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This article presents the epistemological complexity inherent in the roll out of an international project on Disaster and Risk Reduction, and consequently about science education in the Indigenous context of Turkana County in Kenya. After an introduction that explains the current state of Disaster and Risk Reduction, the paper focuses on the 'Paper Volcanoes Laboratory' program and toolkit for children and teachers, which aims to spread awareness about natural hazards among children. The paper argues that the geographical, social and educational context where the project is carried out is critical to consider, and decolonial studies provide a conceptual and theoretical framework for this project. This allows to recognize reproduction of infantilization of Indigenous people and children through Western knowledge and science if implemented without consideration for local contexts, and demonstrates how Western educational projects have been a tool of discrimination and colonization. However, at the same time, it opens up the possibility for a dialogue and an encounter between the different epistemologies present in a project that was conceptualized within the Western context, but is to be carried out in Turkana County in Kenya.

This paper argues that access to quality education and skills development programs for refugees, returnees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) is not only one of the fundamental human rights that states and non-state actors have obligations to fulfill; it is also an integral part of sustainable development efforts which will have significant contributions to socio-economic transformation in host countries, countries of origin and countries of destinations in the event that refugees become migrant, which is sometimes the case. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region, consisting of eight member states, namely, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, host more than 13 million forcibly displaced people. This results from protracted and devastating conflicts; drought and famine and other natural or man-made calamities. Within the IGAD region, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan produce 80 to 90% of displacement due to protracted civil wars. However, almost all the member states have refugees, IDPs or migrants sheltered in their territories. Access to higher education among refugees, returnees and IDPs is very low at only 3% compared to 36% globally. The figure for Africa is still dismal, at less than 1%; and the same holds true for the IGAD region. In an effort to address this major challenge facing these population categories, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) convened a high level regional (Ministerial Conference) on refugee education held in Djibouti, 12-14 December 2017. That Conference adopted what is now called the Djibouti declaration and Plan of Action for refugee education in the IGAD region. The major purpose of this paper was is to outline the refugee situations in general and the state of higher education in the region in particular.

Pharmacy practice change is facilitated by delegation, teamwork, leadership and reorganization of personnel structure and roles. The international pharmaceutical federation (FIP) recommends that society should have access to appropriately trained pharmaceutical personnel. Three cadres form the pharmacy workforce: pharmacists, technicians and pharmacy assistants or dispensers. Globally, the training, regulation, scope, and status of technicians and dispensers vary. Role tensions exist between pharmacists and technicians which impact both workplace behaviour and performance. Literature on role expansion for pharmacy technicians excludes (reference to) the contribution of the pharmacy assistant or dispenser. Unlike the technician, the dispenser largely lacks professional recognition. But overlaps between the roles of the technician and dispenser can occur leading to further tensions in the pharmacy workplace. 'Unhealthy'' intra-professional conflicts obstruct the pharmacist practice envisioned by the WHO 7-star pharmacist. A solution that brings together the 3 cadres in joint or shared action is desirable. Social theory suggests that intercadre conflicts could be both necessary and inevitable. Being political nature, the tensions can be moderated by a ''political settlement''. The present paper is a reconstruction of and reflection of the author's journey in building a harmonious pharmacy workforce. Professionalizing the dispenser cadre restructures the hierarchy of the pharmacy workforce leading to harmony which in turn improves organizational performance. Lessons learned from this case can be applied to resolve workplace tensions in other settings.

Universities play a crucial role in the development of any nation. The success of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is the bedrock of the growth in human capacity required to support the growth of an economy. However, HEIs have been criticized for not playing their rightful role in national development. This has been partly attributed to not being able to manage their performance in view of the dynamic and turbulent environment they are operating in. Most HEIs have been caught up in the "business as usual" situation preferring doing things in the traditional ways as opposed to changing with the times. As a result their survival has been at risk especially from those HEIs who have adopted the "business un-usual" mentality. It is as a result of the challenges facing Kenyan HEIs that this paper proposes an adoption of the Balanced Scorecard as a management tool in HEIs. This paper provides a review of literature on the HEI environment globally and in Kenya, highlighting the challenges faced by Kenyan HEIs and proposes the use of the BSC to address the same. The BSC is a tool that helps mainstream the vision and mission of HEIs in their activities thus making the HEIs become strategy focused organizations. The BSC is a strategic planning and management system used to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization and to monitor organization performance against strategic goals. Finally, a sample BSC for HEIs in Kenya is proposed. It is felt that if HEIs focused on the issues proposed and measured their performance on the issues identified, their performance will be improved tremendously.

The study aims to understand the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study adopts the PRISMA approach to screening the selection of journal articles and review papers according to the research aims and the inclusion criteria. The journal articles and review papers were extracted and stored in Microsoft Excel and Google Scholar, Academic. Microsoft, Semantic Scholar, Elsevier, and Emerald Insight databases searched relevant documents using formulated keywords. A statistical technique was applied using the M.S. Excel analysis tool (PivotTable and an independent t-Test) to analyze data and determine the differences between teachers and students. The review revealed the evidence that the majority of the studies were primarily focused on the individual developing countries and results from other developing countries were not considered. In addition, the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic were inadequate skills and training, inadequate Internet/Infrastructure, lack of supporting resources and lack of online student engagement and feedback. Finally, the independent t-test reveals there is no statistically significant difference in challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both teachers and students encounter similar challenges. The systematic review raised concerns that higher learning needs to effectively implement long term strategies and support teachers and students in getting into online teaching and learning.

This paper presents some initial findings from a multi-year partnership project on the integration of technology into the Kenyan education system. Specifically, qualitative evidence is presented on how results and lessons learned from the partnership project can be generalized and used by other research teams and projects using other technology platforms. Grounded in the critical theory of educational technology and using methodological strategies on the intersections of critical discourse analysis and critical ethnography, this paper examines technology integration in Kenyan public schools using the Learning Toolkit+ developed at the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

The onset of COVID-19 made governments and other education actors prioritize distance learning, particularly through education technologies (EdTechs). Most sub-Saharan African countries adopted and adapted this approach. This paper examines the extent of EdTechs' deployment in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic among marginalized and vulnerable populations. A cross-sectional study design was adopted for the study from which this paper drew its data, with both secondary and primary data utilized. The findings show that marginalized/vulnerable learner populations are still left out on EdTech supported learning. This article proposes salient recommendations that could help advance inclusive education discussion and related EdTechs' discourse.

An effective teaching contributes to the students' performance and this depends on qualified-trained teachers, school administration, parents and conducive environment for teaching and learning. It is proven that students are more successful in their academic achievements, in the societies where teachers perceive their profession as their job. This paper explores the impact of the society's perception on teachers' professionalism. The method employed in this paper is qualitative by using interview technique and used audio-recorded to ensure a complete transcript. The result indicated that in some developing countries including Cameroon, Kenya and Fiji has various reasons for their job. Teaching profession was affected by how the society considers teachers whereby they are perceived as disadvantaged population who cannot fully take part in the social and economic activities due to the fact that their salary is very low compared other public servants. This low salary and loss of respect of teachers by the society lead to the job dissatisfaction and made the teaching profession as a transitional job before waiting to move to another different professional field.

The 2017 general comment (GC21) to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on children in street situations, provides a framework of legal guidance for governments developing policies aimed at protecting street-connected children and sets up the rationale for more awareness raising and public education to counter negative and deficit attitudes towards street-connectedness. Within this framework, the media has a role to play in either challenging conceptualisations of street-connected children as out-of-place within the public and predominantly adult domain described by urban streets, or in reinforcing ideological constructions of citizenship and normalised notions of childhood that result in negative stereotypes of these children. GC21 recommends that interventions targeted at street-connected children should be ethically responsible -- adopting child rights approaches aimed at using accurate data/evidence that upholds the dignity of children, their personal integrity, and their right to life. As such, these approaches should also extend to how organisations engage with and utilise the media to represent street-connected children. Focusing on media representations of street-connected children during the six pandemic-affected months of February to July 2020, this paper provides a review of the content of the sources to provide an insight into the structural barriers that face street-connected children because of how they are positioned in society, during the pandemic and in general, and the extent to which the media reinforces or counters the rescue or removal narratives that can lead to inappropriate intervention responses.

There has been a growing concern in Kenya that boys have gradually been left out of the gender equation with little research capturing their schooling experiences. When examined, boys' underachievement is treated with suspicion that has led to few studies demonstrating their marginalisation. This paper explored the manifestations of boys' underachievement in education in Busia and Kirinyaga counties in Kenya. The study was carried out in 12 primary schools targeted 12 headteachers, 24 teachers, 480 pupils, 8 education officials and 180 households. Enrolment, school attendance, and candidature for national examinations data showed boys were marginalised. In addition, they lacked adequate role models. However, on performance, boys still had better results than girls. The paper concludes that boys were beginning to under participate in education and recommends the need for gender interventions to target both boys and girls and tripartite efforts at communities, county governments and national government to re-enrol boys.

This paper examines the historical background of the Assumption Sisters of Eldoret (ASE), its Charism and apostolate and the secondary schools run by the ASE. It seeks to understand how the Sisters deal with discipline and performance in their schools. The paper also looks at the role of ASE in the management of the schools especially in financing, staff development and checking the facilities, how they handle the challenges facing the secondary schools that are run by the Sisters. The paper concludes and gives a way forward on how to improve the running of the schools run by the Assumption Sisters of Eldoret.

This paper examines the management of secondary schools run by the Franciscan Sisters of St. Anna in Kenya. It begins with a brief history of the Congregation from its foundation in Oudenbosch to the time its mission began in Kenya. The guiding principle for Franciscan Sisters of St Anna schools is the Charism and sound traditions of the Congregation. The fostering of quality education and good administration of these schools have helped to inculcate good morals in the learners through Catholic teachings. Many of the schools were founded for the girl child, the vulnerable and the less fortunate in the society, thus echoing the mission of the Sisters; voice to the voiceless. The Sisters work hand-in-hand with Dutch and Kenyan governments to see the schools grow. The schools have a long-standing history of discipline and good morals. The paper highlights the sources of funds for the schools which include Government of Kenya, the Congregation through donors, and the parents. In the management of these schools, the principals see to it that there is; proper management of funds, professional development and motivation of staff for improved performance in learners. Finally, the paper discusses some challenges faced by the school administrators and how to overcome them.

The 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education in Paris recommended that global higher education institutions should internationalize and reduce inequalities between developed and emerging countries. Since then, universities strive to incorporate an international dimension in their service. The aim was initially guided by the 20th century understanding of internationalization being just, fair, and an equitable process that promotes peace and mutual understanding. However, under the influence of the General Agreement on Trade in Services and competition, internationalization changed focus and became less inclusive. This paper explores inclusive international education in East Africa using narrative review methodology. Findings suggest that rather than promoting access and equity in higher education, internationalization, for example, excludes economically disadvantaged, disabled, and adult learners. Thus, in addition to internationalization at home, inclusive internationalization abroad strategies should be devised. Internationalization of higher education is more valuable if it translates into fair, just, and peaceful social systems.

This paper explains sustained effects and what worked for students in the Advancing Learning Outcomes and Transformational (ALOT Change III) program. Data comes from qualitative narratives from the baseline survey of the program collected by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) between December 4, 2019, and January 31, 2020, using focus group discussions (FGDs) and dialogues. The analysis followed the Miles and Huberman (1994) framework to make comparisons and contrasts. Results showed that students transferred skills such as self-confidence from primary to secondary schools, enabling the adolescents to speak up and engage. This showed an effective implementation uptake. The implication of the study points to the efficacy of community-based programs in impacting behavior of adolescents beyond primary school.

Good teachers are a major predictor of students' success in school and beyond it. Finding ways to increase the quality of teaching has been a concern for educational systems across various income contexts and, particularly, in the Global South. This paper discusses the iterative design of an online teacher professional development program geared to improving teachers' English language instruction by means of implementing early literacy software. The program was implemented in various modes (face-to-face, blended and online) with early primary teachers scattered throughout Kenya during the pandemic school closures and after reopening. Relying on the blended learning approach, a potentially effective technology-driven TPD offers multifaceted content, has adaptive and flexible design, and is ongoing until mastery of core concepts is achieved. Further, such solution develops motivational dispositions of teachers about teaching with early literacy software so that its perceived value and the likelihood of success are high, and the benefits outweigh the costs of implementation. The next step of this research is to learn about the specific outcomes of the blended TPD, including changes in literacy instruction and subsequent improvements in student literacy skills.

This paper examines the use of vignettes as a research method in a comparative exploration of the provision for children with special educational needs across eleven countries. The investigation selected in-country researchers, who responded to questions with respect to children described in 14 vignettes. The questions related to school placement options; assessment processes; support arrangements; service provision; curriculum responses and those involved in placement decisions. The vignette findings were able to highlight differences in placement decisions between the countries; the general lack of pupil voice in decision making and the ubiquitous influence of medical categories within educational settings. The utility of using vignettes in this type of research is discussed in relation to reflecting the complex reality of educational practice in different countries.

African students studying abroad and returning home to conduct research face several challenges. The purpose of this article is to describe the dilemma of a Kenyan student conducting research in Kenya, for her Australian-based doctoral studies in inclusive education. The research explored instructional strategies and Indigenous knowleges used by teachers to support students with disabilities in classrooms. The student had to negotiate positionality as an insider and outsider. This paper contributes to the literature on the experiences of African doctoral students returning home from Western universities to conduct research. It also contributes to knowledge of the positionalities of a researcher and also to the growing literature on methods of conducting research in education. This article also adds to the literature on the use of Indigenous methodologies in research in education. I explain how I transitioned from insider to outsider and vice versa during conversations.

The qualitative community embraces transparent dialogue through sharing knowledge to improve rigour and develop new initiatives. In this paper, we recognise there are many complexities within qualitative research, leading to important debates. We explore the benefits and challenges, as well as the practicalities and technicalities, of conducting research that 1) employs multiple methods within the qualitative paradigm, 2) is interdisciplinary, and 3) examines a sensitive research topic 4) with a vulnerable group of participants. Specifically, when research is also 5) cross-cultural and 6) utilises participatory techniques. Through our discussion, we draw upon an existing project and examine the complexity of designing and completing intra-paradigmatic mixed methods research with children from different sociocultural contexts, underpinned by interdisciplinary perspectives, in a complex area like mental health.

This paper analyses faculty experiences tackling global knowledge asymmetries by examining the decolonisation of higher education in Africa in the aftermath of the 2015 'Rhodes Must Fall' student uprising. An overview of the literature reveals a rich debate on defining 'decolonisation', starting from a critique of Eurocentrism to propositions of alternate epistemologies. These debates are dominated by the Global North and South Africa and their experiences of curriculum reform. Our focus is on the experiences of political scientists in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. These countries share the same Anglophone political science traditions but represent different political trajectories that constitute a significant condition for the discipline. The 26 political scientists we interviewed acted toward increasing local content and perspectives in their teaching, as promoted in the official strategies of the universities. They noted that what was happening in lecture halls was most important. The academic decolonisation debate appeared overambitious or even as patronising to them in their own political context. National politics affected the thematic focus of the discipline both as far as research topics and students' employment opportunities were concerned. Although university bureaucracies were slow to respond to proposed curricula changes, new programmes were approved if there was a market-based demand for them. International programs tended to be approved fastest. Political economy of higher education plays a role: dependency on foreign funding, limited national resources to conduct research and produce publications vis-à-vis international competition, and national quality assurance standards appeared to be most critical constraints for decolonising the curriculum.

Purpose: We studied innovation processes in agriculture and nutrition to discuss a scaling approach that encompasses the technical, institutional, and behavioral dimensions of change. Approach: To understand dynamics across these dimensions, we analyzed farmers' innovation processes through two analytical lenses: farmer-centered and structural. Focus group discussions in Kapchorwa, Uganda, and Teso South, Kenya, looked at farmers' choices of innovations. Individual interviews and stakeholder workshops at both study sites increased understanding of the local innovation system. Findings: To address local challenges, strive for livelihood aspirations, and fulfill personal taste preferences, farmers selected and adapted practices promoted by a research project. A wide range of additional support providers encouraged farmers to develop innovations in agriculture, marketing, and nutrition. Practical implications: By promoting innovation as a process rather than an outcome, it is possible to address context-specific needs and enhance farmers' adaptive capacities. Scaling these processes necessitates the involvement of innovation support service providers in order to create an enabling environment for experimentation. Theoretical implications: Analytical dualism highlights the different roles of human agency and structures in innovation processes needed to design successful scaling strategies. Originality/value: This paper sets out a novel approach to understanding the increasingly discussed dimensions of scaling by linking them with concepts from innovation studies.

This paper investigated the impacts of education on women's empowerment in Kenya using six waves of nationally-representative KDHS data. Our study utilizes the change in educational structure in 1985 as an instrument and finds that women under the new system enhanced their schooling by approximately two years. One year of education prolongs women's timing of the first birth, decreases female genital mutilation for the first daughter, reduces intimate partner violence, and improves women's household decision-making. Our findings are robust to several robustness checks. We examined different paths to explain these results, including information exposure, partner matching, and labor market engagement.

Investment in sub-Sahara Africa's (SSA's) youth through effective capacity development, involving adoption of contemporary skills development approaches, is integral in alleviating the region's high youth unemployment rates as it will equip the youth with skills needed for employment. Skills that are needed are those that holistically develop the youth skills-set, including technical/hard and soft-skills, dubbed whole youth development (WYD) skills. This paper thus explores Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students' understanding of soft-skills and its development. The paper utilizes data collected from a TVET study in Kenya that was carried in 9 of the 47 counties, targeting learners aged 15-24 years. The selected counties were those that had national polytechnics for national representation, except one (Turkana county), which was selected to represent youth from marginalized counties. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted for this study. The findings indicate that there is a good understanding of soft-skills among the targeted respondents, with extra-curricular activities playing a key role in promoting TVET students' soft-skills. However, inadequate human resource and low level of awareness on soft-skills among instructors contribute to inadequate soft-skills learning. This calls for a concerted effort among key education stakeholders on the development of instructors' and institutions' capacities for a plausible soft-skills outcome.

Amid a rise of misinformation worldwide, this paper examines digital misinformation literacy as it relates to COVID-19 news in East Africa. The study is grounded in inoculation theory and contributes to the body of scholarship examining misinformation literacy beyond the Western world. Data came from a comparative, cross-national survey in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda (N = 3,203), making this the largest known empirical investigation into digital misinformation literacy in the region within the context of a pandemic. Paper surveys were distributed throughout all three countries in 2021. The data revealed differences in actual and perceived misinformation literacy levels. Kenyans and Rwandans were better at detecting false COVID-19 statements in the media, whereas Ugandans were better at detecting true messages. Similarly, Kenyans' and Rwandans' perceived levels of digital misinformation literacy were higher than Ugandans'. Regarding perceived exposure to COVID-19 information, Kenyans felt they were exposed to fake COVID-19 news online more often than Ugandans, who felt more exposed than Rwandans. This research contributes to the growing literature on digital misinformation literacy, an area which isn't significantly studied in many world regions, especially in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To align with Kenya 2030 Vision of education for self-reliance, there is a growing need for classroom instruction that develops students' capacity to be in control of their learning. This paper reports a two-year study that tested feasibility of implementing ePEARL, an e-portfolio, in the context of Kenyan public schools. By design, the digital portfolio supports the key learning processes though the phases of self-regulated learning--forethought, performance, and self-reflection. In this study, students (N=137) from four secondary classrooms used the tool as part of classroom instruction to complete their project assignments. Repeated measures analyses revealed that, over-time, students who demonstrated fuller use of ePEARL made significantly higher gains and reported higher level of self-regulated strategies compared to their classmates who hardly used the tool. The results suggest that in order to yield important benefits, the tool should be meaningfully integrated into classroom instruction.

This paper documents the endline findings and lessons learned from the "Advancing Learning Outcomes and Transformational Change (ALOT Change) program whose goal was to secure the future of adolescent girls and boys aged 12-19 in two urban informal settlements in urban Nairobi. The purpose of the paper was to explore what were the key endline findings and lessons learned from the ALOT Change program, which was a community-based intervention targeting girls and boys in urban informal settlements of Nairobi. Data were from the endline evaluation of the program conducted in July-August 2018, and program implementation documents between 2013 and 2018. The impact of the program was on life skills, learning outcomes, and leadership skills. One of the key lessons learned was that there is value in the implementation of integrated approaches, which systematically bring together multifaceted components of interventions. This reduces inefficiencies and enhances the impact.

Purpose: To assess the extent to which privatised extension service, which is premised to be demand-driven, delivers downward accountability to smallholder farmers who are both owners and users of agricultural services. Design/methodology/approach: The research collected data through focus group discussions with smallholder tea farmers and key informant interviews after which the information were corroborated with semi-structured interviews with 104 smallholder farmers. Findings: Our findings show that KTDA (Kenya Tea Development Agency) extension service has in recent years embraced methodologies that allow two-way information exchange and farmers' involvement in planning, implementing and evaluation of extension programmes. While this transition has provided opportunities for increased accountability and empowerment of smallholder farmers, downward accountability is limited by among others; presence of multiple accountabilities, a heavy top-down governance structure, higher incentives for upward accountability, limited resourcing of extension delivery, excessive workload and unrealistic targets on the part of extension staff and weak extension-research-farmer linkages. Practical implications: The findings of this study may be used by policymakers, extension practitioners and organisations delivering extension services to improve downward accountability and quality of advisory services Theoretical implications: The paper contributes to the debate on outcomes of privatisation on extension provision using the accountability lens in an area dominated by perceptions on costs and payment for the services. Originality/value: The literature on downward accountability on privatised extension services is lacking. The paper also extends the framework for assessing the performance of pluralistic extension services to develop and apply a framework for assessing downward accountability in privatised extension.

This paper reports a case of implementing the free web-based interactive literacy software, ABRACADBRA, in early childhood education classes of Mombasa County, Kenya. A comprehensive model of training and support was offered to classroom teachers to help them integrate the software in preschool English Language instruction for three terms in 2019. The recorded changes in teaching suggest improvements in young students' foundational reading ability and computer skills among others. A combination of teacher resilience and school leadership drove successful implementation of ABRACADBRA. Avenues for future research include studying the effects of the software on a range of preschoolers' learning outcomes and examining the training and support model for optimal, sustainable, and scalable effects on instruction.

This paper explores factors to increase the likelihood that the implementation of ABRACADABRA, a technology-based approach to teaching and learning literacy, endures and expands beyond the initial research. Started as a pilot study in 12 classrooms, the implementation spread to more than 500 primary classrooms over six years in five areas of Kenya. Drawing from research about scalability and sustainability of educational interventions and value-expectancy-cost theory, an exploratory survey was designed to interview a range of actors involved in the software implementation. We used a combination of an a priori and data-driven coding approaches to analyse the narratives. We then built a model exploring the relationship between expectancy-value-cost beliefs and the factors associated with implementation and sustainability. The model explained an important portion of variance in the self-reported intent to use the software with the most significant contributions from policies, professional development, and students. These findings may be useful in the context of low- and medium-income countries where no research-proven principles exist to building sustainable and scalable educational interventions.

This paper applies Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as well as data analysis to gain a better understanding of the existing perception on the education system. 45,278 tweets were downloaded and processed. Using a lexicon-based approach, examining the most frequently used words, and estimating similarities between terms, we detected that a predominantly negative perception of the education system exists in most of the analysed countries. A positive perception is identified in certain low-income nations. Men exhibit a more positive sentiment than women as well as a higher subjectivity in some countries. The countries that exhibit the most positive perceptions India, Canada, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa and Kenya are also those that manifest the highest subjectivity.

This paper contributes to the scarce literature on factors affecting EdTech use in households. These factors were considered through exploratory mixed-methods analyses of cross-sectional data on Kenyan girls and caregivers, captured during the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantitative analysis of the child dataset (n = 544) suggested the importance of both structural factors--such as technology hardware availability--and non-structural factors--including caregiver permission. Findings were supported by a thematic analysis of interview data from girls' caregivers (n = 58), which emphasised the role they play in girls' use of EdTech. Interviews also highlighted numerous caregiver concerns with EdTech, related to the relevance and rigour of educational content, the possibility of children accessing age-inappropriate material and child health (especially eyesight). Policy makers could alleviate these concerns by providing guidance on EdTech use and clearly signalling their approval of verified initiatives.

This special issue expands the scope of a panel presentation at the Society for Research into Higher Education Annual Conference 2019 and makes two identified contributions to the field. First, drawing from existing literature, this introductory paper proposes three categorisations of employability as: outcomes approach, process approach and conceptual approaches. This moves beyond normative conceptualisation of employability from mostly the outcomes approach. The applicability of the categorisation is further enumerated by the diversity of contributions in this special issue that highlights (a) the complexity in the field and (b) the interrelatedness of the categories. Second, the special issue puts together a rarely combined collection of global perspectives on conceptualisations of employability, and insights from research on little studied groups in Western and non-Western contexts (the UK, Portugal, Australia, the Indo-Pacific Region, Germany, Kenya and Kazakhstan). The papers, therefore, illustrate the need to widen our scope of understanding employability beyond current dominant perspectives. The broadening that is required in employability discourses is further needed in view of unprecedented disruption brought on higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. This suggests the need to rethink our conceptualisations of employability amidst uncertainty and potential disruption to the future of work.

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.

Purpose: Kenya leads East Africa in creative goods export and enjoys high internet penetration. Therefore, identifying pathways, missed opportunities for accelerating job creation and development in the sector and strategies for mitigating youth-related challenges are essential. This paper therefore aims to examine the effects of digital media and the cultural and creative industry (CCI) on youth employment and economic development. Design/methodology/approach: The document review and analysis data came from 45 scientific and 23 grey literature articles. While the lack of primary data is a study limitation, secondary data were drawn from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Statistics and the 2016-2022 entertainment and media outlook analysis. Microsoft Excel 2021 for Windows was used to analyze quantitative data and generate results. Findings: Since the CCI sector is characterized by limited financial opportunities, low youth participation in the labor force and weak policy frameworks, success in the industry requires key pathways. These include investment in digital-led innovations, developing innovative models, building partnerships with the private sector, strategic investment by government in the potential creative industry sub-sectors and identifying successful scaling-up models. Originality/value: Information gathered through this study is crucial to counter the youth unemployment challenge and strategy identification, which could be used in skills and capabilities development in the potential creative economy. Future researchers must explore how to apply the proposed creative capacity theoretical lens to inform research in the sector.

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

When teaching multilingual learners, it is critical for teachers to use instructional strategies that engage and nurture language and biliteracy skills. In this practice-based paper, we address how teachers can utilize translanguaging strategies to recognize and build multilingual practices while offering all learners opportunities to share their voices. The use of instructional practices that mirror the linguistic practices of multilingual learners promotes social justice and inclusivity in learning. We provide explanations and examples of translanguaging pedagogies, followed by instructional approaches that teachers can use to foster the language and literacy development of multilingual learners. Specific strategies and pedagogies that can be easily integrated into the classroom to promote language and literacy development are described. The appendix includes a shortlist of high-quality websites that support multilingual instruction and additional suggested readings for teachers seeking more information about how to integrate translanguaging into their classrooms.

Despite progress in enrolment in most countries, preschoolers still face challenges before joining grade one prompting a critical understanding of child experiences during the preschool-to-school transition. This paper compares preschool-to-school transition characteristics in Kenya and Hungary based on six recurrent concepts in the theories of preschool-to-school transition: "relationships," "pedagogy," "readiness," "transition activities," "power," and "policy" proposed by Boyle and colleagues in 2018. We followed narrative research to review the literature published in Google Scholar, ERIC, APA Info, Scopus, Science Direct, and Web of Science Databases from 2000 to 2022 based on the six themes. Despite the heavy emphasis on reducing the risk, the children undergo during the transition to school, there is more focus on the child than other stakeholders in preschool to school transition; family, peers, and community. Further, there is more discontinuity regarding relationships, pedagogy, readiness, and transition activities in Kenya than in Hungary. Therefore, children in Kenya, face more risks than in Hungary during the transition to school.

The majority of the Catholic schools under the leadership of their respective Congregations are aimed at transforming the surrounding society by conveying holistic education. The Evangelising Sisters of Mary is one of the Catholic Institutes running different schools among the less advantaged people in the society. This paper explains how the Missionary Congregation of the Evangelising Sisters of Mary carries out its education mission in regard to its charism in the church and society. It gives a brief historical background of their foundation and their founders as it expounds on how they manage the whole idea of running schools, financing the schools, maintain discipline, raising academic performance and handling challenges facing the management of the secondary schools under its care.

This reflection is drawn from a youth participatory action research (YPAR) collaboration set in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. It explores the ways youth co-researchers employed YPAR tools to both critique and uphold their limited educational opportunity structure. It also questions the limits of transformative methodologies that embolden young people to critique the structures that govern their lives, especially for stateless peoples whose survival depends on continued access to those same structures.

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.

Using a longitudinal data set, this paper examines to what extent school-entry (N = 553; mean age 6.32 years) early mathematics and literacy skills predict students' later achievement in a lower-middle-income country, Kenya. Controlling for socioeconomic status, intervention status, rural versus urban settings and parental literacy, the findings reveal that school-entry mathematics skills were significantly predictive of students' end of Grade 2 mathematics and reading achievement in English and Kiswahili. Likewise, school-entry English early literacy skills predicted students' end of Grade 2 mathematics and reading achievement in English and Kiswahili. This article extends earlier research on links between elements of school readiness and later achievement in high-income countries.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effect the five different generations and the key financial inclusion indicators of gender, education and location (rural–urban) in exacerbating disparities in financial inclusion in Kenya. This paper considers whether the five generational cohort groups in Kenya differ on the financial inclusion determinants and behaviour as predicted by common generational stereotypes. Design/methodology/approach: The authors applied a multinomial logistic regression approach to nationally representative household survey data from Kenya to estimate the effect that key financial inclusion indicators have on belonging to one of the five generations: Z, Y, X, baby boomers and traditionalists. Findings: The authors found significant links between all tested variables and financial inclusion. The authors found an access gap between Generations X and Y, with the latter being more prone to access and use financial services and products. These differences are compounded by gender and rurality. People in rural locations and women generally were found to have less access to financial services and products, thus causing significant exclusion of a large proportion of the population. Practical implications: The research has important implications for governments, financial institutions and educational providers, notably on targeted policies and programmes that strategically aim to eliminate disparities and promote greater financial inclusion, denoting the value of such variables as generational differences and gender inclusivity. Originality/value: This paper deepens the understanding of differences that can divide generations on financial inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Younger children in urban settings are predisposed to numerous risks, yet their 'voices' remain underrepresented in research making them unheard and invisible. The paucity of methods that encourage children's direct participation in studies from such settings, in effect, limits exploration of their ability to engage meaningfully in voicing their lived experiences and potentially informing protection interventions that target them. This paper draws from a study carried out in Kenya and South Africa, which in part sought children's perspectives on their lived experiences within their urban environment. Qualitative methods utilized in data collection included drawing, telling and conversations. The findings highlight risk exposures children contend with, which have an implication on child protection, safe spaces, mobility of children in urban areas, creating child-friendly neighbourhoods, policies and methodological approaches that intensify younger children's 'voices', in highlighting lived experiences.

The proliferation of low-fee private schools (LFPSs) in the global South is one manifestation of the marketization of education. LFPS literature on teachers emphasize exploitation, de-professionalization, and higher accountability, but teachers' own voice and representation has largely been absent. Based on interviews with 35 Kenyan LFPS and public-school teachers in one urban and one rural area, this paper partly fills this gap by investigating teachers' own experiences with marketization. The different teachers' needs and sense of professionalism showed great similarities, yet their type of employment shaped their work and agency. LFPSs alleviated public school (hereafter PS) overcrowding, but high pupil mobility in the education market affected teaching and learning in both LFPS and PSs negatively. LFPS teachers adopted strategies (teaching-to-the-test, deviating from pre-scripted lessons) to retain and attract pupils to keep their jobs.

This paper draws on ethnographic data to explore children's aspirations through education within the context of poverty and vulnerability in Siaya Kenya. Since several children reported eating onge (nothing) for breakfast, they hoped that education would enable them to eat and enjoy a good future. I demonstrate that aspirations as orientations towards desired futures have affective dimensions [Huijsmans, Ansell, and Froerer. 2021. "Introduction: Development, Young People, and the Social Production of Aspirations." "The European Journal of Development Research" 33: 1-15]. Consequently, in drawing from Deleuze [1988. "Spinoza: Practical Philosophy." San Francisco, CA: City Lights] that affect is a capacity to affect and to be affected, I argue that children's aspirations in Siaya are an assemblage of personal, relational and non-human factors of poverty, orphanhood, HIV/AIDS and other forms of marginalisation. This assemblage fuels a desire for alternative futures, and/or modifies their aspirations in complex ways. While children's desired futures might look impossible, their aspirations are also affective becomings [Salazar. 2017. "Speculative Fabulation: Researching Worlds to Come in Antarctica." In "Anthropologies and Futures: Researching Emerging and Uncertain Worlds," edited by Juan Salazar, Sarah Pink, Andrew Irving, and Johannes Sjöberg, 158. London: Bloomsbury], and schooling and education are sites for alternative futures, in Siaya's continuing present.

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.

Sub-Saharan Africa secondary school science curricula recognise language as the most important communication tool for learners' biology learning outcomes. Despite this prominent goal, learners' scientific literacy at secondary school appears to be insufficient to cope with classroom teaching and learning of biology. This paper presents a review of literature regarding the way English as the language of instruction and inquiry-based learning strategies affect biology learning in Sub-Saharan Africa secondary schools. The scope of the review included journal articles, books and book chapters published in the period from 2005 to 2020 on the English language of instruction in biology education in Sub-Saharan Africa. We established criteria for first article searches indexed in Scopus, African Journals Online, the Education Resources Information Center, Web of Science and Psych Info as recognised index systems for science education. We considered studies related to the understanding of learners' language backgrounds, language-in-education policy and pedagogical language strategies (practice) that mediate learning. In this case, 53 studies were identified after removing redundancies; 27 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria when screened by key words and abstract and reviewed for eligibility; and only nine were selected after evaluating the full texts. The review analysis suggests that there is a gap in the corpus of literature on what and how pedagogical language strategies should be utilised to support meaningful learning of biology in multilingual settings. Poor learners' academic achievement and conceptual engagement in biology at secondary school level were the main effects reported by the reviewed literature. Less is still known about the effect of the use of inquiry-based learning strategies on learners' conceptual engagement in multilingual biology classrooms. We recommend formulating a clear policy articulation on the use of bilingual instructions in teaching and learning of biology at the secondary school level; assessing teacher and learner performance over pedagogical language strategies; and evaluating the contribution of IBL strategies in addressing language barriers in biology learning for higher order thinking skills in Sub-Saharan Africa secondary schools.

This paper describes how critical realism was operationalized to provide an explanatory framework for a small-scale qualitative study in the field of teacher education in a sub-Saharan African context. Critical realism combines a realist ontology (there is something to find out about) with a relativistic epistemology (different people will come to know different things in different ways). An attraction of this approach is that it seeks to explain observed phenomena through processes of inference, thus providing the opportunity to make changes for the better in the situation under investigation. The stratified view of reality provided a framework for the analysis of data, which led to the identification of two underlying causal mechanisms and new understandings of teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa. The approach is not without challenges, including the potentially intrusive nature of the enquiry and the positioning of the researchers. Despite these challenges, the evidence from this study is that the approach has the potential to provide new insights which have informed on-going international development projects in teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background/Context: Despite substantial evidence documenting the benefits of community involvement in the decisions that impact their lives, much humanitarian action in settings of displacement continues to be driven by the interests and funding streams of donors and international agencies. These dynamics particularly marginalize youth, who fall between interventions designed for children and opportunities for voice and agency that are reserved for adults. As youth-centered approaches have proliferated across diverse fields, pointing to the important insights gleaned from positioning young people as experts on their own lives, we rarely have a sense of how young people were included in the research or planning processes carried out, or the extent to which these processes reflect issues that local youth populations consider meaningful and relevant to their everyday lives. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) aims to redress the limitations of traditional approaches, recognizing youth as co-researchers with the agency to shape the inquiry process, positioning them as both knowledge producers and agents of social justice beyond the research context. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Youth agency is central to YPAR, but interpretations and enactments of this agency are often implicitly bounded by nation-state constructs of legality and citizenship. How do we apply this approach in contexts where youth populations lack legal citizenship status and experience habitual threats to spatial movement, freedom of expression, and social belonging? In this paper we explore how youth locate openings to enact the agency that YPAR assumes of them, and the dilemmas that emerge as they aspire to address local challenges and contribute to the common good in contexts of forced displacement. Research Design: We examine these questions in the context of YPAR collaborations we carried out with displaced youth living in refugee camps and urban settlements in three country contexts--Burundi, Jordan, and Kenya. We approached YPAR collaborations with distinct research methods, positionalities, timelines, and varying levels of resources and institutional support. In each case, granting youth agency as co-researchers, we implicitly and explicitly raised questions about how young people come to understand the limits to their rights and agency, when forcibly displaced by conflict. Conclusions/Recommendations: Across the three collaborations detailed in this text, we underscore the ways that YPAR became a novel, and at times a radical, form of democratic citizenship education for a youth population traditionally positioned as passive recipients of both school curriculum and humanitarian aid. Notwithstanding significant challenges, we point to ways that this approach "slowly by slowly" created openings for young people to make claims on their rights and organize towards changes. It underscores the empowering potential of developing young people's civic capacity and instilling their rights to understand and interact with their communities in exile.