Towards the development and enhancement of Open and Distance Learning policies in Africa: A step by step guide to the game

Abstract

Purpose: This study sought to explain and understand possible steps for developing and enhancing open and distance learning (ODL) policies in Malawi. Methodology: It thus deployed descriptive and interpretive phenomenological research as advanced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger to deeply understand policies, practices and perceptions within higher education institutions (HEIs) in Malawi. It was assumed that human experiences can best be understood through ones immersion into documents, conversations and lived-experiences of the research subjects. Accordingly, we used document analyses, observations and systematic conversations followed by practical activities to enhance the available draft-ODL policies at the selected HEIs. Findings: The study established that many academics had inadequate knowledge on policy formulation using paradigmatic and marginalized philosophical theories. It was also established when policy-makers combine different theories to inform their policies, they gain more advantages than they would have otherwise done. Since education is usually confronted by complex issues, such theoretical amalgamation has paid dividends. While this study inherently took an eccentric approach to research by reconciling Husserl and Heidegger’s contradictions, it also infused some elements of empiricism and conceptual ideals ushering in a mixed methodology that culminated into a transformative paradigm. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Since research is about discovering new knowledge, this study garnered its uniqueness and credibility through such methodical surprises; the approaches that transcended mere theoretical analyses to yielding a tangible ODL policy product. We acknowledge our methodological limitations although such limitations cannot lender our findings invalid. We therefore recommend researchers to try this approach, and share with us their findings.