Thereby, the Centre will not only enable educational research in the context of post-colonial African societies, but will also allow for the development of innovative and appropriate research methods and management. CERM-ESA will also function as a forum for the development of timely, societally relevant and solutions-oriented research themes, which may be pursued on several levels ranging from larger comparative studies across East and South Africa, to the particular research-activities of individual professors and their PhD- and Master’s students within the participating universities. Further research projects between the CERM-ESA partners will be developed and applied for during the project’s runtime.

Based on the assessment of the international experts involved in the development of this proposal as well as on previous research experience of the partners, four research areas were selected as priorities for CERM-ESA. These include:

I. Educational Research Methods in Specific African Contexts,

II. Didactics of Natural Sciences and Education for Sustainable Development,

III. Community Schools and Engagement for Social Development, and

IV. Languages, Intercultural Communication, Indigenous Knowledge and Arts.

Connecting these four themes, cross-cutting issues will be addressed including participatory and interdisciplinary management, fund-raising, dissemination, publishing and evaluation, as well as theory-building, methodological reflection, and methods-development.