LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN ARUBAN AND CURAÇAOAN SCHOOLS

Abstract

In discussions about education in Aruba and Curaçao, questions about the use of the mother tongue in schools have become a critical topic. It is part of a larger discussion on the language rights of multilingual students in a colonial educational system that prefers Dutch. In this presentation, I demonstrate how the language ideologies, language use, and the construction of identity occurs through formal education in Aruba and Curaçao. Specifically, how by translanguaging, students and teachers can navigate a system that still holds on to part of its colonial history, by subverting antiquated norms of school language. By investigating how ideas about Papiamentu/o, the mother tongue, and other languages on the islands are used in teacher-to-student and peer-to-peer interactions inside and outside of the classroom, I analyze whether this influences how students perform in class and, most crucially, how they see themselves within education. Finally, this dissertation shows how discussions about mother tongue and multilingual education have implications for how language policies in education are created and maintained. Overall, I assess how ideology, language rights, education, and identity intersect through a postcolonial Caribbean society in an era of shifting educational models.