The 4th Industrial Revolution and social and emotional learning in Africa: implications for educational materials

Abstract

The 4th Industrial Revolution (IR) is disrupting almost every industry across the globe. Characterized as ‘a fusion of technologies,’ the 4th IR is blurring the line between physical and digital spaces and influencing the rapid transformation of business and government systems with the potential to improve the quality of our life, including educational opportunities (Schwab, 2016). This paper discusses challenges of the 4th IR in four sub-Saharan African countries – Burkina Faso, South Africa, Togo, and Uganda – as they relate to the skills that cannot be replaced by robots and machines and the importance of social and emotional learning skills. The premise of this paper is that SEL can help young people respond to the challenges and opportunities of the 4th IR even in countries that are less technologically advanced and might seem weakly influenced or uninfluenced by it. It concludes with implications for educational materials, in particular the use of online resources and social media as a fast-growing method for providing information and training, and on what needs to be considered for designing educational materials in the post-COVID era.