Languages, schooling, and the (re-)construction of identity in contemporary Lebanon

In Lebanon, the symbolic value of language has held prominence in religious and secular nationalist discourses and ideological struggles over the last century, as bilingual educational practices spread through missionary and colonial institutions. This dissertation examines the interaction between various contemporary discourses on languages, schooling, and community affiliation across different religious, socioeconomic, and language-schooling contexts in Greater Beirut, Lebanon. Drawing on the disciplines of sociology and political science for its theoretical underpinnings, and on extensive qualitative and quantitative data collected over a 21-month period, in 2005, 2006, and 2007, the study employs a multi-site qualitative design within a broader survey-based inquiry to understand how top-down and bottom-up language policies and their embedded discourses intersect in the educational space. Based largely on interview and observational data at ten religious and secular schools and surveys involving 1000 secondary school youth from Beirut's diverse neighborhoods, the dissertation offers an analysis of how these policies play out during periods of crisis.;The data demonstrate that across schools, larger sociopolitical conflicts are creating a push toward foreign languages, for security purposes. At the same time, these conflicts are creating a pull toward Arabic to demonstrate patriotic ties. In contrast to previous research, the study shows that students across the participating schools expressed a strong connection to the Arabic language, rather than deploying language to demarcate difference from the imagined Other during a period of political crisis. The observed connection to Arabic, however, is based on different notions of identity and visions of what it means to be Lebanese. Despite the value ascribed to Arabic and its widespread use on campuses, mundane school practices served to undermine the Arabic language. Furthermore, the findings suggest the endurance and reconfiguration of overlapping language ideologies in relation to French and English. The study thus provides compelling insights into the long term impact of colonial and missionary "civilizing" enterprises and into the short-term effects of sustained conflict on the educational system. The study also contributes to understandings of the complex interaction between language, identity and sociopolitical conflict, alongside the coercive economic realities that produce multiple language ideologies and schooling practices.