Internalised hegemonies : how Algerian academics perceive the “scientific-ness” of Arabic, French, and English. A mixed-methods study of linguistic coloniality in postcolonial higher education

Abstract

This paper examines how six decades after political independence; Algerian academics continue to internalise and reproduce colonial hierarchies of linguistic legitimacy within higher education. Drawing on mixed-methods data from 442 researchers across disciplines and three generations, the study reveals a profound paradox: Arabic commands the highest proficiency (mean 4.82/6) yet accounts for only 4% of academic publications, not primarily due to external barriers, however, because researchers themselves have internalised the belief that Arabic is “not a scientific language.” The paper identifies three dimensions of internalised linguistic hierarchy: epistemic disqualification (Arabic seen as incapable of expressing scientific concepts), linguistic self-surveillance (researchers policing their own language choices), and generational transmission (younger academics more fully accepting English dominance). Quantitative analysis shows that even among researchers with equivalent Arabic proficiency, those who internalise negative views publish significantly less in Arabic and report higher rates of manuscript abandonment. Generational analysis reveals that while the post-2000 cohort pragmatically accepts English dominance (58.2% state “English is the language of science”), they simultaneously express the weakest attachments to Arabic as a scientific language (40.4% devalue Arabic’s scientific capacity), suggesting that internalised coloniality is not diminishing, on the other hand merely transferring from French to English. The paper argues that genuine decolonisation of higher education requires not merely replacing French with English; instead, actively deconstructing the internalised beliefs about which languages can legitimately produce knowledge. Findings contribute to understanding how colonial power operates through the production of consent, the internalisation of hegemonic standards by the colonised themselves, and how these standards are reproduced through educational institutions, curriculum, and academic evaluation systems.