Distancing the Distance Learning: Social Representation of Pedagogical Continuity and Digital Technology in Mayotte’s Written Press
Mise à distance du distanciel : représentation sociale de la continuité pédagogique et du numérique à travers la presse écrite à Mayotte
Résumé
The notion of « pedagogical continuity » raises complex cultural, linguistic and semantic issues. Through a corpus of local Mayotte newspapers collected during a year of confinement-deconfinement-reconfinement, we study the social representation of pedagogical continuity in the Maore culture as presented by the local print media. We study social representations and myths that participate in, or stumbling block to, the incorporation of digital tools and uses in school culture in Mayotte. Based on 266 articles from 6 local newspapers, semantic and lexical analyses show three aspects of the discourse: a verticality of the pedagogical continuity message carried out by targeted individuals, a propagandist discourse on the ambiguous meaning of pedagogical continuity, and an anti- and then pro-digital discourse that exists in the background of this constrained distance learning. Questions about the implementation of a digital hybrid pedagogy and about identity issues in Mayotte are then addressed.