NEW DIRECTIONS IN POST-COVID 19 HIGHER EDUCATION TEACHING AND LEARNING IN AFRICA

CALL FOR PAPERS

TITLE:  NEW DIRECTIONS IN POST-COVID 19 HIGHER EDUCATION TEACHING AND LEARNING IN AFRICA

 VENUE: UNIVERSITY OF THE WITSWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

DATE:  3-5 May 2023

The outbreak of COVID-19 presents a remarkable and memorable change in Africa’s higher education landscape. This change engenders questions about ‘what works’ in the delivery of education services, especially in areas of teaching and learning across Africa’s universities and colleges amid COVID-19 and about the sustainability of the operationalization and implementation of the values behind this educational change in the post-pandemic era in Africa. It raises fresh concerns about the sustainability of the coping strategies and practices deploy during COVID-19 to ensure the continuity of teaching and learning in higher education. There was a massive shift from the usual conventional teaching and learning methods to a virtual delivery of teaching and learning with the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 in Africa. This change in teaching and learning platforms, made many African universities and other higher institutions of learning to resort to digital technology platforms such as Zoom, Skype, Google online teaching classrooms, among others to provide teaching services to learners. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused huge disruptions and changes to Africa’s educational system, compelling stakeholders in the sector, including university academics to rethink their teaching approaches, by promoting teaching and learning that go beyond the on-campus routine of physical delivery of lectures to students.

One of the consequences of the pandemic is the inability to converge in a class to deliver teaching, due to the COVID-19 social distancing safety protocol. Teachers’ ability to deliver effective teaching, with a special focus on the development of contexts, is met with new problems relating to the fabrication of new educational tactics and approaches, the rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for various student organizations, and the budding opportunities related to the need for 21st-century digitalization learning (DL) skills and approaches. The new problems imposed by the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 trigger demands for an informal, comfortable, and self-designed spaces that spread beyond conventional formal classrooms where students normally receive lectures (Valtonen et al., 2020). These flexible and open digital learning environments place more value on interactive pedagogical approaches, ensuring teaching presence and student interactions during class sessions. The sustainability of the changes in teaching and learning as a result of proactive response against the negative impact of COVID-19 on education in Africa is highly imperative as the success lies in the capacity of African universities or higher education to continue with the lifelong digital learning approach, which promotes flexibility, openness and lifelong self-designed learning opportunities, where learners can take initiative and demonstrate independence in learning. Existing literature on the sustainability of the use of online and digitalized teaching approach that was made possible by sudden outbreak of COVID-19 to impact learning in Africa’s higher institutions of learning is currently speckled and gaps in this research area are difficult to categorize, explain, and support.

While flexible and digitalized teaching methods are progressively adopted by Africa’s higher institutions of learning, access remained problematic in the face of harsh realities of the digital divide among learners and rural-urban dichotomy. African universities and institutions of higher learning, which are struggling with access and opportunities for digital online learning, should strengthen their capacity to create a clear route for online and distance teaching (Lockee, 2021). Given this background and related opportunities for multi-disciplinary research, this call for papers, is aimed at sharing knowledge on the aftermath impact of COVID-19 on teaching and learning in higher education in Africa. It specifically examines the sustainability of the ‘new normal’ approaches (such as digitalized teaching modes) in African universities and institutions of learning. The call is, therefore, a respond to this niche interest, while unambiguously determined to maintain the multiplicity of research methodologies responding to the new challenges imposed on the education sector by COVID-19 in post-pandemic Africa. Themes that will be considered include, but not strictly limited to the following core areas.

• The sustainability of digitalized teaching approaches in African universities or higher education
• Integrative and interactive teaching and Learning theories and Practices amid COVID-19 and post-pandemic period
• Government response to teaching and learning processes during and post-COVID-19 pandemic
• Self-designed digitalized teaching and learning methods and leaners performance amid COVID-19
• Comparative analysis of conventional and digitalized teaching and learning approaches
• Equality, diversity, and participation in a digitalized teaching and learning platforms in higher education
• Teachers capacity, digitalize teaching skills, and accessibility to internet-based teaching and learning platforms
• Re-thinking the models of teaching in Africa’s higher education in post-pandemic era
• Quality assurance in a digitalized teaching and learning approaches
• The utility of educational technology in Africa’s higher education
• The principles of social justice and Ubuntu to underpin teacher education in Africa
• Learner support in the face of new challenges in post-pandemic era
• Digital Media for online teaching and learning
• The use of technology to present opportunities to promote innovation and creativity in higher education
• Has Covid-19 really moved education to 4IR where learning will be mostly digital, with a few occasions of face-to-face engagements?
• The integration of technology into the teaching and learning and students' performance and experience.
• The need to train the next generation in emerging digital competencies and to be fluent in employing technology responsibly. 

Prospective Presenters are expected to send a maximum abstract of 300 words with a short bio of 100 words to: glotanresearchservices@gmail.com, stating the appropriate subthemes that best suit their submission. Upon acceptance of abstracts, presenters are expected to send 10 page slides and a well-researched manuscript of between 6,000 and 8,000 words.

Post Conference Opportunity

Authors whose papers were presented at the conference or who were unable to attend for various reasons, have the option of submitting their corrected papers for peer review and publishing in any of the four journals listed below or in an edited book coordinated by Prof. Pfano Mashau

•           African Renaissance

•           Journal of African Affairs

•           Journal of African Union Studies

•           AYIKA: Journal of Environment and Politics in Africa

•           Africa and Global Issues Quarterly

Prospective Presenters are expected to send a maximum abstract of 300 words with a short bio of 100 words to: glotanresearchservices@gmail.com, stating the appropriate subthemes that best suit their submission. Upon acceptance of abstracts, presenters are expected to send 10 page slides and a well-researched manuscript of between 6,000 and 8,000 words.

Crucial Dates

16th  March 2023: Submission of Abstracts due.

23rd March  2023: Decision on abstracts   announced.

28th  April 2023: Full Papers are submitted.

1-3 May 2023: Registration for the Conference.

3-5 May 2023: Conference.

Conference Fees:

 Participants: R5000

Conference Conveners

Professor Pfano Mashau, University of KwaZulu-Natal, School Management &Entrepreneurship, South Africa Dr Mudau T.J. , University of Venda, Head Institute of Gender & Youth Studies, South Africa

Professor Kayode Eesuola, University of Lagos, Institute of African & Diaspora Studies, Nigeria Professor Dayo Akinbobola, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Department of Economics, Nigeria Professor Phemelo Marumo, North West University, School of Philosophy, South Africa

For further details visit: http://www.glotanresearchservices.com /