‘You’ll be very far from this place’: Temporal and spatial aspirations at Bridge International Academies in Kenya

Abstract

The association between aspirations and education across the African continent is widely recognized. However, it is only in recent years that scholars began observing this connection in the context of the booming low-fee private schools (LFPS) sector. In this article, we consider the case of one of Kenya’s most prominent LFPS actors, a chain of primary schools called Bridge International Academies (BIA). Despite catering for a lower-class clientele, BIA bears ostensible markers of privilege, in the form of a veneer of internationality and intensive application of technology. Indeed, while BIA’s main promise relates to performance on the critical Kenyan Certificate Primary Education exam as a gateway to a better future, such promises are profoundly infused with ideas that appear disconnected from the harsh material conditions of the schools’ clients and staff. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in BIA schools in Nairobi focused on teachers and staff, we show the appeal of the language of internationalism to socio-economically marginalized Kenyans and consider its multiple interpretations within local imaginations.