ERIC Number: EJ1218535
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0950-0782
EISSN: N/A
Transitional Multilingual Education Policies in Africa: Necessary Compromise or Strategic Impediment?
Odugu, Desmond I.; Lemieux, Camille N.
Language and Education, v33 n3 p263-281 2019
Despite advances in multilingual education (MLE) scholarship, education in most African societies remain characteristically congruent with colonial normative monolingual and transitional multilingual policies, which limit the use of native language(s) as media of instruction to early primary schooling. This contributes to poor educational and social outcomes far below the projected benefits of MLE. Convinced that the complex relationships between language and education have been discerned, MLE scholarship has become increasingly advocacy oriented to corresponding policies and practices, with purportedly widespread resistance from parents, policymakers, and educators. This focused ethnographic inquiry into the perspectives of parents, educators, researchers, and policymakers on MLE finds mixed messages in MLE advocacy that foment localized resistance to and disincentivize full native language-based MLE (NLB-MLE) policy changes. Specifically, transitional multilingualism, a compromise with NLB-MLE opposition, entails inherent instrumentality and linguistic hierarchy, which undermines the fundamental principles of linguistic and cultural diversity that is the hallmark of NLB-MLE. Considering the colonial, political, and scientific sources of transitional multilingualism, the findings support a reconfiguration of the intellectual anchorage, social agenda, and discursive scope of MLE scholarship to address the strategic challenge, which transitional multilingualism poses to NLB-MLE policy shift and its pedagogical and cultural promises.
Descriptors: Multilingualism, Educational Policy, African Languages, Elementary School Students, Language Usage, Native Language, Language of Instruction, Advocacy, Parent Attitudes, Ethnography, Teacher Attitudes, Policy Formation, Educational Change, Cultural Pluralism, Language Planning, Barriers, Educational Benefits, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, French, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Ghana; Kenya; Uganda; Nigeria
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A