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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Into the cauldron: an interplay of indigenous and globalised knowledge with strong and weak notions of literacy and language education in Ethiopia and South Africa
Author:Heugh, KathleenISNI
Year:2009
Periodical:Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa
Volume:40
Issue:2
Pages:166-189
Language:English
Geographic terms:Ethiopia
South Africa
Subjects:language instruction
multilingualism
languages of instruction
Abstract:This article draws attention to a long, precolonial as well as contemporary history of successes in mother-tongue literacy and bi/multilingual educational provision in Africa. Two case studies of literacy and language education in Ethiopia and South Africa are presented in order to demonstrate, even under resource-poor conditions, that it is possible to provide bilingual and multilingual education in Africa. System-wide studies in Ethiopia show that such opportunities, developed as a response to the domestic needs of an African country, deliver more successful learning outcomes than do second-language, monolingually driven systems. The South African example shows that although there is a multilingual education policy intent, its application is impelled towards expensive monolingual imperatives which draw on contemporary, external-to-Africa debates on education. Such imperatives have not brought the anticipated educational rewards - rather, the reverse. The data from the case studies are sufficiently compelling to show that neo and post-colonial obfuscation in education is outdated. Bibliogr., note, ref. [Journal abstract]
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