Education Research in Sub-Saharan Africa: Quality, Visibility, and Agendas

Abstract

This article combines large-scale bibliometric analysis of publications on education by researchers based in sub-Saharan Africa with researchers' accounts of their priorities and practice. Patterns in the thematic foci of the research from 48 countries in the region are considered from the perspective of international policy statements (the Education Sustainable Development Goal and the African Union's Agenda 2063), alongside analysis of funding, coauthorship, and citations. We find a large number of publications by these scholars in reputable journals that merit greater scholarly engagement. Furthermore, evidence presented in this article challenges claims about the dominance of Northern research agendas in sub-Saharan Africa.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding by Education Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA) and the Jacobs Foundation; the research participants who generously gave their time; Rui da Silva for his work cataloging Portuguese language research; and the anonymous peer reviewers and others who provided valuable feedback on this article, including participants at CIES 2018, BAICE 2018, and colleagues at the REAL Centre,

Unaligned connections or enlarging engagements? Tertiary education in developing countries and the implementation of the SDGs

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How equitable are South-North partnerships in education research? Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

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