Research Article

Language-in-Education Planning for Foreign Languages in Morocco: Analyzing the Historical and Structural Impacts of History, Social Class, Ideology, and Power Dynamics

Authors

  • Zakaria Jamaati Department of English Language & Culture, at the Faculty of Languages, Arts, and Human Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Ait Melloul, Morocco https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3717-5969
  • Naima Trimasse Department of English Studies, at the Faculty of Letters & Human Sciences, Agadir, Morocco. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6338-2347
  • Mohamed El Ghazi Department of English Studies, at the Faculty of Letters & Human Sciences, Agadir, Morocco

Abstract

The present paper analyzes language-in-education planning for foreign languages within the Moroccan educational system. These policies have been adopted and/or implemented as part of three successive educational reforms that the state has undergone in the last 25 years (e.g., the National Charter 1999, the Emergency Program 2008, and the Strategic Vision 2015). Despite the state’s advocacy for varying foreign language instruction, these policies have been marked by a consolidation of French instruction as a primary foreign language and a shift to using it as a medium of instruction for science and technology subjects in middle and secondary education as part of language alternation pedagogy. The study adopts Tollefson’s (1991) Historical-Structural Approach as a conceptual framework to analyze how the constructs of history, class structures, ideology, and power dynamics have influenced language-in-education planning to perpetuate the social, economic, and political privileges of a francophone-oriented elite. The latter have employed their economic and political power to influence the indecisive aspect of the language-in-education policies—both covertly and overtly—to increase socioeconomic inequalities and injustices, including linguistic disparities between the elite and lower social classes. This dominant position of French within the educational system has also been motivated by external influences, manifested in the heavy political and economic relationship with France, the former colonizer.

Article information

Journal

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Studies

Volume (Issue)

6 (11)

Pages

01-21

Published

30-10-2024

How to Cite

Jamaati, Z., Trimasse, N., & El Ghazi, M. (2024). Language-in-Education Planning for Foreign Languages in Morocco: Analyzing the Historical and Structural Impacts of History, Social Class, Ideology, and Power Dynamics. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Studies, 6(11), 01-21. https://doi.org/10.32996/jhsss.2024.6.11.1

Downloads

Views

40

Downloads

23

Keywords:

Language-in-education planning; Historical-Structural Approach; Class structures; Ideology; Power dynamics; social injustice; Morocco