The CERM-ESA education research project brings students from African countries and researchers from Oldenburg together. Two participants talk about their experiences – and about how their time in Oldenburg has inspired their research.

Obadiah Orang'i came to Oldenburg via a rather unusual path. When he first heard about CERM-ESA three years ago, the Kenyan was working as a teacher of Swahili in the United States and wanted to deepen his knowledge by taking a master's degree in education science. "I came across the DAAD programmes during my research, and when I saw that one of them offered a course at my home university, Moi University in Eldoret, I applied straight away." His application was successful, and Orang'i is now a student on the research-oriented Master's Programme in Education, which includes a stay at the University of Oldenburg.

German and African partners have been working together in the East and South African Centre of Excellence in Educational Research Methodologies and Management (CERM-ESA) since its inception in 2014. Led by the University of Oldenburg and funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the programme's overarching objective is to conduct innovative education research that takes account of the specific challenges in South and East African countries and paves the way for advances – at schools and universities and in policy consulting.

Orang'i is currently combining qualitative and quantitative research methods to investigate how to best integrate new IT applications at Kenya's "junior schools", which are essentially the equivalent of Germany's lower secondary education schools. "Thanks to my time in Oldenburg I have been able to refine my mixed-methods approach, especially as regards the interpretation of the data I collected in Kenya. During my three months here, I have learned about many new approaches and methods from other researchers which help me with my project," says the DAAD scholarship holder.

Study programmes, summer schools, upgrade training courses – CERM-ESA offers a lot

This is Diana Achuch's second time in Germany. Like Orang'i from Kenya, Achuch, a master's student in Education, had already completed a summer school at Leipzig University last year before coming to Oldenburg. Achuch is also a DAAD scholarship holder and student on the CERM-ESA master's programme. Her research focuses on the experiences of Kenyan student teachers during their school internships, and how this affects their identity and work as teachers later on. For Achuch, a key advantage of CERM-ESA is that it offers a mentoring programme: "I had in-depth discussions about my project with my mentor Malve von Möllendorf, an experienced education researcher. She also advised me on all questions regarding the programme's structure and methodology." In addition to the people she has met at the Institute of Education, Achuch is particularly impressed with the research infrastructure at the University of Oldenburg, for example the digital and analogue equipment at the University Library. She says that she has found the courses in presentation skills, career development and other such topics that are available on DIGI-FACE, the online platform on which the University of Oldenburg offers courses for DAAD scholarship holders from sub-Saharan Africa, very valuable in terms of personal development.

CERM-ESA and the time spent in Oldenburg also offer Orang'i, Achuch and the other scholarship holders an excellent opportunity to build up an international network, because in addition to participants from Germany and Kenya there are also students and researchers from South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. This opens up various country-specific perspectives, a factor which the two students both appreciate. "The programme dovetails perfectly with my interests," Orang'i points out.

And not only the African participants, but also the Oldenburg contingent benefits from the programme: "The exchange of information and ideas regarding the research projects of African scholarship holders is inspiring for our researchers, and naturally they establish valuable contacts too," says Dr Malve von Möllendorff, who is a mentor as well as a CERM-ESA project coordinator, together with educational scientist Prof. Dr. Susan Kurgat from Moi University (Kenya). "We want to promote innovative education research that is also relevant to practice and really makes a difference at the local level," von Möllendorff adds.

Awareness of the aftermath of the colonial era

However, Africa's colonial past and its ongoing repercussions must also be acknowledged. Germany was once a colonial power in Tanzania, and other African states were also targets and victims of European colonialism. Many of the inequalities that still exist today in areas such as knowledge production and the ability to provide high-quality university education and research have their roots in this past. Moreover, CERM-ESA's financial and administrative structures, as well as the foreign policy objectives of development cooperation, often stand in the way of an equal partnership. "We see it as part of our task to identify these asymmetrical structures and dismantle them wherever possible," von Möllendorff explains. To this end, representatives of all the partner institutions take decisions together within the projects, which has resulted in a decision-making structure based on parity. "All in all, CERM-ESA is a great success and shows how international cooperation in the field of education sciences can be effective," she adds.

Obadiah Orang'i hopes that his research will help to advance digitalisation in Kenya's education system. But for now, he is enjoying his time on the programme and in Oldenburg: "After spending time in Kenya and the US, I dreamed of getting to know Europe and its cultural peculiarities. Now I have the opportunity to do this." For her part, Achuch says she enjoys the tranquillity that Oldenburg exudes. "At the same time, the atmosphere in the city and at the university fuels my creativity," she says. She now wants to do a PhD after she completes her master's – preferably in Oldenburg, she adds.