Language rights in education in South Africa

Mkhize, Dumisile; Balfour, Robert J.

doi:10.20853/31-6-1633

Cited by 36 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Rhodes University 2014; Unisa 2016) promote the use of African languages and multilingualism in universities. However, in these contexts there is often a discrepancy between policy and practice and the multilingualism promoted does not manifest (Drummond 2016;Koch and Burkett 2006;Mkhize and Balfour 2017;Moodley 2010;Van der Merwe 2016). Against this backdrop of the high use of non-African languages within university education, there are calls for the introduction of African languages and the promotion of multilingualism at university level in Africa, with adequate resources provided to support implementation (Balfour 2007;Brock-Utne 2003;Dyers 2013;Ekkehard Wolff 2016;Oduor 2015).…”

Section: Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes towards English as a Medium of Instruction in Malawian Universities

Reilly

2019

English Academy Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Malawi's language-in-education policies have been through numerous changes since the colonial period. In 1996 a policy directive was announced which encouraged the use of the mother tongue in the early stages of education, before transitioning to English. However, this policy was never effectively implemented and, in 2014, an English-only policy was announced. This has resulted in renewed debate around which languages are suitable for use as mediums of instruction in the country. This article will discuss the Malawian language-in-education policy context, with a focus on university education and the prevailing attitudes which students and staff exhibit towards English. This will be done through an analysis of data collected through focus groups and interviews with students and staff in Malawian universities. The results show that, while English is viewed positively and as suitable for use within universities, it is not viewed uncritically and there are complex attitudes towards the language. English skills are viewed as a valuable resource; however, so too are multilingual language skills. Students and staff also display positive attitudes towards the use of a multilingual language policy in the university, suggesting that the recent policy changes in Malawi do not reflect stakeholder attitudes.

show abstract

Section: Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes towards English as a Medium of Instruction in Malawian Universities

Reilly

2019

English Academy Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A major issue for learning effectively exists in multilingual print scarce settings, like South Africa, with de facto language policies that move to teach from African to ex-colonial languages after only three years schooling (Mkhize andBalfour 2017, Bua Lit 2018). Here the potential for compromised understanding already exists to such an extent that it can feel normal.…”

Section: Implications Of An Integrative View For Progress In Meaningful Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuroscience and Literacy: An Integrative View

Ellis

Bloch

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Significant challenges exist globally regarding literacy teaching and learning, particularly in poor socio-economic settings in countries of the Global South. In this paper we argue that to address these challenges, major features of how the brain works that are currently ignored in the educational literature should be taken into account. First, perception is an active process based in detection of errors in hierarchical predictions of sensory data and action outcomes. Reading is a particular case. Second, emotions play a key role in underlying cognitive functioning. Innate affective systems underlie and shape all brain functioning, including oral and written forms of language and sign. Third, there is not the fundamental difference between listening/speaking and reading/writing often alleged on the basis of evolutionary arguments. Both are socio-cultural practices driven and learnt by the communication imperative of the social brain. Fourth, like listening, reading is not a linear, bottom-up process. Both are non-linear contextually shaped psycho-social processes of understanding, shaped by current knowledge and cultural contexts and practices. Reductionist neuroscience studies which focus on decontextualized parts of reading cannot access all the relevant processes. An integrated view of brain function reflecting this non-linear nature implies that an ongoing focus on personal meaning and understanding provides positive conditions for all aspects of literacy learning. Assessment of literacy teaching at all its stages should include indicators that take into account these foundational features relating reading and writing to neuroscience.

show abstract

“…Human rights regimes have in similar fashion bring about over-regulated, managerial human rights frameworks stifling critique on the (non)realisation of human rights in all spheres of human life: political, socio-economic, culture, religion, gender and sexual orientation, age and language. Mkhize and Balfour (2017) specifically speak to the difficulties inherent to language rights and how such difficulties in basic education influence 4 multilingual education in higher education Scholars such as Cistelecan (2011Cistelecan ( ), Žižek (2005 and Rancière (2004) therefore focus their critique of human rights on exclusions (within the frame of abstract rights), the failure to acknowledge the other, identity politics, the moral and political core of universal rights and the capitalist premise of such rights (Du Preez and Becker 2016). Dembour (2010) refers to this body of scholarship on human rights as the discourse school.…”

Section: Critique Dissensus and Human Rights Literaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Editorial: On critique, dissensus and human rights literacies

Roux

Becker²

2017

SAJHE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Globally, issues such as xenophobia, rising nationalism and populism, linked to the international migrant crisis, are stretching the past influence and the present reinterpretation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) to its limits. Locally, the #MustFall 1 protests at higher education institutions rightly question the existence and validity of human rights, especially as it pertains to the right to education, socio-economic rights and the moral responsibility of higher education institutions to its students within human rights policy frameworks. The growing critique of human rights is crucial not only to the understanding of the conceptual, legal, moral, historic and contextual complexities of human rights but also the rethinking of the anthropological, ethical, ontological and epistemological premise of human rights. Human rights literacies, we argue, while including knowledge about human rights, question the social and moral consequences of the (non)realisation of human rights as well as the anthropological, ethical, ontological and epistemological premise of human rights. Critique and dissensus are inherent to human rights literacies and impact on how we speak and act to in(ex)clusions, marginalisation, intolerance, disrespect, misrecognition and discrimination.

show abstract

Language rights in education in South Africa

Cited by 36 publications

References 28 publications

Attitudes towards English as a Medium of Instruction in Malawian Universities

Attitudes towards English as a Medium of Instruction in Malawian Universities

Neuroscience and Literacy: An Integrative View

Editorial: On critique, dissensus and human rights literacies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About