Banca de DEFESA: GBÈNOUKPO GÉRARD NOUATIN

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : GBÈNOUKPO GÉRARD NOUATIN
DATE: 19/03/2024
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: online - RNP vicenteparreiras
TITLE:

INTRODUCTION OF NATIONAL LANGUAGES IN THE FORMAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF BENIN: analysis of half a century of attempts and proposed solutions

KEY WORDS:

beninese languages; national languages; african languages; mother tongue education; educational language policy; decolonial studies; language planning; language policy. linguistic rights.

PAGES: 201
BIG AREA: Lingüística, Letras e Artes
AREA: Lingüística
SUMMARY:

The Republic of Benin, a “former” French colony that gained independence in 1960, has approximately fifty (50) local linguistic codes still dominated by French language, which serves as the sole official language and the only language of formal education. Since independence, for multiple reasons, the successive beninese governments from 1971 until recently have expressed the intention to change this situation, at least in the educational realm, by integrating the beninese languages into the formal education system. Some even took action but have been unsuccessful. Furthermore, since 2018, there has been a political silence surrounding the issue. This is the problem I aimed to contribute to solve through my study. Therefore, I sought to identify possible causes of the failure of the attempts to integrate the beninese languages into the formal education system, from the early 1970s until today, and to suggest ways to address the inferred problems. Thus, I compiled information on the actions taken or planned during each attempt; analyzed these actions to identify causes of failure in the different attempts, and, finally, suggested solutions to address the ongoing issues up to the present day. To do so, I gathered various documents on the educational language policy under study, from which I extracted the research data, which I then processed based on an analysis framework I created. It consists of parameters identified in the literature on the subject as factors of success or failure, both in Benin and in other geographical contexts with similar linguistic situations, as well as in theoretical contributions by Calvet (1987, 2002, 2021) on Language Policy and Planning. Then, I interpreted these data in order to infer the research results. They indicate political and, consequently, ideological causes; lack of resources (material, financial, and human), as well as technical problems, related to the absence or poor planning of the language policy during certain periods and how the action plans have been executed during other attempts. As for the ideas for solving these problems, I drew inspiration from the aforementioned theoretical considerations as well as from others from decolonial studies and thoughts: Benin (1983); Cheikh Anta Diop (1984); Quijano (1992, 2000, 2002); Mignolo (2004, 2017); Maldonado-Torres (2007); Dering (2021), etc. Thereby, the objectives of the study have been achieved, which makes it useful in Benin and in countries with similar situations. Additionally, it represents a valuable contribution to the studies on educational language policy.

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - VICENTE AGUIMAR PARREIRAS
Interno - RENATO CAIXETA DA SILVA
Externo à Instituição - MAURICIO TEIXEIRA MENDES
Externo à Instituição - MAHULIKPLIMI OBED BRICE AGOSSA - CEFET-MG
Externo à Instituição - RENATO DE OLIVEIRA DERING - UNIGOIÁS
Externa à Instituição - RITA DE CÁSSIA AUGUSTO - UFMG
Externo à Instituição - MATEUS ESTEVES DE OLIVEIRA