Built Where It Is Used

Purpose: Education reforms and technologies imported from elsewhere have a long record of looking successful while failing to change what happens in classrooms. This paper asks what it means for digital learning to be local, and whether locality bears on effectiveness and sustainability or only on sentiment. Design: A theory-building narrative review draws on the literatures on design-reality gaps and isomorphic mimicry in development, language of instruction, learner-centred pedagogy, open educational resources and digital public goods, and on experimental evidence from Kenya. Findings: Locality operates at three layers. At the layer of language and content, mismatch between the language of instruction and the learner's language is a major, documented barrier, and Kenyan evidence shows that materials in the languages learners use, combined with in-classroom support, improve reading. At the layer of pedagogy, models promoted by international agencies have often been adopted in form without being sustained in practice, and teacher knowledge and support are binding constraints. At the layer of institutions, open licensing, exportable content, local hosting and local partnership determine whether a solution can be adapted, repaired and sustained by those who use it. Kenyan and continental policy frameworks give providers a clear mandate to build locally. Implications: Five tests of local substance and six testable propositions are offered. The paper also states the risks of the position, including the danger that locality becomes a slogan. Originality: The paper integrates development theory, language-in-education research and digital public goods standards into an operational framework for digital learning providers, and applies it reflexively.