‘Just keep silent’. Teaching under the control of authoritarian governments: A qualitative study of government schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

In the light of globally resurging authoritarianism, this paper investigates how Ethiopia’s prior ruling party Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front governed teachers to produce conformity with the regime’s objectives. The study draws from qualitative data collected in late 2018 in Addis Ababa with 77 education actors. We demonstrate how ordinary educational governance mechanisms serve as apparatuses of surveillance and sanction that create a climate of fear. The rigid control significantly hinders teachers in their everyday work by isolating and paralysing them. Despite recent changes in Ethiopia’s political system, this study underlines the need to consider the challenges that teachers face due to authoritarian control in discussions about education’s potential to contribute to democracy and peace.