Towards a Sociology of the Demographic Question in the Cultural Discourse of Moroccan School Textbooks

This study presents a dynamic sociological analysis of the demographic discourse found in Moroccan schools’ geography textbook. During the last two decades of the 20th century, when the issue of demography was a top policy priority in Arab countries and in Morocco in particular, Morocco aimed to present the demographic discourse through education, and use school and schooling to serve choices in the fields of demography, economy, and society. The underlying premise was that controlling the population was key to development. The analysis shows that the demographic discourse studied is based on the assumption that underdevelopment is a main result of over population, and is a main obstacle to development. Yet this analysis fails to set demography in its overall context, that is in its relationship with economic, cultural, and social elements to make development in the service of people, which is the thesis of the study. For this reason, the discourse does not reach its main aim to include education about population within school knowledge, that is to prepare young people to play informed and responsible roles regarding reproduction and the mechanisms for forming a family in society.

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This study presents a dynamic sociological analysis of the demographic discourse found in Moroccan schools’ geography textbook. During the last two decades of the 20th century, when the issue of demography was a top policy priority in Arab countries and in Morocco in particular, Morocco aimed to present the demographic discourse through education, and use school and schooling to serve choices in the fields of demography, economy, and society. The underlying premise was that controlling the population was key to development. The analysis shows that the demographic discourse studied is based on the assumption that underdevelopment is a main result of over population, and is a main obstacle to development. Yet this analysis fails to set demography in its overall context, that is in its relationship with economic, cultural, and social elements to make development in the service of people, which is the thesis of the study. For this reason, the discourse does not reach its main aim to include education about population within school knowledge, that is to prepare young people to play informed and responsible roles regarding reproduction and the mechanisms for forming a family in society.

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