (AfricaLics) that aims at building a critical mass of scholars in I&D studies in the continent of Africa. Drawing on theoretical approaches in higher education that support systems of interaction thinking, the paper finds that more systematic and extensive mentorship, and awareness about different types of mentorship can enhance capacity building in the field of I&D studies. The paper recommends that development of an I&D mentorship programme must consider a mix of both structured and unstructured elements that are aligned to the local context. These context-specific elements are critical to building sustainable research capacity building programmes in academic disciplines that are transdisciplinary in nature such as I&D studies.

Playwork is a recognised profession in the United Kingdom (UK) and is currently a growing area of interest internationally. However, debates about the nature and purpose of playwork have raged in the playwork field since the profession was invented in the early adventure playgrounds. This study is the first to capture data about what the now international playwork workforce understands to be the purpose of playwork. The International Playwork Census (IPC) was an online survey which asked participants from 19 different countries about their knowledge and experience of playwork. This paper reports on one question from the IPC: what is the purpose of playwork? A thematic analysis was undertaken from 193 responses on what was considered "the purpose of playwork" and three themes emerged: Facilitate and Provide for children's play; Support and Advocate. This paper describes how these three themes reflect both the historical change in understandings of the purpose of playwork and how different understandings of playwork are developed through the experience of practitioners working in range of different contexts.

This paper initiates a novel discourse advocating for the anti-colonization of religious education (RE) in Africa South of the Sahara (ASoS). It illustrates how anti-colonial critiques can not only offer more precise theoretical perspectives but also generate a practical imperative for a paradigm shift in a school subject "still" influenced by what I have labeled as the neocoloniality of power. In some countries, attempts to decolonize RE through multi-faithism are being forsaken, reverting the subject to the Christonormativity of the colonial era. The paper contends that the process of reconceptualizing RE with an anti-colonial mindset should inspire innovative ideas for an anti-colonized RE aligned with the educational goals in an African postcolonial environment.

The future of university learning in Sub-Saharan Africa has become increasingly digitally transformed by both e-Learning, and learning analytics, post-COVID-19 pandemic. Learning analytics intervention is critical for effective support of socially-shared regulated learning skills, which are crucial for twenty-first-century e-Learners. Socially-shared regulation is the major determinant of successful collaborative e-learning. However, most e-learners lack such skills thereby facing socio-cognitive challenges, due to the unavailability of intelligent support during learning. This research aims to investigate and understand the effect of Learning Analytics instructional support using feedback and prompts, on e-learners' SSRL indicators. A theoretical model was derived from these factors and built from selected features. Both survey data and behavioral trace data were employed in the Learning analytics-based intervention. In this paper, only a segment of the data is discussed. The e-learners' perceptions and feedback confirmed that Learning Analytics-based interventions using prompts and feedback are effective in promoting SSRL in collaborative e-learning contexts. The findings indicated that the success of SSRLA-based intervention be tied to support from instructors and academic counselors, particularly feedback on previous problems and quizzes. This will improve e-learners' SSRL skills for quality educational experience, hence motivate e-learners, and help lecturers to identify at-risk learners in web programming problem-based courses. In conclusion, without adequate utilization of the Learning Analytics interventional trace data, critical information about learners' behavior patterns in terms of their online interactivity with the course activities and their SSRL profiles and strategies cannot be disclosed leading to little improvement of e-Learning interventions.

Despite the legislation put in place by the United Nations, Africa continues to grapple with issues of monosexism and heterosexism. In fact, of the 54 African countries, 33 have criminalised queer relationships, a legacy primarily attributed to colonial rule. However, social work literature has recently introduced a culturally sensitive model for working with the LGBTQIA+ community, known as Queer affirmative action. By utilising available literature and adopting an intersectional approach, which was collected and analysed through PRISMA, this paper aims to discuss the Africanising of sexuality in Africa. It argues that it is crucial to undertake a critical analysis of the colonial legacy and its impact on queer identities. Furthermore, the article posits that social work education must incorporate knowledge of the intersection of gender, sexuality, and other identity markers to form an inclusive and comprehensive approach towards practice. An affirmative philosophy to social work practice can serve as a counterweight to all punitive and discriminatory practices. Thus, in Africa, the most effective way to improve the well-being of queer individuals is to eradicate structural forms of inequality and decriminalise same-sex consensual relationships.

This paper reports the findings of a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer on 392 Scopus database documents published from 2003 to 2022, aiming to understand the global landscape of the e-learning field and to identify the most prominent authors, institutions, countries and reference publications, as well as the research topics that have recently received the most attention in students' readiness for e-learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The findings indicate that there has been an upward trend in e-learning readiness among students in HEIs over time. Among the countries studied, the United States, Taiwan, Australia, and Malaysia were found to have the most effective approaches to addressing students' readiness for e-learning. The most highly cited author in this field is M-L. Hung. Based on the citations, the most recognised journal in this field was "Computers and Education" and the universities that were most persuasive were two Taiwan universities in the first position. The data also revealed relatively low levels of collaboration among authors, institutions and nations regarding students' readiness for e-learning.

There is an increasing trend toward regionalization as higher education adapts to openness and globalization. In response, East African countries formed networks and partnerships that strengthened business, higher education, student and staff mobility, and research. This is because regionalization is embedded in East Africa's economy, politics, culture, and social norms. In addition, regionalization is influenced by internationalization and globalization. It promises development opportunities, although challenges are inevitable. This paper examines the contributions of regional student mobility to East Africa's development. We use neoliberal and world systems theories to illuminate the advantages and disadvantages of regionalizing higher education and explain how partner states can maximize opportunities and minimize challenges. Data was collected through convenience sampling of two hundred international students and two staff members in international students' offices. Data analysis revealed that the regionalization of East African higher education reflects historical power relations; it has benefits though founded on inequalities.

This paper investigates digital inequalities in usage within African informal sectors. In particular, we examine whether the uneven digital diffusion is embedded in pre‐existing socio‐economic inequalities. After identifying three segments of informal firms, we rely on multivariate and decomposition analyses to identify predictors of usage of digital technologies for business purposes and explain usage gaps between segments. Our findings suggest that digital inequalities are rooted in the vertical heterogeneity of informal sectors, with some firm characteristics significantly predicting professional use of digital technologies. In addition, we find that there are both common and segment‐specific levers for addressing digital inequalities between informal firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding of Africa's long, complex human history has been enriched by the work of archaeological scientists for over a century. Since 1977 over 500 papers on African topics have been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. This paper briefly reviews the geographical location of the research that they report along with their authorship and thematic content. Significant imbalances highlight continuing disparities in archaeological opportunities within the continent and between Africa and the rest of the world. The twenty-one papers included in this special collection nevertheless showcase the breadth of archaeological science in Africa, focusing on papers that have shaped subsequent research, explored new methodological approaches, or introduced novel areas of study. Discussion of how to capitalise upon this diversity emphasises the importance of increasing funding for archaeological science on a sustainable basis, forging co-operation between archaeologists and other scientists, playing to strengths in less expensive (but potentially highly informative) areas of archaeological science, and developing regional hubs of expertise. Collectively, these efforts can enhance capacity and ensure a future for archaeological science research by African scholars within Africa. • Archaeological science is a longstanding component of archaeology in Africa. • The selected papers show its diversity and capacity for innovation in the African context. • However, regional biases still favour Egypt, South Africa and non-African scholars. • Enhanced efforts are needed to build capacity for sustained research within Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UN Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities urges the establishment of inclusive education and expansion of educational opportunities to maximize access to education among children with disabilities (CwDs). However, more than 90% of 150 million CwDs do not have access to education Rather, they are left without school participation, specifically in developing countries and low-income settings. This scoping review aimed at discovering the literature available around the barriers and facilitators to accessing education for CwDs in low and lower-middle income countries in eastern Africa. Medline, CINAHL, Global Health, ERIC, and Embase were searched. After a rigorous systematic search of peer reviewed articles, 188 articles were obtained, and 15 studies were included within this scoping review after iterative and constant readings and screenings of selected articles. A review of grey literature was also conducted and compared to the results gathered from the research literature. In this paper, we report on a variety of barriers and facilitators to accessing education in low and lower-middle income countries in eastern Africa described by the literature. The study findings will inform inclusive education policy and practice, as well as future disability and inclusive education research.

With a long-term aim of empowering researchers everywhere to contribute to work on language development, we organized the First Truly Global /L+/ International Summer/Winter School on Language Acquisition, a free 5-day virtual school for early career researchers. In this paper, we describe the school, our experience organizing it, and lessons learned. The school had a diverse organizer team, composed of 26 researchers (17 from under represented areas: Subsaharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Central and South America); and a diverse volunteer team, with a total of 95 volunteers from 35 different countries, nearly half from under represented areas. This helped world-wide Page 5 of 5 promotion of the school, leading to 958 registrations from 88 different countries, with 300 registrants (based in 63 countries, 80% from under represented areas) selected to participate in the synchronous aspects of the event. The school employed asynchronous (pre-recorded lectures, which were close-captioned) and synchronous elements (e.g., discussions to place the recorded lectures into participants' context; networking events) across three time zones. A post-school questionnaire revealed that 99% of participants enjoyed taking part in the school. Not with standing these positive quantitative outcomes, qualitative comments suggested we fell short in several areas, including the geographic diversity among lecturers and greater customization of contents to the participants' contexts. Although much remains to be done to promote inclusivity in linguistic research, we hope our school will contribute to empowering researchers to investigate and publish on language acquisition in their home languages, to eventually result in more representative theories and empirical generalizations.

Literature presents evidence of the exponential rise of distributed leadership both as a focus of research and as leadership development in education in the twenty first century (Hairon, S., and J. W. Goh. 2015. "Pursuing the Elusive Construct of Distributed Leadership: Is the Search Over?" "Educational Management Administration & Leadership" 43 (5): 693-718; Hall, D. 2013. "The Strange Case of the Emergence of Distributed Leadership in Schools in England." "Educational Review" 65: 467-487), in addition to the growing criticism of the theory's dominance and its 'acquired taken-for-granted status' (Lumby, J. 2016. "Distributed Leadership as Fashion or fad." "Management in Education" 30 (4): 161-167). This paper thus seeks to provide a systematic review of the literature on distributed leadership published between 2010 and 2022 through a methodical collection, documentation, scrutiny, and critical analysis of the research publications. The review seeks to identify trends in distributed leadership knowledge production according to the study type/purpose, topical foci, methodological approach, focus group, and geographic distribution via a narrative synthesis approach (Oplatka, I., and K. Arar. 2017. "The Research on Educational Leadership and Management in the Arab World Since the 1990s: A Systematic Review." "Review of Education" 5 (3): 267-307).

On the one hand, studies of African international students in China document their instrumental role in "telling China's story and spreading China's voice" while, on the other hand, this research indicates how their lived experiences are shaped by racialisation and exclusionary practices in social life. However, there remains surprisingly little scholarship exploring ways of reducing inter-group stereotypes and racial divides so as to further Sino-African diplomatic relations over the long term. Drawing primarily upon an in-depth interview with Alex - a 23-year-old Burundian international student in China, this paper employs Freire's central concepts of dialogic practices and critical consciousness to examine how he established dialogues with villagers in rural areas in an effort to alter relations between two ethnic groups. The case study of Alex and his daily racial encounters highlights how African students are agentic in disrupting racial discourses. We further argue that dialogue, as a method to read the world in a Freirean sense, can contribute to increased tolerance and understanding.

Purpose: This systematic review paper aims to examine extant empirical research involving educational technology during COVID-19 to provide an aggregated analysis of how the pandemic has influenced educational technology research. Design/methodology/approach: Using a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis systematic review and an integrative review methodology, 50 primary research studies were selected from ten top-ranked educational research journals. These studies were reviewed regarding research purposes, methodologies, instruments, educational level, geographical distribution, and findings of the studies. Findings: The findings reveal four emerging themes--influencing factors, effectiveness, challenges and teachers. The majority of the studies focused on higher education. Quantitative research design based on a questionnaire was the most adopted method of investigation by researchers. Research limitations/implications: Search parameters focused on the top 10 journals in the field of educational technology. Although this provides a level of quality, it narrowed the search. Practical implications: For practitioners and researchers, this study provides a summary of the field to better understand what knowledge we have gained on the use of educational technology to enable a more agile, knowledgeable response to education in future emergencies. Originality/value: This systematic review is unique in examining how the pandemic has influenced educational technology research. It also provides insight into gaps in the research that future researchers can use as a springboard to enable a more knowledge and a more agile approach to future emergencies.

Drawing on ubuntu philosophy and notions of otherness, this paper and refers to, but is not limited to, the South African experience. In a relatively humanising turn, "Ubuntu" draws our attention to wider forms of interdependence with all that surrounds us: the dead, the living and the yet unborn, the physical and social environment, what is closest to us and furthest from us, the visible and the invisible. In this world of neoliberal globalisation, "ubuntu" emerges as an ecopolitical alternative. It is a form of knowledge that makes us more humane. To explore the educational legacies of Post-Colonial Africa, the following questions were asked: in the field of peace education, do we have more to learn from the culture of the ruler or of the ruled? However, "ubuntu" philosophy potentially represents an invaluable contribution to the education of anew humanity capable of implementing perpetual peace.

Educational Technology (EdTech) plays a significant role in enabling learners with disabilities to access learning at school and reduce educational and social exclusion. It also enables them to enjoy the benefits of a full school curriculum and to participate in activities in different educational arrangements. The purpose of this review was to address the existing evidence of how EdTech is being used to support learners with disabilities in order to inform future research and policymaking. It sought to contribute to an evidence base of ways to reduce barriers to learning drawing on a systematic methodology to gather evidence pertaining to access to EdTech for primary school learners with disabilities aged 6-12 years. After a thorough examination of the literature, the final sample comprised 51 published articles (43 peer-review and 8 conference papers). The review revealed examples of positive outcomes of EdTech interventions being used, particularly in special schools; however, the evidence of their efficacy is weak. The use of EdTech for learners with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries requires further, robust and long-term research that considers the involvement of learners, pedagogy and curriculum design in order to understand its impact on improving educational experiences of children with disabilities.