Call for Papers for a Special Issue

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 10:44:55 -0800

Call for Papers

Title

Education Research for Open and Distance Learning: Engaging with communities distant and different from the mainstream

The Premise

Everyone has a right to education. But education has different meanings and different purposes for different individuals and for different communities, so we ask, how do educators understand what education is wanted or needed by communities or cultures that are different and distant from their own? Many of these communities could most effectively be reached by Open and Distance Learning (ODL) but how do we explore what form of ODL would be most appropriate for a given context and community?

Clearly the answer is educational research. However, the tools and techniques of educational research seem to be inherited from the culture of pre-digital face-to-face universities in urban settings, and are potentially unsuited to the disadvantaged and disenfranchised communities that could be reached by established and innovative forms of open and distance learning were their cultures and conditions better understood (Traxler & Smith. 2020)

Existing methods of educational research often do not take into account barriers of distance, sparsity, infrastructure, geography, climate or of differences of values, language, livelihoods, culture or socio-economic status.

This is however not just a concern about exotic and indigenous communities at the fringes of so-called ‘developed’ societies, but all those minorities separated from their national mainstream by class, stigma, lifestyle, generation, livelihood, location, ethnicity or disability. These could too be reached by ODL. This would however be improved with more appropriate research tools and techniques, enabling these communities to articulate their needs, aspirations and situations more effectively.

The communities in questions are any that for whatever reasons are distant and different from the literate, connected, urban norm and mainstream. For these communities, there can be issues of equity and empowerment as well as externally imposed ideas of learning and development. Research embraces not only the tools and techniques of research but also its ethics, funding, governance, management and staffing.

Many of these issues have not been explored, addressed or published in any depth nor has their relevance to the ODL research community been highlighted.

The Call

The editors of this special edition are keen to receive contributions on

novel research tools and techniques especially those appropriate or adapted to open and distance learning systems, or relevant to communities socially, geographically, economically or politically marginal
ideas and experiences appropriate to innovation in research ethics, governance and funding related to conducting research in or with these communities
policy and strategy that might promote educational research appropriate to these individuals and communities
emerging research technologies, including Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D), that might support this kind of research
contributions from other disciplines, for example anthropology, market research or international development, or sub-disciplines such as HCI4D, m4d, or the sociology of mobilities that might discuss research tools and techniques that might adapt

We are keen to see conceptual and speculative contributions alongside case studies, literature reviews, empirical studies, impact studies and policy proposals.

Submission Process (Important):

To submit papers for the special issue, please register at the journal site and submit your paper choosing the option Special Issue (SPI) as the Journal Section. Please write the specific section of the Journal to which your submission is more suitable in the box for Comments to the Editor. All submissions to the Special Issue will be double blind peer reviewed as per the policy of the Journal.

Submissions should be received on or before June 30, 2024, for consideration for publication in the special issue in November 2024.

Contact details of Special Issue Editor:

For enquiries related to the special issue write to:

Professor John Traxler

John.traxler@wlv.ac.uk

Reference:

Traxler, J., & Smith, M. (2020). Data for Development: Shifting Research Methodologies for Covid-19. Journal of Learning for Development, 7(3), 306–325. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v7i3.463