Ethiopian Education Reform: From Tradition To Nowhere, A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Reform approach in  education plays a decisive role in determining the success or failure of the reforms. The purpose of this Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is, therefore, to examine how education reforms in Ethiopia  were initiated in the last eight decades. To this end, 43 research works were screened using google search and,by applying valid exclusion criteria, a thematic synthesis systematic literature review was conducted on 30 research works (26 articles published in peer reviewed journals and monographs and 4 policy researches). The analysis builds on  Chin and Bennes’s (1994) Strategies for Effecting Change. The findings show political regimes in the history of Ethiopia often employed the power-coercive strategy for  reforming education. Moreover, despite their  irreconcilable difference in ideology,  the constituents of education reforms in the three regimes remained similar in the last eight decades. On the basis of our analysis, conclusions were drawn and implications for future research and reforming education were suggested.