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The study investigated the effects of motivation on the performance of Junior Secondary School teachers in Bo district, Southern Sierra Leone. It adopted a descriptive research design to collect data on a sample size of 298 teachers. The descriptive statistics analysis revealed that the performance of teachers was high; this implies that teachers rated their performance as of a high standard. They indicated that most teachers are not fulfilling their role as guidance counselors in the schools. On the other hand, over 80% of JSS teachers in Bo district, stated that they did not want to be teachers. Demotivation is a major debilitating factor in teachers' work performance, and the government needs to take motivating programs seriously to encourage and improve teacher performance. Areas such as school and pupil discipline, teacher performance, pupil attendance, community and parent participation in school activities, as well as the respect and dedication of the students, should be rewarded to serve as motivation. Parents and teachers could take legal actions against the government in International Courts of Human Rights related to education to improve their motivation so that performance can be of better quality. The action can be taken internally using the functions of the Public Ministry in defending the rights of minorities, in case the government decides not to respect the constitution. Pupils could also support the teachers and leaders through protests to seek the attention of civil society and local government for better motivation that could accelerate the quality performance of teachers.

Corruption is a concept associated with most third world countries, especially those in Africa. Corruption, defined in its most basic form as fraud and abuse of power, is a worldwide problem. It shows that Sierra Leone's secondary education curriculum still has a long way to go in the fight against corruption. There is also evidence that some middle school administrators tasked with preventing corruption are part of the brains behind middle school corruption. This study aims to evaluate the role of school administrators in preventing corruption in their own institutions. The study focused on the effects of corruption, different types of corruption and some of the administrative tactics used by managers to fight corruption, with Sierra-Leone as a case study. As a result of the late payment of the salary, the study also uses an ex-post facto research design and a quantitative research approach. The candidate participants of the study were lecturers/teachers and other administrative officials selected using this sampling technique, and their perspectives were examined using a questionnaire to get their views. 200 questionnaires were applied to the participants from 5 secondary school sample groups. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The study aims to contribute knowledge and assist school administrators in their efforts to regulate and curb the rapid rise of corruption. As a result of the research, it is recommended that secondary school principals be given the necessary skills and abilities to fight corruption.

This paper aims to examine the obstacles hindering the successful implementation of Free Primary teaching in Kakua chiefdom, Bo district, Southern Sierra Leone, focusing on the adequacy of funding and provision of educational resources to schools. The research employed a survey design with a cross-sectional approach, involving the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data from various respondents simultaneously. The target population consisted of 600 participants, including 20 school leaders, 575 teachers, and 5 education officers from the Bo district. The sample, comprising 120 responses, included one deputy director (DD), two zonal executives of the Sierra Leone Teachers Union (ZESLTU), nine school leaders, and 108 teachers. The DD and ZESLTU executives were selected through purposive sampling, while school leaders and teachers were chosen through proportionate sampling. Interviews were scheduled with the Sierra Leone Teachers Union's zonal executives and DD. The results revealed that a majority of teachers reported overcrowded classrooms attributed to free primary education, aligning with findings from other research. The necessary number of classrooms exhibited variation, with an average deficit of 2 per school. Teachers reported inadequacies in classrooms, urinals, toilets, desks, and textbooks. However, other teaching and learning aids were generally rated as sufficient. This highlights a lack of resources in schools, potentially impeding the efforts of teachers and school administrators. Therefore, the study recommends that the government should allocate adequate funding, time, and resources to ensure the effective implementation of free primary school education without compromising quality.

Ethiopia and Sudan are only the latest cases in more than 20 African countries that have burst into civil wars over the last 40 years. Tribalism is viewed as a leading cause of the conflicts in Africa. The overall objective of this paper is to determine how the educational systems of Africa might be reformed along the lines of sociological thinking and harnessed into a mitigative force against the retrograde effects of tribalism. I propose that Benedict Anderson's concept of imagined communities, which argues that all identities are socially constructed, will have a detribalising effect on African children if deployed in school history textbooks. The rationale is that atavistic tribal sentiments stem from false beliefs about the importance and sacredness of each tribe as indoctrinated by elders. The puncturing of the myths surrounding the sacredness of the origins and greatness of the tribe through the concept of imagined communities would lead to disillusionment about tribal distinctiveness and significance. This conceptual paper adopts an autoethnographic qualitative methodological approach. It augments the researcher's lived experience with the analysis of history and the literature to understand the intellectual potential of the concept of imagined communities to detribalise African children. The failure to stem tribalism in Africa stems from the failure of the school system to expose African children to critical thinking about tribal narratives. African and Africanist sociologists have already revealed the myths of our tribal distinctions. However, this study is the first to focus on African children in the classroom exposed to detribalisation in light of the concept of imagined communities.

We present pedagogical reflections on teaching the concept of epistemic injustice through an undergraduate course run collaboratively at campuses in Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Sierra Leone, and the United States. Our course, entitled Solving Each Other's Public Health Problems, enabled students to engage with epistemological power structures by playing the role of both international development donor and local beneficiary. By building on discussions of real-world issues, fostering interpersonal relationships, modeling productive discourse through transparent feedback and providing intellectual space for self-reflection and empathy, the course provides a pedagogically transformative framework for international collaborative education.

This study examines the media literacy and critical thinking levels of students of West African higher educational institutions as tools for combating misinformation in the sub-region. Data analysis using the mediation approach revealed differences in students' understanding of media literacy and critical thinking and partially predicted their efficacy in combating misinformation. This stems largely from a misunderstanding of media literacy and critical thinking concepts as tools, as well as a lack of adequate provision for teaching the concepts and considering them as strategic tools for combating misinformation in the region. The study recommends concrete policy and managerial solutions to the stakeholders involved.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused worldwide educational disruption. This paper addresses a gap in the literature relating to the impact of the pandemic on learning experiences of children in rural communities in the Global South, particularly in earlier years of schooling. Children in these communities are at considerable disadvantage in comparison to their urban peers due to poor school infrastructure and challenges in recruitment and retention of teachers. Drawing on a mixed-methods study of primary school children, their teachers and families in rural Sierra Leone, both during and immediately after school closures, the paper highlights how primary schools and their communities responded to the pandemic and how this influenced children's engagement with their learning. While national planning focused on pandemic control measures and provision of some remote learning support, findings highlight challenges for poor rural communities in accessing basic learning supports and the consequent disruption to children's education.

This paper studies the association between caregiver--child interactions and early childhood development in literacy and numeracy in West and Central Africa. Data comes from Multiple Cluster Indicator Surveys (MICS) conducted in Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Togo between 2017 and 2020. A multilevel logistic regression is used to estimate the likelihood of being developmentally on track for 35,752 children aged 3-4 years. The results indicate that cognitively stimulating interactions with caregivers such as reading and telling stories are correlated with a higher likelihood of being developmentally on track. Interactions with mothers are associated with significantly higher odds of being developmentally on track but not interactions with fathers.

BACKGROUND: The 2020 World Health Organization Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior are the first to provide evidence-based recommendations for reducing both dimensions of languorous behavior. The relationship between sitting time and exercise remains understudied among diverse adolescent populations worldwide. METHODS: The 2017 Sierra Leone Global School-based Student Health Survey was a nationally representative cross-sectional study of secondary school students. RESULTS: Of the 2798 participants, 82% did not engage in moderate or vigorous physical activity for at least an hour every day, 25% sat for 3 or more hours each day outside of school and homework, and 87% were physically inactive and/or sedentary based on those thresholds. Girls who never or rarely exercised tended to maintain light physical activity outside of school rather than sitting, while boys who exercised daily tended to be sedentary when they were not playing sports. IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL HEALTH POLICY, PRACTICE, AND EQUITY: Students spend their waking hours doing a mix of sitting, light physical activity, and moderate or vigorous physical activity. Schools can help reduce sedentarism and increase movement among students. CONCLUSIONS: Home, school, and community health interventions may be useful for increasing energy expenditure among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of health program implementors and research analysts across seven low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) alongside Boston-based collaborators convened to implement data-driven approaches for public health response. An intensive statistics and data science training short course was developed to ensure that in-country researchers could implement the necessary statistical methods for COVID-19 surveillance. The main goal of the course was to enable interpretation of findings from time series analyses and flag potential data issues. This manuscript summarizes our experience teaching this course, including a detailed course overview, participant feedback, and thoughts on how targeted, online courses can be used to support statistical capacity building in LMICs.

This article investigates how school principals in Sierra Leone interpret and enact a national education reform program. Through a sense-making lens, this qualitative study explores how the principals perceive and enact a reform program while maintaining their leadership role within the schools and communities they serve. In this study, we collect data from twelve school principals from three localities in Sierra Leone. The research suggests that in an environment where money and the resources money can purchase are consistently in short supply, the involvement of school principals in the design and communication of a national reform program is critical to the implementation of said program. School principals' sense-making of the reform program is centered on three primary themes, all of which are linked to the lack of funding for quality education in Sierra Leone and the noninvolvement of the school principals in the design of the program: (1) teacher compensation and commitment, (2) unfunded mandates, and (3) mismatched expectations. These themes, linked to the underlying context of managing schools in low resource environments, influence the principals' interpretations and willingness to enact the reform program.

This paper undertakes a critical analysis of a planned change, the Safe Learning Model (SLM), devised over time by Concern Worldwide, and implemented in 100 primary or elementary schools in a rural district of Sierra Leone. We situate the documentation pertaining to the SLM (micro) within its wider national (meso) and international (macro) context of influential policy texts. We undertake a mixed methods analysis of these macro, meso and micro documents, interrogated through the prism of various change paradigms (scientific management, progressivism, critical theory, teacher professionalism and social movement) and in doing establish where these various document clusters, their explicit and implicit influences, may be located along the arc of change paradigms, thus surfacing their ideological assumptions, intent and influences. The paper concludes that in seeking to improve the quality of teaching, learning, and living in this instance, scientific management casts long shadows. The power, perspectives and financial influence of international agencies dominate change discourses whereby 'learning crises' require urgent responses in the form of testing and measuring that prevail over more expansive pedagogical capacity building. Consequently, perpetuating a 'weighing the pig' mindset downplays or ignores the ecology of teaching and learning, particularly the centrality of teachers, as professionals and role models, more likely to be compliant than transformative.

The development of informal science learning programs (ISLPs) is a growing strategy among scientists seeking to engage communities. However, little scholarship exists on higher education ISLPs, limiting best practices for program development. This article explores the perceived impacts for student learners and scientist instructors of an international ISLP focused on marine science, using a mixed-methods approach of questionnaires, interviews, a task-based focus group, and participant observation. Learners perceived an increase in research skills and knowledge, and identified positive impacts associated with networking and forming connections. Learners did not significantly change their attitudes toward marine science or beliefs about careers in science. Instructors felt they helped advance their field and perceived positive impacts from cultural exchange, whereas only a few identified professional development impacts. This study suggests that higher education ISLPs should focus on creating space for different types of connections and increasing how scientists' participation is valued within the profession.

The COVID-19 outbreak stimulated an outbreak of online learning in many institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Educational institutions went beyond fighting the COVID-19 through social distancing norms to tackling Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG 4) with the adoption of online learning as the new modality for instruction. Online learning has the propensity to ensure learners from all geographical regions have access to education, thereby addressing the inequalities in education. However, the disparities in the access to digital infrastructure had a negative impact on the online instruction in Sub-Saharan Africa. The online learning experience is best described as a "challenge-ridden online learning" with many teachers suffering from burnout and students lamenting on limited ICT resources, inadequate access to affordable and reliable internet, power outages, and anxiety over academic outcomes. Despite the challenges, the COVID-19 has presented a silver lining to online learning in Sub-Saharan Africa. Aside the attempt to massify online learning, many institutions have come up with novel technological innovations and inventions to bridge the digital divide in the region. The review gives an overview of the challenges, prospects, and practical implications of online learning in Sub-Saharan Africa. Abstract-The COVID-19 outbreak stimulated an outbreak of online learning in many institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Educational institutions went beyond fighting the COVID-19 through social distancing norms to tackling Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG 4) with the adoption of online learning as the new modality for instruction. Online learning has the propensity to ensure learners from all geographical regions have access to education, thereby addressing the inequalities in education. However, the disparities in the access to digital infrastructure had a negative impact on the online instruction in Sub-Saharan Africa. The online learning learning" with many teachers suffering from burnout and students lamenting on limited ICT resources, inadequate access to affordable and reliable internet, power outages, and anxiety over academic outcomes. Despite the challenges, the COVID-19 has presented a silver lining to online learning in Sub-Saharan Africa. Aside the attempt to massify online learning, many institutions have come up with novel technological innovations and inventions to bridge the digital divide in the region. The review gives an overview of the challenges, prospects, and practical implications of online learning in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In West Africa and in Ghana, there exist many modes of communication beyond the verbal and written. For example, at the chiefs' palaces there exist many systems of communication; notably, symbols (ideographs) that tell the philosophies and stories of the chiefs and the people of the tribes. In Ghana, as in many West African countries, it is difficult to center the study of writing because writing is micro-inscribed in the macro study of English. The study of writing forms a small section of the study of the English language. The educational systems and its students hardly recognize writing's distinctiveness or necessity. The school curricula are remnants of the colonial empire, and they inadvertently continue to maintain and promote gatekeeping structures and practices--especially in defining and teaching writing. In this article, the authors explore the West African context by focusing more specifically on writing at the high school level among the five English-speaking countries: The Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ghana. The authors made this choice because these five West African countries write common regional examinations organized by the West African Examination Council (WAEC). With respect to how writing is taught at the higher education level, the authors decided to focus on Ghana only.

In spite of widespread initiatives to improve access to education for girls, substantive concerns remain. While there is a rich and growing body of literature on gendered experiences of school in majority world contexts, absent is a focus on how this intersects with children's out of school lives. Further, research with children in rural communities is limited, including those who are in the earlier years of their schooling. This paper addresses these gaps, focusing on gendered dynamics in the everyday lives of children in five rural communities in Northern Sierra Leone. Drawing on Bourdieu, it explores the dialectical interplay between gendered and generational structures, understood as the gendered habitus, in a wider context of structural poverty, uneven and fragile post-colonial restructuring and development. This sets the groundwork for children's gendered dis/positioning, and ultimately capacity to engage with schooling.

This study sought to explore the motivations and challenges to the engagement of female West African university students, whilst participating in competitive and non-competitive extra-curricular sport and physical activity (ECSPA). The study was situated at a university in the North West of England that has a culturally diverse student population. The ECSPA program that operates at the university seeks to enable individuals to embark upon activities away from their academic schedule, wherein engagement in such activities is thought to nurture health, well-being and social development. Drawing on the intersections of ethnicity, culture and gender, the study aimed to identify the dominant constructs that influence West African students' motivations towards ECSPA. An online cross-sectional survey of 168 participants with an average age of 34 years complimented by two focus group interviews involving 15 participants, was the primary data source for this study. The women in the study evidenced their key motivations for engaging in ECSPA, such as enjoyment, affiliation and appearance. However, a range of structural barriers to participating in ECSPA was identified including cultural insensitivities, unrelatable marketing and the non-alignment of ECSPA scheduling to the academic timetable.

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.

To meet the growing demand for continuing professional development of practising teachers, the integrated in-service teacher training (INSET) programme aims at making permanent improvements on the quality of teaching and learning for Junior Secondary School (JSS) Teachers in Sierra Leone. Within this context, a toolkit for School-Based Teacher Development was created and microlearning identified as an ideal mode to deliver the toolkit content. In this paper, we present the design considerations that informed this decision as well as challenges and lessons learned from the first implementation of the INSET project for junior secondary school teachers in Sierra Leone. A multimodal approach was considered and implemented to mitigate Internet access challenges and to expand learning opportunities. These include a mobile app version of the Toolkit, offline access to microlearning resources on the TeacherFutures platform via the Moodle mobile app, a mobile app version of one INSET module, an e-portfolio to be used by participants in sharing their learnings as demonstrated and practised during a face-to-face roll-out seminar, and finally, WhatsApp groups in which different schools engaged in discussions based on the questions on the Toolkit. Preliminary findings indicate a strong preference among participants for the use of WhatsApp as the main channel of communication within the communities of practice; and very limited use of the main e-learning Moodle platform and e-Portfolio. This necessitates a need to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the design of a multimodal approach for delivering microlearning content. From this, we seek to establish a set of design considerations, capacity building and technical support issues derived from analysis of data emerging from the ongoing project rollout. This will inform future integration of Microlearning resources in the teacher training project.

Most disability research originates from high-income countries, masking important cultural variability in how disability is conceptualized. Through 199 interviews with people living in Sierra Leone, we investigated the following research questions: (1) What are the experiences of community members with people with disabilities? (2) What employment options or other resources are available for people with disabilities? (3) How do community members perceive people with disabilities? We used a mixed-method approach to data analysis by quantitizing the qualitative responses to further examine whether participants' responses differed by urbanicity, age, or level of education. The results of this study provide insight into how disability is understood in a low-income country and reveal important directions for future research.

Drawing on three action research case studies involving several African universities, this article critically explores how academics converted their previously pure classroom-based courses for delivery through blended learning. The case studies reflect resource-scarce contexts where limited access to digital technology and the internet poses unique challenges to universities seeking to scale-up management education to the geographically distant and culturally diverse student population. Results from analyzing the case studies, through the concept of curriculum adaptation, were drawn upon to develop a theoretical framework for use by academics planning to transition from face-to-face to blended learning environments. The article uncovers the difficulties of, and opportunities for, creating learning communities that enable classroom-based, face-to-face teaching to be blended with online learning in ways that foster locally relevant, purposive interactions among academics and students, while scaling-up access to management education. The article concludes with a discussion of opportunities for management educators to introduce online learning in their existing classroom-based management courses.

This study investigated attitudes toward restrictive gender norms among adolescents in Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone (pooled N = 1,793, M[subscript age(baseline)] = 10.3, M[subscript age(follow-up)] = 11.6, 50% boys/girls). We examined individual and contextual predictors of gender attitudes, assessed change in gender attitudes over 2 years, and estimated the effect of a community-based norms diffusion intervention. Multiple regression analyses revealed that being a boy, exposure to violence against women, and restrictive norms among same-gender peers predicted support for a patriarchal division of adult roles, lower educational status for girls, and acceptance of gender-based violence. In contrast to evidence from Western contexts, we found limited evidence of increased flexibility in gender attitudes during early adolescence. However, the intervention significantly reduced support for restrictive gender norms, especially among boys. Findings reveal novel pathways through which young adolescents acquire beliefs about gender, and provide encouraging evidence regarding community-based approaches to shifting adolescents' gender attitudes.

Mixed methods research in developing countries has been increasing since the turn of the century. Given this, there is need to consolidate insights for future researchers. This article contributes to the methodological literature by exploring how cultural factors and logistical challenges in developing contexts interplay with mixed methods research design and implementation. Insights are based on the author's research experience of using mixed methods in six projects across three African and three Caribbean countries. Three lessons are provided to aid researchers using mixed methods working in developing countries. First, cultural factors call for more reflexivity. Second, adopting a pragmatic research paradigm is necessary. And third, the research process should be iterative and adaptive.

When opposing injustice, the failure to recognise wrong or translate knowledge into action are two problems with which moral education has to contend. The notion of 'social restitution' can be a helpful concept in addressing these challenges because it locates restitution at the level of interpersonal and communal moral responsibility. This is important because restitution is often seen almost exclusively as a government or institutional endeavour. This paper describes a study conducted amongst 72 students from four African universities in Sierra Leone, South Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon that includes dialogues and a self-location activity whose aim was to cultivate moral awareness of injustice. This process of self-location also provided a helpful basis for action based on everyday acts of social restitution.

Research exploring race and ethnicity and outdoor adventure education (OAE) has tended to focus on students' experiences. This paper discusses findings from a small-scale empirical study of Sierra Leonean parents involved in organising their child's participation in a camping-based, OAE residential visit. The visit was organised by one primary school in London (UK). The community cultural wealth framework by Yosso is utilised to explore the parents' contributions to the visit. The findings reveal the ways in which parents strove to meet the expectations placed on them and overcame challenges of facilitating the visit by drawing on aspirational, familial, navigational, resistant and social capital. Additionally, the role of spiritual capital is discussed. I conclude with recommendations for the ways in which the schools and providers of OAE could take account of ethnic minority parents' perspectives and experiences.

This paper examines three interrelated factors outside of formal provision of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in sub-Saharan Africa that have undermined TVET systems. The first is the process, pace, and levels of industrialisation, which has had a direct effect on TVET provision: low numbers of well-paying jobs requiring technical expertise. This has an indirect effect, which is the second crucial factor: lack of economic development and change in labour markets. There are very few jobs that would be considered 'middle class' or 'mid-level' in wealthy countries. Most people are in survivalist work. An international consensus since the 2000s on palliative approaches to development which address the effects but not the causes of the lack of economic development in Africa has resulted in mass poor quality provision of education--the third factor. Education systems are rapidly expanding and achievement levels rising, in the context of very little possibility of labour market rewards for most people, and substantial labour market rewards confined mainly to graduates. This reinforces deeply embedded cultural preferences for general education, which originate in the type of education systems established by colonial powers, as well as the relationships between educational credentials and elite jobs.

For any government, difficult choices must be made about how and where to prioritize any school construction. In the absence of data-driven decision-making, these choices typically will be made based on opinions; when that is the case, the most powerful people's opinions tend to dominate. On the other hand, data help us ensure all the children's stories are heard and that new construction meets the needs of the most children. In Sierra Leone, Fab Inc has been working in collaboration with the Department of Planning and Policy (DPP) in the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) as part of the support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. One key area of this work has been supporting the government with their school infrastructure and catchment area planning. Implementation of data-driven decision-making requires improvement of two complementary strands--the data culture and the data systems. Fab Inc and the MBSSE have been working together on both strands. First, the School Infrastructure and Catchment Area Planning Policy, published in July 2021, which requires extensive consultation with stakeholders and Cabinet approval, sets out the commitment for needs-based prioritization analyses to inform all infrastructure improvement activities. Second, a web-based tool makes that prioritization process quick, interactive, and accessible so that in seconds the user can see recommended locations in order of priority.

With the general closure of universities and schools in Sierra Leone due to the COVID-19 pandemic, digital learning has become a credible alternative to maintain students in educational, training, and research links. The study responds to three primary questions: 1) Which digital learning modalities have shown to be most effective for providing continuity in learning amid temporary or permanent school closures? 2) Which digital learning modalities are promising for their use but evidence for their use evidence about them is still lacking? 3) What are the challenges and considerations when planning for and implementing digital learning? The study utilised qualitative research methods: interviews, focus group discussions, qualitative survey, and document reviewing. A stratified sample of 260 participants (161 male and 99 female) was randomly drawn from teachers, education officials, and information technology experts. This paper provides snapshots of the different distance learning initiatives and programs that have been implemented, including the promises they offer.

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to report the findings of a synthesis of literature reviews and stakeholder interviews conducted in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The synthesis provides an overview of instructional leadership policy and practice in these six countries. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports the findings of a systematic literature review, and participant interviews, in six sub-Sahara African countries. The research links to the British Council's initiative to develop instructional leadership in developing contexts, including the six countries featured in this submission. Findings: The findings show diverse policy and practice of instructional leadership in these African contexts. Three have no explicit policies on this important leadership construct, while the others have relevant policy statements but limited evidence of instructional leadership practice. Research limitations/implications: The research provides an overview of instructional leadership policy and practice in these six countries, but more school-based research is required to develop grounded evidence on whether and how this is practiced. The pandemic inhibited such school-based research in 2020. The study provides emerging evidence of the impact of instructional leadership on school and student outcomes, confirming what is known from international research. Practical implications: Developing awareness of how instructional leadership can improve student learning, linked to appropriate training, could lead to more effective schools. Social implications: The Sustainable Development Goals stress the importance of high quality education for economic and social development. Leadership is an important aspect of quality, and the research reported in this paper shows the potential for instructional leadership to enhance student learning. Originality/value: This is the first cross-national study of instructional leadership in sub-Saharan Africa.

In peacebuilding contexts unemployed youth are frequently perceived as a high risk for the stability of a country while employed youth are seen as carrying an enormous potential for economic growth. This paper applies a social justice framework (4Rs) in analysing a Business Development (BD) programme that was implemented as part of Sierra Leone's Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) strategy to promote entrepreneurship development and reduce unemployment among youth. Despite the BD programme's initial strengths, to recognize youth's heterogeneity with the aim to address some of the root causes of the war, we show how the programme struggled to counter social inequality, unemployment and neopatrimonialism. Sudden decreases in donor funding led to severe modifications of redistribution processes, thereby hampering youth's representation. This raises questions about the design of TVET strategies and BD programmes in post-conflict settings in general. Our paper further showcases how the resurfacing of the root causes of a conflict in the scope of small-scheme development programmes, can have far-reaching effects on young people's various relationships of trust, if not reconciliation process as a whole.

For refugees, education provides life-changing opportunities, including tools for effective social integration. This study explores higher education (HE) participation among refugee-background African youth in Australia. Drawing on policy review, national HE statistics and population census data, and using theoretical insights from critical sociology and a capability approach to social justice, the article (a) maps trends of HE participation, and (b) sheds light on policy silences and alternatives. The findings show that only one in ten refugee-background African youth (aged 18-30) transitioned to HE within the first five years of their arrival. The group also lagged well behind the general population in terms of undergraduate course completion. In light of these concerns, the article calls for "expanding the educational capabilities" of the refugee youth, specifically highlighting the need for policy recognition, early intervention, and substantive opportunities that can be converted into valued outcomes.

Background: Conceptualisations of what it means to use evidence in policymaking often appear divided between two extremes. On the one side are works presenting it as the implementation of research findings - particularly evaluations of intervention effect. In contrast stand theoretically informed works exploring the multiple meanings of evidence use, political complexities, and the constructed nature of research evidence itself. The first perspective has been criticised as over-simplistic, while the latter can make it difficult to answer questions of what might be good, or improved, uses of evidence in policymaking. Methods: To further debate, this paper develops a 'programmatic approach' to evidence use, drawing on theories of institutional decision making and empirical work on evidence use within 11 National Malaria Control Programmes in Africa. We apply the programmatic approach by investigating the key goals and tasks of programme officials, recognising that these will shape the routines and logics followed affecting evidence utilisation. We then map out the forms, sources, features, and applications of evidence that serve programme officials in their goals. Findings: In the case of malaria programmes, evidence use was understood in relation to tasks including: advocacy for funding, budget allocation, regulation development, national planning, and identification of information gaps - all of which might require different evidence sources, forms, and applications. Discussion and conclusions: Ultimately the programmatic approach aims to facilitate clearer understanding of what uses of evidence are appropriate to policymakers, while also allowing critical reflection on whether such uses are 'good' from both programme and broader social perspectives.

Education should be considered as one of the mechanisms for governments and nations to succeed in a post-conflict process. The purpose of this Review Article is twofold: to explain the importance of education in a post-conflict setting, and to describe a few strategies that post-conflict societies have implemented. In terms of research design, a multiple case study approach has been implemented. The paper reviews a unique topic with specific reference to education plans implemented in post-conflict societies such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. Each of them has experienced violent conflicts and has used education as a tool to succeed in their post-conflict process. In sum, there are several educational programs that involve children, young people, survivors, parents, teachers, and local communities as well as curriculums focused on teaching of cultural values and technical skills to improve the quality of life in a post-conflict setting.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen an unprecedented shutdown of society. Among the various safety measures taken, much attention has been given to school closure as a non-pharmaceutical mitigation tool to curb the spread of the disease through ensuring "social" (physical) distancing. Nearly 1.725 billion children in over 95% of countries worldwide have been affected by school closures implemented in April 2020 as the virus continued to spread. In the field of education, policymakers' attention has been directed at keeping students on board through remote learning and addressing the immediate needs of schools upon reopening. The study presented in this article focuses on who remains absent after schools resume. Using publicly available survey data from the USAID Demographic Health Surveys Program and the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey from before and after the 2013-2016 Ebola pandemic in Guinea and Sierra Leone in West Africa, the author examined changes in school enrolment and dropout patterns, with targeted consideration given to traditionally marginalised groups. At the time, schools closed for between seven to nine months in the two countries; this length and intensity makes this Ebola pandemic the only health crisis in the recent past to come close to the pandemic-related school closures experienced in 2020. The author's findings suggest that post-Ebola, youth in the poorest households saw the largest increase in school dropout. Exceeding expected pre-Ebola dropout rates, an additional 17,400 of the poorest secondary-age youth were out of school. This evidence is important for minimising the likely post-COVID-19 expansion in inequality. The author's findings point to the need for sustainable planning that looks beyond the reopening of educational institutions to include comprehensive financial support packages for groups most likely to be affected.