Conflict-related content in ESL course books: policy makers’ and teachers’ attitudes towards anglophone crisis related content in Cameroon

This work examines the inclusion of conflict related content in ESL course books for Cameroonian secondary schools, the attitudes of ESL curriculum policy makers and teachers’ attitudes towards this content inclusion in authorized course books with focus on five secondary schools in Ekondo Titi. For over ten years today, the English-Speaking Regions have been experiencing violent conflicts as a result of the Cameroon Anglophone crisis. This has caused the destruction and freezing of over 42 schools, with some students, teachers and principals abducted and others killed (Akame et al 2021). ESL teaching process is structured and harmonized within the national territory by the implementation of a national curriculum and authorized course books by government educational authorities here known as the curriculum policy makers. The frontline users of this indispensable teaching tool seem not to be in the most involved in the elaboration process and this evokes their attitudes towards the inclusion of conflict related themes in ESL course books, with focus on the ESL teachers in the conflict-stricken zones. This instils questions like: do policy makers incorporate war-related issues in the national ESL curriculum; what is the attitude of these teachers and do they in this conflict-stricken regions wish for more or less inclusion of conflict related content in the said course books? Data for this study was collected using the mixed method and was analysed within the framework of Lasswell, H.D, Leites, N., et al (1949), content analysis technique, Jack C. R. & Theodore, S. R. (1986), Competency-based language teaching and Azar’s (1986), protracted social conflict theory. The findings revealed that ESL curriculum policy makers do not have a favourable attitude towards the inclusion of conflict related content while teachers in these conflict-stricken regions at a 100% rate request for the incorporation of conflict related contents.