| This study explores the perspectives of participants involved in the implementation of Mali's pedagogie convergent (convergent pedagogy) bilingual education program. Convergent pedagogy consists of three changes in educational practice: use of students' first languages (L1) in the early primary grades with a gradual transition to the use of French (L2); changes in teacher practice; and the inclusion of local content. The program became national policy in 1999. In SY2005-06, Mali had almost 4,000 convergent pedagogy classrooms (out of a total of approximately 21,000 public and community school classrooms) (Ministere de l'Education Nationale , 2005; World Bank, 2006).; This study used interviews and classroom observations to examine the perspectives of actors in the convergent pedagogy implementation network: graduates, parents, teachers, principals, and pedagogic advisors (teacher support personnel). Data were collected in three study schools: a French-only school, a convergent pedagogy-only school, and a larger school, which had classrooms using both methods. The focus on actors' perspectives illuminated reasons for partial success and obstacles to deeper implementation, including teachers' response to a changed classroom climate, where students were able to communicate their understandings and show enthusiasm for learning; the isolation of actors; and the impact of systemic challenges on actors' ability to implement the reform and perceptions of the reform's legitimacy.; The research findings argue that challenging reform can be implemented in difficult contexts with minimal teacher support, when reform design is sufficiently compelling. This should not be taken to mean that these implementation conditions were satisfactory; rather, that important reform may be possible even when systems lack capacity. When teachers began to use students' first language and changed student-teacher interaction patterns, the impact on student learning and classroom climate convinced them of the importance of the reform. Parents, who continued to be primarily concerned about French learning and related credentialing, were reassured by high exam pass rates, a deliberate feature of reform design. Changes in the national context have created parental interest in other outcomes such as learning and community development, creating further space for the introduction of the reform. Administrators also saw high pass rates as important and were willing to provide rhetorical support to the reform, although they took no action to deepen implementation.; Convergent pedagogy has survived because it has become an iterative, developmental reform. The designer's original vision of a multi-faceted and completely new approach to teaching has been transformed: the reform has become an approach that teachers can use immediately, with minimal preparation and no support, and then continue to learn as they continue to teach. The parameters of the reform are adapted by each teacher according to their level of skill and commitment. As such, it is a promising approach to the attainment of Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). |
