Multilingualism in African schools: constraints and possibilities INTRODUCTION

Full text

Language and Development in Multilingual Settings: A Case Study of Knowledge Exchange and
Teacher Education in South Africa
Author(s): Naz Rassool, Viv Edwards and Carole Bloch
Source:
International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für
Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale de l'Education,
Vol. 52, No. 6 (Dec., 2006), pp.
533-552
Published by: Springer
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Review of Education
(2006)
52:533-552
?
Springer
2006
DOI
10.1007/S11159-006-9008-X
LANGUAGE AND DEVELOPMENT
IN
MULTILINGUAL SETTINGS:
A
CASE STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
AND
TEACHER
EDUCATION IN SOUTH
AFRICA
NAZ
RASSOOL,
VTV EDWARDS and
CAROLE BLOCH
Abstract
-
The
quality
of
a
country's
human-resource base
can
be said
to
determine
its
level
of
success
in
social
and
economic
development.
This
study
focuses
on some
of
the
major
human-resource
development
issues
that surround the
implementation
of South
Africa's
policy
of
multilingualism
in education.
It
begins
by discussing
the
relationship
between
knowledge,
language,
and
human-resource,
social
and economic
development
within the
global
cultural
economy.
It
then
considers the
situation in South
Africa
and,
in
particular,
the
implications
of that
country's
colonial
and
neo-colonial
past
for
attempts
to
implement
the
new
policy.
Drawing
on
the
linguistic-diversity-in-education
debate
in
the
United
Kingdom
of the
past
three
decades,
it
assesses
the
first
phase
of
an
in-service
teacher-education
programme
that
was
carried
out at
the
Project
for Alter?
native
Education
in
South Africa
(PRAESA)
based
at
the
University
of
Cape
Town.
The authors
identify key
short- and
long-term
issues
related
to
knowledge
exchange
in
education
in
multilingual
societies,
especially
concerning
the
use
of African
languages
as
mediums
for
teaching
and
learning.
Zusammenfassung
-
SPRACHE UND
DIE
ENTWICKLUNG
IN
VIELSPRACHI?
GEN UMGEBUNGEN:
EINE FALLSTUDIE
DER WISSENSVERMITTLUNG
UND
DER
LEHRERAUSBILDUNG
IN
S?DAFRIKA
-
Die
Qualit?t
der Wis?
sensbest?nde der
Bev?lkerung
eines
Landes ist die Basis der sozialen
und
wirtschaftli?
chen
Entwicklung.
Diese Studie
besch?ftigt
sich
mit
einigen
Themen
in
Bezug
auf die
Entwicklung
von
Humanressourcen,
die
mit
der
Einf?hrung
des
Prinzips
der Viel?
sprachigkeit
im
s?dafrikanischen
Bildungssystem
einher
gehen.
Am
Anfang
steht die
Diskussion
des
Verh?ltnisses zwischen
Wissen,
Sprache,
Humanressourcen
und der
sozialen und wirtschaftlichen
Entwicklung
innerhalb
der
globalen
kulturellen
?kono?
mie.
Es
folgt
eine
Betrachtung
der
Situation
in
S?dafrika
und im Besonderen der
Konsequenzen,
die
sich
aus
der
kolonialen
und
neokolonialen
Vergangenheit
des
Landes
f?r
die
Bestrebungen ergeben,
die
neue
Politik
durchzusetzen.
Mit
Bezug
auf die
Debatte,
die in
den
letzten
drei
Jahrzehnten
in
Gro?britannien
?ber die
sprachliche
Vielfalt
in
der
Bildung
gef?hrt
wurde,
wird
die
erste
Phase
eines
bestehenden
Lehrerfortbildungsprogramms
bewertet,
das
vom
Projekt
f?r alternative
Bildung
in
S?dafrika
(PRAESA)
an
der
Universit?t
von
Kapstadt
entwickelt wurde.
Die
Auto?
rinnen beschrieben
kurzfristige
wie
langfristige
Schl?sselthemen,
welche
mit
der
Wissensvermittlung
in der
Bildung
in
vielsprachigen
Gesellschaften verbunden
sind. Ein
besonderes
Augenmerk
liegt
auf dem
Gebrauch afrikanischer
Sprachen
als
Medien
f?r
Lehren und
Lernen.
R?sum?
-
LANGUE
ET
D?VELOPPEMENT
DANS LES CADRES
MULTILIN?
GUES
:
UNE
?TUDE
DE
CAS DE
L'?CHANGE
DE CONNAISSANCES
ET
DE
L'?DUCATION
DES ENSEIGNANTS
EN
AFRIQUE
DU SUD
-
on
peut
affirmer
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534
Naz
Rassool,
Viv
Edwards and Carole
Bloch
de la
qualit?
de
la base des
ressources
humaines
qu'elle
d?termine
le niveau
de succ?s
d'un
pays
dans
le
d?veloppement
?conomique
et
social.
Cette
?tude
se
concentre
sur
certaines des
questions
principales
de
d?veloppement
des
ressources
humaines
qui
accompagnent
la mise
en ?uvre
de
la
politique
sud-africaine
du
multilinguisme
dans
l'?ducation.
Elle
s'ouvre
sur une
discussion
sur
le
rapport
entre
la
connaissance,
la
langue
et
les
ressources
humaines,
et
le
d?veloppement
?conomique
et
social
au
sein de
l'?conomie
culturelle
globale.
Puis
elle
consid?re
la
situation
en
Afrique
du
Sud
et,
en
particulier,
les
implications
du
pass?
colonial
et
n?o-colonial
de
ce
pays pour
les
ten?
tatives de
mettre
en
?uvre
la nouvelle
politique. S'inspirant
du
d?bat
sur
la
diversit?
linguistique
de
l'?ducation
dans
le
Royaume-Uni
de
ces
trois
derni?res
d?cennies,
elle
?value
la
premi?re phase
d'un
programme
d'?ducation
d'enseignants
en
service,
mis
?
ex?cution
dans le
Projet
pour
une
Education
Alternative
en
Afrique
du
Sud
(PRAESA)
bas? ?
l'Universit?
du
Cap.
Les
auteurs
identifient les
probl?mes
cl?s
?
court et
?
long
terme
en
liaison
avec
l'?change
de connaissance
en
?ducation
dans
les
soci?t?s
multi?
lingues, particuli?rement
au
sujet
de l'utilisation des
langues
africaines
comme
des
mediums
pour
enseigner
et
apprendre.
Resumen
-
LENGUAJE
Y
DESARROLLO
EN ENTORNOS
MULTILINGUES:
ESTUDIO SOBRE UN CASO
REAL DE
INTERCAMBIO
DE
CONOCIMIENTOS
Y
FORMACI?N
DE
DOCENTES
EN
SUD?FRICA
-
Se
puede
afirmar
que
la
calidad
de la
base de los
recursos
humanos de
un
pa?s
determinar?
el nivel de
?xito
de
su
desarrollo social
y
econ?mico.
Este estudio
se
concentra
en
algunos
de
los
principales
aspectos
de
desarrollo
que
enmarcan
la
implementaci?n
de
la
pol?tica
sudafricana de
multiling?ismo
en
la
educaci?n.
Comienza
con
la
descripci?n
de las
relaciones
existentes
entre
conocimiento,
lenguaje,
recursos
humanos
y
desarrollo
social
y
econ?mico
dentro
del
contexto
cultural
global. Luego,
pasa
a
considerar la
situaci?n
reinante
en
Sud?frica
y,
en
particular,
la influencia
que
el
pasado
colonial
y
neocolonial
de
ese
pa?s
ejerce
sobre los
intentos
de
implementar
la
nueva
pol?tica.
Haciendo
un
esbozo
del
debate
sobre diversidad
ling??stica
que
ha
tenido
lugar
en
el Reino Unido
a
lo
largo
de las
?ltimas
tres
d?cadas,
presenta
una
evaluaci?n de
la
primera
fase de
un
programa
de
formaci?n
pr?ctica
de los docentes
que
se
ha
realizado
en
el
marco
del
Proyecto
de
Educaci?n
Alternativa
en
Sud?frica
(PRAESA)
originado
en
la
Universidad
de Ciudad
del Cabo. Las
autoras
identifican
aspectos
clave,
de
corto
y
largo plazo,
relacionados
con
el
intercambio
de
informaci?n
en
la
educaci?n
en
sociedades
multilingues,
y
ante
todo
relacionados
con
el
uso
de
lenguas
africanas
como
medio de
ense?anza
y
de
aprendizaje.
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Language
and
Development
in
Multilingual Settings
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Human
resource
development,
education and
capacity
building
This
paper
highlights
key
areas
in
a
limited
programme
of
in-service
teacher
education
as
part
of
a
joint
project involving
the
Project
for
Alternative
Education
in
South Africa
(PRAESA),
based
at
the
University
of
Cape
Town,
and the
University
of
Reading
in
the
UK.
Colleagues
in
both institu?
tions
are
currently adapting
materials
originally
designed
for
UK
teachers
working
in
multilingual
schools
to
the
training
needs
of teachers involved
in
implementing
South Africa's
post-Apartheid policy
of
multilingual
educa?
tion.
As
a
background
to
this
collaboration,
we
explore
issues in
human
re?
source
development
(HRD)
and
capacity
development
that
face South Africa
and
many
other
developing
nations. We then
examine the
differing
dis?
courses
which have
developed
in
relation
to
language
in
education
in
both
settings,
and
assess
whether this form of
knowledge exchange
offers
a
viable
means
of
addressing
some
of the
HRD
needs
in
language
education
in
Southern Africa.
It is
widely argued
that
the
quality
of
a
country's
human
resource
base
ultimately
determines
its level of
success
in
social and economic
develop?
ment.
Harbison
(1973,
quoted
in
Todaro 2000:
330)
expressed
this
premise
in
the
following
terms:
Human
resources
...
constitute the ultimate basis
for
wealth
of nations.
Capital
and
natural
resources are
passive
factors
of
production;
human
beings
are
the
active
agents
who
accumulate
capital,
exploit
natural
resources,
build, social,
eco?
nomic and
political organizations,
and
carry
forward national
development.
Clear?
ly,
a
country
which
is unable
to
develop
the
skills
and
knowledge
of
its
people
and
to
use
them
effectively
in the
national
economy,
will
be unable to
develop
anything
else.
Thus the notion of
HRD,
aimed
at
fostering opportunities
for
people
to
develop,
or
apply,
their
knowledge
and skills in
socially
and
economically
useful
ways,
is
integral
to
national
development policies
and
programmes.
Since the
1960s,
education has been
regarded
within the
policy
formula?
tion terrain
as
an
investment in "human
capital",
comprising aptitudes,
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536
Naz
Rassool,
Viv
Edwards and Carole
Bloch
motivation,
abilities and
awarenesses
central
to
worker
productivity,
as
well
as
skills and
knowledges
to
be
exchanged
within the labour market.
Current
emphasis
on
HRD
derives from fundamental
changes
in
the
labour market
during
the
past
two
decades,
within
a
global
cultural
economy,
which is
increasingly
driven
by
technology.
These
changes
have
generated
demands
for
different
sets
of skills and
require
new
outcomes
of
education
(Rumberger
and Levin
1984;
Levin and
Rumberger
1995;
Malcolm
2001).
The notion of the
"learning
society" espoused by
national
governments,
UNESCO and the OECD
is
increasingly
underscored
by
prin?
ciples
such
as
worker
flexibility,
which
depend
on
multiskilling,
transferable
skills and continuous
professional development/skills upgrading.
The
OECD
(1989),
for
instance,
advocated
the need for countries
to
make
adjustments
at
micro-economic
level,
and
in
institutional
dynamics,
to
enable
education
to
respond
more
effectively
to
rapid
shifts
in
skills and
qualifications require?
ments
in the
labour
market.
This
has translated into
arguments
for
societies
to
strengthen
the
educational infrastructure
and
HRD in
relation
to
techno?
logical literacy
as
well
as
teaching
and
management
skills.
Only
those
countries
with
appropriately
skilled human
resources are
able
to
compete
effectively
within the
global
market
(Levin
and
Rumberger 1995).
As
a
result,
countries within the industrialised world have been
making
adjustments
in
their education
policies
for
at
least
the
past
two
decades
to
accommodate
changes
in
the
global
labour market. The
US,
for
example,
has concentrated
on
capacity development
in "the
enhanced national infor?
mation infrastructure
(Nil)
focused
on
building
interactive networks
in
insti?
tutions
across
the
country"
(Rassool
1999:189).
In
England
and
Wales,
a
highly
regulated
National Curriculum
was
intro?
duced
in
1988
providing
students
with minimum
knowledge
entitlements.
Competence
in
Information
and Communication
Technology
(ICT)
skills
constitutes
a
key
skill
permeating
the National Curriculum.
It
is within this
context
that the
New
Labour
government
in
its first White
Paper
Excellence
in
Schools
(DfEE 1997)
took
on
board the notion of "human
capital"
in
its
vision of education for
development.
In
other OECD
countries,
too,
the
accent
has been
on
HRD
grounded
in
the ideal of
the
"learning society"
and
based
on a
continuous accumulation of skills and
knowledge
as
important
"cultural
capital" (Bourdieu
1991)
to
be
exchanged
within
a
constantly
changing
labour
market.
In
contrast,
many
developing
countries,
especially
those
in
Sub-Saharan
Africa
(SSA),
have been unable
to
sustain
adequate
levels
of
HRD
or,
put
dif?
ferently,
to
accumulate
enough
"cultural
capital"
to
support
sustainable
eco?
nomic
and social
development. Contributing
factors include
inadequate
educational infrastructure such
as
the lack of trained teachers and
appropriate
teaching
and
learning
resources
which,
in
turn,
impact
on
literacy
rates,
and,
therefore,
on
skills and
knowledge
levels. The
under-development
of the hu?
man resource
base is
a
major
barrier
to
social and economic
development
in
these countries.
Indeed,
human
resource
shortages,
lack of
knowledge,
inade
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Language
and
Development
in
Multilingual Settings
537
quate
social
infrastructure,
and
the dominance of
English
in multimedia
textual
environments
are
major inhibiting
factors
in
the diffusion
of informa?
tion
technology
within
these societies
(ECA
1996).
As
a
result,
developing
countries within
the SSA
region
are
information-poor
societies
at
the
periph?
ery
of the interactive
global
cultural
economy
(Dordick
and
Wang
1993).
Language,
education
and
development
in
South Africa
The
official
language
of
teaching
and
learning
within nation
states
is associ?
ated with
high
status
knowledge
and,
as
such,
constitutes
a
potent
form of
cultural
capital.
Those who
are
fully
literate
in
the national
language
have
greater
cultural
capital
to
exchange
in
the labour market than those who
have
not.
The situation
throughout
the SSA
region
is
compounded
by
an
historical
legacy
of
a
mismatch between the actual
languages
used
within
society,
the
country's
development goals,
and
the official
languages
for teach?
ing
and
learning.
When the
national
language
is
an
international
(ex-colo?
nial)
language,
such
as
English,
French,
Portuguese
or
Spanish,
this
creates
additional
barriers
to
literacy acquisition
for
ethno-linguistic minority
groups
living
mainly
in
rural
areas
who have less
access
to
the
languages
in
ques?
tion. These
disparities
contribute
to
uneven
development
between
regions.
They
have
also had
other
socio-cultural effects.
The drive for
literacy
in these
powerful languages,
as
well
as
the lack of
policy
support
for
minority language
maintenance
programmes
in
education,
has
relegated
many
local
languages
to
low
status,
domain-specific,
oral
usage
and contributed
to
economic and social
disparities
between elites and other
social
groups.
According
to
Myers-Scotton
(1993:
156)
"what
sets
elites
apart
from nonelites is their
frequent
use
of the
[non-native]
official
lan?
guage,
both for business and in their
private
life".
Agheyisi (1977:
99),
for
instance, argues
that "it
is
now
possible
to
talk
of
a
special
social "class" of
Nigerians, comprising
members
from various ethnic and
linguistic
groups,
for whom the
"public"
and indeed
prominent
use
of
English
exists
as one
of
their
salient
status
symbols". Fluency
in
English
within this
context
has be?
come
associated with
"being
educated",
and therefore is
seen as a
pre-requisite
for
upward
social
mobility.
As
will
be discussed
later,
this
is
also
the
case
in
South
Africa. These
practices
and cultural
aspirations play
an
important
role
in
shaping
the social
character,
and
in
the
process,
reinforce
existing unequal
language
relations. And
thus
they
contribute
to
the
self-marginalisation
of
local
languages.
Such
linguistic
choices also have
practical implications
for education.
They
often translate
into
unequal
allocation of
teaching
and
learning
resources
in
favour of these international
languages,
at
the
expense
of
support
for
indigenous languages.
Mansoor
(unpublished),
describing
the
language
in
education
situation
in
Pakistan,
found that "materials for
High?
er
Education
are
mostly
in
English (60%)
followed
by
materials
in
Urdu
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538
Naz
Rassool,
Viv
Edwards and Carole Bloch
(25%)"
which is
the
national
language.
Her
research also showed
that
mate?
rials
in
regional
languages
were
limited
(5%)
and of
poor
quality.
Lack
of
adequate
resources
have
contributed
to vast
differences
in
literacy,
knowl?
edge
and
skills levels
between
regions
and
sub-regions (UNESCO 1995),
which,
in
turn,
impact negatively
on
national levels of
HRD.
The skills and
knowledge
divide between industrialised and
developing
countries is
amplified
as
contemporary
South
Africa
emerges
from
its
succes?
sive
colonial,
and
neo-colonial
past
and
attempts
to
implement
the
multilin?
gual policy
in education
adopted by
the
post-Apartheid
South
African
government.
Discussion
of
language
in
education
in
this
context
needs
to be
viewed within
the broad
political
and
ideological
project
of the
Apartheid
State.
English
-
the
previous
colonial
language,
and Afrikaans
-
the
language
of
Apartheid
neo-colonialism,
consolidated
a
society
which
was,
on
the
one
hand,
fractured
along
the horizontal axis of
a
racialised
ethnicity
and,
on
the
other,
stratified
along
the
vertical
axis of social and economic
inequality.
Mo?
ther-tongue
education
presented
as
the
right
of
each ethnic
group
to
promote
their
own
language
and
culture
played
a
pivotal
role
in
securing
Apartheid
hegemony (Alexander
1989).
Black children
were
to
be
schooled
in
their
mo?
ther
tongue
for the first
8
years
of
primary
school,
before
switching
to
English
and
Afrikaans.
Fifty
per
cent
of their
subjects
were
to
be
taught
in
Afrikaans,
and the other
50%
in
English
(Heugh
2000).
While there
are
strong
argu?
ments
for the
educational
benefits of this
approach
(see,
for
instance,
Cum?
mins
2001),
we
need
to
look
more
closely
at
the
political
and
ideological
project
of
Bantu Education
during
the
Apartheid period.
As
argued
earlier,
mother
tongue
teaching
in
South Africa
was
significant
and had
a
profound
effect
on
the life
experiences
of the
country's
black
population
groups.
As
ar?
gued
earlier,
mother
tongue
teaching represented
the
bedrock of
"separate
development"
and
formed
part
of
an
ideology
of "nation"
grounded
in white
supremacy.
As
such,
it has much
in
common
with the
significant
role
that
the
notion of
mother
tongue
played
in
the social
construction
of the
German
con?
cept
of Volk
during
the
1930s and
early
1940s
(Hutton
1999).
Within the
dis?
course
of
an
idealised
"pure"
German
nation,
"the
mother
tongue
was
the
force that could
speak
for
race;
it could
recreate
race
in
its
own
image
and be
its voice"
(Hutton
1999:9).
The
notion
of
mother
tongue
also
represented
an
organizing
principle
of
the Afrikaner notion
of
Volk
in
Apartheid
South Afri?
ca.
The
underlying
aim
was
to
legitimate
the idea of
an
Afrikaner
Volk
pro?
tected
against
the
hegemony
of
English.
At
the
same
time,
it
sought
to
engender
a
divided "ethnic" consciousness
amongst
the
different
social
groups
within
the
country
-
and
thus
to
secure
the
separatism
that
provided
the basis
of
Apartheid
ideology.
It
gave
expression
to
Verwoerd's
1953
argument
that
"education
must
train
and teach
people
in
accordance
with
their
opportuni?
ties
in
life,
according
to
the
sphere
in which
they
live"
(cited
in
Troup
1976).
The
political
intentions of mother
tongue
education
policy
were
clearly
stated
and,
in
the
main,
were
fulfilled;
in
practice,
mother
tongue
education
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Language
and
Development
in
Multilingual
Settings
539
served
a
powerful
means
of
delimiting
the life chances of African
pupils.
Since
many
black
pupils (at
least
80%)
were
forced
to
leave
school
early
because
of
family
poverty,
this
policy
translated into
minimal
levels of func?
tional
literacy
in
their mother
tongue
-
and
even
less
in the
two
official
lan?
guages.
Education for the
majority
of the
black
population
groups
was
therefore
limited
to
those skills
that would have made
them
productive only
as
manual
labourers.
Thus it consolidated Verwoerd's
(1953)
position
that
"there
is
no
place
for the
Bantu in
the
European
community
above the level
of certain
forms of labour"
(cited
in SACHED
1986:12).
Racial
inequality
formed the basis of
the doctrine of Christian National
Education
(CNE),
which
underpinned
the
state's
hegemonic
project
in
edu?
cation.
It
stated that:
Native
education should be
based
on
the
principles
of
trusteeship,
non-equality;
its
aim
should
be
to
inculcate the white man's view
of
life,
especially
that
of
the
Boer
nation,
which
is
the
senior
trustee.
(CNE
1948:23)
Moreover,
within
the
broader
context
of CNE
doctrine,
all
teachers
were
to
be
trained
to
produce
efficient and
loyal
citizens,
consistent with the
aims
of
Apartheid
education. Thus
they
were
to
be imbued
with "the ideal
of
teaching
towards the
development
of
men
and
women
of
rectitude,
efficient
and
loyal
citizens of their
country"
(Beard
and Morrow
1981:9).
This form
of
hege?
monic control
was
consolidated
in
Fundamental
Pedagogics,
an
authoritar?
ian
philosophical
approach
to
education
comprising
formal
didactics,
which
invested
the
educator with
supreme
authority
and thus reduced the learner
to
a
passive
receptor
of
knowiedge (Khuzwayo
1997).
The mother
tongue
was
to
be
taught
through
linguistics
and
literature,
with
language teaching centring
on a
formal structural
approach,
emphasiz?
ing
the
learning
of
grammatical
rules. This
rigid
teacher-centred
pedagogical
approach,
accompanied
by
a
circumscribed and
highly
regulated
curriculum,
left little
scope
for
learning experiences
focused
on
teaching
and
learning
processes;
it
left
no room
for alternative critical
teaching approaches.
Within
the
context
of
Bantu
Education,
African
languages
were
stigmatised
as
"Other",
and
thus
inferior,
in the educational
policy
framework. The
Bantu
language
syllabus (Joint
Matriculation Board 1979:
3)
stated
that:
Because the
Bantu
languages
differ
so
much from the
European languages
it is
necessary
that the Bantu child should
not
view his
(sic)
mother
tongue
as
if it
were a
European language.
He
must
therefore be
taught
that his
mother
tongue
has its
peculiar
character,
which
cannot
be derived from
European
languages.
He
has
to
learn
that his mother
tongue
is much
more
bound
up
with
form,
that
in
its
system
of
writing
it
does
not
necessarily
follow the
European
languages..."
Embedded in
CNE
ideology
of
separatism,
the
emphasis
here
on
differences is
particularly noteworthy;
it
signified cultural/racial
"Otherness",
and,
implicitly,
the inherent
inferiority
of African
languages.
As
is
discussed
earlier,
this world
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540
Naz
Rassool,
Viv Edwards and Carole Bloch
view
translated
into
lack of
political
and societal
support
for
the
development
of African
languages.
Alexander and
Heugh
(1998/1999:
14-15)
argue
that:
African
languages
were
deliberately developed
as
^?^?w-languages,
i.e.
even
where
it
was
possible
in
linguistic
and
political
terms
to
allow the
varieties of
a
particular language
cluster
or
sub-group,
such
as
the
"Nguni"
group,
to
con?
verge
into
a more
embracing
standard
written
form,
they
were
systematically
kept
separate
through
lexical
and other
corpus-planning
manoeuvres.
The
languages
concerned
were,
moreover,
starved
of essential
resources
in
such
a
way
that
they
could
not
be used
in contexts that
implied
or
demonstrated
real
power.
General
social
and
political
policies
ensured
throughout
the
era
of
high apartheid
that the
African
languages
remained
languages
of
low
status.
Apartheid
policy
thus left
a
legacy
of
complex language problems
to
be
solved
in
education. As
a
means
of
redress,
the
post-Apartheid
government
has
opted
for
11
official
languages
(nine
African,
English
and
Afrikaans),
with
each
province choosing
its
own
official
languages
suited
to
its
popula?
tion/linguistic groupings (Department
of
Education
1997).
Placing
emphasis
on
re-instating previously
subjugated
languages,
the
government
has
extended
powers
to
school
governing
bodies
"to
determine
the
language pol?
icy
of
the
school"
subject
to
the
Constitution,
the
South
African
Schools Act
(1996)
and
provincial
law. How7
successfully
this
human
rights
approach
to
policy
translates
into
practice depends
to
a
significant
extent
on
the avail?
ability
of
adequately
skilled
language
teachers and
appropriate
teaching
resources.
It
also
depends
on a
significant
shift
in
language
attitudes
amongst
all
population
groups.
In
practice,
there
are
still
major
problems
to
be
overcome.
Our discussion thus
far
highlights
several
aspects
that
militate
against
successful
language
policy
implementation.
First,
the
history
of
curriculum
rigidities,
which
sought
to
secure
social
and
ideological
control
during
the
Apartheid
epoch,
has
implications
for
teacher
responses
to
the
requirements
of
new
educational
policy
demands,
which
are
centred
on
the
learner,
and
a
learning-centred
curriculum framework.
This
philosophical
shift
suggests
a
move
away
from
rigid
curriculum
impositions
towards teachers
having
rela?
tive
autonomy
in
negotiating
curriculum
content
and
teaching
materials.
In
order for
this
to
take
place effectively
there
is
a
need for teachers
to
have
been inducted into
a
process-based approach
to
teaching
and
learning
grounded
in the
principles
of
professional
reflexivity.
Second,
the
predominance
of formal
teaching approaches
embedded
in
the
pedagogical
framework ratified
by
the
old
Apartheid
regime
centred
on a
one-way
flow of
set
"knowledges".
This
contrasts
with
approaches
to
mother
tongue
teaching
such
as
team
teaching,
the
use
of
bilingual
story
telling
and
book
making
which
depend
on
"soft skills"
technology
such
as
co-operative
planning,
teamwork,
communication,
decision-making
and
negotiating
curriculum
outcomes.
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Language
and
Development
in
Multilingual
Settings
541
Third,
the historical
stigmatisation
of African
languages
as
different
and,
therefore,
inferior
to
European languages
has left
a
legacy
of
antipathy
towards
multilingualism
amongst
black
population
groups. This,
as
well
as
the
powerful
role
that
English
played
as a
counter-hegemonic
symbol
of the
struggle against Apartheid,
has led
to
an
uncritical,
unquestioning
belief,
especially
amongst
middle
class
groups
across
the cultural
spectrum,
in
the
power
of
English
as an
international
language
over
the
educational,
cultural
and economic value of
indigenous languages
(Giliomee
et
al.
2005).
There
are
many
commonalities
with the
linguistic
elites of
Nigeria
emphasised by
Myers-Scotton
as was
discussed
earlier,
and
can
therefore be
seen as
part
of
the colonial
heritage.
For
these
groups
the
need
to
shift
parental
attitudes
represents
a
major
obstacle;
so
too
is the lack
of
"teacher
preparedness"
(M?tala 2001).
At the
same
time,
recent
small scale classroom research
focused
on
Grades
4
and
7
Xhosa
speakers
in
inner
city
schools is
encourag?
ing.
This research showed
that these children's
vocabulary
was
richer when
they
communicated in
their mother
tongue
than in
English
(Desai 2001).
This underscores the
significance
of mother
tongue
education,
at
least in the
primary
school
phase.
Moreover,
research conducted
by
Schlemmer
and
Giliomee
(2004) reported
strong
parental
support
for mother
tongue
education
amongst
all
ethnic
groups,
namely,
61%
of
"Blacks",
73%
of
"Coloureds",
61%
of
"Whites",
80%
of white "Afrikaners" and
66%
of
English-speaking
"whites".
Earlier
research
by
Giliomee and
Schlemmer
(2001)
indicated
support
for
mother
tongue
education
particularly
amongst
Sotho
(70%),
Venda
(85%)
and Afrikaans
(70%) speakers.
Fourth,
the
history
of
under-education/under-development
of
human
resources
in
education,
especially
those
teaching
in
black
township
schools,
has resulted
in
a
pool
of
under-trained
teaching
staff
throughout
the
coun?
try.
More
specifically,
the
erstwhile
emphasis
on
formal
teaching approaches
has resulted
in
a
shortage
of
teachers
adequately equipped
to
deliver the
new
learner centred and
process-oriented
curriculum,
and
especially
the
skills
and
knowledge
needed
in
teaching
for additive
bilingualism.
Such
approaches
foreground
the
learner,
and
redefine
teachers" role
to
that of
a
facilitator of
learning building
on
the
knowledge
and
experiences
that children
bring
to
classrooms.
These
are
not
insurmountable
problems,
neither
are
they necessarily
unique.
In
the
UK,
for
example,
the need
to
address
the
issue
of
teaching
for
linguistic diversity
including bilingualism
and
multilingualism,
have
pre?
vailed
in
educational
discourse
over
the
past
few
decades.
Multilingual
UK
The
UK,
like South
Africa,
is
a
multilingual
country,
although
the
history,
nature
and
extent
of
linguistic
diversity
are
very
different. It is ironic that
the
same
forces
that led
to
the
emergence
of
English
as a
global language
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542
Naz
Rassool,
Viv
Edwards and Carole Bloch
(Crystal
1997)
have led
to
increasing linguistic
diversity
in
all the
countries
where
English
is
spoken by
the
majority
of the
population,
including
the
UK.
A
recent
survey
of London
schoolchildren,
for
instance,
revealed that
over
thirty
per
cent
of
respondents
were
bilingual, speaking
between them
more
than
300
different
languages
(Baker
and
Eversley
2000).
The
response
of schools
to
children who arrived
speaking
other
languages
has
changed considerably
over
time.
Policy
and
practice
in
the
1950s
and
1960s
was
laissez
faire;
the
unquestioned assumption
was
that
children
would
"pick
up
English
in
the
playground"
and that the
language
of
the
home had
no
place
in
schools.
It
was
some
time before the
consequences
of
inaction
were
finally
acknowledged:
far
too
many
children
exposed
to
"sub?
mersion
English"
were
sinking
rather
than
swimming.
Funding
to
address
the
language learning
needs of
language
minority
children first
became avail?
able in
1966 under Section
11
of the Local Government Act.
Teaching
took
place
in
special
reception
centres
or
"withdrawal" classes
in
the
same
school
and the sole
emphasis
was on
learning English.
No attention
was
paid
to
the
linguistic
and
cultural
capital
(Bourdieu 1991)
that children
brought
with
them
to
the classroom.
The
importance
of children's first
languages
was
first
recognised
officially
in
the
1975 Bullock
Report,
A
Language for Life,
which
made
an
impas?
sioned
plea
for schools
to
respect
the cultural and
linguistic
diversity
of their
students: "No child should be
expected
to
cast
off the
language
and
culture
of
the home
as
he
crosses
the
school
threshold and the
curriculum should
reflect
those
aspects
of his life".
Bilingualism
was
presented
as
an
asset
to
be
nurtured and
schools
were
encouraged
to
"help
maintain and
deepen...
knowledge
of the mother
tongues"
(p.
543).
Other
developments
added
weight
to
the
recommendations of the Bullock
Report.
A
1977
Directive
from the
Council of
Europe required
member
states to
promote
the
teaching
of the
mother
tongue
of the children of
migrant
workers "in
accordance
with
national circumstances and
legal
systems."
The
UK
response
was
slug?
gish
and
in
1984
only
2.2%)
of
primary aged
children
from other
language
backgrounds
were
receiving
home
language teaching
in
school
(EC
1984).
Nonetheless,
a
growing
emphasis
was
placed
on
developing
children's full
linguistic repertoire
and
language
teaching
was
expanded
to
include the
teaching
of non-traditional
languages.
UK attitudes towards
bilingualism
are
inconsistent
(Edwards
2004).
Offi?
cial
support
is
given
to
education
through
the medium of
Welsh in
Wales,
Gaelic in
Scotland and Irish
in
Ireland,
where the aim is balanced
bilingualism
and full
biliteracy.
The
possibility
of
extending bilingual
education
to
other
languages,
however,
received
a
body
blow
with
the
publication
in
1985 of
the
S
wann
Report,
Education
for
All,
which recommended
that
there
should
be
no
separate
provision
for
language
maintenance
programs.
In
the belief
that
any
attempt
to
promote
minority languages
in
the
mainstream
was
potentially
divisive,
the main
responsibility
was
placed
on
ethnic
minority
communities themselves.
There
were
two
exceptions
to
this
policy (Bourne
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Language
and
Development
in
Multilingual
Settings
543
1989).
The
first
was
that,
where
practicable,
children should be
provided
with
"bilingual
support"
-
classroom assistants
or
teachers able
to
speak
to
them
in
their
own
language
and
help
them make the transition from home
to
school;
the
second
was
the
inclusion of non-traditional
languages
in
the
curriculum
of
secondary
schools
where there
was
sufficient demand. At
a
grassroots
level,
there
was a
great
deal of
experimentation
into
ways
in
which
other
languages
might
be used
in the
classroom,
and,
a
growing
emphasis
on
anti-racist
teaching
initiatives.
Another
development
in
the mid-1980s had
far-reaching implications
for
policy.
Following
an
investigation
by
the Commission for Racial
Equality
into
Calderdale
Local Education
Authority
(CRE 1986)
bilingual pupils
were
returned
to
mainstream
classrooms.
The
practice
of
providing
separate
English language teaching
was
deemed
to
be
discriminatory
on
two
main
grounds.
First,
the
only
native-speaking English
model available
to
children
in this
separate
provision
was
the teacher.
In
contrast,
if children
were
taught
in
mainstream
classrooms,
they
would
have
access
not
only
to
a
lar?
ger
number
of native
speakers,
but also
to
a
much
wider
range
of
genuine
communication
through
the
medium
of
English.
Second,
children
who
were
spending
between
one
and 2
years
receiving
intensive
English
language
teaching
were
falling
even
further behind
in
curricular
terms.
The
growing
body
of
research
on
language teaching methodology suggesting
that
a sec?
ond
language
could be learned
more
effectively
through
curriculum
content
than
by
using
more
traditional
approaches
(see,
for
instance,
Mohan
1979;
Krashen
1982)
made
arguments
that the mainstream
was
the best
place
for
language
learners
even more
persuasive.
This
new
policy
direction
was
not,
however,
intended
to
mark
a
return to
the sink-
or
sw?m
philosophy
and
practice
of
the 1950s and 1960s. The
intention
was
instead
to
provide
"language
support";
specialist
English
teachers
were
to
be moved
to
main?
stream
classes where
they
would work
in
partnership
with class and
subject
teachers
(Bourne 1989).
In
practice,
these
"partnerships"
were
problematic.
Language
support
teachers
complained
about their lack of
status
and
the fact that class and
subject
teachers often
treated
them
as
classroom
assistants,
rather than
spe?
cialist
colleagues.
In
addition,
support
teachers
were
very
thinly spread;
small
numbers
of teachers
were
often
expected
to
work with
large
numbers
of
pupils
and
classes.
In
order
for this model
to
work
effectively,
mainstream
teachers needed
to
understand the
principles underpinning language
support
so
that
they,
in
turn,
could
apply
these
principles
when the
specialist
teacher
was
not
present.
In
many
cases,
however,
mainstream teachers
abdicated
responsibility
for
bilingual pupils
to
the
support
teacher
with the
result
that,
once
more,
children
were
expected
to
sink
or
swim.
Radical
changes
in the
funding,
content
and
control of education
in the
late 1980s
had
a
further detrimental effect
on
the education of
language
minority
students.
All
professional development
in the
years
following
the
Education Reform Act 1988
focused
on
the
implementation
of
a
new
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544
Naz
Rassool,
Viv
Edwards and Carole Bloch
national curriculum and teachers
were,
in
effect,
given permission
to
sweep
matters
relating
to
the needs
of
bilingual pupils
under the
carpet.
Also in the
early
1990s,
the criteria for the
Section
11
funding
were
reviewed.
LE
As
were
required
to
submit
proposals
for
specific
fixed
term
projects
in order
to
making spending
on
bilingual pupils
more
accountable,
since there
were sus?
picions
that funds
were
being
used
in
ways
which
only indirectly
benefited
this
group
of children.
However,
in
narrowing
the
uses
to
which Section 11
monies could be
put,
the exclusive
emphasis
was now on
English language
teaching.
This made
it
very difficult,
for
instance,
for
language
support
teachers
to
continue
the
professional development
role which
they
had
developed
over
the
years,
or
to
fund initiatives
to
teach
community
lan?
guages
in
school.
The
replacement
of Section
11
with the
Single Regeneration
Budget
in
some
authorities
(Passmore
1994)
also had the effect of
putting
language
support
in
competition
with other
services,
such
as
housing
and
community
services. Further unfortunate
by-products
of the reforms
were
the loss of
many
posts,
the threat
to
job security
and
the
undermining
of
morale.
Pressure
from teacher
organisations produced
a
gradual softening
on
the
part
of central
government,
including
the
announcement
in
1995
of
the
"Meeting
the needs of
bilingual
pupils"
initiative. Bids
were
invited from
higher
education
and local education
authority partnerships
for
courses
that
were
to
prepare
mainstream class
and
subject
teachers
to
"meet
the needs of
bilingual pupils".
This
initiative
was
important
for
two
main
reasons:
first,
bilingual pupils
had resumed their
rightful
place
on
the educational
agenda;
second,
it addressed the need for mainstream teachers
to
take
responsibility
for the
bilingual
learners
in
their classes.
Questions
have, however,
been
raised
about
whether this
development
was
too
little,
too
late and
scepticism
has been
expressed
as
to
whether the real
aim
was
to
remove
the need for
specialist
support
teachers,
thereby reducing
costs.
The
main
challenge
for those
responding
to
this initiative
was
the
dearth
of suitable
training
materials.
In
an
attempt
to
address
this
problem,
three
packs
were
developed
at
the
University
of
Reading: Speaking
and
listening
in
multilingual
classrooms,
reading
in
multilingual
classrooms and
writing
in
mul?
tilingual
classrooms
(Edwards
1996a,
b,
c).
These
packs
consist of
a
course
leader's
handbook,
accompanying
overhead
transparencies
and
handouts,
and
a
teacher's book that
sets out
and
expands
on
the
main issues covered
in the
course.
It
was
intended
that
materials should
be used
flexibly
accord?
ing
to
the needs of different
groups.
Knowledge exchange:
a
UK-South
African
experience
There
are
very
obvious differences between the situations in South Africa
and
the UK.
Although
there
are
notable
exceptions
-
for
instance,
in
certain
schools in East London where the
overwhelming majority
of
pupils
come
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Language
and
Development
in
Multilingual
Settings
545
from
Bangladeshi
families
-
most
children from
linguistic
minority
commu?
nities
in
the UK
have
easy
access
to
English: they
usually
learn
in
classes
taught by
teachers
for
whom
English
is the
mother
tongue
alongside
English-speaking
peers
and
are
exposed
to
English
as
well
as
minority
language
media
(Edwards
2004).
In
South
Africa,
in
contrast,
especially
in
the rural
areas
and
townships,
the main
exposure
to
English
is in classrooms
where teachers'
competence
in
English
may
be
limited. Yet
despite
these
differences,
there
was
sufficient
commonality
to
make
cooperation
an
inter?
esting
prospect
in the
area
of
teacher
training
for
multilingual
classrooms
an
interesting
prospect.
In
particular,
both countries
are
attempting
to
improve
provision
for
large
numbers of children for whom
English
is
not
the first
language
and whose
mother
tongues
are
often
stigmatised.
There therefore
seemed
ample
opportunities
to
draw
on
Bakhtin's
dialogical principle
that
"all discourse
is in
dialogue
with
prior
discourses
on
the
same
subject"
(Todorov 1984).
The South
African
partner
in
this
venture
in
knowledge
exchange
is the
Project
for the
Study
of
Alternative Education in
South Africa
(PRAESA),
an
independent
research
and
development organisation
attached
to
the
Fac?
ulty
of Humanities
at
the
University
of
Cape
Town. Established
in
1992,
PRAESA
emerged
from
the
struggle
against apartheid
education.
The ratio?
nale for
the research and
development
activities of the
project
research
con?
tinues
to
be the d?mocratisation
of South
African
society, particularly
in
the
key
area
of
language-in-education.
The
Early Literacy
Unit
at
PRAESA is
increasingly
concerned with train?
ing
and materials
development
in
response
to
recent
policy
developments
both
in
South
Africa
and
beyond
its
borders
in
southern Africa.
The
Wes?
tern
Cape
Education
Department,
for
instance,
has
adopted
a
literacy
strat?
egy
which aims
"to
strengthen
the
teaching
and
learning
of
languages (with
a
special
focus
on
reading,
writing
and
comprehension)
in
the
context
of the
South African
Language
in
Education
policy"
(WCED
2002:
1).
The
literacy
strategy
includes
teacher
training
in
methods
for
teaching reading
and writ?
ing, stimulating
and
supporting reading
for
enjoyment
and
operating
effec?
tively
in
multilingual
classrooms. PRAESA is well
placed
to
respond
to
the
training
opportunities
provided
by
these
new
developments.
It
already
deliv?
ers
courses
customised
to
the needs of different client
groups.
Examples
have
included short
programmes
for foundation
phase
teachers
in six schools
in
Langa,
a
township
to
the
west
of
Cape
Town,
and for the Central Educa?
tional
Management
Development
Centre
(EMDC)
on
effective
approaches
to
reading
and
writing
in two
languages.
Its involvement in
training
extends be?
yond
South Africa
through
a
pilot "Training
of
Trainers:
multilingual
edu?
cation"
programme,
offered
as a
post
graduate
diploma/masters
in education
at
the
University
of
Cape
Town,
and
drawing
on
trainers from
throughout
Southern Africa. The
decision of the Western
Cape
Education
Department
in
2005
to
begin
the
implementation
of mother
tongue
based
bilingual
edu?
cation is
likely
to
provide
a
wide
range
of
further
training.
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546
Naz
Rassool,
Viv
Edwards
and
Carole Bloch
Adapting
the
materials
Working together
as
part
of the British Council
Higher
Education
Link
Scheme,
we
have
set
about the task of
adapting
the
British
training
materials
for
use
in
Southern
Africa. The first
stage
of
a
three
year
programme
has
been
to
review the
content
and
shape
of the
existing training
materials,
iden?
tifying topics
and
approaches
which
apply equally
in both
situations,
as
well
as
gaps
in the materials and
areas
covered
in
the UK
packs
which do
not
transfer
easily
to
the South African
context.
One
aspect
of the UK
packs
which made them
an
obvious candidate for
knowledge
exchange
is the
fact
that
they
address
two
important
current
requirements
for
training
in
South Africa:
they
offer
a
process-based
approach
to
teaching
and
learning, grounded
in
the
principles
of
profes?
sional
reflexivity;
and
they
include
opportunities
to
respond
to
the
needs of
a
learner-centred curriculum.
A
number of
assumptions
were
made in
develop?
ing
the
packs:
?
In
order
to
be effective
teachers,
we
need
an
understanding
both
of the
relevant
theory
and
examples
of
good
practice,
which
can
inform
our
work.
?
Classrooms
are
complex
communities. Often
there
are
several
possible
courses
of action. Sometimes there is
no
obvious solution
to
a
problem.
?
Teachers have
varying
levels of
experience
and
confidence.
It
is
very
important
to
start
from where
they
are
and
to
build
on
what
they
know.
Edwards
(1996a,
b,
c:
1)
These
assumptions
make the materials
particularly
well
suited
to
the needs
of South African
teachers,
shaped by
a
long
history
of
a
teacher-centred
pedagogical approach
and
a
highly
circumscribed
and
regulated
curriculum.
UK
expertise
was
also valuable
in
production.
The
experience
of
having
produced
the
original
training
packs
was
useful
in
determining
both
the dif?
ferent elements that would be
necessary
in
the
development
of
the
South
African
materials
and
aspects
of
project
management.
It
was
also
possible
to
adapt
the Word
template employed by
trainers
on a
separate
project
for
use
with the
South
African
materials.
As
part
of the
same
process,
British
partic?
ipants
were
able
to
upgrade
South
African
colleagues"
skills
in
IT,
presenta?
tion and
design.
When
any
materials
are
transferred from
one
setting
to
another,
there
are
issues of "localisation".
In
many
cases,
the
necessary
adaptations
are
of
a
superficial
nature:
photographs required
to
illustrate
an
exercise
on
stereo?
typing,
for
instance,
need
to
reflect the
population
of
South
Africa rather
than the UK.
In
the British
materials,
an
exercise
in
simulating
the
experi?
ence
of
learning
to
read
in
another
language
uses
Dutch
as an
example;
in
the
new
setting
it will
be
more
appropriate
to
use
an
African
language.
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Language
and
Development
in
Multilingual
Settings
547
In
other
cases,
it is
necessary
to
omit
themes and activities
altogether.
The
writing pack,
for
instance,
features
an
activity designed
to
draw attention
to
the difficulties of
learning
a new
script. Participants
are
invited
to
copy
sentences
in
Panjabi
and
Bengali
scripts,
w7hich
hang
down from the
line,
in
Urdu,
which
runs
from left
to
right,
and in
Chinese,
where each character is
constructed within
a
notional
square
from different strokes
in
a
clearly
prescribed
sequence.
Given that
all
the official
languages
of
South
Africa
are
written in
a roman
script,
there
is
no
need
for
an
exercise of
this kind.
It has also been
important
to
acknowledge
-
and
exploit
-
differences
between South African
and British teachers.
Most
of the teachers who
form
the audience for the
UK
packs
are
monolingual English speakers,
with
no
personal experience
that
they
can
relate
to
the
bilingual
pupils
in their
classes.
Most
teachers in
Southern
Africa,
in
contrast,
are
bilingual
or
even
multilingual. Although
they
have,
in
many
cases,
accepted uncritically
the
hegemony
of
English
and the low7
status
of
local
languages, they
are
better
able
to
relate
to
the
situation of children educated
through
the medium of
a
language
which
is
not
their mother
tongue.
An
activity
included in the South
African
pack,
which builds
on
this
understanding,
invites
participants
to
shade
or
colour
different
parts
of
a
line
drawing
intended
to
represent
their
body
to
reflect the
languages
that
they speak.
South African teachers
were
initially
cautious about
an
open-ended
exercise of this
kind,
but
soon
responded enthusiastically
to
a
task which
required
them
to
reflect
upon
their
own
experiences.
There
have,
however,
been
some
unexpected developments
as we
have
worked
through
these
early
stages.
We
had
not
envisaged,
for
instance,
the
extent
to
which
the
adaptation
of the
packs
would
help
in
the revision and
improvement
of the
original
materials for
ongoing
use
in
the
UK;
this
was
not
one
of the
original
aims of the
project.
Yet
as
we
contemplated
the
needs
of South
African
trainers,
it
was
necessary
to
confront
questions
of
organisation,
which had
not
been
satisfactorily
addressed
in
the rush
to
produce
materials
for
the
UK. The initial division into
speaking
and listen?
ing, reading
and
writing neatly
mirrored the different
language
skills;
it
was,
however,
overly
simplistic
and had
resulted,
in
practice,
in
unnecessary
compartmentalisation
and
lost
opportunities
for
making
links between simi?
lar
learning
processes.
By
reviewing developments
in
theory
and
practice
in
the
7
years
since the
materials
were
first
written,
we were
able
to
develop
a
clearer vision of the
programme
as a
whole,
and
to
consider other
ways
of
organising
the
materials.
We
have
now
produced
an
alternative and far
more
flexible framework. The
materials
are no
longer
offered
as a
set
curriculum
to
be
presented
in
a
fixed
order;
they
can
be
used
on
their
own
or can
sup?
plement existing training
materials
in
such
a
way
that trainers
can
"pick
and
mix"
to
suit their
own
requirements.
UK trainers have also benefited
from
the
collaboration
by revisiting
issues
relating
to
production.
The
challenges
for trainers
in
both
settings
are
in
fact
quite
similar: the small
numbers of
packs
required
and the
many
different
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548
Naz
Rassool,
Viv
Edwards
and
Carole
Bloch
elements
-
handbook,
OHTs,
handouts
-
mean
that the unit
cost
is
necessar?
ily high.
While limited
education
budgets
in
the
UK
pale
into
insignificance
next to
the
scarce
resources
in
southern
Africa, expense
is nonetheless
an
important
consideration
in
both
countries.
The
solution
adopted
for the ori?
ginal
UK
training
materials
was
printing
on
demand;
with the
exception
of
the teachers"
books,
high-resolution
elements of the
pack
were
printed
or
photocopied
only
when
an
order
was
received.
This
approach
was
nonethe?
less
time-consuming
and
costly.
Considerable
technological
advances have
been made since
1995,
which benefit both South
African
and
UK trainers.
The
most
important
of
these is the
development
of the World
Wide
Web.
The
materials
can now
be downloaded
as
individual Word files from the
Training
for
Early Literacy Learning
(TELL)
website
(www.tell.praesa.org)
and
adapted
as
necessary.
The
materials
developed jointly
by
PRAESA and the
University
of Read?
ing
are
being
trialled and evaluated
on courses
offered
in South
Africa.
Although
the
packs
are
informed
by
extensive
experience
of
multilingual
classrooms
in
both
locations,
and considerable
experience
of materials devel?
opment
in
the
UK,
their
use
in
actual
training
situations
will
undoubtedly
lead
to
a
great
deal of further
refinement.
Conclusion
The
paper
discussed
a
limited
programme
of in-service teacher
education
involving knowledge
exchange
between the
University
of
Reading
in
the UK
and the
PRAESA,
centred
on
the
training
needs of teachers
working
in
mul?
tilingual
classrooms
throughout
the
greater
Cape
Town
region.
The
paper
contextualised
the
existing
skills and
knowledge
gaps
in this
area
within
the
broader
theoretical
framework of
historical
language-state
relations
within
South Africa
during
the
Apartheid period.
The discussion identified several
aspects
of
past
policies
that,
to
a
significant
extent,
have
contributed
to
the
lack of
expertise
and
knowledge
as
well
as
language
attitudes
generally
amongst
teachers
in
post-Apartheid
South Africa. We
argued
that the for?
mer
emphasis
on a
rigid
national curriculum
framework,
and
highly
regu?
lated educational
system
during
the
Apartheid
years,
has left
a
legacy
of
under-qualified
teachers locked into
a
teacher-centred,
transmission
model
and
linguistics
based
approach
to
language
education.
Moreover,
the
status
of
English,
first,
as a
counter-hegemonic
language,
and, second,
as
an
inter?
national
language
has influenced
attitudes
negatively
towards
using
African
languages
as
mediums
for
teaching
and
learning.
During
the
period
of
devising
the
training
materials
we were
also
acutely
aware
of
historical
power
imbalances between
the
United
Kingdom
and
South Africa.
We
were
particularly
concerned
that
the
project
should
not
replicate
the
one-way
model of
knowledge
transfer
-
from the
metropolitan,
ex-colonial
"mother-country"
to
the
emerging post-colonial
nation-state. As
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Language
and
Development
in
Multilingual
Settings
549
stated
earlier,
knowledge exchange
between
countries
inevitably
involves
degrees
of
"localisation",
that is
to
say,
adapting
materials
to
suit the local
base.
We
anticipated
this
to
be
a
linear
process
involving
changing
surface
aspects
of the materials such
as
images
and
scripts.
However,
in
practice,
we
found that
we were
constantly
being
informed
by
conditions,
experiences
and
expectations grounded
in the
unique
situation
that
prevailed
in
South
Africa. We became
aware,
increasingly,
of the
complexities presented
by
the
Apartheid experience
and
its
long-term
impact
on
teachers"
awarenesses,
knowledge
base and attitudes.
As
a
result the
process
became
a
two-way
flow of
knowledge
and
expertise
as
we were
becoming engaged
in
an
ongo?
ing
critical
dialogue,
working
reflexively
with
the
materials,
questioning
our
own
assumptions
and
values.
Another
consequence
was
that
we
changed
the
entire
approach
of the
materials
moving
away
from
a
rigid
framework
cen?
tred
on
using
the
materials
programmatically.
Our PRAESA
partner
found
that the UK materials took for
granted knowledges
and
awarenesses
that
needed
to
be
made
more
explicit
for South African teachers.
For
example,
the
separation
of the
four
language
arts
-
speaking
and
listening, reading
and
writing
-
needed
to
be
integrated
in
order
to
counter
the historical
expe?
rience of
South
African
teachers of
separating
skills and
knowledges
within
the erstwhile structural
approach
to
language teaching.
In
adopting
a
more
inclusive,
integrated
and
flexible
approach, allowing
trainers
to
make
decisions about
which
materials
to
use
in
their
training
programmes,
we
pro?
vided for
greater
teacher
autonomy.
The
next
stage
involves translation
of
the materials into French
for
use
in
other
African
states
as
well
as
African
languages
throughout
South
Africa
and the
rest
of
Africa
to
enable teachers
to
teach
in their
mother
tongues.
To this
end,
PRAESA has
already
pro?
duced
an
in-service
training
video
providing
an
example
of
good
practice
in
a
multilingual
classroom.
These
initiatives
will raise
the
project
to
a
different
dimension,
and
will
involve,
for
example,
also translation of
terminology
into other
languages
and
developing
discourse
styles,
contributing
thus
towards the intellectualisation
of African
languages.
In
this
regard,
we
view
this article
as
part
of the
process
of
reflection
on
the
project,
including
the
practical
aspects
of
adapting
the
materials
whilst,
at
the
same
time,
being
informed
by existing
theories
on
language
in
education
as
well
as
sociocul
tural and
political
conditions
in South
Africa.
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The
authors
Naz Rassool
is
Reader in Education
at
the
University
of
Reading,
where she
is also Director of the
MA in
Organisation,
Planning
and
Management
in
Education
Programme.
Her
research interests
lie in
language
and
identity,
and the
political
economy
of
language.
Contact address:
Institute
of
Education,
University
of
Reading,
Bulmershe
Court,
Reading
RG6
1HY,
E-mail:
N.rassool@reading.ac.uk.
Viv
Edwards is Professor of
Language
in
Education
at
the
University
of
Reading,
where
she
is also director
of the
National Centre
for
Language
and
Literacy.
She is editor of the international
journal,
Language
and Education.
Her main research interests
lie
in
teaching
and
learning
in
multilingual
classrooms.
Contact address:
NCLL,
University
of
Reading,
Bulmershe
Court,
Read?
ing,
RG6
1HY,
UK. E-mail:
V.k.edwards@reading.ac.uk.
Carole Bloch works
with
the
Project
for the
Study
of Alternative Education
in South
Africa
(PRAESA)
in
the
field
of
Early
Childhood
Development.
She has
concentrated for
many
years
on
finding
ways
to
enable
young
children's effective
literacy
learning,
first
as a
teacher,
then
as
a
researcher
and teacher educator.
Contact address:
PRAESA,
Faculty
of
Humanities,
University
of
Cape
Town,
Private
Bag,
Rondebosch, 7701,
South Africa. E-mail:
cbloch@humanities.uct.ac.za
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