The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Teachers’ needs and agency in times of low-fee private schools: The case of Kenya
Open accessAbstract
The proliferation of low-fee private schools (LFPSs) in the global South is one manifestation of the marketization of education. LFPS literature on teachers emphasize exploitation, de-professionalization, and higher accountability, but teachers’ own voice and representation has largely been absent. Based on interviews with 35 Kenyan LFPS and public-school teachers in one urban and one rural area, this paper partly fills this gap by investigating teachers’ own experiences with marketization. The different teachers’ needs and sense of professionalism showed great similarities, yet their type of employment shaped their work and agency. LFPSs alleviated public school (hereafter PS) overcrowding, but high pupil mobility in the education market affected teaching and learning in both LFPS and PSs negatively. LFPS teachers adopted strategies (teaching-to-the-test, deviating from pre-scripted lessons) to retain and attract pupils to keep their jobs.
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“This model is exemplified by Bridge International Academies operations in developing countries, where technological surveillance tracks lesson commencement, pacing, and completion through teacher tablets”
From A prescriptive continuum analytical framework for measuring school curriculum structure (2026) · cites this paper as Falkensjö and Olsson 2022
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Hulme, M. (2026) · Educational Action Research · doi:10.1080/09650792.2026.2626541 · Cited by 2
“This model is exemplified by Bridge International Academies operations in developing countries, where technological surveillance tracks lesson commencement, pacing, and completion through teacher tablets (Falkensjö and Olsson 2022; Riep 2019).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Falkensjö, S., & Olsson, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Olsson, Jerry
- Venue
- Cogent Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-03-04
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2331-186X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4214888235
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 1.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Cogent Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse (F18-0428)
- Stiftelsen Margit Althins Stipendiefond (AL2018-0007)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Global Educational Policies and Reforms
- Social Sciences › Education › Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities
- Keywords
- low-fee private schools, marketization of education, teacher agency, teacher professionalism, teacher needs, public schools, pupil mobility, teaching to the test, deprofessionalization, Kenya
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