The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) has issued a call for submission of papers for publication in the special Issue of the journal Africa Development “Parents’ Involvement in Children’s Lives in Africa”. The special issue will focus on the multifaceted roles that parents play in the lives of their children within the overall socialisation process specifically informed by African realities. Scholars are being invited to share their thoughts with rest of the world about how parent’s involvement with their children shapes the future life of the children.
Themes and Subthemes
Increased socioeconomic and political changes cutting across the African continent as well as the advent of new technologies have all changed the role and place of parents in children’s lives. Now more than ever before, many parents are compelled to spend more time at work and away from home and hence are unable to spend time with their children. As a result, and especially for many middle class families, childcare has often been entirely left to house help, maids, or nannies. In other cases, numerous children, who for various reasons have no parents present in their lives, end up fending for themselves or are raised by non-filial caregivers. Should these examples lead us to assume that these children are deviating from a normal path of socialisation? What kind of socialisation do children, who have no prolonged contact with parents during their growing up, receive? Is a prolonged dependency on parental care necessary for children to acquire the expected skills, knowledge, and values they require for leading a successful adult life? Moreover, for children whose parents are directly involved in their lives, do the socialisation differ based on which parent (male or female) expends the most care?
This Special Issue is particularly looking to publish papers that offer theoretical perspectives and empirical insights (preferably based on field research) that not only seek to respond to the stated issues but also look into the lives of children as shaped by issues, problems, contexts, or processes associated with their relationship and interactions with parents.
Papers that foreground the mentioned questions while focusing on the following themes are especially invited but others on related themes will also be considered:
Education: The importance of parental involvement as an accelerating and motivating factor in their children’s education
Latch Key Children: Many children in Africa today return from school to an empty home because a parent or parents are away for different reasons. Such children spend long periods of time at home with little or no parental supervision. In situations where both parents are deceased, these children take on the role of raising themselves and/or their siblings. Some scholars may look at this phenomenon as negatively affecting children’s emotional, social, and economic well-being while others may disagree. This could be an interesting place to discuss the “politics” of what constitutes latchkey children and whether their situation should at all be regarded as deviant from any social norm.
Submission Deadlines
- October 31, 2011: Send an abstract of no more than 500 words in word document and in it include also the specific theme you are focusing on as well as your full contact address with institutional affiliation and email
- November 30, 2011: Authors whose abstracts have been selected for possible inclusion in the special issue will be contacted via email.
- January 15, 2012: Send full complete papers (no more than 8,000 words) in word document.
- March 15, 2012: Acceptance/rejection of papers to be communicated to authors. Assessment results will be sent to authors whose papers are accepted for revision.
- April 15, 2012: Last date for submission of revised articles by authors.
- For more information and details, you can visit this link.
