Language ideologies in multilingual Tanzania: parental discourses, school realities, and contested visions of schooling

ABSTRACT

Language ideologies shape ways in which different learners’ linguistic repertoires are positioned as resources or problems, with significant implications for educational access and equity. In Tanzania, tensions between the national language of Kiswahili and high-status English have given rise to two parallel schooling systems, while 130+ local languages are effectively muted in formal schooling. This comparative study explores how Maa (Maasai language), Kiswahili, and English are discursively constructed by parents and teachers at one Kiswahili-medium government school and one English-medium private school in a predominantly Maasai community in northern Tanzania, and examines how these languages are positioned pedagogically at both schools. Education for Self-Reliance (Nyerere 1967/2004. “Education for Self Reliance.” In Nyerere on Education/Nyerere Kuhusu Elimu, edited by Elieshi Lema, Marjorie Mbilinyi, and Rakesh Rajani, 67–88. Dar es Salaam: E&D Limited) and Duchêne and Heller’s (2012. Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and Profit. New York: Routledge) work on ‘pride and profit’ provide theoretical lenses. Findings show that parents’ strong appreciation for multilingualism contrasts with schools’ monoglossic ideologies; discourses of nationalism and identity vary dramatically depending on parents’ educational background; and Maasai language and culture are constructed unambiguously as problems in schooling. The linguistic, ideological, and cultural divide between home and school, and between respective schools, is problematised. This paper addresses implications for debates on language education in Tanzania and beyond, exploring possibilities for pluralistic ideologies of nationalism that create space for multilingual and multicultural resources.

KEYWORDS:

• Language ideology
• multilingualism
• minority languages
• nationalism
• English-medium
• language of instruction

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge Dr. Antoinette Gagné, Milka Jonathan Laizer and Loti Edward Tololwa for their invaluable support throughout this project. Thank you also to Dr. Espen Stranger-Johannessen, Dr. Bonny Norton, and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on previous versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Names of schools are pseudonyms.

2 In Kiswahili, ‘Mama Naserian’ means ‘the mother of Naserian’, ‘Baba Esther’ means ‘the father of Esther’, and ‘Bibi Joyce’ means ‘the grandmother of Joyce.’ All names are pseudonyms.

3 All quotations, unless indicated otherwise, were originally stated in Kiswahili. Translations are the author’s own.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.