Educational Policy Change and Historical Institutional Analysis: Concept and Theory

Abstract

The relevance of a theoretical and conceptual bases of any empirical research cannot be overemphasized. The current study has been situated within the framework of historical institutionalism. A path dependence approach – a key theoretical model in historical institutionalism – augmented by a partisan thesis has been vetted appropriate for accomplishing the task at hand. In applying the foregoing joint theoretical approach, educational policy has been clarified to mean a bureaucratic instrument with which to administer the expectations the public has of education. A review of literature reveals changes in educational policy are driven by a constellation of factors not limited only to the educational sphere but as well extending into the domains of social, political and economic spheres. In conceptualizing educational policy change, the governmental system shaped by the left-right divide has been a useful analytic approach. The approach supports the existence of an eclectic mix of social democracy and political liberalism in African countries. Party programmes, interest groups and policy transfer processes all shape national policies on education. Structural persistence in institutional patterns thus lends itself to analytic treatment by theoretical approaches capable of capturing both institutional and dynamic processes of change.