About the Journal

AJOPAC logo  The African Journal of Pedagogy and Curriculum (AJOPAC) is a significant platform for African educational discourse. It serves researchers, educators, and policymakers by providing a space to share knowledge, explore innovative teaching methodologies, and address the unique challenges of African education systems.

AJOPAC, as a scholarly OPEN ACCESS journal, provides a thematic focus:

  • Initial and In-service Teacher Training and Professional Development: Enhancing the skills and knowledge of in-service and preservice teachers.
  • Inclusive Education: Ensuring all students have access to quality education.
  • Language and Literacy: Promoting multilingualism and literacy development.
  • STEM Education: Focusing on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
  • Assessment and Evaluation: Developing effective methods to assess student learning.
  • Integration of Technology: Leveraging technology to improve educational outcomes.
  • Decolonization of the Curriculum: Challenging Eurocentric perspectives and promoting indigenous knowledge systems.

AJOPAC emphasises contextualised research that reflects African nations' diverse cultural and historical contexts, making it a unique and essential resource for understanding African education.

The African Journal of Pedagogy and Curriculum is an online, open-access, and peer-reviewed journal. AJOPAC publishes innovative research papers, theoretical works, literature reviews, research reports and academic book reviews on all aspects of pedagogy and curriculum matters.

Journal Editorial Policies & Publication Ethics

  1. Journal Contents and Practices

Publication Ethics Statement

This journal recognises and upholds the principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publication as recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), applying to all published content, including special issues and conference proceedings. Although the journal and its publisher are not yet members of COPE, it follows the ethical guidelines on the conduct of research by the authors, performance of review and evaluation by the reviewers and performance of the highest standards in the publication of research works. 

Statement of Open Access

This journal upholds and supports open-access publishing, allowing the global sharing of scholarly information without restrictions. Through this platform, free access to shared information promotes knowledge and education. As such, this journal publishes open-access research articles that anyone can reproduce, redistribute and transform, commercial or non-commercial, with proper attribution. The articles' first publication in the journal should always be acknowledged.  

License & Copyright

The authors retain the copyright to the work while granting the journal the right to the first publication. The open-access articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, granting anyone to reproduce, redistribute and transform commercially or non-commercially with proper attribution. Authors can use any content of the article provided there is proper acknowledgement. Reprint and reproduction of the article do not require prior permission. Read full license details here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
The authors are allowed to upload and post their works online, including, but not limited to, institutional websites, personal websites, social media and professional networking sites with proper attribution. Authors are encouraged to use the article Digital Object Identifier (DOI).  

Repository Policy

The authors are allowed to deposit the published, accepted and submitted versions of the article in any repository and archive, institutional repositories and websites, and upload to social networking sites with proper attribution.

Privacy Statement

This journal respects and protects the privacy of its users. It does not sell or give any information to any external bodies. This website does not use tracking cookies except for the requirement for online payments. This website is protected by a secure socket layer (SSL). Any information collected from authors is protected and stored in a database and shall be used only to deal with the article publication. If you have any concerns about the Privacy Policy, contact us at [email protected] .

 

  1. Author Responsibilities & Academic Ethics

Conflict of Interest

This journal recognises the definition given by the COPE, which states that "conflicts of interest comprise those which may not be fully apparent and which may influence the judgement of the author, and when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived." These may include personal, commercial, political, academic or financial. The author must declare any relevant conflicts of interest that might have affected the study results. For example, any monetary gains received from commissioned research, political influence or support from the subjects of the study or the potential bias on the analysis of studies involving own institution due to leadership influence.

Ethical Responsibilities

The author confirms that the submission is his or her own original work. In the case of group work, the corresponding author confirms that all co-authors consent to the submission of the article. The corresponding author is responsible for providing accurate contact and personal details of the co-authors. Upon article submission, all co-authors will be informed of the submission. Any co-authors' objections or disapproval of the submission must be communicated to the journal through email within a maximum of seven (7) days from the submission date. 

The author also confirms that the submitted paper has not been published elsewhere and has not been considered for publication in another journal. Since the journal only publishes original research, any republication is not allowed. In addition, the author needs to obtain prior permission to use any previously published material owned by another person. Images, figures, icons, frameworks and diagrams must be appropriately acknowledged, and the source must be clearly indicated. 

The author ensures that the paper is free from plagiarism. The journal randomly checks the similarity percentage using the iThenticate of Turnitin. While the journal imposes academic judgement on the nature of similarity within the manuscript, it can accept a maximum of 15% similarity rate provided copied texts appear in various cited sources. If plagiarism is identified at any point in the publication process, the author needs to address the plagiarism and resubmit the paper.  

To the best of his knowledge, the author confirms the authenticity and integrity of the data. The author's responsible for ensuring that the data are free from fabrication, manipulation and material misrepresentation. Any case of dishonesty shall be dealt with accordingly, leading to rejection of the paper or retraction. 

 It is the prime responsibility of the author to ensure that the paper’s quality is highly acceptable in terms of the use of language, grammar, and punctuation. The author must not use any form of hateful, discriminatory, intimidating, demeaning and inappropriate words or statements. The paper must not disparage any person or community based on gender, race, religion, or disability. The author must ensure balanced discussions, providing all sides of a research problem or issue. 

Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The journal recognises the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as necessary and vital in research writing. While the use of AI has a valuable contribution to the quality of research papers, the author needs to maintain the integrity of the research and the credibility of the results. Hence, the author needs to limit the use of AI as a tool to gather relevant data and information necessary for the writing of the paper. The author must refrain from the deliberate use of AI in writing any part of the research paper.

The author needs to declare the use of AI, specifically mention the AI tools, and include the particular purpose of AI use. The declaration must be limited to the use of AI-generated content only. The use of any AI tool in grammar checking, proofreading and editing of the manuscript is not declared as these do not fall under generation of contents.

For example:

The author declares the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in writing this paper. In particular, the author used [write the AI tool used in this paper] in [write the particular purpose of AI use]. For example, ChatGPT or Quillbot or Grammarly in searching appropriate literature, summarising key points and paraphrasing ideas.] The author takes full responsibility for ensuring proper review and editing of content generated using AI.

Ethics Approval.

The author needs to provide an Institutional Review Board Statement or Ethics Certificate Reference clearly mentioning the name of the Institution or the University granting the research approval

For example: 

Under the acknowledgement of the paper, the author(s) stated that this study was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines set by [name of the institution]. The conduct of this study has been approved and given relative clearance(s) by [name of institution(s) and ethics certificate number granting clearance or approval of the conduct of the data gathering involving human subjects].  

Appeal, Complaints and Corrections

This journal systematically handles issues and concerns related to author appeals, complaints and corrections. All appeals, complaints and corrections related to publication must be lodged through email to any journal manager or the journal editor-in-chief.

Publication Concerns

Correction and retraction. This journal ensures that the author receives proof of any manuscript for confirmation, verification, and approval before any publication. Any corrections before the publication must be communicated through email to the copyeditor. If errors are found after the publication, the author must communicate any required corrections through email to the journal editorial assistant, manager or editor-in-chief. Errors related to content and grammar are corrected through in-line correction or erratum. However, any material corrections arising from plagiarism, misstatement and falsification of data or any other form of academic dishonesty would lead to the retraction of the article.
The journal manager and editor-in-chief shall deal with any article's retraction systematically. The author must be given sufficient time to respond to the concern and provide recommendations to correct any material errors in the published manuscript. Any material corrections made to the article must be treated as an erratum. If the author is not able to comply with all the required corrections, the article will be retracted. All decisions must be communicated through email. 

 

  1. Editorial Policies

Peer Review Process

  1. Type of Review: The journal adheres to the double-blind peer-review process. Neither the author nor the reviewers know each other’s identity. Hence, the author needs to submit separate files for the anonymous manuscriptand title page. 
  2. Recruitment and Selection of Reviewers: The journal recruits experts in the field to assist the editor-in-chief in evaluating and accepting papers. They are selected based on their qualification and specialisation. All reviewers must register through the journal's OJS/PKP submission portal. Upon registration, interested potential reviewers check the "Yes, I would like to be contacted with requests to review submissions to this journal" option to receive review assignments. 
  3. Review Process: Any submission goes through two evaluation and review processes: a) preliminary evaluation by the journal manager or editor-in-chief and b) peer review. The journal manager or editor-in-chief evaluates the paper based on its fitness to the journal's scope, structural requirements and readiness for publication, while the reviewers give detailed comments on the paper based on the evaluation criteria. All submitted papers duly accepted for suitability to the journal's scope and structural requirements are sent to the potential reviewers. The journal editorial staff reserves the right to choose the appropriate reviewer based on their topic knowledge. Thereafter, the anonymous manuscript is sent only to those who agreed to accept the review invite. The entire review process takes a minimum of four to six weeks. However, it is highly dependent on various uncontrollable circumstances. The journal ensures adherence to the proper timeline, completing the submission to final publication acceptance within 60 days.
  4. Review Criteria and Results: Reviewers evaluate the following areas of the paper: originality, research background, literature review, methodology, results and discussion, conclusion and communication as stated under the review process. While the reviewers are given the guide questions in doing the review, they are given maximum freedom to evaluate the quality of the paper. 
    The result of the review may be any of the following: accept submission, revision required, resubmit for review, submit elsewhere or decline submission. The editor makes the decision after the receipt of at least two reviews. The editor-in-chief's decision is communicated to the corresponding author through email.
  5. Accept submission. The paper is accepted for publication and will be sent to the copyediting stage. The author pays the publication Article Processing Charge (400 USD) and signs the open access agreement form.
  6. Revision required. Any accepted article with minor or major revisions is sent back to the author for corrections. The author is given ample time to comply, depending on the severity of the corrections. If the time given is insufficient, the author is advised to formally request an extension through email. The author then submits the corrected article for final evaluation by the journal manager. If the paper requires further revision, the journal manager provides further revisions request through email or through the discussion forum in the portal. If the article is accepted, the author is advised to pay the fees prior to publication. The open-access publishing agreement is then signed.
  7. Resubmit for review. The comments and suggestions of the reviewers are sent to the author for compliance. The author is given ample time to comply, depending on the severity of the corrections. If the time given is insufficient, the author is advised to formally request an extension through email. The author then submits the corrected article for another round of review. Submit elsewhere. The paper is not considered for publication in the journal and will advise the author to consider another journal.
  8. Decline submission. The paper is rejected for publication in the journal.