Doubly-oppressed to doubly-blessed: The reimagining of Vanuatu’s national identity

Fiona Willans, King’s College London

Population: 240,000

Languages: 109

West Ambae

North-East Ambae

Angolovo College

(English-medium)

Collège de Faranako(French-medium)

Catholic

Anglican

1906 – 1980: Joint Anglo-French condominium (New Hebrides)

National language: Bislama (Melanesian Pidgin)

Official languages: English, French & Bislama

School language: English OR French

106 vernaculars with no constitutional status

Clarification of terminology

Anglophone & Francophone – categories exclusive to the domain of education

L1 – all languages spoken before/outside school L2 – the language used as medium of instruction L3 – the ‘other’ language taught as a subject

The current situation ...

“The heritage of the dual education colonial system has not worked to build strong literacy skills, pride in vernacular languages, or bi-lingualism. The dual system is expensive, unsustainable, divisive, and inequitable.” (Vanuatu Education Sector Strategy 2006) Sporadic, but unsuccessful, attempts to introduce L1 medium

education for the early years L1 often banned – feelings of inadequacy (Willans 2011) Duplication of training, materials, assessment, supervision,

administration ... Common to educate one child in the family in a different language

to everyone else 60% Anglophone schools; 40% Francophone – greater

opportunities for higher education and jobs for those who speak English

Attempts to move forward ...

Educational Language Policy Team (July 2009):“This report on the education language policy is one of the series of measures taken by the Ni-Vanuatu authorities to design a new unified and bilingual national education system”

Curriculum Review Team (August 2009):“What the Curriculum Statement Forum is working on is a new national curriculum in both languages”

Compromise? …“Produce a ni-Vanuatu curriculum whatever the language of instruction” (National Curriculum Statement 2010)

Views on the colonial past ...

The New Hebrides: A doubly oppressed colony (Edgell & Kalo 1974)

‘Vanuatu: The end of an episode of schizophrenic colonialism’ (Forster 1980)

Beyond Pandemonium (Lini 1980) Bridging mental boundaries in a postcolonial

microcosm (Miles 1998) ‘Double trouble, and three is a crowd’ (Early 1999) Tufala Gavman (Bresnihan & Woodward 2002) To kill a bird with two stones (MacClancy 2002)

Research framework

Ethnography of language policy (Johnson 2009; Hornberger & Johnson 2011)

Fieldwork 1 (Feb-May 2011) Case study of the way language is used, taught, learnt, regulated and talked about at two secondary schoolsFieldwork 2 (Oct-Nov 2011) Follow-up interviews with principals, teachers, students, and MoE employees Elements of Discourse Historical Approach to CDA

(Blackledge 2005; Reisigl & Wodak 2009) Bilingualism as a social construct (Heller 2007; Stroud 2007);

Discursive construction of national identity (Blackledge 2005; Chick 2001)

‘Identity’ as a complex of micro-hegemonies (Blommaert & Varis 2011)

Three recurring discourses

[The purpose for me is like I just think it’s for students to understand in order for us to have quality education. I don’t care which {laughs} which uh (.) language they learn in? All I care about is that the students learn enough for them to have a future.] (Anglophone teacher – S)

[So it doesn’t matter if I use any language in passing on the knowledge. But like (.) since the school rules are there saying (.) uh yes English is er the medium of passing instruction so (1) must use English all the time?] (AT-S)

[I wish that I knew French {laughs} because (.) not only for the purpose of communicating with French people? But when you go out like (.) you go out (.) outside the country? Then people see you? If they know that you are from Vanuatu? They know that Vanuatu is a bilingual country? Then you should know both languages. And it’s (.) such a shame if you only know one. {Laughs} {Others laugh} When you go and sit down in the class and they say hands up you are from Vanuatu? Then you put your hand up and then they ask if you know French {laughs} and English I say no I only know English {laughs}. So that’s an embarrassment that I don’t know French. I really want to learn French.] (AT-S)

Topoi: a useful analytic tool

“Common-sense reasoning” (van Dijk 2000)“Plausible argumentation schemes” (Reisigl & Wodak

2009)

(Topos of pedagogical priority) (Topos of institutional appropriateness) Topos of postcolonial national identity Topos of united national identity Topos of traditional national identity Topos of unique national identity

Preamble to the constitution (1980)

WE the people of Vanuatu,PROUD of our struggle for freedom,DETERMINED to safeguard the achievements of this

struggle,CHERISHING our ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity,MINDFUL at the same time of our common destiny,HEREBY proclaim the establishment of the united and free

Republic of Vanuatu founded on traditional Melanesian values, faith in God, and Christian principles,

AND for this purpose give ourselves this Constitution.

postcolonial

united traditional

Heritage = indigenous

The Republic of Vanuatu shall protect the different local languages which are part of the national heritage. (Article 3(2) of the Constitution 1980)

The vernacular languages of Vanuatu are a national heritage and a global treasure. Few countries in the world are so richly endowed. Our local languages will be protected. (Curriculum statement 2010)

traditional

A common ni-Vanuatu identity

Parents, educators, and political leaders have said they wish to see an education system that is neither a British system nor a French system but rather a ni-Vanuatu system. (Masterplan 1999)

Director of Basic Education : [Still today we say Francophone Anglophone. We speak English. We. That’s it the language policy wants to carry out this barrier. Between the two. And we take those two people and they become one. Only one Ni-Vanuatu.]

FP: [Like now you see us. A Francophone and an Anglophone? They don’t go together. Something now that we are trying to do so you forget this idea. We become man Vanuatu.]

postcolonial

united

Heritage discourse shift from ...

In the early 1960s, the use of the French and English languages in our schools was enforced by the condominium authorities. At this time, schools mostly used imported materials from France and England and other colonized countries in Africa and the Pacific. Our Constitution reflects this heritage when it says that the principal languages of education are French and English. Support for Francophone and Anglophone schools by the respective Condominium partners created a dual system of education based on these colonial languages. This dual system still exists today but the curriculum will now become the same for all schools. Our education system is challenging this dual system. We recognize the need to harmonize the curriculum for Francophones and Anglophones so that all children follow the same curriculum and have the same opportunities irrespective of their language background. (National curriculum statement 2010)postcolonial

united

to ...

Director of Basic Education: [Before when we were in the condominium? Then the two powers introduced English and French but when we came to Independence? We have to make a choice. Have to make a choice so I think about the leaders of that time. When they wrote the constitution? They discussed it a lot yes. They argued. Some of them say we should drop French and use English. Some of them say no drop English and use French. So they argued a lot? But what is good is they come (.) they came to an agreement. They said that the French have gone already. The English will go. But us? The two languages that are here we will adopt them. As languages of Vanuatu. So French English in Vanuatu today? Is not a language for French or English. It’s also Vanuatu language.]

postcolonial ?

English and French as heritage

We wish to preserve English and French as the principal languages of our education system (Masterplan 1999)

 Goal Five: Protect our local languages and the principal

languages of education English and French (MoE 2002)

[Director of Policy & Planning: it’s in our constitution that we use either English or French. But (.) for me. It’s a heritage that we have brought here. ... Because in the colonial time? We had English and we had French. So:: it’s something that we have brought here. We shouldn’t throw away everything. There are some good things. And er those good things we must keep.]

traditional ?

Vanuatu’s language policies and languages of instruction are part of the national identity and protection of culture, and are enshrined in the Constitution. (VESS 2006)

Article 3. (1) The national language of the Republic of Vanuatu is Bislama. The official languages are Bislama, English and French. The principal languages of education are English and French.

(2) The Republic of Vanuatu shall protect the different local languages which are part of the national heritage, and may declare one of them as a national language.

‘Bilingualism’ = as unity

[AT-M: It’s like an identity for us? To know two languages.]

[FT-D: But one (.) thing we want? Vanuatu now. What they are talking about at the moment. They want Vanuatu to be bilingual. So the system we have that says this and this. They want everyone to (.) you speak English the same as you speak French. Just the same. So here they will say no. We become bilingual now.]

[AT-T: It’s sort of an identity as well. When you get to know both languages? Then you go out you feel that yes you are from Vanuatu now.]

united ?

A unique, ‘bilingual’ identity

[The heritage we have been able to maintain so successfully, in spite of the diverse challenges that we have encountered and overcome [from part] the past and that I will not dwell on, easily allows us to be identified as being the only country of the region able to claim the French language and the English language as a universal tool of communication in general and for the transmission of knowledge in particular. Minister of Education 21/3/09]

[FP: Us here? We introduced the rule that when the children come inside the school area? They should speak French or English. Because now we are like one- the only country in the Pacific that’s (.) bilingual. The only country in the Pacific. Out of us in the Pacific that’s it. So (.) I think that when like (.) if a child makes an effort to (.) he want to get things in his future.]

Unique

National identity

Rejection of history ... Heritage = Cultures

and languages that have always been there

Unity = Ending the divisions imposed by joint colonialism

Uniqueness = Complexity that needs to be dealt with

Embracing heritage ... Heritage = All cultures

and languages that are part of Vanuatu’s history

Unity = Everyone speaking both English and French

Uniqueness = Pride at being the only ‘bilingual’ country in the Pacific

Concluding questions

For the discourse analyst: Each element of each ‘national identity’ discourse is logical.

For the policymaker: Does there need to be an ‘overall logic’ that situates learning within its wider institutional and social contexts? Are policymakers drawing on the notions of ‘heritage’ and ‘identity’ in different ways to suit different purposes?

For students and teachers: Do reconceptualisations of national identity serve to maintain the “expensive, unsustainable, divisive, and inequitable” education system? Does this affect learning? Are there spaces (e.g. Chick 2001; Ramanathan 2005) for other languages to be used productively, despite school and government policies?

For Ni-Vanuatu: Whose interests are served? Who gains what from this new version of ‘identity’?

References

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