Researching education for out-of-school children

Ross Woods, 2024

The question came up: “What are the best research questions relevant to implementing e-learning for out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa?”

The simple answers

The simplest way to make effective progress is to locate a segment of the population with a high incentive to learn and a low disincentives, and then run a small pilot program as action research in a specific topic (e.g. basic literacy). In other words, what could you do now that has the highest probability of success? It is quite possible to use digital tools to provide e-learning for out-of-school children in some countries and demographics in sub-Saharan Africa if you plan carefully, start small, and review often.

Another option is to evaluate and compare existing programs in similar countries in order to identify factors causing success and failure. No program will be perfectly successful and a few will probably be complete failures. You’d need some way to define success and failure, which is quite tricky. You will almost certainly find that some factors could not have been foreseen at program planning stage.

If the question is “Why don’t kids attend school?” then a research plan is not that difficult. You need to select one or more demographics and do qualitative interviews with open questions. Then analyze your answers with a grounded theory approach. This will probably be the size of a PhD dissertation, but the topic is only suitable for a PhD if very little is known about why country X (or similar countries) have such a high number of out-of-school children.

Three problems to avoid

Avoid these three particular problems in your research. First, don't use your ideals and dreams to plan a hypothetical program. Research is about what happens in reality; it means demonstrating something that actually works. Second, work toward a solution; don’t just describe the problem. It is better to build a fence at the top of the cliff than to describe in detail how people fall off. Fore examp;e, you could collect lots of statistics on out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa, but nobody would be better off. Third, set specific goals and narrow your topic. For example, “providing e-learning” is very broad. If you are examining national systems of education, limit your research to no more than one or two countries, or perhaps only one or two provinces. If you are looking at local education, limit yourself to one or two demographic groups.

General factors

1. What kind of research are you actually planning to do? A masters thesis, and doctoral dissertation, a government report, some journal articles, or something else? The topic is very good, but too broad for a PhD dissertation. Depending on your goals, it could take more than a decade of research and implementation work to establish a good digital learning program.
2. Have you considered demographic and sociological factors? City people, fringe-dwellers, and rural people can be very different. The kids are actually the same, but the parents and community leaders are very different in their expectations and demands. What about ethnic loyalties and rivalries?

Legal and political factors

1. Will you work from the bottom up, with small, local programs? Or will you work top-down by influencing government policy?
2. What are the legal implications? For example:
1. Some countries might require compliance with their government’s curricula.
2. Is that kind of education even legal in those places, and if so, what are you allowed to do? What is illegal? What is not quite legal but quite permissible?
3. Is the government and government policy stable? (Some countries have stable governments, but others do not.)

Change management

1. What do you expect of change?
• Some changes can be almost immediate.
• Some changes can take 3-5 years or perhaps longer.
• Some changes take a full generation to implement.
2. Is elementary school education the best place to start? What about vocational education and small business development that increases personal income?
3. What do people aspire to? Would they rather be government bureaucrats, employees in a large company, subsistence farmers, or self-employed?
4. What do they expect of education? A job, prestige, emigrate to a richer country? In one place, people expected education providers to pay them to study. Some places expect only rote memory.
5. What incentives do people have to get education?
6. What disincentives do people have to get education?
7. Who do those incentives and disincentives apply to: parents, children, local community leaders, government, others? Consider the following views:
• “Education of girls and disabled children is a waste of time and money.”
• “We don’t want the lower social classes to be educated.” (Don’t forget that some parts of Africa still have slaves.)
• Education is not a good use of children’s time. “Only physical work is real work.” “We need kids to help earn money.” “They help on the farm. If they spend time in school, what will we eat?” “The girls help me cook.”
8. You might find that people are very receptive at first, but become less supportive when their enthusiasm wanes. What would you do then?

Cultural factors

Cultural factors are a potential minefield.

1. What factors make people more conservative (change resistant) or more progressive (change receptive)?
2. The politics of control are potentially quite messy. In some places, people with power might prefer that their kids be uneducated rather than be influenced by people they do not trust. Or they might try to control you.
3. In some places, local religious leaders will be supportive and eager. In other places, they might think of you as a rival or enemy.
4. Are there systems of local indigenous education with which you would compete? In that context, what is modern education and what is traditional education?
5. How do worldview factors affect education?
6. How will it fit into family activities?
7. What if questions of money come up?
8. What if they are fatalistic and believe change is either bad or impossible?
9. Do cultural beliefs change between generations?
10. What if questions of money come up?

Educational factors

1. How will you assess their current state of learning and educational needs?
2. What level of education would you do research in? Your question implies that you are most interested in elementary school education or informal education. What about vocational education and small business development that increases personal income?
3. You asked about e-learning. How good is Internet coverage in the locations you want to reach? Is bandwidth good enough for video content?
4. What is the prevailing standard of computer literacy in the communities you want to reach? How does it compare to your educational goals?
5. In which places are digital tools affordable and available? Which kinds of digital tools?
6. How will classes work? Woyld you have an individualized or a cohort approach? What are your expectations of interactions with students?
7. What personnel will you need? What training will they need? What about training teachers? What other kinds of personnel?
8. If you run a very good program, what can your students go on to do? Are there schools for them to continue education?
9. How will you assess student learning, even if it is only informal monitoring?
10. What about language? Sub-Saharan Africa has many widely-spoken languages. Choice of language is political when governments push the national language or the language of a local elite.
1. Will you be working in students’ first language or a second (or third) language?
2. Consider the implications for teaching literacy, language arts, etc.
3. What are the implications for continuing study?