(Neo-)Colonialism and the Governance of Education in West Africa

This book explores the agenda-setting and mediation of the education decentralisation policy in Benin as a postcolonial, francophone context in West Africa.

As such, it throws into sharp relief how far education decentralisation, as a global governance reform, informs policy and practice. The research draws on qualitative data with more than 80 research participants, including semi-structured interviews with high and middle-ranking officials from the Education, Decentralisation and Planning Ministries as well head teachers, teachers, parents and members of teacher unions in Benin. Bulgrin shows how decentralisation remains core tool of international organisations for promoting democracy, good governance and economic development, and how its advocates view it as a requirement for achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. The book draws on decolonial and postcolonial theories and concepts raised by Afican scholars’, such as Adesina, Mbembe and Mkandwire as well as Ball’s policy development framework and critical discourse analysis. It contributes to wider debates on education policy, governance, and decentralisation across the Global South. The book includes a preface by Abdel Rahamane Baba-Moussa, General Secretary of the Conference of Ministers of Education of French-speaking States and Governments, Maurice Athindehou, Director of the previous Decentralisation Department of the Beninese Ministry for Pre- and Primary Education and Yusuf Sayed, Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Eva Bulgrin is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sussex, UK, and a Temporary Lecturer at the University of Münster, Germany.