INARELS sustains several lines of research programs simultaneously under the leadership of independent teams of experts who work collaboratively with relevant community partners, schools, and policy makers. Projects span various educational issues that relate to language, culture, politics, economics, history, and the environment. You are invited to explore specific research projects, and to contact the research team with questions or inquiry about getting involved.
Education systems in several African countries have either reduced or eliminated history curriculum at secondary education levels. Where it exists, history is an optional subject with contents, including African history, appear to be Eurocentric lens. Such disinvestment in history education is perplexing, given historians’ efforts to engage new historical evidence in ways that deepen our understanding of African history from the perspective of Africans. This comparative historical inquiry examines the forces responsible for disinvestment in history education in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. It invited collaborators from academic experts, secondary school teachers, parents, community leaders, and policymakers.
_______
Desmond Ikenna Odugu, Ph.D._______
This is a large-scale, cross-cultural, comparative, research program that investigates the intersection of language/linguistic practices, historical literacies, and civic engagement in multilingual African societies. This project re-conceptualizes social development in terms of individual attitudes to civic engagement, articulated in terms of input rather than the “outcome” models of orthodox development studies. It also explores social identity as a mediating variable between historical literacies and language/linguistic practices both within and outside schools. The purpose of this study is to understand whether an individual’s historical literacy affects their social identity, their language behaviors, and their attitudes to civic engagement. Study instruments are developed with and administered through relevant community partners, including local schools, religious and cultural organizations, and local academic researchers.
_______
Desmond Ikenna Odugu, Ph.D._______
This research project builds on the extensive body of research on the educational experiences of African American students in the United States, including disaggregated data on immigrant and non-immigrant Black students. It explores the immigration and internal migration trends, socialization patterns, educational experiences, and academic achievement of recent immigrant and non-immigrant African American students. The initial phase of this study focuses on the Midwest suggests that gaps in socialization pattern and concomitantly, historical literacies, may account for a sub-cultural dynamic often characterized both by unity and tension.
_______
Desmond Ikenna Odugu, Ph.D._______
A decade of field work on the imbrications of language, education, and development in Africa provides extensive empirical evidence of the significance of language to educational and social change processes. INARELS researchers are now developing dissemination plans, including publication, conferences, and community outreach programs.
_______
Desmond Ikenna Odugu, Ph.D._______