Reflections on and suggestions for AJRMSTE

Abstract

Reflecting on the last three years of AJRMSTE publications, I present my perspective on some patterns across many submissions—some of which were published, others not. Firstly, I address the ‘fidelity’ approach to educational research which I feel has dominated over other approaches. Next, I discuss the perception of constructivism which has been put forward in many contributions and criticize it for ignoring its theoretical etymology and for confusing epistemology, psychology and pedagogy. Thirdly, I challenge the authors and potential authors on what the ‘African’ in AJRMSTE may stand for, and why an African perspective is almost absent from the vast majority of contributions. Finally, I engage in brief reflections on the paradigms, research styles, theoretical orientations, and methods and the associated jargon prevalent in the research papers submitted to the journal and on my personal journey as journal editor.

Keywords:

• African scholarship
• constructivism
• paradigms
• curricular fidelity