Teaching French between Fascism and democracy. An investigation into the history of education and didactics of French as Foreign Language

It is commonly believed that fascism contributed to a deterioration in language teaching compared to the previous period. In this paper, the interest is to understand the origins of this trend, but also the modalities and concepts conveyed, since the Fascist two decades, regarding language teaching and, in particular, the French language. To do so, two trajectories were chosen: the first concerns a historical-educational approach, the second a linguistic-epistemological approach. In the first case, through the reading of ministerial laws, programs and a comparison with school publishing, it emerged how the fascist government’s relationship with language education in schools was ambiguous and inconsistent. The other approach examined the discursive traces on the forms and symbolisms of domination, foreignness and colonialism found in French grammars published from 1920 to 1945. These grammars show a state ideological apparatus, as they are an essential tool in the practice of power and are the totalizing locus of different expressions of language. Reflecting on language education in the light of historical-educational research on the French language during fascism offers new tools for understanding and new educational strategies for dealing with the current crisis of democratic culture.