Start Date

13-9-2018 2:30 PM

End Date

13-9-2018 3:00 PM

Description

Citation: Guilhem Florigny, Langues, éducation et discrimination dans la République de Maurice, Lame dan lame? La main dans la main? Hand in Hand? Conference, University of Mauritius and University of Wollongong, 2019.

Abstract: The Republic of Mauritius, independent for half a century today, is seen as a country where respect for the majority and diversity of its multicultural society prevails. Nevertheless, these past thirty years have seen numerous conflicts taking the form of inter-community tensions, denunciation of “malaise creole” by Father Roger Cerveaux in 1994, death of Creole singer Kaya in 1999, Truth and Justice Commission in 2009. A report on discrimination in Mauritius was submitted to the United Nations by the NGO Positive Action in 2018.

In this paper, we analyse the links between languages, education and social inequalities from a historical perspective. Since our PhD thesis on language acquisition by bilingual Mauritian pupils in primary schooling, we have been looking into the educational system prevailing in Mauritius, asking ourselves a number of questions on how the education system has evolved since colonial times concerning:

  • How the subjects were chosen?
  • How the structure of the education system was decided?
  • How the Mauritian state chose the formulae for the primary and secondary examinations and why?

We postulate in this paper that discrimination starts from the beginning of socialisation in schools and that it deliberately promotes the elites of the country while forbidding the others from obtaining basic knowledge, which brings along social mobility.

Comments

Bio: Dr Guilhem Florigny is a Lecturer at the University of Mauritius since January 2011. He completed his doctoral thesis in 2010 at Paris-Ouest-Nanterre-La Défense University (with congratulations from the jury) on the acquisition of Kreol Morisien and French by Mauritian children. His current research focuses on the acquisition of language in a multilingual environment and more particularly on oral and written productions of primary school children together with representations of language of primary school teachers.

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Sep 13th, 2:30 PM Sep 13th, 3:00 PM

Langues, éducation et discrimination dans la République de Maurice

Citation: Guilhem Florigny, Langues, éducation et discrimination dans la République de Maurice, Lame dan lame? La main dans la main? Hand in Hand? Conference, University of Mauritius and University of Wollongong, 2019.

Abstract: The Republic of Mauritius, independent for half a century today, is seen as a country where respect for the majority and diversity of its multicultural society prevails. Nevertheless, these past thirty years have seen numerous conflicts taking the form of inter-community tensions, denunciation of “malaise creole” by Father Roger Cerveaux in 1994, death of Creole singer Kaya in 1999, Truth and Justice Commission in 2009. A report on discrimination in Mauritius was submitted to the United Nations by the NGO Positive Action in 2018.

In this paper, we analyse the links between languages, education and social inequalities from a historical perspective. Since our PhD thesis on language acquisition by bilingual Mauritian pupils in primary schooling, we have been looking into the educational system prevailing in Mauritius, asking ourselves a number of questions on how the education system has evolved since colonial times concerning:

  • How the subjects were chosen?
  • How the structure of the education system was decided?
  • How the Mauritian state chose the formulae for the primary and secondary examinations and why?

We postulate in this paper that discrimination starts from the beginning of socialisation in schools and that it deliberately promotes the elites of the country while forbidding the others from obtaining basic knowledge, which brings along social mobility.