Undermining Linguistic Rights: Textbook Governance and Market Logics Affecting the Use of Languages in Kenya’s Primary Classrooms.

• In Event: Peace Beyond Coloniality: Centering the Margins in Research & Inquiry

Proposal

Kenya’s language-of-instruction (LOI) policy, introduced in 1976 and reaffirmed in subsequent policy frameworks, mandates that children in primary Grades 1–3 be taught in the predominant language of the school’s catchment area before transitioning to Kiswahili and English as subjects, and eventually as mediums of instruction from Grade 4 onwards (Republic of Kenya, 1976; Ministry of Education, Science and Technology [MoEST], 2012). However, evidence shows that mother tongue is rarely used in classrooms, with English and Kiswahili dominating instructional practice (Piper, Zuilkowski, & Ong’ele, 2016; Spernes, 2012). This presentation extends existing explanations for the weak implementation of the LOI policy by interrogating the aspects of the textbook chain – procurement, design, and distribution systems in shaping language use in Kenyan classrooms.

Drawing on a qualitative case study, the research examines how one private publisher’s nationally adopted textbooks contribute to the exclusion of mother-tongue instruction in early grade reading. Through document analysis, textbook content analysis, and interviews with content developers, the findings reveal a market-driven system, enabled by state procurement policies and centralized approval processes, reinforces linguistic hierarchies and undermines the goals of mother-tongue–based multilingual education (MTB-MLE). The presentation will focus on key themes from this case study.

Situated within broader debates on the privatization of education and linguistic rights, the study argues that Kenya’s textbook chain exemplifies persistent governance tensions in the Global South, where market logics consistently supersede equity-oriented language policies (Ball, 2007; Gunter & Rincón-Gallardo, 2023). By foregrounding the political economy of textbook production, this paper contributes to scholarship on language policies, textbook governance, and education equity. It calls attention to unexamined structural factors in early-grade reading programs that perpetuate linguistic marginalization, impede social cohesion, and justice.

Author

• Shruti Sheshadri, University of San Francisco