Imagining educational futures? SDG4 enactment for ethnic minorities in Laos

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) began with the ambition of reducing inequalities in education. This paper unpacks the enactment of SDG4 in Laos in relation to ethnic minority students by three groups of policy actors: policymakers, donor agencies, and teachers in an ethnic minority boarding school. Informed by Nancy Fraser’s three dimensions of social justice (distribution, recognition, and representation), the findings show that SDG4 targets as well as subsequent national policy documents were restricted to the distributive dimension. Even distributive justice for ethnic minorities was limited to basic education and technical and vocational training, with decreased access to university scholarships–a potential pathway out of poverty. Combined with meritocratic approaches and the absence of policy support to alleviate cultural and political disenfranchisement, SDG4 enactment in the Lao context appears to contribute to further difficulties for ethnic minority students’ upward mobility and their capacity to imagine enhanced educational futures.