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Full-Text Articles in Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education

Multilingual Education In South Africa: The Role Of Publishers, Viv Edwards, Jacob Marriote Ngwaru Jan 2011

Multilingual Education In South Africa: The Role Of Publishers, Viv Edwards, Jacob Marriote Ngwaru

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

The South African constitution and related legislative tools provide a supportive framework for multilingual education. Successful implementation, however, requires appropriate learning materials and questions remain as to the vision and commitment of publishers to producing them. Based on an analysis of currently available books for children and interviews with publishers and key figures in the book value chain, this paper explores both the educational rationale for African language publishing and the issues that constrain expansion. These issues include the heavy dependence on the schools market in a society where the majority of the population cannot or do not buy books, …


Home And School Literacy Practices In Africa: Listening To Inner Voices, Jacob Marriote Ngwaru, Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa Jan 2010

Home And School Literacy Practices In Africa: Listening To Inner Voices, Jacob Marriote Ngwaru, Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

The voices of the main stakeholders in literacy and schooling – pupils and parents – have seldom been given adequate space in studies of school and classroom discourse in sub-Saharan Africa. The present paper attempts to redress this imbalance by presenting the voices of pupils from a multilingual urban primary school in Ghana and of parents from a rural bilingual school in Zimbabwe. The Ghanaian study highlights challenges associated with using an unfamiliar language, English, as the medium of instruction, selective teacher treatment in the classroom that leaves some children lacking confidence to participate and the strong influence of the …