| The Education for All (EFA) policy has powerfully influenced national education policies. Despite such overt influence, these policies have fallen short of achieving the two key objectives of EFA: achieving universal access to education and basic learning at the primary level of schooling. This study investigates the EFA experiences in Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi, and finds that in these countries, challenges to access and learning persist. What is more, many of the challenges to achieving the objectives have been unintentionally created, or exacerbated, by the EFA policy. An increase in after-school learning programs and private schools, more unqualified teachers, higher teacher: student ratios, and inappropriate curricula, are but four examples of unintended consequences EFA has had in southeastern Africa that this dissertation explores. In addition, local stakeholders have been widely excluded from the policy development process, and there are no regularized channels for local stakeholders to provide feedback regarding their perceptions of the relative successes and failures of policy implementation. From these empirical findings, one can speculate that outcomes of the Education for All policy could be improved if a greater degree of local involvement existed. Indeed, this is the perception of local actors.;The research uses these findings to add to the growing research on global social policy as example of global norms influencing national policies. Finnemore and Sikkink's model of the norm lifecycle is widely used in global social policy literature to explain the adoption of globally constructed norms into national policies. This research expands this model further by asserting that a final step to global norm implementation – internalization at the local level – is necessary. It is only when challenges and experiences at the local level are recognized that policies can best achieve their desired objectives. |
