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Mobile Phones and Education in Sub‐Saharan Africa: From Youth Practice to Public Policy
Author(s) -
Porter Gina,
Hampshire Kate,
Milner James,
Munthali Alister,
Robson Elsbeth,
Lannoy Ariane,
Bango Andisiwe,
Gunguluza Nwabisa,
Mashiri Mac,
Tanle Augustine,
Abane Albert
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.3116
Subject(s) - transformative learning , mobile phone , state (computer science) , public policy , phone , public relations , field (mathematics) , sociology , political science , economic growth , pedagogy , economics , engineering , computer science , telecommunications , philosophy , mathematics , algorithm , pure mathematics , linguistics
Abstract Young people's use of mobile phones is expanding exponentially across Africa. Its transformative potential is exciting, but findings presented in this paper indicate how the downside of mobile phone use in African schools is becoming increasingly apparent. Drawing on mixed‐methods field research in 24 sites across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa and associated discussions with educational institutions, public policy makers and network providers, we examine the current state of play and offer suggestions towards a more satisfactory alignment of practice and policy which promotes the more positive aspects of phone use in educational contexts and militates against more damaging ones. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.