Autumn School on Educational Research Methodologies
in African Contexts
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, April 2016
Port Elizabeth, April 2016 – The East and South African-German Centre for Educational Research Methodologies and Management (CERM-ESA) staged the first intensive learning phase for its Master’s and PhD scholarship holders and for associated students who work on CERM-ESA related topics. 25 postgraduate students from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa engaged themselves with research paradigms and theoretical frameworks, qualitative and quantitative methodologies and immersed deeply into issues of ethics, participatory and mixed-method approaches in educational settings. Not only the students benefited from the courses and discussions: 15 members of the CERM-ESA Faculty – staff members of Moi University School of Education, NMMU, Oldenburg University, Uganda Management Institute and University of Dar es Salaam – who are supervisors of the CERM-ESA scholarship holders, actively participated in the courses. Reflecting on the two weeks at NMMU, one Moi University supervisor said: “The inputs and discussions helped us to better assist and supervise our students and we learned a lot about new and creative methodologies that we have never applied before.”
For the eight Kenyan scholarship holders on Master’s level, the Autumn School was only the start: they are enrolled in the Master’s in Education / Research programme at NMMU and are staying for 3 months in Port Elizabeth to work with their supervisors. Various courses are offered to them during this period, for instance an intensive course on internationally comparative educational research methodologies. “This is an excellent opportunity for us to engage with research and not only learn about it, but apply it in our own projects. We are working very hard and our dream is to come to Germany next year to present our findings at a research conference” Ezekiel Chemwor says, who is one of the Kenyan students in Port Elizabeth.
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