Lydia Plaatjies

This paper examines the engagement processes of a ~900 caregivers of young children receiving an Early Childhood
Development (ECD) Short Messages Service (SMS’s) in English, Afrikaans or isiXhosa. In this paper the concepts of
m-learning ‘engagement’ related to ‘uptake’ and ‘use’ as adopted by Roberts & Vänskä (2011) are applied. An
experimental design was adopted where the target group was assigned to either a treatment group (receiving three
messages per week), or a control group (receiving one message per fortnight). A pre-test and post-test survey was
administered at the baseline (prior to the 6-month message service intervention), and repeated at the endline. Two
additional measures of engagement were obtained: The responses to fortnightly questions posed to both
treatment and control groups, and the opportunities presented fortnightly to the treatment group to request
additional information. The data is analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. The study was endorsed
by the National Department of Health, approved by five provincial Departments of Health, and undertaken under
the ethical clearance number: 2017-038 of the University of Johannesburg’s Faculty of Education. The study
provides quantitative evidence of how the caregivers engaged with the m-learning parenting service and reports
on measurable shifts in attitudes and beliefs as well as knowledge about early childhood development. This paper
may be of interest to government actors, curriculum designers, and implementers of ECD parenting programmes.
Parents and caregivers are the first teachers of young children; and hence a key part of transforming teacher
education in the early years.

This paper examines gatekeeping phenomena and processes in the production of an Early Childhood Development
(ECD) Short Messages Service (SMS’s) for caregivers of young children. This paper forms part of a broader PhD study
of an m-learning parenting programme which demonstrates a directly beneficial relationship between caregivers,
children, and text-messaging information. The broader study builds on the relationship between adult education
theory, change theory and communications theory. In this paper the interrelated notions of ‘publics’ (Warner, 2002),
‘gates’ and ‘gatekeeping’ (Bruns, 2008) are in focus. An action research design was adopted whereby the writing
team could test and refine the SMS curriculum based on feedback from case study mothers. Rich qualitative
information was collected from the primary beneficiaries of the service in order to improve and develop the SMS
curriculum. The data collection included SMS responses, home visits, questionnaires, photographs and short videos.
The study was endorsed by the National Department of Health, approved by five provincial Departments of Health,
and undertaken under the ethical clearance number: 2017-038 of the University of Johannesburg’s Faculty of
Education. The study provides a thick description of the processes undertaken, and the gatekeeping phenomena
experienced, in the development of an ECD SMS curriculum. Ways of being receptive to feedback and relevant to
the lives of mothers receiving the child grant are discussed. Mothers and caregivers can participate in development
of parenting programmes which use SMS’s as a critical mobile platform for adult education. This paper may be of
interest to government actors, curriculum designers, and implementers of ECD parenting programmes which seek
to send parents systematic information about child development processes. Parents and caregivers are the first
teachers of young children; and hence a key part of transforming teacher education in the early years.

ChildConnect is a messaging service which aims to use mobile learning to support and educate parents and caregivers through an SMS curriculum of Early Childhood Development content. This paper reports on initial uptake and subsequent engagement with the ChildConnect messages. An experimental design was adopted where caregivers were randomly assigned to either a treatment or a control group. The uptake for ChildConnect from those targeted via public clinic data on pregnant women was 24%, this increased to 66% for secondary caregivers invited to join the service by a primary caregiver. Engagement was measured in terms of appetite, as well as in terms of response rates to both unincentivised and incentivised opportunities to engage. For both control and treatment groups there was clear appetite to receive more than three messages per week, with most (~78%) participants indicating that they would like to receive messages every day or every weekday. Three incentivised surveys (midline 1, midline 2 and endline) were completed by 72%, 70% and 69% of participants respectively. Between 25−55% of participants in the treatment group responded to unincentivised weekly ‘reply’ messages. Higher response rates were seen for the control group who received fewer messages and only fortnightly opportunities to reply.