Abstract Title: School Based Management in Nigeria: Exploring the Gaps Between Policy Texts and Practices

• In Event: Roundtable Group 1
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Afrika SIG Roundtables

Proposal

Background: Many sub Saharan African (SSA) countries like Nigeria, have decentralized the delivery and financing of public education with the intent to enhance local participation, accountability, the mobilization and efficient use of resources and, to increase equitable access to quality education. Since the inception of the1990 Jomtien Conference on Education for All (EFA) by 2015 and the Dakar 2002 Action Framework, Nigeria has implemented several national policy interventions in order to achieve the objectives of education decentralization. Specifically, Nigeria’s national School Based Management Committee (SBMC) policy was implemented to promote local management of schools thorough decentralized decision-making. This effort let to the establishment of school management committees of parents and local leaders in order to bridge gap between policymakers, communities and the public school system. Despite the huge political and financial investments of Nigeria in school-based management, little is know about how policy texts have translated in the intended lines action. Therefore, this paper explored the texts and practices of school-based management programs in Nigeria using the policy implementation framework and the functions performed by the school management committee as units of analysis.

Research Aim and Questions
Within the context of education decentralization reforms in Nigeria, this paper conducts a comparative case study to explore the policy texts and practices of school-based management reform policy and how well it has promoted decentralized decision-making at the school level. Furthermore, it synthesizes the key elements that cumulate as gaps between policy texts and practices of school-based management. The following research questions will be addressed:
1. How has the policy texts on school-based management promoted decentralized decision-making at the school level in Nigeria?
2. To what extent has the policy practices of school-based management committees promoted decentralized decision-making at the school level in Nigeria?
3. What are the key elements that cumulate as gaps between policy texts and practices of school-based management in Nigeria?
Theoretical framework: Policies are inherently rhetorical (Thorgmorton, 1999). Policy texts carry their seeds of contradictions, possibilities, constraints and, contextual dimensions; likewise, policy practices ensue amidst compromises and accommodations to the factors within their specific contexts (Bowe, Ball & Gold, 1992). Therefore, the theoretical underpinning of this paper is grounded in the notion that the analysis of policy extends beyond texts to the sphere of social action (Thompson, 1984; Thorgmorton, 1999). In line with Ball (1994), a more synthesized understanding of policy is construed as an analysis of text and action, meaning, what was intended as well as what was enacted.

Data Source: This paper analyzed policy implementation framework documents linked to two landmark school based management interventions: the Lagos World Bank Eko Project (2009 - 2016) and the Education Sector Support Program in Nigeria (ESSPIN), supported by the defunct Department for International Development (DFID) from (2008 – 2017). Furthermore, data was obtained from informal conversations with former policy stakeholders of Eko Project and ESSPIN (Swain & King, 2022). In order to enrich the analysis of policy documents, data was obtained through informal conversations (Patton 2002). The bounded space and time constraint of formally structured interviews may not have served the same purpose, nor created an ease of free communication with the respondents (Bernard, 2011).

Methodology: The policy documents and data obtained from informal conversations were analyzed against the literature on school-based management in SSA using an interpretative analytic approach (Yanow, 2000). The objective was to translate the meanings and values of policy texts and construct lines of action (who gets what, when and how (Gale, 1999; Lasswell, 2018). Afterwards, a comparative case study involving the analysis and synthesis of the similarities, differences and patterns across the two programs was conducted (Goodrick, 2014).

Findings: The initial findings of the review suggest school based management is rather a means to an end within the context of education decentralization reforms in Nigeria. Decentralized decision-making seemed more of an adapted response to policy incentives, as shown by the significant influence and support of the external donors including the World Bank and DFID (now the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office). The analysis of the policy implementation framework suggests school-based management in Nigeria was successfully implemented in line with the policy framework. In terms of school financing, the compliance of school management committees enabled successful collaborative planning and funding of school improvements plans. However, the two policy programs (World Bank Eko Project and ESSPIN) provide evidence of discrepancies between the policy texts and practices. Specifically, with respect to the institutionalization of school management committees, school appear to conform to the pressures of policy dictates to establish committees in line with the implementation framework without giving consideration to a more suitable approach for organizing school management within their local context. Overall further empirical research on the perspectives of school stakeholders is required to inform better policy-making and practices in relation to school-based management in Nigeria.

References:
Ball, S. (1994a) Education reform: a critical and post-structural approach (Buckingham, UK, Open University

Bernard, H. R. (2011). Research methods in anthropology: Quali- tative and quantitative approaches (5th ed.). AltaMira Press.

Bowe, R., Ball, S. J., & Gold, A. (2017). Reforming education and changing schools: Case studies in policy sociology (Vol. 10). Routledge.

Lasswell, H.D., 2018. Politics: Who gets what, when, how. Pickle Partners Publishing.

Gale, T. (1999). Policy trajectories: Treading the discursive path of policy analysis. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 20(3), 393-407.

Goodrick, D. (2014). Comparative case studies: Methodological briefs-Impact evaluation No. 9 (No. innpub754).

Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Sage.

Swain, J., & King, B. (2022). Using informal conversations in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21, 16094069221085056.

Thompson,J. (1984) Studies intheTheory ofIdeology (Cambridge, UK,Polity Press)


Throgmorton, J. A. (1999). Learning through conflict at Oxford. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 18, 269-270.

Yanow, D. (2000). Underlying assumptions of an interpretive approach: The importance of local knowledge. Conducting interpretive policy analysis, 1-27.

Winkler, D.R. and Gershberg, A.I., 2003. Education decentralization in Africa: A review of recent policy and practice.

Author

• Olamide David, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam