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            <h1>Teacher, don't teach me nonsense: How schools use language to exclude children       </h1>
            <p><time datetime="2016-09-07">07 Sep 2016 12:06</time><a href="http://mgafrica.com/author/carolyn-mckinney-and-xolisa-guzula" target="_blank"><span>Carolyn McKinney and Xolisa Guzula</span></a> </p>
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          <div><p>Schools
 and universities in post-colonial contexts still operate within the 
logic of coloniality. This is illustrated by their language policies.</p></div>
          
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              <p>Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o <a href="https://archive.org/stream/DecolonisingTheMind/Decolonising_the_Mind#page/n0/mode/2up" target="_blank">once described</a> language as “the most important vehicle through which that [colonial] power fascinated and held the soul prisoner”.</p><p>He
 illustrated this with a disturbing account of receiving corporal 
punishment, being fined and wearing a “plate around the neck with 
inscriptions such as I AM STUPID or I AM A DONKEY”. His “crime”? 
Speaking Gikuyu at his English medium school.</p><p>Today, decisions 
about which language resources should count in schooling – as the 
language of instruction, a subject, or a legitimate language for 
learning – continue to be informed by the relationships between language
 and power. 
Schools and universities in post-colonial contexts still operate within 
the logic of coloniality.</p><p>These realities have been thrown into sharp relief by revelations that some South African schools <a href="http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/malaika-eyoh-pretoria-girls-racism-schools-undervalue-blackness-focus-containing-us-nourishing-us/" target="_blank"> discipline their pupils </a>
 for speaking any language but English (or Afrikaans) while on school 
grounds. At Cape Town’s Sans Souci High School for Girls, pupils obtain 
“losses” (or demerits) for a range of “offences” – like being caught 
speaking isiXhosa. For many of Sans Souci’s pupils, this is their home 
language.</p><p><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div>******************************<wbr>********<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.  A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/<wbr>mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>******************************<wbr>*************</div>
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