A central aim of this article is to reflect on the design and implementation of a bi/multilingual Bachelor of Education foundation phase programme offered at the University of Fort Hare from 2018. It reviews three major perspectives on bi/multilingualism: mother tongue-based bi/multilingual education, language and decoloniality, and…

South Africa is facing the challenge of creating a viable nation from a situation of interplay between diverse racial, ethnic and linguistic forces. This article discusses the implications for education of the evolving picture of language policy as South Africa addresses the task of nation-building. Language policy is important because of its key…

In this interview, African Language expert Pam Maseko speaks of her own background and her first encounter with culture outside of her mother tongue, isiXhosa. A statistical breakdown of South African languages is provided as background. She discusses Western (originally missionary) codification of African languages and suggests that this approach…

As we search for a new paradigm in post-apartheid South Africa, the knowledge base and worldview of the KhoeSan first Indigenous peoples is largely missing. The South African government has established various mechanisms as agents for social change. Institutions of higher learning have implemented transformation programs. KhoeSan peoples, however,…

Two international conferences held in southern Africa in 2005 gathered education and language experts to discuss practical, theoretical, and political aspects of the development of African languages for education. Despite the diversity of the participants, there was unanimous agreement that the economic and social benefits of providing…

Learn and Teach is a foreign-funded literacy project in South Africa that is intended to combine conscientization with literacy instruction. The approach includes vernacular as well as English instruction. A call is being made for a mass literacy campaign on a national scale to end the marginalization of the Black population. (SK)

This paper discusses the current state of language instruction and accompanying materials and describes elements of the Classroom Library Project in South Africa. The Project was initiated by the Department of Education to increase the supply of suitable material in African languages for elementary schools. Highlights include: shortcomings in…

Contends that, after the struggle for political liberation in sub-Saharan Africa, most of the new nations lost interest in using the educational system to transform their societies. Discusses nine barriers to establishing effective multicultural education in African nations. (CFR)