Understanding the role of language policy in the construction and maintenance of inequalities in Morocco and Tunisia. Abstract in Proceedings of Conference Arabic in Africa: Historical and Sociolinguistic Perspectives, 12-14/2023, University of Bayreuth.

Since the 1970s, studies on language policy (LP) have considered the socioeconomic aspects of LP and its role in establishing inequalities (Rubin & Jernudd 1971; Tollefson 1991; Phillipson 1992; Shohamy 2005; Makoni 2016; Pennycook 2017). Interest in educational institutions as the main place of action for LP has increased in recent years (Tollefson 2015, 2016; Cushing 2019), driving the need for ethnographic research that connects language practices within the school environment with the broader analysis of socio-historical context (Cooper 1989; Hornberger & Johnson 2007; Ricento 2015; Tollefson & Pérez-Milans 2018; Spolsky 2021). The socioeconomic implications of LP have not received enough attention in studies on Morocco and Tunisia, multilingual and postcolonial contexts where language issues have always been at the heart of the debate on identity and social rights. This project employs a mixed methods approach that analyses the ways in which the socioeconomic status (SES) is shaped in and through language policy in education in the Moroccan and Tunisian context. The political metamorphosis that took place after the ‘2008 economic crisis’ and the social protests and revolts in 2010-2011 affect the LP of the countries through the education system and I identify the political, economic and ideological factors influencing the LP and the SES of the Moroccan and Tunisian population after that period with a focus on the higher education field. I investigate the ways in which the language planning established by the Moroccan and Tunisian governments influence the language attitudes, ideologies and practices of university students and professors and thereby contribute to the construction of their socioeconomic status. Two ethnographic studies analyse the ‘real’ language policies of the communities (Spolsky 2012), the Tunisian and Moroccan sociolinguistic contexts and through surveys and interviews with linguistic ‘influencers’ (Badwan 2019) in the university context, I analyse and describe the relationship between various hierarchical levels of language policies (Hornberger & Johnson 2007) and the relationship with the SES of the participants. It will be noticed that even in the higher education context, three inter-related but independent components (Spolsky 2004) such as language practices, language ideologies and language planning reflect socioeconomic hierarchies. The comparative analysis of these two case studies allows to identify new models of language policy that can be considered by the policymakers in order to reduce the inequalities that have increased since 2008 and it can contribute to develop other LP analysis in other multilingual and postcolonial contexts. The data collected show that there is a substantial difference between the de facto LP and the de jure LP. The quantitative analysis of the questionnaires uses the participants' SES as an independent variable and shows us how participants from similar social classes share recurring patterns of language practices, ideologies and planning. The general trend sees a situation in which the lower social classes and the mother tongues (Moroccan, Tunisian, Amazigh varieties) are at a disadvantage due to language planning reflecting language ideologies that put Arabic, French and English on the podium.