Proving what’s possible: tracing the generation of political priority for bilingual education in Senegal
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Iwasaki, Erina
[1]
;
D'Agostino, TJ
[1]
;
Teel, Maria
[1]
;
Daff☪, Moussa
[1]
;
Gassama Mbaye, Mbarou
[1]
;
Ngoné Seck, Aliou
[1]
;
Ka, Fary Silate
[1]
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[1] University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
Township of Portage, Estados Unidos
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- Localización: International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, ISSN 1367-0050, Vol. 29, Nº. 8, 2026, págs. 1037-1057
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
This article contributes to understanding how and why first language-based multilingual education (L1-based MLE) policy is politically prioritized on national agendas in low- and middle-income multilingual countries. Given growing evidence of the efficacy of L1-based MLE in improving learning outcomes, but its relatively rare adoption or implementation at scale, the issue of the generation of political priority is a central question. This article presents results from Senegal’s recent developments in bilingual education (BE) as an illustrative case study of high political prioritization of L1-based MLE. It uses a variant of process tracing (PT) as a qualitative method of causal analysis to identify the factors explaining the generation of high political priority for BE in Senegal. This method, called ‘explaining outcome PT,’ empirically examines a set of theorized causes derived from political science and policy analysis literature to assemble a minimally sufficient explanation of a historical outcome. Key factors that explain the high political priority for BE in Senegal are the combination of national and local actor power, which has legitimized BE over time and provided proofs of concept to overcome barriers such as perceived intractability and implementation difficulty. Transnational influence is a secondary cause, important for policy implementation.
