‘Re-imagining’ international education development? Enacting inclusive and equitable quality education policy for ethnic minorities in Laos

By the end of 2015, Education for All 2000-2015 (EFA) was drawing to a close. While it contributed to a significant increase in access to education in low-income countries, it was criticised for failing to benefit the most marginalised children in these countries. In Laos, ethnic minorities have been marginalised economically, culturally, and politically, and have been left behind educationally; this is the case even as Laos made impressive progress under the EFA as a whole, through working in concert with external donor agencies. In 2016, a new global education framework, the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (‘SDG4’), supported by the United Nations, was announced, emphasising ‘inclusive and equitable quality education’. However, it was unclear whether and how this new global education policy initiative would be enacted on a national level to provide better educational experiences for marginalised children. Contributing to the scarcity of research on ethnic minorities’ education in Laos, this research seeks to reveal how SDG4 has been taken up as part of the educational reform agenda in Laos in relation to ethnic minorities, drawing upon insights from key government and donor agency personnel, as well as educators working ‘on the ground’, to help make sense of the policy trajectory that characterised such reforms.The analysis is informed by Fraser’s (2009) three dimensions of social justice – redistribution, recognition and representation – to examine the dimensions of ‘inclusive and equitable quality education’ imagined by policy actors. The study also draws upon Pholsena’s (2006) view of multiple national imaginations within a society, and the effects of a broader ‘culture of secrecy’ in Laos, to capture different imaginations that characterised different policy actors’ enactments of SDG4. Overarching these conceptual resources, the trajectory of SDG4 was analysed in light of S. J. Ball et. al.’s (2012) processes of policy as text, policy as discourse, and policy as enacted in relation to relevant policy actors. For policy as text, policy documents from the Lao government were analysed. For policy as discourse, discourses which influenced policy actors’ imaginations have been examined. For policy enactment, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with three groups of policy actors: “people with power” (government policy makers), “people with influence” (donor agency development workers), and “people with interest” (teachers in an ethnic minority school) (Zhao & Baldauf, 2008, as cited in Zhao, 2011, p. 910). Through this ‘toolbox’ theoretical and methodological approach to policy analysis (S. J. Ball, 1993), which I termed ‘trajectories of equitable policy imaginations’, this research demonstrates both the diversity and homogeneity of policy actors’ imaginations, as well as how these were dependent upon where in the policy trajectory these policy actors were positioned. The research also reveals the gap between policy aspirations and what these policy actors believed that they could actually do, given the circumstances in which they found themselves.The findings of the research revealed that despite the increased attention to ethnic minorities after SDG4, the policy documents and imaginations of government policy makers disregarded linguistic, cultural and political inequalities facing ethnic minorities, lowered their access to the higher-tier futures associated with university education, and instead directed them to lower-tier vocational paths (which were considered less desirable amongst the majority ethnic group). Donor agency development workers tried to negotiate with the government policymakers and were able to elicit some compromises in relation to students’ circumstances. While teachers in the ethnic minority school were generally the most progressive in outlook, the actual enactments of their imaginations were heavily restricted by more dominant policy discourses. While the policy actors were sometimes creative in their responses to trying to secure greater equity, it was evident that there is a need for much greater consideration on the part of the governments about the effects of their policy decisions.SDG4’s goals and targets focused predominantly on the distributive side of education, such as access to education and literacy rates, without adequately addressing cultural and political inequalities in education. The Lao government’s interpretation of SDG4 also focused largely on the distributive dimension. While SDG4 was able to bring increased attention to ethnic minorities in Laos, due to its often-unidimensional take on inequalities, expanding educational opportunities appeared to lead simply to the reproduction of unequal social structures. Seeking to understand and influence key policy actors’ imaginations for how key education development policies can enhance educational provision for the most marginalised students in society is a key outcome of the research. Also, this research revealed how a ‘culture of secrecy’ was a key contextual element which influenced policy actors’ imaginations and enactments of policies in relation to ethnic minorities in Laos. The findings of this research suggest the limitations of existing efforts to re-imagine education development policy, and the need for a much more multi-dimensional theorisation of inequalities facing ethnic minorities if SDG4 is to genuinely deliver on the promise of ‘inclusive and equitable quality education’ for ethnic minorities.