Teacher Education through Flexible Learning in Africa (TETFLE)

Teacher Education through Flexible Learning in Africa and Other Developing Contexts (TETFLE) Open Journal

Call for papers for a special issue

Editors of the special issue

 Guest Editors:

Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand

Dr Erasmos Charamba

Dr Peter Aloka

Prof Judah P Makonye

Theme: Inclusive Classrooms for Epistemic Access: Opportunities and Challenges for the present-day practitioner

Rationale and Background:

 ‘Education is a human right,’ UN Summit Adviser says, urging action to tackle ‘crisis of access, learning and relevance’ adding that ‘unless we act now, the 2030 Agenda will become an epitaph for a world that might have been’ (United Nations, 2023). Education plays a fundamental role in the lives of many families, communities and nations.  Globally, people have implausible confidence in the power of education to build and transform lives (World Bank, 2018) and this has led to an increasing demand for quality education. For instance, education is frequently regarded as a means for fighting against social ills, such as poverty, exclusion in its different forms and shapes, natural disasters, social inequality, unemployment and employability. Whilst advancement has been made with regard to the 2030 education targets set by the United Nations, sustained efforts are needed to address persistent challenges and guaranty that quality education is accessible to all, leaving no one behind.

Economic constraints, coupled with issues of learning outcomes and increased dropout rates, persevere in marginalised areas, highlighting the need for continued universal commitment to guaranteeing inclusive and equitable education for all. Other factors such as the learning environment, teacher and teaching, unequally distributed educational resources, crumbling infrastructure, teacher shortages, a lack of educational progress, and natural disasters affect the provision of quality education. Without educational transformation, many would not achieve their career potential and would not succeed in becoming the citizens they can be in this globalized world. With an increase in intra- and inter-national movement of people due to various reasons, institutions globally are enrolling large numbers of linguistically and culturally diverse students (Maringe, 2013), necessitating the need for ending the English monolingualism by adopting multilingual pedagogy for effective learning, transformation and decolonization.

As education becomes more widely available and more internationalised (Maringe, 2013), the acceptance of multilingualism and multiculturalism opens up windows of opportunity for multilingual students to understand the universe by employing all linguistic resources at their disposal. The challenge, however, is teacher preparedness as most are not fully equipped to handle these multilingual classes (GEM, 2016).

Another obstacle to effective education came at the end of 2019 through the emergence of COVID-19, an infectious disease spread through human-to-human transmission. This resulted in the suspension of contact classes as institutions tried to contain the widespread of the virus. Institutions were thus left with only one option: distance learning. Distance education has been used for decades to upgrade teachers’ skills (Öçal, Halmatov & Ata, 2021) and its methods such as Print-based Distance Education; Audio-based Distance Education; Televisually-based Distance Education; and Multimedia-based Distance Learning (Burns, 2011) are now used by HEI’s for initial teacher training, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This special edition intends to address opportunities and challenges created by the ever-increasing diverse nature of our 21^st century classrooms as institutions worldwide continue to enroll large numbers of diverse students. How do teacher trainers prepare teachers to meet these challenges as they work towards attaining the 2030 education targets and beyond?

Sub-themes

1. Innovative practices for distance education and teacher training.
2. Preparing teachers to accommodate Indigenous languages, multilingual deaf communities, and intercultural competence  
3. Teacher buoyancy in managing learners in diverse classrooms.
4. Enhancing self-directed learning in teacher training.
5. Effectiveness of In-service Teacher Training (INSET) in harnessing the opportunities and challenges presented in today’s classrooms.
6. Best practices for leveraging technology and digital platforms to facilitate teacher training in distance education.
7. In-service Teacher Training (INSET) as a strategy to address complex global challenges such as student diversity and social inequality in education.
8. Preparing teachers for curriculum practices and strategies that promote sustained learning.
9. Challenges and opportunities of teaching in multilingual and multicultural teacher education contexts.

Types of manuscripts sought

The Special Issue seeks contributions that are stimulating, address challenging difficulties and possible solutions, and are well researched, showcasing innovative teaching and learning practices with evidence of results (e.g. preliminary). It is also interested in articles that focus on moving from practice to theory – a gap in the field of distance education.

Proposal for manuscripts

Send a proposal for a manuscript to tetflemanager@up.ac.za 

The proposal should include:

1. The title
2. A brief abstract (maximum word count of 300 words, including between four and six keywords): The abstract should focus on the main content of the research (rationale, conceptual or theoretical framework, design and methodology, findings and conclusion). Authors are also requested to visit the TETFLE website for examples of article abstracts.
3. The author’s name(s), affiliation(s) and contact details

The closing date for the submission of proposals is 15 February 2024. Authors will be given feedback on their proposals within two weeks of submission.

Manuscript submission instructions

If an abstract is accepted, manuscripts for this Special Issue must be submitted through the TETFLE online submission system.

Carefully review the Author Guidelines and Submission Preparation Checklist and prepare your manuscript accordingly.

Information about the peer review process and criteria is also available at https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/tetfle/peer-review-process.

Planned publication date

Timeline:  

Submission of abstracts call opens

15 January 2024

Closing date of abstract submission

4 March 2024

Feedback on submitted abstracts

Latest 14 March 2024

Manuscript submission closing date

29 April 2024

Accepted manuscripts will be published

October 2024

References

Burns, M (2011). Distance Education for Teacher Training: Modes, Models, and Methods. Education Development Center, Inc. Washington, DC.

GEM (2016).  ‘If you don’t understand how can you learn?’, Global  Education Monitoring Report, 2016. Paper 24, UNESCO, Paris

Maringe, F., (2013).  Globalization and internationalization in higher education:  Theoretical, strategic and management perspectives, Bloomsbury Academic, London.

Öçal, T., Halmatov, M. & Ata, S. (2021). Distance education in COVID-19 pandemic: An evaluation of parent’s, child’s and teacher’s competences. Educ Inf Technol 26, 6901–6921.

United Nations (2023). The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023: Special Edition— A High-level Event Call to Action. UN Headquarters, New York.

World Bank. (2018). World Development Report. Learning to realise education’s promise. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.