MLE implementation in Bolivia, Ethiopia and Mozambique: How the top-bottom-side trajectory model shakes out in three low-income contexts

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Problematizing Education Reform: Implementing Multilingual Education as Change from Above, from Below, from the Side — or a Combination?

Proposal

The purpose of this paper is to apply the above-below-side analysis to specific cases where L1-based multilingual education (MLE) has entered policy and practice in formal primary education in low-income multilingual contexts. The central question is what different trajectories may mean for expansion and sustainability of MLE, and whether the model seems to have predictive and/or explanatory value. I use document analysis and past experience as a participant observer to create three country case studies that both inform and interrogate the model, demonstrating where nuances may be appropriate, for example in describing key actors that facilitate (or inhibit) progress. In the analysis I bring in elements from other policy change constructs such as Hornberger’s (2002) continua of biliteracy, Dutcher’s (2004) top-middle-bottom classification and Alexander’s (1992) “change from all directions” to help characterize what has happened, and in an effort to predict how sustainable the change is.

My examination of the three cases finds that while there are differences in the actors, the Kosonen and Benson definitions of above, below and side hold up. Meanwhile, the change processes and trajectories are somewhat diverse, requiring exploration to determine promising directions. In the case of Bolivia, the idea of bilingual intercultural education (EIB) based on Indigenous L1s appears to have come from below, but after experimentation, sweeping legislation from above brought EIB into phased implementation throughout the country. In the case of Mozambique, side actors from the university with donor support created a bilingual experiment based on two Bantu L1s, after which there was a four-year lull until the Ministry of Education included MLE as one of three options in its national curriculum reform. Ethiopia’s trajectory was initiated from above by nationalist policy for an unprecedented eight years of L1-based primary schooling, causing regional administrations to rely on side actors to sustain implementation and expand languages offered. In all three country contexts, side actors have played important roles, and in two countries there are key individuals who have arguably been essential to the implementation processes.

The data sources for this analysis include published research and NGO reports, as well as personal observations from my work as a technical assistant, teacher trainer, evaluator and researcher in the three countries analyzed. The trajectories are each corroborated by one or more national colleagues, who have been asked to check for validity and accuracy.

Alexander, Neville (1992) Language planning from below. In Herbert, R. (ed) Language and Society in Africa. The Theory and Practice of Sociolinguistics, 143-149. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Dutcher, Nadine (2004) Expanding Educational Opportunity in Linguistically Diverse Societies. Second Edition. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. http://www.cal.org/resources/pubs/fordreport_040501.pdf
Hornberger, Nancy (2002) Multilingual language policies and the continua of biliteracy: An ecological approach. Language Policy 1(1): 27-51.

Author

• Carolyn Benson, Teachers College, Columbia University