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Concerns about the academic performance of students from marginalized groups underscore calls for students to be taught by teachers of similar racial, ethnic, or gender identities (e.g., Miller, 2018). In sub-Saharan Africa, projects enlist women teachers as role models for girls in an effort to redress persistent gender disparities in education. However, in casting women teachers as inherent role models to girls, these projects run the risk of reinforcing long-standing portrayals of women in the Global South as a monolithic group with heightened responsibility for development (Chant, 2006; Mohanty, 1988). I identify one policy pilot in Malawi as a window for examining this phenomenon, and I pair discourse analysis and ethnographic analysis to investigate how women teachers are constructed in this policy and how these constructions unravel in practice. Drawing on anthropology of policy, I first trace how female teachers are created as particular types of "policy subjects" (Ball, Maguire, Braun, & Hoskins, 2011). Then, I examine how teachers at one school grapple with these narrowly constructed roles. This study's findings caution against a disproportionate reliance on same-gender teachers for role-modelling, particularly when these teachers also belong to marginalized groups.

This article identifies the challenges of developing active citizens based on the latest revised social studies curriculum in Malawi (2015) in the context of Malawi's secondary school classrooms. By using collected data from interviews with teachers and students and classroom observation, the paper examines the extent to which social studies empowers students to express their opinions. The analysis identifies three issues: 1. both teachers and students perceive social studies teaching as 'easy'; 2. teachers expect students to be active in classroom practices but to be obedient outside classes and 3. individualistic values in textbooks could conflict with the values of "Umunthu" in Malawi. The paper concludes that classroom practices might dissuade students to be critical thinkers, thereby fostering obedient citizens and limiting students' potential power to tackle social issues.

Globalisation is increasingly affecting universities worldwide. In African contexts, language policies exhibit an inheritance situation in which countries continue to implement policies which favour colonial languages in education. This paper investigates the Malawian higher education context and the ways in which staff engage with multilingualism. It examines the implementation of language policies by staff in their classrooms and explores the attitudes of staff members towards the current monolingual language policy and practices in higher education in the country. The paper draws on a 4-month ethnography carried out in eight Malawian universities. Findings indicate that the language 'rules' imposed by staff are highly variable and that diverse language 'policies' are implemented and enforced by staff, some of whom operate strictly monolingual approaches while others adopt multilingual approaches. Staff display a range of attitudes towards multilingualism, influenced by competing pressures of ensuring students comprehend the subject matter while also seeking to improve their English skills against the broader backdrop of language practices and expectations in the country.

Malawi struggles with youth access to higher education. Up to 60% of eligible university candidates may not be accepted, while less than 1% of Malawi's qualified cohort get enrolled in some form of tertiary education. This paper reveals youth's experiences in alternative higher education programs and show if the programs align with their aspirations, prepare them for lives that they have a reason to value and enhance their wellbeing. The broader Ph.D. study from which this paper stems used a qualitative case study based on the views of youth from a selected NGO. Limited explorations and knowledge on whether alternative higher education programs offered by NGOs for youth who fail to access university in Malawi meet the youth's aspirations; the paucity of such studies in Malawian higher education necessitated empirical research on this topic. The paper uses the capabilities approach as a conceptual framework to refine it within higher education.

In this paper, Indigenous and local understandings of the role of storytelling for children (nthanu) are contrasted with the didactic understandings of children's stories that permeate the formal education frameworks of Malawi; frameworks which are deeply entangled in a colonial and (post)colonial history. For Chitonga speakers, the majority of whom live in rural communities along the northern lakeshore of Malawi, nthanu form a crucial part of what might be considered 'education' -- as core components in the construction of the social-self, these oral stories play a critical role in the onto-epistemological formation of the young person. This storytelling is seen as marginalised by formal school systems. Through thick ethnographic material, the paper shows how people who are part of the ethno-linguistic group of the Tonga understand the role of story-telling for children as creating ontological notions of what it means to be human, to live in this world, and the sociality of being human that is seen as necessary for living a good life. In an examination of villagers' fears about the disappearance of their stories, the paper locates the tensions between the literacy-oriented use of stories in formal schooling and the socio-ontological importance ascribed to stories in local learning modalities.

Purpose: The aim is the introduction of lesson study (LS) in geometry in Malawi secondary schools supported by a teaching framework that includes a focus on language responsive teaching. Design/methodology/approach: The study reports an LS on geometry for professional development (PD) of secondary teachers. Data analysed includes lesson plans, transcripts of lessons, reflective discussions. The analytical approach is qualitative content analysis. Findings: Teachers' lexicalisation of an exterior angle of a triangle evolved as a function of a teaching framework that guided their participation in planning, teaching and reflecting through LS cycle, and that was derived from networking between theories. Research limitations/implications: This is both a small-scale study, and a limited content focus in the lesson, a function of LS being a new practice, and teachers simultaneously learning ideas about geometry teaching, those embedded in the framework and doing LS. Practical implications: The paper includes a description of how LS might contribute to teachers' learning of language responsive teaching, and so is useful for others working on LS and language practices. Originality/value: This paper fulfils an identified need to learn more about how networking theories to inform and support LS can create learning opportunities for teachers, particularly about language responsive teaching, an interest and concern worldwide.

Understanding genetics, an important topic in the study of biology, is critical for scientific literacy in agriculture, health, and forensic investigations. However, it has been observed that teachers find genetics difficult to teach and pupils do not perform well in it. Teachers can use expository teaching or active learning methods, but the secondary school curriculum in Malawi advocates the latter. The aim of this study was to find out how genetics is taught and how teachers justify their choice of method. This study used a multi-case design involving six teachers and observed their Mendelian genetics lessons and asked them to justify their choice of teaching method. The findings show that teachers mostly use expository methods utilizing lecture and question and answer teaching techniques. Contextual factors such as large classes, limited teaching time, and lack of resources were cited as reasons for their choice of expository techniques. In addition, they said that the topic was abstract and learners could not construct their own understanding. Furthermore, they indicated that they did not know what activities to arrange for the learners. The paper discusses the difficulties experienced in implementing active learning methods in teaching genetics and recommends possible avenues for teacher education and further research in Malawi.

Electronic learning (e-learning) has become inevitable for higher education institutions during the Corona Virus pandemic. This paper presents a systematic literature review on e-learning in Malawi's higher education institutions with comparable analysis from findings in other developing countries across the globe. The aim was to highlight some benefits and challenges of implementing a sustainable e-learning programme in higher education institutions. Methods for the review included a qualitative analysis of literature and employed the Bandara et al. (2011) framework and NVIVO 10.0 for windows for data analysis and management and incorporated the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses to help define the question, the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the proposed methods, including a comprehensive search strategy. Sources for the review included research articles from databases such as Sage, Emerald, Science Direct and Elsevier. The paper has unearthed several benefits of online learning especially during the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the few publications and sustainable e-learning research in Malawi, the review has found that technological, individual, financial and managerial challenges, impede the development of best practice standards for e-learning implementation. The review has suggested recommendations of a sustainable e-learning programme to provide quality learning through technology. The paper provides further ideas for developing and implementing a sustainable e-learning program to provide quality learning through technology.

Amid the 21st century, marked by unprecedented technological advancements and rapid societal transformations, the field of education stands at a crossroads. As the digital era unfolds, traditional teaching methods are being redefined to align with the evolving needs of learners. This study delves into diverse pedagogical approaches that extend beyond the conventional classroom model. The integration of technology, collaborative learning strategies, and project-based initiatives emerges as pivotal components of 21st-century education. By examining these approaches, this study aims to elucidate how they contribute to fostering a dynamic and engaging learning environment. Modern teaching methodologies emphasize interactive and participatory learning experiences, leveraging multimedia resources, virtual collaboration tools, and gamified elements. Through this lens, this study seeks to evaluate how such practices enhance student motivation, critical thinking skills, and overall academic performance. Moreover, the study delves into the development of skills deemed essential for success in the contemporary global landscape. Beyond traditional subject knowledge, the emphasis is placed on cultivating skills such as digital literacy, creativity, adaptability, and effective communication. This paper employs a qualitative approach, including a comprehensive literature review and analysis of existing studies, to explore the critical significance of contemporary teaching and learning methodologies. The study aims to unravel the profound impact of these methodologies on fostering student engagement, developing essential 21st-century skills, and enhancing overall preparedness to address future challenges in the rapidly evolving educational landscape.

Purpose: This study aims to review and understand the state of records management practices in Malawi, focusing on both public and private sector organisations. Design/methodology/approach: The hermeneutic framework underpinned a qualitative review of the study phenomenon. The inclusion and exclusion criterion for the literature was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis methodology. Fifteen documents met the eligibility criteria and informed the study findings. The literature comprised of journal articles, dissertations at both master and doctoral levels, and conference papers. Findings: The study found that records are created, captured and maintained both in print and electronic formats. It also confirmed that different types of organisations (public, private, academia and civil society) recognise the need for proper records management practices. However, effective and efficient records management is besieged by numerous obstacles, including lack of funding, absence of records management policy, standards and procedures at both institutional and national levels, poor records classification systems and a lack of top management support. Most importantly, the review shows that the majority of studies in Malawi have focused on academia, with little attention to other equally fundamental areas such as agriculture, trade, tourism, transport and energy. Thus, this situation calls for more empirical studies of records management practices in those sectors. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first kind of review to be done at a national level, so the findings provide significant insights for policymakers and research practitioners on records management research trends to date in Malawi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical education in Africa is in desperate need of reforms, evident in widespread diseases, and an inability to mobilise and train the required medical workforce to deal with these health issues. However, the exponential rise in the use of mobile technologies due to the spread of the Internet and increased telecommunication networks offer an opportunity for the transformation of medical education and practice through the deployment of mobile devices as a medium for learning and conveying health care services to the remote and resource-constrained locations of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper reviewed articles on the affordances of m-learning for distributed medical education in SSA published between 2010-2018. Results from 18 articles identified in the review revealed a slow-paced ascendancy of practice and research in the field; it further exposed competing priorities, infrastructural deficit, and chronic workforce shortages as the bane of m-learning implementation in the subregion. This paper makes recommendations that will enhance the growth of mobile-based distance medical education and practice in SSA.

Purpose: The aim of the study is to better understand how lesson study (LS) contributes to challenging teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach: This study is part of a wider ongoing project aiming at improving primary mathematics teaching in Malawi through professional development (PD) of teachers using a LS model. The units being analyzed are teachers' written reflections and lesson plans. The analytical approach is qualitative content analysis. Findings: Initially, the participating Malawian primary teachers report traditional views of mathematics teaching and learning. After having participated in a LS cycle, they reported on the need to work on how to involve and create space for learners' participation in mathematic lessons and highlight the importance for learners to discover mathematics on their own. Research limitations/implications: This is a small-scale study due to LS being quite new in the Malawian context and the need to test before possible upscaling. Practical implications The paper includes a description on how LS might contribute to challenging Malawian teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning; this can be valuable information for others who are attempting to use LS in a similar context. Originality/value: This paper fulfills an identified need to learn more about how LS might contribute to challenging teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning worldwide.

Some African higher education institutions (HEIs) were founded on the notion that they would serve the specific needs of African communities. Other HEIs have borrowed the concept of community-engaged scholarship (CES) from the USA as a strategy for achieving relevance. Nonetheless, African HEIs continue to be criticized as imitators of Western universities. Drawing on Bhabha's (1985, 1994) concepts of "hybridity" and "resistance", this paper explores Malawian faculty members' perspectives on how they use CES as a strategy to make medical higher education relevant to their academic work. This study draws from postcolonial theory to show that faculty use CES to interpret truth claims around medical knowledge production and comply with the demands of a relevant and engaged university. The study also shows the complexities and paradoxes characterizing the ways in which academics strive to include subjugated knowledge or forge collaborations in higher education in order to promote multi-perspective. CES is oftentimes conceptualized as a hybridization of perspectives that are themselves caught up in crossfire of resistance. My research on CES noted that it is an important motivation to improving the relevance of higher education in Malawi in general and medical education in particular by bringing together the so-called 'traditional knowledge' and 'biomedicine', as well as interdisciplinary perspectives and knowledge from multiple actors. These were muddled intersections, which suggest a uniquely Sub-Saharan African (SSA) approach to CES and relevant medical education for Malawi. Therefore, the paper argues that faculty members resist the simplistic critique of their work as imitations of Western medical knowledge production as they perceive themselves as providing very complex and different ways of knowing in the field of medical education. Drawing from these faculty perspectives, the paper then concludes with two strategies that can enhance CES.

Addressing the learning crisis in low-income contexts remains a major concern. This paper analyses how active teaching and learning pedagogy (ATL) was implemented in secondary schools in Malawi to improve learning outcomes. Based on interviews with teachers and headteachers from five schools, the paper seeks to explore how ATL was understood and implemented, and what challenges were experienced from the perspectives of trained and untrained teachers. The findings reveal that ATL was positively viewed by all participants, as it was considered beneficial in improving students' academic performance and skills development. All participants identified some key implementation challenges, including large classes, lack of materials, the use of English, long distance to school and poverty. The paper underscores the need to move away from a polarised view of pedagogy (direct instruction against ATL) and conceptualise active learning on a continuum.

In this paper we discuss findings of a study that investigated the resources and language that teachers in Malawi use to teach the concept of zero. In Malawi primary schools, textual resources available to teachers are mainly the curriculum materials in the form of syllabus, teacher guides and learner textbooks. The syllabus and teacher guides are in English while the learner textbooks are in Chichewa as teaching is in Chichewa or other local language in the first 4 years of primary school. We used the Mediating Primary Mathematics framework (Venkat and Askew in Educ Stud Math 97:71-92, 2018) and a qualitative case study of two teachers to explore the resources used, how the teachers interacted with the resources and how they moved between the two languages. Our findings include that the language and resources that the teachers used provided affordances as well as constraints for learning the concept of zero. We identified two types of challenges for the teachers; that of naming and that of representing the concept of zero. We discuss what the Malawi context illuminates about teaching zero in post-colonial multilingual settings.

During the last decades, the study of how learners and teachers of mathematics use the resource of language has contributed to our understanding of mathematics teaching and learning in a variety of classrooms and cultures. Developmental work with mathematics teachers on the particular resource of mathematics teaching talk is more recent. In order to explore responses related to the importance of this talk, in this paper we consider three sites of practice in mathematics education--research, professional development and teaching--and illustrations of data from or about them, including studies from the literature, and work with secondary school mathematics teachers in Catalonia-Spain and Malawi around the teaching of angles. We argue that tensions permeate these sites of practice when a focus is placed on word use, specifically the practices of naming and explaining, in mathematics teaching talk. We conclude that the importance of mathematics teaching talk is construed through tensions with other resources in language and teaching. Tensions specifically appear in the realisation of mathematics teaching talk as mediational in the work with mathematics teachers on their classroom teaching.

In Malawi, in spite of a number of gender equity policies and initiatives that encourage females to pursue careers within the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), research indicates that they are under-represented in these fields. One initiative recommended to address the factors contributing to this under-representation is the development of a bridging programme for female students. A bridging programme (or, course) is generally defined as any course of study that addresses the gaps between students' existing knowledge and/or skills and the knowledge and/or skills required to successfully make the transition to a new course of study. In this paper, two bridging courses are compared for their lasting effects. The first one was carried out with Form Three (year 11) female students while the second bridging course was offered as a pre-entry course for female students admitted to University of Malawi (STEM) courses. The bridging courses had similar components of academic subjects, study skills, life skills, role models and excursions. The study found that both bridging courses had positive impacts on performance in STEM subjects but the most significant impact in both cases seems to be improvement in motivation and study skills. This paper presents a brief analysis of data collected (through interviews) with participants from both bridging courses and discusses these findings.

In sub-Saharan Africa over 52 million children are living with the death of one or both parents. Drivers of this parental mortality include afflictions at levels endemic to the region, including: HIV; malaria and other parasites; lower respiratory infections; diarrhoeal illnesses; and road accidents, among others. This paper examines the impact of orphanhood on learning outcomes among girls and boys in sub-Saharan Africa, conditional on school enrolment. By analysing test scores for approximately 60,000 pupils in 12 countries, we estimate the effect on student test scores by comparing paternal, maternal, and double orphans to non-orphans in the sample, specifically for the subjects of reading, mathematics, and HIV-AIDS knowledge. No previous study has analysed how orphanhood might influence learning by using student test score data, making this paper's approach unique in the literature. This study employs two estimation techniques: Coarsened exact matching calculates the sample average treatment effect on the treated, while matching on students' family structure, household wealth, school resources, and geographic location; and double lasso (DL) regression applies applying machine-learning for variable selection with high-dimensional controls for regional and school identifiers, school location, and student age. Our results show both CEM and DL consistently report a significant negative impact of orphanhood on test scores among specific countries, especially those which faltered in addressing the HIV-AIDS crisis.

Providing access to higher education for people in marginalized communities, in particular for refugees, requires to re-think the traditional ways of teaching and learning in higher education institutions. The challenges of these circumstances both in terms of access to learning materials and the opportunity to collaboratively learn with others require specific support via appropriate didactical settings. Blended learning arrangements, i.e., settings that bring together online learning activities with synchronous, co-located settings show potential for addressing these requirements. In the present study, we examine the success factors in the design of blended learning settings for supporting higher education in marginalized communities. Based on an established model of blended learning success, we explore the specific challenges of the target group via a survey which was distributed to students of different subject areas and of the higher education programs of Jesuit Worldwide Learning. The 80 survey participants analyzed in this paper live in refugee camps, or marginalized areas located in rural and remote areas in Afghanistan, Guyana, India, Iraq, Kenya, Malawi, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. While we could confirm the success factors that also apply for blended learning scenarios in traditional settings, we also found evidence for the crucial role of facilitation in both, online and co-located learning phases, and challenges regarding the access to suitable infrastructure. Both need to be considered during design of blended learning programs for this target group.

This paper explores the influence of Science Teaching Orientations (STOs) on Teacher Professional Knowledge (TPK) domains of five in-service Malawian secondary school science teachers. The study was grounded within Friedrichsten et al.'s (2011) definition of STOs and Gess-Newsome's (2015) conceptualization of TPK. We gathered data using semi-structured interviews on the two dimensions of STOs: goals and purposes of science teaching, and beliefs about science teaching and learning. We used a questionnaire to gather data on the third dimension--Nature of Science (NoS). To understand the influence of STOs on TPK domains, we used data that we collected through classroom observations. The classroom observations were analysed inductively then deductively against the STOs dimensions and TPK domains. Results show that the first two dimensions of STOs influenced some TPK domains. There was no influence of the NOS on TPK domains. Although the teachers had correct views about the NOS, the lack of influence between the NOS and TPK domains raises questions about their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) for the NOS. We discuss the implications of the findings on teacher education and in-service science teacher professional development.

Student teachers' perspectives on how their teacher educators act as exemplars of using technology appropriately (or fail to do so) could create a basis for teacher educators' technology professional development (TPD). However, there is a dearth of research on student teachers' input into teacher educators' TPD, as research is dependent on self-reports of teacher educators' own competencies. This study explored teacher educators' TPD based on perspectives of student teachers. The study involved policy analysis, a survey, and interviews with student teachers in a university-based teacher education programme in Malawi. Findings indicate that student teachers have a stake in what it means to be a professional teacher educator in Malawi. The case study has also shown the contribution of student teachers' perspectives in strengthening teacher educators' TPD. The contribution includes clarifying the image of a technologically competent teacher educator and student teachers' co-learning with teacher educators. The paper discusses scholarly and practical implications of these findings. For instance, it is suggested that teacher educators should make the co-learning process more explicit to the student teachers.

The Transformational Empowerment for Adolescent Marginalised Girls in Malawi (TEAM) project provides complementary basic education to adolescents who have been left behind by the mainstream education system. Its students are primarily girls who face multiple intersecting barriers to learning, including disability, child marriage, motherhood, poverty, and harmful gender norms. Distance learning provided by the Government of Malawi during the COVID-19 pandemic relied on students proactively accessing centrally created lessons through technologies such as radio and the internet. In this field note, I argue that such an approach does not meet the needs of the most educationally marginalized children, who require holistic support to overcome barriers arising from their individual characteristics, available resources, and lived environment. I contrast the mainstream approach with the TEAM Girl Malawi response, which used a capabilities framework that led to three key innovations. First, a paper-based mode of delivery was complemented by in-person support from teachers. Second, the lesson content prioritized resilience and social-emotional skills as the foundation for learning, and teachers adapted a core curriculum to individual students' learning needs. Third, teachers' roles were expanded to include child protection and community engagement. I conclude this field note by identifying learning points based on students' experiences and learning outcomes, which demonstrate how future distance learning responses during a pandemic can be inclusive of all learners.

Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are expanding access to high school education, which is a perpetuation of the previous focus on basic education. This study applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) using data from seven countries from 2010 to 2020 to examine the potential conditions of fee-free policies at the high school level. Five potential conditions are analyzed. They include the regime type, electoral competition, ideological lineage, economic conditions, and social context. The findings indicate the significant influence of electoral competition and a high level of lower secondary school enrolment for the adoption of fee-free policies. The absence of electoral competition leads to a lack of fee-free policy. The paper explains how elections, one indicator of representative democracy, motivate political leaders to initiate social policies. Additionally, the study challenges the relevance of two important explanations for expansionary social policy in the literature--the partisan theory of policy outcomes, and the economy.

This paper analyses the mediation of heutagogical practices using mobile devices in a teacher training programme in Malawi. Existing literature suggests that the use of mobile devices facilitates the development of heutagogy, an educational approach characterised by interdependent learning, double- and triple-loop learning and participation in communities of practice. The study draws on three major heutagogical principles for its theoretical foundation. It adopts the case study method, and uses questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and personal diaries for data collection. Mobile phone ownership is almost universal at the college and most of the student-teachers possess at least one Internet-enabled device. Despite laptop ownership and institutional access to computers being low, a relatively high number of student-teachers frequently use computers in their studies to complement mobile phones. Regarding heutagogical practices, few student-teachers claim to engage in interdependent learning as well as double- and triple-loop learning. Conversely, most of them tend to participate in communities of practice, particularly those involving students only. In addition, few student-teachers hold the intention to use their devices in their own teaching.

This paper is based on data gathered during visits to Uganda and Malawi, conducted by the International Math-teacher Professionalization Using Lesson Study (IMPULS) project and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The author's observations and experiences highlighted misconceptions about lesson study. The paper concludes that some key factors can be viewed as either affordances, or constraints, on practice, while others are best understood against several misconceptions that seem to be common outside Japan.

Due to the increasing number of children and youth dropping out of school, the Malawi government came up with a strategy to address their learning needs through non-formal means in its Education for All (EFA) plan. This resulted in the introduction of a three-year cycle pilot programme known as Complementary Basic Education (CBE). Funded by GTZ, a German funding agency, the CBE programme has since entered its second year of implementation. This paper reports an evaluation study of the CBE programme so far, with a view of highlighting some of the challenges affecting its implementation. Using a qualitative methodology, the study found that the programme is in many respects, potentially beneficial to various groups of stakeholders including learners, their parents and the community in general. However, the study finds that the major setback in achieving this potential lies in the differences in perception of what should count as curriculum for the CBE programme between providers and beneficiaries. There is a mismatch between "needs" as perceived by learners and community members on the one hand, and "needs" as perceived by the providers on the other hand. The paper discusses some of the issues that the providers need to respond to if CBE implementation is going to be beneficial to the livelihood needs of the learners and the immediate community.

This paper reflects on some of the themes emerging from a consideration of recent research at the nexus of technologies, learning and culture. The authors comment on the expansive nature of the concept of learning spaces in papers featuring an investigation of technology enhanced learning (TEL) and communication design studios in the UK and Australia, the use of interdisciplinary research collaborations to develop novel implementations of TEL learning spaces, and the challenges of developing an e-university in Malawi. They also examine a comparative study focused on classroom-based learning spaces augmented by computer-based assessment technologies, and the role of TEL both within and in response to protests at universities in South Africa. Massive open online courses are then considered as distinctive educational designs that may offer diverse student experiences, either formal or informal. The next emerging theme considers the sources of tension and richness arising from the widely divergent values that can be embedded in TEL. This is followed by consideration of infrastructural issues and the technologies--learning--culture nexus, followed by the use of theory in TEL work, leading to interdisciplinary theory-informed TEL projects that may be beneficial in the wider project of reimagining higher education for work and study. Finally, the paper examines the theme of mobile TEL and the hegemonic issues surrounding the building of sustainable and authentic foundations for learning with mobiles in the globalised South. The theme points to the methodologically challenging and problematic aspects of this hegemonic analysis and considers how the arguments may be further developed.

The teaching profession is no longer a concern of academicians but the public in general who yearn for positive results. Internationally, the profession is continuously beset by several serious problems. One of the most serious problems in the teaching profession is teacher turnover. Governments are finding it difficult to retain teachers in schools. In Malawi, this problem is profound and overwhelming, even by Sub-Saharan standards. The paper heavily relies on secondary data derived from general trends and observations of several research findings as well as government publications, newspapers and several academic papers. The paper argues that main cause of this problem in Malawi can be attributed to general poor working conditions. The paper further argues that retention measures derived by the Malawi government may take time to bear fruits and it is unlikely that they can seriously affect teachers positively because they do not address the basic immediate needs of the teachers. (Contains 1 footnote.)