Learner-centred education and ‘cultural translation’

This paper contests the proposal that learner-centred education (LCE) may simply be a western construct, irrelevant to the current educational needs of developing countries, by arguing that its specific forms will be more effective when introduced through small-scale institutional relationships than through large-scale contracts with national governments. LCE initiatives are more likely to impact successfully if their professional language has been ‘culturally translated’, a process which relates features of the surface level of an intervention to its underlying social relations of production as part of a dialogue which respects addressees not merely as listeners but also as active agents.

► Learner-centred education is not merely a western construct. ► Specific forms of LCE are likely to have greatest impact if introduced to developing countries through small-scale institutional relationships. ► LCE initiatives are more likely to impact successfully if culturally translated. ► Cultural translation, based on Gramsci's model of translatability, relates features of the surface level of a text to its underlying social relations of production.