Teachers’ Residual Agency in a Protracted Crisis: Everyday Negotiations around Income (DR Congo)

Abstract

This article analyses politico-administrative processes that shape the teaching profession in protracted crises. It draws on qualitative fieldwork in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The article demonstrates how teacher agency can become a mere residual of a poorly functioning administration and donors’ accommodation of reform failure. To do so, the article looks at teacher agency in the DRC vis-à-vis three essential elements: teacher registration, remuneration, and payment modalities. This article concludes that teachers’ space of maneuver is not necessarily shaped by strong top-down reforms that teachers have to negotiate or accommodate. The Congolese case instead demonstrates that teachers’ agency can be severely limited by a system’s astonishing propensity to withstand reform.