Intellectual curiosity or deception? an investigation into the practice of teaching outside area of expertise in Uganda

Teaching outside one’s area of expertise is increasingly common in higher education institutions (HEIs). Yet institutions and scholars are treating the subject as a taboo. Debate on the subject has been kept hush-hush—citing potential jeopardy to the institutions’ image. In this paper, the authors explore the reasons for the trend. The authors adopted Carl Rogers’ Theory to answer four questions: 1) What drives academicians to teach outside their area of primary expertise? 2) What are the implications of teaching outside one’s area of expertise? 3) What is the performance of those teaching outside their expertise? 4) What strategies are in place to regulate the practice? Data was collected from two HEIs in Uganda. This was done using interviews, students’ evaluations and teaching time-tables. Staff job descriptions and profiles were also analysed. It was concluded that the practice is not affecting quality. Regardless, the paper urges HEIs to be judicious in allowing the practice.Keywords: Teaching and learning; Quality assurance; Professionalis

Accountability Mechanism and Academics’ Research Output: Lessons for Uganda Management Institute (UMI)

The paper examined institutional research practices that promote academics’ motivation to engage in writing and publication. The idea was prompted by enormous effort and financial support UMI has committed on various research and publication-related programs and activities, including; annual research cluster grants, conference funding, graduate supervision, and guest scholars that are periodically engaged to facilitate in the areas of; research, supervision, scholarly writing, publication, grant proposal writing, etc. Every year (save for the pandemic period), the institute disburses funds to academics that respond to research grant calls in a timely fashion. Similarly, there were newly graduate doctoral candidates, still with fresh and novel publishable research ideas. It was revealed that academics are recognized for graduate supervision to completion, instead of co-publication efforts. The paper concludes that the lack of “price-tags” for research uptake, and the current accounting system that focuses on the usage of funds, instead of the outcomes has continued to diminish academics motivation to publish. Similarly, the practice to settle for the “raw research reports” instead of publications as a way of accountability had affected academics’ desire to publish. Further, collegial cooperation had affected implementation of personnel decisions related to research. Lastly, the delayed performance feedback on individual publication statuses affected their publication acumen. The paper recommends that institutions need to devise accountability systems for funded research activities as a way of sustaining academics’ research passion and motivation. Similarly, the institution should use the detailed “quarterly performance output reports” to regularly update members on their research uptake situation, other than waiting for the expiry of the five-year employment contract

Understanding Policies, Projects, Initiatives & Strategies as a Valuable Source of Research Data in Educational Context

Policies, Projects, Initiatives, and Strategies (PPIS) are often developed and implemented in education to improve educational outcomes in the country and the globe. While these efforts are typically evaluated using various metrics, there is growing interest in using PPIS as a research data source to gain insights into their development and impact. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the existing literature on the use of PPIS. We begin by defining PPIS and describing the four components (Policies, Projects, Initiatives, and Strategies) while highlighting the significance of using PPIS data. We then review selected studies that have successfully used PPIS as a research data source, including examples from developed and developing countries. We also provide a thorough review of previous research studies that used PPIS data; practical guidance on how researchers can access and analyze PPIS data; the legal and ethical considerations and emerging trends that must be considered. Finally, utilizing PPIS data can inform decision-making and policy development in the field of education, which can promote positive change. Therefore, researchers need to consider utilizing PPIS data to gain insights into policy implementation and effectiveness, ultimately improving educational systems and outcomes. Keywords: Policies, Projects, Initiatives & Strategies (PPIS), Source of Research Data, Education Research DOI: 10.7176/JEP/15-4-06 Publication date:March 31st 202

International Partnerships in Educational Institutions and their Intricacies: Are Institutions getting the right “deal” in the Partnerships?

International partnerships have become an interactive response to the impacts of globalization and global changes. Today, higher institutions of learning establish alliances to be able to compete for funds, students, researchers as well as academic programmes. These partnership initiatives are believed to strengthen quality of academic programmes, build capacity and strengthen institutional profiling; increase potential for research capacity, and improve the impact of research on policy and practice within diverse contexts. While it seems clear that international partnerships are inevitable, intricacies in agreements and deep inequalities undergird many of the current trends in these partnerships. The questions this paper attempts to answer in relation to international partnerships are; first, how do power-relations affect international partnerships? Second, are these international partnerships truly building institutional capacity? The authors adopted the “Critical Theory Approach” to explain the inherent inequalities which affect harmony, cohesion, success and sustainable relationships. This paper asserts that unequal power relations remains a challenge in international collaborations in education institutions and the more powerful partners dominate the direction of the partnership, although international partnerships remain critical in building institutional capacity. The paper concludes that lack of clear agreements have an impact on the sustainability of partnerships. Hence, institutions need to be vigilant to negotiate the powers that enhance harmony through formal and transparent agreements and bring everyone on board to avoid institutional conflicts.&nbsp