Insights from the archives: British development aid and English language teaching

ABSTRACT

Britain has funded English language teaching (ELT) initiatives in developing countries for decades, despite changes in government and a series of substantial overhauls in the administration of development aid. This article reveals the relevance of ideational factors in explaining how ELT remained a key part of Britain’s aid policy during a period of significant domestic and international change. It uses constructivist institutionalism to interpret an extensive range of evidence from government archives spanning a twenty-two year period (1964–1986). It sheds light on how and why certain ideas become normalised and institutionally embedded over time, and become the cognitive template through which key actors form policy preferences.

KEYWORDS:

• Political discourse
• language policies
• language learning
• education

Acknowledgements

This research study was made possible with financial assistance from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I am grateful to colleagues who provided feedback on previous drafts, including Sue Wright, Hilary Footitt, Erla Thrandardottir, Melita Lazell, Richard McMahon and the members of the Transnational Civil Society research project at the University of Portsmouth. I am deeply grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Arts and Humanities Research Council.