Call for Proposals

This is the fifth Call for Research Proposals going out under the Context Matters banner. CODE, in partnership with the International Literacy Association (ILA), is offering up to five (5) research grants of a maximum CAN $10,000 each.

The three areas of inquiry for this funding cycle are Teacher Education, Literacy Practices, and Digital Literacies, which contribute to reducing barriers to quality education for women and girls.

We invite researchers, academics and educators who are resident in sub-Saharan African countries to submit proposals to CODE at contextmatters@code.ngo by 1, August 2022.

Eligible countries: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea: Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Reunion, Rwanda, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

To date, much of the research on literacy learning has been generalized to African countries and contexts from studies conducted outside of the region. To address the imbalance, CODE established Context Matters Grant program to support African researchers as they take the lead in evidence-based, exploratory studies.

Context Matters is designed to:

• Support work by African scholars and researchers addressing issues identified in collaboration with the African literacy and teacher education communities.
• Advance research in Africa by Africans in ways that are responsive and respectful of participants and their communities.
• Strengthen the research capacity, knowledge, and recommendations of those working in the African context.
• Fund research initiated, designed, and undertaken by local teams.
• Foster international partnerships and alliances that bolster Africa’s ability to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the areas of education and gender equality.
• Build a body of evidence that can be used to support education policy recommendations at local, regional, or national levels.

In 2022, CODE and ILA are primarily interested in research projects that relate to one or more of the following:

• Explore the intersection between literacy, education, and girls’ empowerment.
• Investigate the impact of digital literacies as well as the use of technology in teacher education and classroom learning.
• Investigate the role that pre-service teacher education and in-service professional development plays in strengthening the educational opportunities for girls and vulnerable populations.
• Advance local literacy practices.
• Advance context specific ways of knowing.
• Explore the relationship between the school, the home, and the community and the role this relationship can play in strengthening culturally relevant literacies.
• Explore the factors and/or interventions that contribute to reducing barriers to quality education for women and girls: with disabilities; in fragile, conflict, refugee and crisis situations; and/or in relation to the impact of the COVID pandemic.