[lg policy] How schools use language as a way to exclude children

Thu Sep 8 15:31:08 UTC 2016

How schools use language as a way to exclude children
Sans Souci students protested this week against alleged racism at the
school.
Image: Ashraf Hendricks via GroundUp
Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o once described language as “the most
important vehicle through which that [colonial] power fascinated and held
the soul prisoner”.

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.

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.

These realities have been thrown into sharp relief by revelations that some
South African schools discipline their pupils
<http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/malaika-eyoh-pretoria-girls-racism-schools-undervalue-blackness-focus-containing-us-nourishing-us/>
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.

Sadly this problem isn’t unique to South Africa. It’s been seen in other
post-colonial contexts like Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Nigerian novelist
Chimamanda Adichie has spoken
<http://www.iun.edu/%7Eminaua/interviews/interview_chimamanda_ngozi_adichie.pdf>
about
not having the opportunity to learn Igbo proficiently at school. This, she
says, left her with no option but to write exclusively in English.

These girls' stories have foregrounded the crucial issue of language in
processes of assimilation and exclusion. Over the past ten years there has
been a major shift in our understandings of language, bilingualism and
bilingual education which show the learning advantages
<https://theconversation.com/multilingualism-boosts-learning-and-can-create-new-science-knowledge-too-46292>
of
using more than one language <http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137385758> in
the classroom for learning.

*A cycle of blame and bad faith*

African children – whose home languages are by and large not English – are
generally not recognised for the experiences, knowledge and linguistic
resources they bring. They’re expected to adapt to pre-existing school
cultures.

African children in ex-Model C schools are expected to feel grateful at
being given the “opportunity” of a quality education in a state school
system that performs very poorly.

The apartheid government designated all “white” state schools Model C in
1992. This semi-privatised them. Research conducted in such schools since
the 1990s has consistently pointed out these schools' overwhelmingly
assimilationist
ethos <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13613321003726876>.
<http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2016/09/08/The-Big-Read-Lets-not-throw-baby-out-with-bath-water>The
Big Read: Let's not throw baby out with bath water
<http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2016/09/08/The-Big-Read-Lets-not-throw-baby-out-with-bath-water>

Many previously white primary and secondary suburban schools offer only
English and Afrikaans as “home language” and “first additional language”
subjects. This continues apartheid’s ideology of bilingualism.

Where an African language is offered, it is given marginal status as
“second additional language”. African languages get little space on the
timetable and few resources.

Primary school principals have defended
<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01434632.2014.908889?journalCode=rmmm20>
the
fact that they offer only English and Afrikaans by saying their pupils
continue on to high schools that only offer these languages. High school
principals, in turn, reported that they had to offer English and Afrikaans
because their feeder primary schools were not offering African languages.

This is a convenient cycle of blame which signals bad faith. If school
leaders and parents were committed to embracing African languages and the
spirit of the multilingual South African language in education policy,
surely they would consult each other and design collaborative language
policies?

But society’s collective beliefs about whose languages “matter” and should
be privileged scupper any meaningful collaboration.

*Language ideologies*

The concept of language ideologies – people’s beliefs about what language
is, as well as what particular uses of language point to or index – are
central in shaping whose language resources count in formal schooling.

South African schools' language policies proceed from an ideology of
“language as a problem” rather than “language as a resource”. As is the
case in other post-colonial societies, this sets linguistic diversity up as
a barrier to rather than an advantage for learning.

The language ideology and practices that exclusively valorise English can
be viewed as Anglonormativity
<https://www.routledge.com/Language-and-Power-in-Post-Colonial-Schooling-Ideologies-in-Practice/McKinney/p/book/9781138844070>:
the expectation that people will and should be proficient in English, and
are deficient (even deviant) if they are not.
<http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/stnews/2016/09/04/Not-just-about-hair---its-values-too>Not
just about hair - it's values, too
<http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/stnews/2016/09/04/Not-just-about-hair---its-values-too>

In ex-Model C schools it’s not just English but a particular variety of
standard South African English which aligns with whiteness that is
privileged.

Research has revealed
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281896926_What_counts_as_language_in_South_African_schooling_Monoglossic_ideologies_and_children%27s_participation>
how
early-grade primary school teachers buy into the myth that there’s one
single correct pronunciation for English.

They deviate from maths and literacy lessons to teach children to produce
pronunciations and vowel sounds that align with white South African
Englishes. This practice ignores the content or substance of children’s
answers.

It is also Anglonormativity that renders the typical South African child
entering schooling as linguistically deficient.

A typical learner in an ordinary South African school will have learned in
their home language until the end of Grade 3. They’re then expected to
switch to exclusively English instruction in all of their subjects from the
beginning of Grade 4. This Anglonormativity is clearly a gross abuse of the
child’s right to quality education.

All textbook materials, notes and assessments are given in a language that
the child has been learning as a subject for a few hours per week in the
first three years of schooling.

The child is expected to learn and be assessed exclusively in English to
the final year of school and beyond. White middle-class English and
Afrikaans speaking learners aren’t expected to make this sudden transition
from learning in their home language.

*A long shadow of colonial racism*

This is not an argument for mother tongue education instead of English
medium education. It’s an argument for bi- or multilingual education.

Parents and children should not be forced to choose either English or an
African language. Instead, children must be equipped with the ability to
learn through and develop all their language resources throughout their
schooling.

The continuing denigration of African languages and exclusive valuing of
English is evidence of apartheid’s long shadow. It also points to the
internalisation
of colonial racism
<https://monoskop.org/images/a/a5/Fanon_Frantz_Black_Skin_White_Masks_1986.pdf>
and the continuing power of whiteness. It’s time to realise that access to
English will not be achieved through English-only instruction.

   - Carolyn McKinney
   <https://theconversation.com/profiles/carolyn-mckinney-185219>:
   Associate Professor in Language Education, University of Cape Town
   -

   Xolisa Guzula <https://theconversation.com/profiles/xolisa-guzula-185216>:
   PhD Candidate in Language and Literacy, University of Cape Town

*This article first appeared in The Conversation
<https://theconversation.com/africa>*

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/stnews/2016/09/08/How-schools-use-language-as-a-way-to-exclude-children

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