My objective is to add more diversity to the high school French curriculum by including the French-speaking countries in Africa and the Caribbean that often lack in our teaching. As stated above, it gives our teaching a partial view of the French-speaking world or le monde francophone. In the last two decades or more, France has made progress in representing minorities in the country's cultural life. However, the teaching of French not only by individuals on their private YouTube channels but also in standardized methods excludes diversity.
My aim in this project is to focus on colonial history, art, and literature. I will look for particularities in the French colonial system, symbolism, shared values, and traditions that made the colonial culture unique and a vital part of Francophonie.
I will raise awareness among French teachers to look at the curriculum more rationally and be open to the idea of teaching French for social justice and outside of the current framework. The unit's premise is to argue that Francophonie, as part of linguistic and cultural policy, alienates the former French colonies, their contribution to diversity, cultural tradition, and heritage. And finally, we must look at the Francophonie as a new way of including various cultures, dialects and traditions.
In this curriculum unit, students will:
- Examine through mapping, pictures, and paintings the enterprise of French colonization of Africa; its ideology, history, and its impact in general, but mainly in the region otherwise known as Afrique Noire.
- Define "assimilation" as a term and the ruling ideology in French Africa, especially in the "Four Communes" region of Senegal.
- Define through art the ideology of the oppressed.
- Explore why many French intellectuals of African and Caribbean background writers, and artists diverted from the idea of the overarching culture and civilization to form a culture that is indigenous to Africa yet modern and contemporary.
