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Democracy and Multilingualism in South African Primary Education: Implications for Early Literacy Development

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Challenging Democracy in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

South Africa is a country of rich cultural and linguistic diversity. As a result, multilingualism has received much attention in South African education and research over the past two decades. In part this has been in response to the inclusive and democratic Language-in-Education Policy regarding 11 official languages (Department of Education (DoE), Language in education policy. Government Gazette, 17997 (383) Pretoria, South Africa, 1997). By promoting additive multilingualism in education, the Language-in-Education Policy advocates the maintenance of learners’ home languages within the framework of human and linguistic rights. This is necessary because in the current situation some children begin their schooling in a second or third language (O’Carrol, S, Hickman R, Narrowing the literacy gap: Strengthening language and literacy development between birth and six years for children in South Africa, Wordworks, Cape Town, 2012). Yet research shows that the mismatch between learners’ home languages and the language of learning and teaching often results in unequal opportunities for learners’ epistemological access to learning, especially in early schooling where they start reading and writing, in an unfamiliar language (Bloch C, Theory and strategy of early literacy in contemporary Africa with special reference to South Africa, PRAESA occasional papers, no. 25. University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 2006; Prosper A, Nomlomo, V, Per Linguam, 32(3):79–94, 2016).

This chapter is a critical policy review and is not a report of empirical research. The aim of this chapter is to advance the debate on democracy and multilingualism in relation to early literacy development in South Africa. The chapter argues that while the language and literacy curriculum is underpinned by social justice and democratic principles, classroom practices counteract this by reinforcing inequality and exclusion, thus affecting learners’ access to meaningful learning.

Given the current literacy crisis in many South African primary schools, there is a need to reassess the meaning of democracy and linguistic rights in the process of searching for appropriate pedagogical strategies that might support early literacy development in multilingual contexts.

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  1. University of the Western Cape, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa

    Vuyokazi Nomlomo

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  1. Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden

    Valerie Margrain  & Annica Löfdahl Hultman  & 

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Nomlomo, V. (2019). Democracy and Multilingualism in South African Primary Education: Implications for Early Literacy Development. In: Margrain, V., Löfdahl Hultman, A. (eds) Challenging Democracy in Early Childhood Education. International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development, vol 28. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7771-6_6

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