Learning in Morocco: Language Politics and the Abandoned Educational Dream
Charis Boutieri
Learning in Morocco offers a rare look inside public education in the Middle East. While policymakers see a crisis in education based on demographics and financing, Moroccan high school students point to the effects of a highly politicized Arabization policy that has never been implemented coherently. In recent years, national policies to promote the use of Arabic have come into conflict with the demands of a neoliberal job market in which competence in French is still a prerequisite for advancement. Based on long-term research inside and outside classrooms, Charis Boutieri describes how students and teachers work within, or try to circumvent, the system, whose contradictory demands ultimately lead to disengagement and, on occasion, to students taking to the streets in protest.
Product Details
About Charis Boutieri
Reviews for Learning in Morocco: Language Politics and the Abandoned Educational Dream
H-France
This sophisticated book provides an elegant and useful analysis of the situation of teaching and learning in Moroccan schools. The book explores the numerous strategies used by students to surmount difficulties and to increase their chances of success. It reveals the remarkable influence of linguistic conflicts and the role they play in students' integration, participation, and achievement.
American Anthropologist
Learning in Morocco should be an important reference for students, researchers, and teachers working on education in the postcolonial world.
Anthropology and Education Quarterly
Charis Boutieri's study of language politics in Morocco . . . constitutes the latest in a long line of insightful anthropological studies of North African societies and cultures, and anotherne addition to Indiana University Press's 'Public Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa' series.
Middle Eastern Studies