Kalifa Damani and Joel Mitchell
Summary
This rapid evidence review (RER) provides an overview of the existing literature on the use of radio in education in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The present RER has been produced in response to the novel 2019 coronavirus (Covid-19), and the resulting widespread shutdown of schools. It, therefore, highlights transferable insights that may be applicable to educational responses resulting from the limitations caused by Covid-19. Established approaches to delivering distance education have renewed salience during this period because many students cannot access schooling in a school building due to social distancing requirements. As one of the longest-serving and most accessible types of educational technology (EdTech), and one that has had some success in education delivery in an LMIC context that was affected by an epidemic, it is particularly useful to focus on radio (Barnett et al., 2018; Hallgarten, 2020b). Notably, the RER aims neither to advocate nor discourage the use of radio in education in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, it provides an accessible summary of existing evidence on the topic so that educators, policy makers and donors might make informed decisions about the potential of radio in education delivery.
The RER emerged from a systematic search for literature about educational radio from journals that feature education, social science and humanities disciplines. Grey literature was also explored. The main papers referenced within this RER are written in the last 20 years and focus on the education of children in LMICs using radio. However, literature that focuses on high-income contexts or that does not have child education as a key topic is also considered. Details on the inclusion criteria, as well as the associated limitations, are explained in the methodology section. The rapid nature of the review required a focused approach to literature discovery and a thematically guided process of analysis so that a timely response to Covid-19 might be provided. The search strategy was not designed to be exhaustive.
The findings of the thematic analysis of the included literature on radio for education are structured according to four themes:
- Pedagogies and modalities. This theme discusses the pedagogical approaches and theory used in delivering educational radio, as well as how educational radio relates to various educational outcomes.
- Topical content and interest in radio. This theme explores the topical content that is delivered using educational radio, as well as the factors that influence students’ and teachers’ interest, or disinterest, in radio as a medium.
- Equity, access and participation. This theme focuses on how, why and whether educational radio might be used to promote greater equity, access and participation in education.
- Data and consent. This theme focuses on considerations of how data will be used, and issues of consent, when implementing an interactiv