Decolonising language education policy: Beyond the imagination of francophones identities

Decolonising language education policy: Beyond the imagination of Francophone identities

Key words: Africa, francophone identities, language policy, multilingualism

In March 2018, the Macron government launched its language policy "Une ambition pour la langue française et le plurilinguisme", to counter the hegemonic place of English in the world and to boost the standing of French language education. Continuing the French government’s history of promoting French language and culture worldwide, the current policy of the Macron government has as its focus the promotion of ’francophonie’ in African countries: « Il y a bien longtemps que la langue française n’est plus uniquement française. Elle est d’autant, voire davantage africaine que française » (Macron, 20172)

This paper is drawn from a larger research project that explores the objectives of this policy, and how teachers of French in various African countries understand, engage with and implement this policy in practice. The focus of this paper are the findings from a policy analysis, including supporting government documents such as media releases and presidential speeches, and corresponding curriculum documents.

Engaging the lens of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the findings revealed tensions between a conventionally imagined francophone world that continues to be conceptualised as mono-cultural, mono-lingual and mono-ideological; and multilayered perceptions of the place, intention and direction of French language education in a globalised world. This analysis brought to light the complex interplay of neo-colonial discourses of geography, hegemony and internationalisation which frame the document’s approach. It brought to view the ambivalent conditions which frame these language education policies, their engagement with the African speakers’ multilingual and multicultural identities and the teachers and learners from the margin to the ‘centre’.

The authors contend that commitment to the ‘future of the francophonie’ and of ‘le plurilinguisme’ be supported by a more reflexive understanding of the interplay between crucial concepts which frame the policy’s approach to French language education (French nationalism, standard language and European French culture) and provide a stronger challenge to the neo-colonial and neoliberal assumptions which are central to its contention.