Action Research into Multilingual Education Policy Implementation in Cameroonian Primary Schools: A Participatory Inquiry

This action research study addresses the critical gap between national multilingual education policy and classroom practice in Cameroonian primary schools. Despite a 2021 policy promoting mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE), implementation remains inconsistent, often marginalising indigenous languages. The research objective was to collaboratively develop and evaluate contextually appropriate strategies to enhance MTB-MLE implementation within a participatory framework. Conducted from 2022 to 2022, the study employed a cyclical action research model involving two primary schools in the West Region. Participants included teachers, headteachers, and local language committee members. Data were gathered through focus group discussions, classroom observations, and reflective journals across three iterative cycles of planning, action, observation, and reflection. Key findings indicate that structured, collaborative planning sessions and the co-creation of low-cost teaching materials significantly increased teachers’ use of target mother tongues as languages of instruction. However, challenges persisted, including a lack of standardised orthographies for some languages and entrenched parental preferences for English. The study argues that sustainable policy implementation necessitates bottom-up, participatory approaches that empower local stakeholders as co-researchers. It concludes that integrating community linguistic knowledge into the formal education system is essential for achieving equitable, culturally relevant learning outcomes, thereby contributing to the decolonisation of educational practices in Africa.