Agency and structures shaping appropriation of language in education policy - a cross country synthesis from the LITES qualitative study

• In Event: Highlighted Session: New theoretical and empirical contributions to the politics of language in education: Understanding policy change and local appropriation in Africa

Proposal

Recent scholarship emphasizes individual agency in language planning and policy, including school-level actors who appropriate policies through decision-making (Liddicoat & Taylor-Leech, 2021). This relates to theories concerning the important role of local officials - “street-level bureaucrats” - and their influence in interpreting and implementing policy “on the ground,” or in classrooms and communities (Lipsky, 1983; Meyers and Nielson, 2012). As applied to language of instruction policies in Africa, this involves school-level decision-making under diverse conditions.

Studies offer varying arguments for how and why local actors might appropriate national level language in education policies (Trudell et al., 2023; Trudell and Piper, 2014). One set of arguments suggests minimal take-up of L1-based policies due to parental preferences for L2 immersion and possible resistance to uses of L1s (Djite, 2008; Abedgija, 1994; Trudell, 2007; Trudell & Piper, 2014). These arguments are often grounded in critical theories exploring the hegemony of English and neo-colonial structures that maintain languages of privilege and power and marginalize local languages and linguistic minorities (Pennycook, 1994; Philippson, 1992).

A second line of thought suggests that adequate learning conditions and quality national-level implementation of policies are prerequisites of teacher adherence to the policies (de Galbert & Gulere, 2023; Trudell et al., 2023). This line of reasoning indicates that teachers need teaching and learning materials, training in the appropriate languages, and a moderate to high language match to follow a given policy prescription. Finally, a related body of emerging arguments suggest that teachers and parents may shift their attitudes in response to seeing and experiencing a policy working effectively at a local level (Benson, 2021; de Galbert, April 20, 2022).

A final theory suggests that teachers respond to the incentives within systems (i.e. national exams in a given language) and their own subjective judgments about what they view as appropriate and feasible in the classroom (e.g. code-switching when students do not understand content in L2) (Trudell et al., 2023; Bagwasi, 2021).

We explore the appropriation and local decision-making of teachers with respect to national-level language in education policies, and consider the intersection of structures and agency, in a critical realist framework. The study involved a qualitative sample of 36 school cases (6 schools per national context). Data was collected from semi-structured interviews (144 teachers, 4 per school; 36 school directors, 1 per school), classroom observations (144, 4 per school), and focus groups (36, 1 per school). Data was analyzed first at the school-level, then at the cross-case, national-level, and at a cross-country level.

Final analysis is still under-way, but preliminary findings point to the centrality of conditions of adequacy (books, training, and language match) and perceived feasibility and appropriateness of policies in relation to student learning goals and extrinsic incentives (national exams), as the primary determinants of policy appropriation, while little evidence suggested that parental or teacher attitudes has a strong influence on behavior. Finally, there is evidence from some contexts (e.g. Mozambique) that parental views are malleable in response to experiencing the benefits of quality L1-based ME implementation in schools.

Authors

• Feliciano Chimbutane, Eduardo Mondlane University

• Caroline Freeman, University of Notre Dame

• TJ D'Agostino, University of Notre Dame