This paper draws on conceptualisations of language as heteroglossic practices to examine how the experienced bilingual science teacher navigates between the monoglossic ideology that is embodied in the official Namibian Language in Education Policy (LiEP) within a linguistically constrained Namibian bilingual context. This paper aims to support recent research that challenges monolingual and monoglossic language practices, which tend to ignore the linguistic resources that children bring to the classroom. Data were collected from a classroom including video and audio recordings of lessons, field notes and photographs. The data were analysed through socio-cultural discourse and fine-grained multimodal analytical methods. The data findings illustrate the moment where the science teacher was constrained by English monolingual policy to mediate learners’ access to science learning, and harnessed all linguistic resources that the learners bring to the classroom. Subsidiary to that, there were moments where the teacher worked flexibly across languages, discourses and modes to interrupt the monoglossic ideology that is embodied in the official Namibian Language in Education Policy (LiEP). The use of rich heteroglossic practices is a clear testimony to enhanced science meaning-making regardless of learners’ ‘limited proficiency in English. The findings highlight the need to support learners from linguistically diverse backgrounds through a deliberate inclusive language policy that harnesses the heteroglossic nature of communicative practices and prepares teachers for a multilingual reality.
The advancements in current sources of information and technology have resulted in our ‘real lives’ becoming inundated with and entangled with new media and ‘virtual’ environments. Social media promotes freedom of expression, and remains a largely unregulated interactive space, despite the various monitoring mechanisms introduced by social platform hosts and owners to control hate speech and other forms of abuse. It is becoming increasingly evident that the protection of anonymity on social media platforms promotes the proliferation of new forms of misogyny and offensive language directed towards women and individuals belonging to marginalised groups. This proliferation of online misogynistic hate speech ultimately exhibits oppressing mechanisms that aim to disempower, dehumanise and perpetuate gender-based violence against women. This paper discusses the results of exploring the use of dehumanising and abusive language expressed online, that targets prominent Namibian women in politics and business. The feminist theory, especially sexualization and objectification framework was employed to conceptually analyse depictions of dehumanisation of women in Namibia. Narratives from social media, such as Facebook and Twitter of public figures of Namibian women, were presented to justify cases of insulting and derogatory language. They expose the implications of sexualisation and dehumanisation of women’s human rights and freedom to participate actively in both public and social media spaces, and its potential to perpetuate gender-based violence in Namibia. The paper argues that contemporary social media has failed to create a conducive environment for critical and meaningful participation, which is free from sexualization, genderisation and dehumanisation, providing recommendations for the Namibian environment.
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