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- Convenors:
-
Hélène Charton
(CNRS)
Marie-Christine Deleigne (Paris Descartes-Ceped)
Hamidou Dia (IRD)
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- Discussant:
-
Marie Brossier
(Université Laval)
- Location:
- 2E05
- Start time:
- 29 June, 2013 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
This panel focuses on the transformation of the education sector in Africa characterized by massive enrolment and the multiplication of actors interacting in this field. In this context how public policies are being designed and implemented? What are their effects in terms of inequalities?
Long Abstract:
This panel aims to deepen our understanding of the present educational landscapes in Africa that are marked by ever changing patterns of intersecting, and often conflicting, local and global educational norms and models. Massive enrolment at the primary level since the years 2000 have raised new questions, such as the retention of pupils, the quality of education, but also post-primary opportunities. International interventions and the multiplication of actors (both private and religious) operating in the field of education invite scholar to discuss modes of social change, power configurations and the positioning of public policies in heterogeneous educational settings.
1) To what extend do the competitive "education market" and public policies produce, reproduce or transform economic, social, residential, gender and symbolic inequalities? What are the effects of mass enrolment at the primary level related to international public policies (EFA, MDGs) in the whole national educational systems? Who has access or not to primary, and more, to post-primary education (from secondary to higher education), under what conditions, with what means and strategies or logics, for what results?
2) How internationally promoted public policies are negotiated, adapted and implemented by local actors? The ordinary, discursive and symbolic practices of actors engaged in the field of education (international experts, teachers, agents, beneficiaries) produce hybrid and creative practices informed by various norms and models. The process of education norms' institutionalization, through the interactions between school institutions, the State, societal and international actors help to understand how African States do actually work.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
Cette communication se propose de questionner les ambitions de l'Etat sénégalais en matière de massification des effectifs au niveau de l'enseignement moyen et secondaire au regard de la problèmatique des inégalités amplifiées par une libéralisation de fait.
Paper long abstract:
Le système éducatif sénégalais expérimente l'accentuation d'un processus entamé au début des années 1990 : des collèges et des lycées se multiplient sur l'ensemble du territoire national à la faveur d'une scolarisation massive dans le primaire, elle-même encouragée par des dynamiques politiques internationales qui trouvent de fait une traduction endogène. La construction de ces établissements sur divers financements internes et externes s'accompagne d'une rhétorique officielle accordant une place de choix à l'égalité des chances et à la démocratisation scolaire.
Néanmoins, on remarque que l'Etat n'est pas le seul agent de la carte scolaire du second degré. Divers groupes, avec des moyens différents et des philosophies éducatives concurrentielles, participent à son édification avec souvent la bénédiction de la puissance publique. Ce contexte de forte marchandisation de l'éducation repose autrement la question des inégalités dont l'Etat, tout à la fois dans son déploiement interne et dans son inspiration externe, est l'un des principaux producteurs. Cette communication pose en conséquence les jalons de l'ethnographie d'un Etat inégalitaire en matière éducative dans une société qui connaît des transformations rapides et complexes affectant de façon différentielle son unité sociale de prédilection : la famille. Elle interroge surtout le procès d'émergence, d'affirmation et de renouvellement des élites dans une configuration nationale fortement tributaire de la globalisation.
Paper short abstract:
The paper analyses the ward secondary schools policy conducted in Tanzania since the mid-2000s as an education policy that has renewed the conditions of distribution of educational rights and entitlements across social groups in a context of quasi-universal primary education
Paper long abstract:
Since the mid-2000s, Tanzania has recorded a tremendous expansion of lower secondary education following the government's decision to build one secondary school in each ward. Between 2004 and 2011, the number of students enrolled at O'Level grew by 325%. However, from a learning perspective, the expansion has brought adverse outcomes. This policy geared towards universal secondary education has constituted a rupture with the post-independence educational settlement that posited public secondary schooling as a quality education reserved to a minority, delivered on a free and meritocratic basis. The policy can be interpreted as the negotiation of renewed conditions of distribution of educational rights and entitlements across social groups in a context of quasi-universal primary education. The paper shows how the modalities of funding of the ward secondary schools - mainly through communities' contributions - coupled with their poor performances vitiate the egalitarian credentials claimed by decision-makers. At the same time, the symbolic system that has construed secondary schooling, since the colonial period, as a site of access to modernity is being reworked in a 'globalisation' hybrid idiom that conceals domestic and international elite's lasting concerns over youth domestication. It also obscures social differentiation mechanisms at play within an increasingly dual education system. The paper is based on the analysis of budgetary and qualitative data collected through a multi-level fieldwork: international level (donors' education strategies), national level (interviews with policy-makers), and district level (interviews with district staff and local 'big men', visits of schools and interviews with teachers, parents and students in Lushoto).
Paper short abstract:
La communication s’intéresse aux inégalités de scolarisation dans l’accès à l’enseignement secondaire à Ouagadougou, capitale du Burkina Faso, à partir de plusieurs sources de données : statistiques scolaires, recensement de 2006, enquête réalisée en 2009 et l’observatoire de population de Ouagadougou.
Paper long abstract:
Sans doute parce que le continent africain demeure le moins scolarisé, les recherches sur les inégalités ont jusqu'à lors essentiellement porté sur l'enseignement primaire. Sans doute également parce que les capitales présentent à l'échelle nationale les taux de scolarisation les plus élevés, à tous les niveaux d'enseignement, peu d'intérêt est porté sur les inégalités scolaires dans ces villes. La communication s'intéresse aux inégalités de scolarisation dans l'accès à l'enseignement secondaire à Ouagadougou, capitale du Burkina Faso, L'analyse mobilise plusieurs sources de données complémentaires : les statistiques scolaires, le recensement de 2006, une enquête réalisée en 2009 et l'observatoire de population de Ouagadougou. Une brève revue de la littérature conduira tout d'abord à situer la problématique et la méthodologie adoptées. Il s'agira ensuite de retracer l'évolution de l'offre scolaire de niveau secondaire (selon les types d'établissement), et de mettre en lumière les disparités intra-urbaines (entre quartiers centraux et périphériques). Puis, la communication exposera les principaux résultats issus des analyses statistiques (recours aux régressions logistiques) sur les facteurs de la scolarisation au secondaire, à partir des sources de données mobilisées ; résultats qui seront discutés, avec une réflexion méthodologique critique sur ce type d'approche pour la mesure des inégalités scolaires au post-primaire.
Paper short abstract:
Le présent article analyse les différentes formes d’inégalités sociales, géographiques, de formation en termes d’accès et de réussite qui se développent depuis les processus de réformes de l’enseignement supérieur au Cameroun.
Paper long abstract:
L'expansion de l'enseignement supérieur qui fait suite aux réformes du système se traduit par un ensemble de processus qui se chevauchent. D'un côté, on assiste à la multiplication des institutions publiques et leur essaimage sur l'ensemble du territoire ainsi qu'à l'essor des institutions privées. De l'autre, la diversification des institutions s'accompagne de la reconfiguration de la carte des formations avec l'apparition au sein des institutions publiques et privées de 3 catégories de formations (publiques, payantes et privées). Ces 2 grands processus sont aussi gouvernés par une tendance à la privatisation de certaines politiques de l'éducation et notamment la suppression des œuvres universitaires (bourse, logement, transport, restauration augmentation des frais de scolarité, etc). Cette reconfiguration de la carte de l'enseignement supérieur tend du même coup à créer une hiérarchie entre les institutions et les formations. Elle induit ainsi différentes inégalités quant à l'accès et la réussite dans ce nouvel espace d'enseignement supérieur.
Paper short abstract:
My presentation will take you inside the classroom of a primary school in a Beninese village. You will see how pedagogical models and tools are used in different, bricolaged ways, than foreseen by international and national policy makers; with unintended social consequences.
Paper long abstract:
In my presentation I will introduce you to the day-to-day functioning of a remote village school in Benin. Using the examples of the competence approach and the politics of class repetition I will describe the application of pedagogical tools on the ground, which differs tremendously from the concepts that nurtured the introduction of these policies in Beninese primary schools.
The competence approach was introduced in a number of sub-Saharan African countries in the 1990s. In Benin the approach was implemented in 2001 and has ever since been contested by teachers who feel that this approach exceeds their competencies. Corrective measures have been introduced and teacher training sessions have been carried out. However, what one can observe in Beninese classrooms is often far from being learner-centred and based on pupils' competencies: Group work is reduced to a seating arrangement, and the self-evaluation of pupils' new acquired competencies is performed as an ever repeating ritual. The ability to speak French, which is the language of instruction but not the pupils' mother tongue, remains very low. Despite the government's initiative to reduce repetition rates between sub-cycles in primary schools, class repetition rates are high, especially in areas with insufficient teachers to offer the full six-grade-cycle. Pupils who have to repeat one class are thus obliged to repeat two years, as their school follows a biennial enrolment system. This leads to a long schooling rate for some pupils and to an early drop-out for others whose parents become frustrated with their children's prolonged schooling.
Paper short abstract:
This paper, based on scientific literature and qualitative interviews in Senegal from 2009 to 2012, seeks to understand how instructional time has joined the factors of educational inequality in primary schools and how the situation is linked with representations and strategies of multi-level actors
Paper long abstract:
Since the Jomtien Conference, undeniable progresses towards expanding access to primary education have been registered. But this success has not been met with comparable progress in improving education quality and equity.
This paper seeks to demonstrate that education inequalities in Africa may take various forms. Next to the broad discrimination of learners from poor households or based on the gender, another less acknowledged disparity is lurking behind: the inequality of instructional time. Using Senegal as our case study, we aim to illustrate the way that instructional time, roughly defined as the amount of time students spend learning, is uneven between schools with some providing up to 50% more learning time than others; an inequity which creates significant gaps in learning outcomes. These school time discrepancies are linked to the actions of multi-level actors with various ranks of responsibilities and diverse representations and strategies.
After a description of the causes for instructional time inequalities, we will analyse the responsibilities and strategies of actors from three levels: at the macro level, we will strive to understand the norms of instructional time channelled by international organisations and how they may be irrelevant to the Senegalese social context. At the national level, we shall study the struggle of the Senegalese administration to establish school time a key challenge for education public policy. And at the local level, we will examine how instructional time currently influences families' choices for schooling and is a lethal instrument used by teachers in their recurrent conflicts against the government.
Paper short abstract:
This paper aims at understanding ownership logics and modes of circulation of education norms and models in West Africa. It will draw upon individual interviews of education actors and analyses interactions between various stakeholders in order to understand public policies making processes in education.
Paper long abstract:
Since the year 2000 and the generalisation of education for all programmes in Africa, education public policies had become increasingly internationalised. This paper aims at understanding ownership logics and modes of circulation of education norms and models in West Africa. It will draw upon individual interviews of education actors, operating within governmental (both central and local), international (aide agencies and international organisations) and non governmental organisations based in Dakar, which is a regional hub. The paper will focus on individual trajectories and circulation of people between these various arenas. Special attention will be given to training processes which often boost and provide changes in individual carriers.
The objective of this paper is twofold. It first aims at identifying and analysing the interactions and modes of negotiations between various stakeholders. How donors and international bodies' logics and models are negotiated and incorporated by national education systems? What is the role of individuals in these processes? How do these interactions affect positively and negatively educational policies? Second, such analysis focused on bureaucratic agents will contribute to understand public policies making processes. More broadly, it will also inform the logics of extraversion of African States in an international context.
Paper short abstract:
Le Cap Vert a réussi à massifier, grâce à une réforme dans les années 1990, l’enseignement de base en six ans et l’enseignement secondaire, dans un contexte de forte dépendance de l’extérieur où l’expertise internationale a joué un rôle important à analyser pour comprendre cette politique éducative
Paper long abstract:
Le Cap Vert, petit pays insulaire au large de la côte ouest africaine, a réussi à massifier l'enseignement de base dès 1996 et l'enseignement secondaire à partir de 1999, dans un contexte où les préoccupations de viabilité du pays sont liées à la forte dépendance financière de l'extérieur, l'expansion et l'amélioration du système éducatif sont envisagées en tant que moyens privilégiés de développement du pays. L'augmentation des taux de scolarisation est due à une réforme menée dans les années 1990 qui visait à restructurer le système éducatif (élargissement de scolarité obligatoire à six ans), à moderniser son administration et à améliorer les apprentissages. La réforme a engagé un processus de définition de priorités qui a été complexe, impliquant souvent une interaction contradictoire entre une multitude de forces nationales et internationales et de facteurs dans et en dehors du système éducatif. Ce papier présente une recherche sur le rôle de l'expertise internationale dans les processus de prise de décisions visant la restructuration et la massification de l'enseignement de base dans la lignée de l'Éducation pour Tous, pendant la réforme éducative des années 1990, au Cap Vert. L'analyse porte sur l'influence de l'assistance technique véhiculée au travers les projets de formulation et d'implémentation de cette réforme et la façon dont les cadres capverdiens du Ministère de l'Éducation ont géré, non sans conflits, cette influence. L'analyse est faite à partir d'entretiens avec des acteurs intervenants et des documents concernant les projets. Elle révèle la prudence nationale face aux injonctions internationales
Paper short abstract:
Since 2002, the Senegalese government initiated a new public policy reform toward religious and Arabic education. This communication will be based on the analysis of the "modernization" of the daaras, in order to understand the implementation of a public policy in the field of education.
Paper long abstract:
Koranic schools, known as daaras in Senegal, have entered since 2002 in a global process of reform. Indeed, the government initiated new procedures towards Arabic and religious schooling, which mainly concerns:
- The religious and Arabic teaching in secular public schools;
- The public Franco-Arabic schools;
- The "modernization" of the daaras (koranic schools).
Even though this reform concerning Arabic and religious education still remains "experimental" within the country, it is interesting to see the power reconfigurations produced by the implementation of this education public policy. This presentation will focus on the "modernization" of daaras in Senegal. Not only will we review the government policies, but we will focus on the various actors involved in this process and their different approaches at a local level (NGOs, International Organization, and bilateral cooperation). What role each actor can play in improving the action of "modernizing" the daaras and what instruments are used to do so?
From a local to a global perspective, this presentation aims at reflecting the process of reform in education policies, emphasizing on the identities, the role and the different interactions between the actors engaged specifically in Islamic schooling. The so-called "modernisation" of koranic schools represents a specific public policy, in which the State delegates its responsibility in this sector to a number of private intermediaries and actors such as NGOs, international organizations, local associations, etc.