Bilingualism, Conflicts, and Language Ideologies in Education Policies: The Case of Cameroon

This article draws on the case of conflict-affected and multilingual Cameroon to analyze how education materials address national unity and multilingualism amidst an identity crisis fueled by tensions between Anglophones and a central government accused of favoring Francophones. Through a discourse analysis of one policy document, 13 curricula, and 27 civics, history, and geography textbooks, we highlight how language ideologies diffuse in educational discourse and are used as an instrument of power or resistance to dominant ideologies and narratives that shape national identity. We find that competing language ideologies are diffused unevenly in the Anglophone and Francophone textbooks, while Francophone textbooks praise a homogenous national unity.