Invitation to submit a proposal and abstract for a paper in the 2011 Special Issue of Distance Education

Theme: Distance Education: A tool for empowerment and development in Africa

Guest Editors

Neil Butcher – South African Institute for Distance Education
Colin Latchem – Open learning consultant, Australia
Fred Simiyu Barasa – Executive Director, African Council for Distance Education
Lisbeth Levey – Consultant on ICT and Higher Education in Africa

Rationale for this Special Issue

Distance Education, the journal of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia, Inc., has a strong international orientation and a tradition of regionally-focused and themed Special Issues.  The Editors have been contracted to produce a Special Issue, Volume 32/2 2011 on the ways in which distance education and associated uses of media and online learning  are, and can be, used as tools for empowerment and development in Africa.

It is timely to provide a balanced and comprehensive series of articles on the developments that are extending and enhancing educational opportunity in African schools, tertiary institutions, and communities. This Special Issue will make a unique and important contribution to the international literature of distance education by demonstrating that, despite infrastructural, financial and other constraints, distance education and innovative uses of technology can be used to empower a whole range of learners in the most unlikely locations. The articles will go behind the rhetoric and the stereotypes to assess the extent to which distance education initiatives and efforts to use technology in education are having a real impact on learners and the broader communities of which they are part. Importantly, they will also demonstrate that African experiences – positive and negative – have global relevance.

Click here to download the full invitation

Topics for this Special Issue

Many papers in today’s distance education journals are concerned with digital technology tools and application. While these are important, we are looking for a range of papers that:

• Investigate and report on the design, development, application and evaluation of distance education systems, methods and applications of technology/media.

• Enquire into issues of leadership and management, cultural appropriateness in teaching, training, learning and assessment, change management, collaboration, staff development, quality assurance and accreditation.

• Explore open, distance, online and blended learning for basic, primary and secondary schooling and non-formal adult and community education in rural, remote and disadvantaged communities, as well as opening up opportunities for off-campus studies in technical and vocational education and training as well as higher education.

The Editors will therefore be seeking a balance of papers: research and case studies of work in open, distance and dual-mode universities, e-learning and blended learning, distance education for the training/retraining of teachers, health workers, etc., ICT/satellite-based schooling systems, African participation in the Virtual University of the Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC) initiative or the Commonwealth of Learning COL-RIM quality assurance initiative, telecentres, SchoolNets, etc.

Structure of the Special Issue

The Special Issue will comprise:

• An Editorial summarizing how distance and online learning are, and can be, used for empowerment and development across African society.

• Seven 6-7,000-word research articles on distance education in formal and non-formal education.

• Five 2-3000 word colloquiums on key issues in African distance education.

Presentation and writing style

The Special Issue is intended to identify and analyze the critical issues in African distance education,  summarize the lessons learned and suggest the most appropriate approaches in the various contexts. The papers therefore need to:

• provide new, original and valuable contributions to the field of distance education.

• be written in a way that will stimulate and inform, not only distance educators or other academics, but policy-makers, planners, managers and practitioners in all sectors of education or training.

• have a strong narrative that will engaged the readers and bring clarity, focus and structure to the developments and issues.

• include illuminating case studies of successful policies, procedures and practices, and equally importantly, report and comment on failures, shortcomings and other disappointments.

• familiarize the readers with the circumstances prevailing in Africa and how these may differ from those in other countries, particularly in the industrialized nations.

• have academic integrity and honesty. We are anxious to avoid exaggerated claims or PR statements. Where policies and procedures have not worked, this should be admitted to (failure is a stepping stone to success not a dead end), but please avoid any libellous/defamatory statements.

The papers do not need to include the all-too common introductory statements about globalization, the speed of change due to the Internet, the benefits of distance education and technology and so on. These points will be well known to the readers of Distance Education.

Submitting your proposal

Please submit your proposal by July 31, 2010 to Neil Butcher [neilshel@icon.co.za].

• Proposals should not exceed one A4 page

• Indicate whether your paper is to be a 6-7,000 word research report or a 2-3,000 colloquium.

• State the name(s) of the author(s) and the institutional affiliation(s).

• Explain the purpose, focus and scope of the paper.

• List other publications by the author (s).

Authors will be advised of the outcomes by August 31. First drafts of the complete papers will be required by October 24, 2010 and completed manuscripts by January 23, 2011.

Guest editors

Neil Butcher
Neil Butcher is based in South Africa, from where he provides policy and technical advice and support to a range of national and international clients regarding educational planning, uses of educational technology and distance education, both as a full-time employee at the South African Institute for Distance Education (from 1993 to 2001) and Director of Neil Butcher & Associates. He is currently working as an OER Strategist with SAIDE on its new OER Africa Initiative, which is funded by the Hewlett Foundation and is managing the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa’s Educational Technology Initiative. He is also leading the development of the national education portal for the South African Department of Education (see www.thutong.org.za).

Colin Latchem
Colin Latchem formerly held the position of Head of the Teaching Learning Group at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. He is a past President of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia. Now retired from full-time university work, he is a consultant, researcher, writer and speaker on open and distance learning. His publications include Leadership for 21st Century Learning, published by Kogan Page, which received the US University Continuing Education Association Charles A. Wedemeyer Award for best book of the year on distance education and Distance and Blended Learning in Asia, co-authored with Professor Insung Jung, which is receiving international acclaim. He is Asia-Pacific Corresponding Editor of The British Journal of Educational Technology and serves on the editorial boards of a number of prominent international journals in ODL including Distance Education.

Fred Simiyu Barasa
Fred Simiyu Barasa is the founding Executive Director of the African Council for Distance Education. A Kenyan, he holds a PhD in Education from the University of Natal. He was founding Director of the College of Distance Education at Egerton University, where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Education and Human Resources and Head of Educational Foundations Department. At the African Virtual University, he was Manager for Academic Program Development and Management. He has spearheaded a continental Teacher Education Initiative and Consortium in ten African countries funded by the African Development Bank. He is the Chief Editor of the African Journal of Distance Education, and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Education (an accredited Journal published by the University of Kwazulu Natal) and Journal of Education and Sciences (a publication of Jimma University in Ethiopia).

Lisbeth Levey
Lisbeth Levey is a senior advisor to the Hewlett Foundation.  She has worked extensively on improving information access and enhancing the dissemination of African information through ICT. Liz was the facilitator of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA) from March 2002 until March 2006. While at PHEA, she co-authored two case study monographs — Higher Education in Tanzania and Higher Education in Mozambique. She was also responsible for the start-up of the PHEA bandwidth consortium for African universities. In 2001, during her last year in Nairobi, Liz managed the production of Rowing Upstream: Snapshots of Pioneers of the Information Age in Africa, co-authored the chapter on universities, and co-edited the volume. Rowing Upstream captures the stories—visually and in words—of some of the earliest users of ICT on the continent.

Distance Education
Distance Education  is the  ISI/SSCI-listed official journal of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia Inc. (ODLAA). It is published by Taylor & Francis.
It is a peer-reviewed international journal which publishes research and scholarly material in the fields of distance, open and flexible education. Distance Education was one of the first journals published to focus exclusively on this area of educational practice and today it remains a primary source of original and scholarly work in the field for practitioners, teachers and students.
See also:  http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/01587919.html)