2025 Volume 34 Issue 2 Pages 59-73
This study examines the discursive construction of citizenship in Madagascar's upper secondary curriculum, focusing on the 2019-2020 curriculum reforms. Using a qualitative research design grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis and informed by decolonial theory, the study explores how language, ideology, and social structures intersect in curricular texts. The analysis investigates how citizenship is framed, which values and knowledge systems are privileged, and what silences or omissions reveal about underlying power relations. Findings show that the curriculum articulates a hybrid discourse, combining nationalist-cultural, global civic, and developmental-economic orientations. Malagasy identity, moral values, and respect for social hierarchies are foregrounded, positioning students as patriotic citizens morally accountable to their communities and the nation. Simultaneously, references to human rights, sustainable development, ICT competence, and employability situate learners within global civic and economic frameworks, reflecting the influence of international policy agendas and the goals of global education. Despite this hybridity, the curriculum reproduces enduring colonial legacies. French remains the dominant language of instruction, and local epistemologies are often marginalized. The study highlights how Madagascar's curriculum negotiates the tension between postcolonial nation-building and globalization, producing citizens who are both locally grounded and globally competent, yet constrained by linguistic and ideological dependencies.
