(Unused) potentials of educators’ covert language policies at public schools in Limpopo, South Africa

ABSTRACT

Language policy is an influencing factor of the educational outcome for pupils in Africa. Colonial languages have been largely used and African Languages are neglected. Despite this, the South African Constitution (1996) declares eleven official languages. However, curricular developments favour Afrikaans and English. To analyse the implementation of the official language policy, we focus on Limpopo Province. Over 1000 questionnaires were answered by teachers. This approach aimed to analyse the language practices and language attitudes of teachers. Schools in Limpopo showed significant differences between the official language policy and the daily language practices. Some teachers implement the official language policy; others use one or more African languages in their oral communications during the lessons in the form of Code Switching. This is seen in relation to the contemporary debates regarding translanguaging as an educational pedagogy.

KEYWORDS:

• Language-in-Education Policy
• policy implementation
• African Languages
• Code Switching (CS)
• South Africa
• Limpopo

Acknowledgements

The authors would firstly like to thank the participating teachers in Limpopo and the DBE for granting permission for this research. Thanks also to Keagile Molotsi (Oxbridge Academy) for her support during the data collection in Limpopo. A special thanks also to the two anonymous reviewers who helped to improve the original manuscript. Nevertheless, all remaining mistakes are solely the responsibility of the authors. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Michael M. Kretzer received his state examination in 2010. After that he worked for the Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy (MILL)and the Reading Association of South Africa (RASA). In 2012 he began as a research associate for the Center for international Development and Environmental Research (ZEU) at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany and started with his PhD at the Department of Human Geography and Development Research (Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany). For his PhD study he went several times between 2012 and 2016 to South Africa for data collection in three research provinces. He finished and published his PhD study early 2018. He is currently a NRF SARChI Chair Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the School of Languages and Literatures at Rhodes University. His focuses are education systems and language policies and the relationship between education and agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, mainly in South Africa, Malawi and Botswana. Hence, he also went for field research several times to Botswana and Malawi. He also focuses on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in Southern and Eastern Africa. He published several chapters in books and various articles in different journals like the Universal Journal of Agricultural Research, South African Journal of African Languages and the South African Geographical Journal.

Prof. Russell H. Kaschula holds the Chair in the ‘Intellectualisation of African Languages, Multilingualism and Education’ which is housed in the African Language Studies Section, School of Languages, Faculty of Humanities. He's expertise are not limited to the field of African languages and linguistics, as he is also a registered Advocate of the High Court of South Africa. He has an extensive list of degrees including a BA degree, LLB, HDE, BA(Hons) (Cum Laude) and a PhD from Rhodes University. After pursuing a career in African languages, he began his teaching career at tertiary level in 1988 as a junior lecturer. He has had an illustrious teaching career which has extended to five South African Universities and one American institution, before settling at Rhodes University. He has lectured students from undergraduate level through to postgraduate level. He currently lectures honours students, in the course elective of 'African Sociolinguistics, Globalisation and language planning'. Furthermore he is a supervisor to students at Honours, Masters, PhD and Postdoctrol levels. He supervised the first postdoctoral student in the African Language Studies Section (under the auspices of the Chair).

ORCID

Michael M. Kretzer http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8603-0141

Russell H. Kaschula http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5481-6748

Notes

1 ANC: African National Congress; ASIDI: Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative; CS: Code Switching; DBE: Department of Basic Education; EMIS: Education Management Information Systems; FET: Further Education and Training; L1: First Language; LHR: Linguistic Human Rights; LiEP: Language-in-Education Policy; LoLT: Language of Learning and Teaching; NP: National Party; NRF: National Research Foundation; PGCE: Post-graduate Certificate in Education; SADTU: South African Democratic Teachers’ Union; SASA: South African Schools Act; SGB: School Governing Body; SPSS: Statistical Package of Social Sciences; UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

2 One very famous one was in 2009, Hoërskool Ermelo and Another vs Head of Department of Education: Mpumalanga and Others (219/2008)‘ (Southern African Legal Information Institute, 2009).

3 The South African education system is divided into four phases. The Foundation Phase covers Grade R up until Grade 3, Intermediate Phase Grade 4 to 6, Senior Phase 7–9 and the final Further Education and Training (FET) Band Grade 10–12).

4 To ensure a total anonymity all names were changed and the names used here are fictitious.

5 All interviews were slightly edited regarding formulations or repeating of words to ensure a better reading of these interviews.

Additional information

Funding

The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards the publication of this research is hereby acknowledged.