Strengthening Africa’s Contributions to Child Development Research: Introduction

Toward a globally inclusive knowledge base on adolescent development: A charge to the Majority World and a plea for epistemic and paradigmatic pluralism

Ongoing internal dialog on the limitations of Euro-American developmental science has opened up space to explore how best to work toward a knowledge base that is adequately representative of the values, cultures, epistemic traditions, and lived experiences of peoples, nations, and regions around the world. So far, recommendations for the advancement of a global developmental science have focused preponderantly on (1) methodological considerations and (2) an architecture to support cross-disciplinary international collaborative inquiry and/or enhance research capacity building for Majority World scholars and institutions. In this commentary, instead of focusing on specific contributions to the Special Issue, I make a case for an explicit commitment to field-building within Majority World contexts as the primary gap-closing path toward the cultivation of a global developmental science knowledge base. I begin with a worldwide population analysis to demonstrate the magnitude of geopolitical, eco-cultural, and epistemic imbalances inherent in the shaping of Euro-American developmental science. In tandem with the Special Issue's central theme, I draw on scholarship from the fields of history, sociology, and political economy to link decolonial theory to the advancement of a global developmental science. Finally, I explore ways in which exemplary research establishments already engaged in prolific inquiry and research training may be ideal candidates to support field-building and help to advance multidisciplinary inquiry within an ethos of epistemic and methodological pluralism.

International research collaboration: is Africa different? A cross-country panel data analysis

International research collaboration (IRC) has been relevant for the development of national scientific systems. In Africa, given the limited resources devoted to research and development (R&D) activities and the crucial role that scientific knowledge generated through research activities can have in socioeconomic development, IRC may be an opportunity to strengthen scientific capabilities. While geographical, economic, political/governance, cultural, intellectual and excellence distance hampers IRC in other regions, we argue that economic and excellence distances actuate differently in Africa. We explored the impact of the variables above in addition to the information and communication technologies (ICTs), and social distances on the IRC of these countries. Using panel data for 54 African economies, our results show that economic distance fosters IRC while governance and excellence distances are non-significant. Past collaborations (one out of two proxies for social distance) and speaking the same language have the highest effect on IRC, and ICTs distance the lowest. The results have implications for science policy in Africa. For instance, we argue that science policies need to be adapted to each environment as the scientific landscape in each country is unique.

No data, no problem, no action: parenting programs in low-income countries. Making the social-emotional outcomes more visible

BACKGROUND

Parenting programs are delivered in many low income countries in an effort to address the effects of insufficient cognitive stimulation, major social-emotional risk factors related to inadequate caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness, maternal depression, violence and biological risk factors. However, the outcomes of these programs are often untested because of methodological limitations in the existing evaluation tools available for cross-cultural research, and especially those related to social-emotional development and functioning.

METHOD

This study takes an approach that involves organizing data from focus groups collected following caregiver participation in a parenting program, Learning Through Play (LTP) delivered in 11 low income countries. The LTP program has as its aim to increase parent knowledge and influence parental practice regarding the essential components of early development of children aged birth to 6 years. The purpose of systematically organizing focus group data was to illustrate a means by which program developers worldwide can discuss outcomes of program participation, particularly in social-emotional domains that have been overlooked in past studies on parenting programs.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

The findings from this study suggest that qualitative outcome data can be organized to make the social-emotional outcomes of participation in parenting programs more visible.

Some growth points in African child development research

We reflect on ways in which research presented in earlier chapters responds to challenges of generating an African child development field and identify additional issues calling for the field's attention. The chapters collectively display a variety of African contexts and reflexive evidence of the authors' African cultural roots. Connecting research with African audiences demands cooperative communication between educational practitioners and parents with low literacy, and cross-sector communication among professionals. Intracultural exploration of factors influencing the pattern of human development has begun to document the potential of indigenous African cultures as a fund of resources for enhancing child development. Priority topics for future African developmental research include multilingualism, musical performance, socially distributed caregiving, and the relation between adolescence and economic activity. Integration of multiple disciplines in the application of research-based principles to service delivery in the fields of community-based (re)habilitation and early childhood care and education calls for researcher collaboration with practitioners.

Student motivation for learning in Ghana: Relationships with caregivers’ values toward education, attendance, and academic achievement

This study examined the role that Ghanaian caregivers’ values toward education play in shaping students’ intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation for learning, and the ways these values and motivational orientations predict school attendance and achievement. Study participants included 88 students (M = 11.63 years; 48% female) from two primary schools in peri-urban Ghana and their 68 caregivers (M = 40.02 years; 60% female). Results revealed that caregivers’ perception of education as valuable was related to more intrinsically oriented profiles of motivation and higher attendance in students. Contrary to research results from Western contexts, students whose motivation was more extrinsically oriented attended school significantly more often than their intrinsically motivated peers. Finally, although attendance positively predicted academic achievement, neither caregiver values nor student motivational profiles were directly related to achievement. These findings suggest that caregivers’ values may have important implications for students’ academic thoughts and behaviours, and may be a central target for school staff aiming to improve student outcomes. These results also highlight the need for better understanding of motivational processes―both in terms of socialization and academic outcomes―in under-represented contexts where cultural values around education differ.

Educational psychology and resilience in developing contexts: A rejoinder to Toland and Carrigan (2011)

If educational psychologists wish to make a meaningful difference as practitioners, both to the children they work with and the ecologies these children come from, then, knowledge and application of resilience theory is crucial. Toland and Carrigan (2011) underscore this relationship in their 2011 article in this Journal. In our contribution below, we extend their assertion by urging greater attention to the interactive processes which underpin resilience and, more particularly, to how proximal, face-to-face transactions embedded in mesosystems and microsystems and nuanced by the distal, macrosystemic influences, mould resilience. Using examples from resilience research conducted in South Africa we argue that such a focus (i.e. on the transactional ecosystemic nature of resilience) is crucial in developing contexts. Furthermore, we contend that sensitivity to mechanisms of resilience as well as the contexts and cultures in which these continuously evolve, begs an approach to practice that foregrounds the ecosystemic, promotes child-ecology transactions, and is cautious about generalizing resilience theory to children across diverse contexts, cultures and time periods. To conceptualize resilience as anything but a reciprocal, dynamic, contextually-influenced interaction between children and their ecologies, would be to fail children in developing contexts.