Code Switching in Moroccan Nursing Education: Exploring Pedagogical Functions and Professors’ Attitudes

Abstract

Adopting Code switching (CS) in education still constitutes a topic of controversial debate across multilingual societies. While some consider it a pedagogical tool that helps learners attain academic knowledge comprehensively, others claim that it is regarded as a sign of imperfect control of language. Within the Moroccan context, only a few rigorous studies have approached CS from a pedagogical perspective as this study is the first to explore its use in nursing education. Thus, this paper aims to measure how frequently CS is used, its functional roles, and professors' attitudes towards deploying it in the Higher Institute of Nursing Professions and Technicians of Health (HINPTH). The study deploys a mixed research design where data are collected through a survey questionnaire distributed to 27 professors. For a full understanding, the survey data are paired with a thematic analysis of findings from a previously conducted study with students within the same institute to ease the interpretation of attitudes and experiences voiced by professors. The findings have revealed that the majority of respondents hold positive attitudes toward CS pedagogical functions in understanding content while some warn against its undesirable learning outcomes. Practically, it is recommended that CS should be judicious and purposeful in its use.