NEOLIBERAL COLONIZATION OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE POLICIES IN MOROCCO: AN INTERDISCURSIVE ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v5i5.427Keywords:
neoliberal education policy, language policy, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), interdiscursivity, MoroccoAbstract
In the contemporary educational milieu, the conspicuous sway of 'neoliberal reason' is unmistakable. It is undeniable that neoliberalism increasingly shapes global as well as national educational systems. Morocco, driven by legitimate economic aspirations, has not been immune to the infiltration of neoliberal ideologies into its educational discourse. Based on qualitative data, this study posits that neoliberal discourse has effectively 'colonized' Moroccan educational and linguistic policies and has succeeded to a large extent in making them align with dominant neoliberal market principles. Employing corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis (CACDA), the paper examines the interdiscursive relationships between neoliberalism and the official educational and linguistic policies in the Moroccan context. The findings showed that the neoliberal discourse in Morocco commodified education, perpetuated linguistic hierarchies favouring foreign languages, and subtly advanced a covert vocationalization policy as evident in more recent educational reforms. Based on these results, this study draws attention to the profound influence of neoliberalism in reshaping the educational agenda within the Moroccan education system and highlights some of the systemic inequalities resulting therefrom.
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