Research Priorities Concerning Formal and Informal Learning in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

About this Research Topic

Background

The priority areas for research in low- and middle-income countries are often markedly different from those in high income-countries. Because most high-impact academic journals are staffed by editors and reviewers from high-income countries, these priorities are poorly represented in most of journals, even though they affect the lives of the world’s majority population. This outcome impedes the dissemination of the evidence necessary to achieve sustainable development goals held by low- and middle-income countries. It also limits the expansion of knowledge in high-income countries since insights into many underlying processes can be gained only from studying contexts and populations that are available exclusively in low- and middle-income countries.

This Research Topic focuses on those research priorities in low- and middle-income countries that are related to education, broadly defined to include formal and informal learning at all stages in the lifespan. Education was chosen as a focus because it is critical mechanism for achieving many international development goals, including those relating to young children’s school readiness, school children’s academic skills, adolescents’ vocational skills, adult farmers’ agricultural extension courses, or older adults’ understanding of health literacy campaigns.

Research in many disciplines is required to make progress in formal and informal education on low-and middle-income countries, and formal and informal education is relevant to the key areas of interest in many disciplines.

Therefore, this Research Topic invites submissions from researchers in

• psychology (e.g., attitudinal factors affecting access, lived experience and outcomes of students in primary, secondary and tertiary education)
• education (e.g., effective pedagogies in low resource settings)
• nutrition (e.g., the effects of protein-energy or micronutrient malnutrition on learning)
• linguistics (e.g., challenges in teaching literacy skills in tonal languages)
• public health (e.g., relationship between access to menstrual sanitation in schools and girls school attendance; the efficacy of public education campaigns concerning female genital cutting)
• anthropology (e.g., Indigenous concepts about learning and knowledge).

In addition, regardless of their discipline, we welcome submissions concerning formal or informal education in, but not limited to:

• special populations (e.g., retraining programs for former child soldiers; informal learning by children of sex workers and street- involved children; parenting classes to support the development of children affected by tropical diseases, such as Zika virus and cerebral malaria)
• cultural issues (e.g., interventions to improve educational equity for students from low castes; the relationship between child marriage and educational equity for girls).

Due to the nature of this collection, the Topic Editors are requesting that one author of each paper is a resident in a low- or middle-income country.

Types of manuscripts:

Original quantitative and qualitative empirical research; Narrative and meta-analytic systematic reviews; Evaluations of the implementation or effectiveness of interventions or policies; Development of culturally and contextually appropriate measures and research methods.

Keywords: Low- and Middle-Income Countries, Global South, Education, Learning, Lifespan, Culture

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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