Navigating Educational Policy Reforms in Ethiopia: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Implementation Challenges

This mixed-methods study examines the implementation challenges of Ethiopia’s recent educational policy reforms (2021–2026), addressing the persistent gap between ambitious policy objectives and on-the-ground execution. Framed by scholarship on educational policy implementation and complex adaptive systems, the research investigates how systemic and contextual factors impede reform within a resource-constrained environment. A sequential explanatory design was employed. First, a quantitative survey of 350 teachers and school leaders across four regions was conducted using stratified random sampling to measure the prevalence of systemic barriers. Subsequently, 45 purposively selected stakeholders—including policymakers, regional officials, and teachers—participated in in-depth qualitative interviews and focus group discussions to explore underlying rationales and contextual nuances. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data underwent thematic analysis. Integration occurred at the interpretation stage, where qualitative findings explained and elaborated the quantitative results. Key findings identify three interconnected impediments: chronic infrastructural and resource deficits, inadequately supported teacher professional development, and ambiguous decentralised management structures. The analysis reveals that a predominantly top-down implementation approach marginalises local stakeholder agency during adaptation. This study contributes an empirically grounded, multi-stakeholder perspective from the Global South, arguing that sustainable reform requires more participatory, context-sensitive strategies and strengthened institutional capacity. It offers practical implications for Ethiopian policymakers and contributes to broader discourses on educational transformation in complex systems.