Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

From ‘Black’ to ‘Kaleidoscope’: Institutional Curriculum and Linguistic Reforms at a Historically Black University

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Language and Institutional Identity in the Post-Apartheid South African Higher Education

Part of the book series: Language Policy ((LAPO,volume 27))

  • 157 Accesses

Abstract

The university language policy bridges the gap between community and institution and, recognises the identity, epistemology and voices of local communities and promote ethnic harmony, social cohesion and overall socio-economic conditions. However, the epistemological and pedagogical access of African students to academia in teaching and learning content subjects is still trapped in colonial monolingualism because the university is still adopting separatist approach in the institutional curriculum. The aim of this chapter is to review and document how the university’s Matshanya Edward Razwimisani (MER) Mathivha Centre for African Languages, Arts and Culture develop and promote African languages through teaching them as subjects and integrating them into other aspects of the university’s curriculum. Against this backdrop, the chapter reviews and documents the evolution of UNIVEN’s institutional curriculum – in the sense of the documented and undocumented curriculum – and how the evolution of this curriculum is inextricably related to and predicated upon the evolution of the university’s linguistic culture through time. Of particular interest will be to articulate UNIVEN’s journey from being a ‘Black’ university to a ‘kaleidoscope’ university – in institutional curriculum and linguistic culture – through its commitment to comprehensive higher education and multilingual education. Conclusions to the chapter evaluate how UNIVEN’s journey can offer lessons for the intellectualisation of African languages for high function domains like higher education in a context of symbiotic institutional curriculum and linguistic culture in higher education institutions. This chapter recommends that the University of Venda should value the voices of African students and lecturers in the process of decolonising and transforming South African higher education language policy to develop multilingual models.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bangeni, B., & Kapp, R. (2007). Shifting language attitudes in a linguistically diverse learning environment in South Africa. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 28(4), 253–269.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boakye, N., & Mbirimi, V. (2015). Multilingual pedagogy in higher education: Lecturers’ perceptions of translanguaging in promoting academic literacy. In L. Makalela (Ed.), New directions in language and literacy education for multilingual classrooms in Africa (pp. 153–174). South Africa, Cape Town: CASAS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolton, K., & Kuteeva, M. (2012). English as an academic language at a Swedish university: Parallel language use and the ‘threat’of English. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(5), 429–447.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boussebaa, M., & Brown, A. D. (2017). Englishization, identity regulation and imperialism. Organization Studies, 38(1), 7–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Busch, B. (2017). Expanding the notion of the linguistic repertoire: On the concept of Spracherleben – The lived experience of language. Applied Linguistics, 38(3), 340–358. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amv030.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. In L. Wei (Ed.), Applied linguistics review (Vol. 2, pp. 1–27). Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canagarajah, S. (2016). Translingual writing and teacher development in composition. College English, 78(3), 266–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coetzee-de Vos, G. (2019). Reflections on Language Transformation at Nelson Mandela University. Language Matters, 50:1,45.63, https://doi.org/10.1080/10228195.2018.1524923 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996.

  • Cummins, J. (2005). A proposal for action: Strategies for recognizing heritage language competence as a learning resource within the mainstream classroom. Modern Language Journal, 89, 585–592.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cyers, C. (2015). Multilingualism in late-modern Africa: Identity, mobility and multivocality. International Journal of Bilingualism, 19(2), 226–235.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Kock, T., Sayed, Y., & Badroodien, A. (2018). “Narratives of social cohesion”: Bridging the link between school culture, linguistic identity and the English language. Education as Change, 22(1), 1–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Education. (1997). Language in education policy. Available online at http://www.education.gov.za/Documents/policies/LanguageEducationPolicy1997. Accessed 25 Apr 2018.

  • Department of Education. (2002). Language policy for higher education. Pretoria: Government Printers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Education. (2003). Development of indigenous languages as mediums of instruction in higher education (Report compiled by the Ministerial Committee appointed by the Ministry of Education). Pretoria, RSA: Government Printers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Education. (2004). The development of indigenous African languages as mediums of instruction in higher education. Ministerial Committee’s report to the Minister of Education. Pretoria: Department of Education. http://www.education.gov.za/ content/documents/632.pdf. Accessed 23 Apr 2018.

  • Department of Education. (2007). Language in education policy. Pretoria: Government printers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Higher Education and Training. (2011). Report commissioned by the minister of higher education and training for the charter for humanities and social sciences. Pretoria: Government Printers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Higher Education and Training. (2012). Green paper for post-secondary school education and training. Pretoria: Government Printers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Higher Education and Training. (2018). Draft language policy for higher education. Pretoria: Government Printer.

    Google Scholar 

  • García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Language, bilingualism and education. In Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education (pp. 46–62). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guzula, X., McKinney, C., & Tyler, R. (2016). Languaging for-learning: Legitimising translanguaging and enabling multimodal practices in third spaces. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 34(3), 211–226. https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2016.1250360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hungwe, V. (2019). Using a translanguaging approach in teaching paraphrasing to enhance reading comprehension in first-year students. Journal of the Reading Association of South Africa, 10(1), 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurst, E., & Mona, M. (2017). Translanguaging as a socially just pedagogy. Education as Change, 21(2), 126–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaschula, R. H. (2016). In search of the African voice in higher education: The language question. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 49(2016), 199–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufhold, K. (2018). Creating translanguaging spaces in students’ academic writingpractices. Linguistics and Education, 45, 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan, Z. N. (2016). Role of education in building social cohesion. International Journal of Secondary Education, 4(2), 23–26. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsedu.20160402.12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirsch, C., & Aleksic, G. (2018). The effect of professional development on multilingual education in early childhood in Luxembourg. Review of European Studies, 10, 148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krause, L., & Prinsloo, M. (2016). Translanguaging in a township primary school: Policy and practice. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 34(4), 347–357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kyllőnen, M. (2019). A new narrative for the future: Learning, social cohesion and redefining “us”. In J. Cook (Ed.), Sustainability, human Well-being, and the future of education. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Language Policy for Stellenbosch University. (2016). Final language policy.www.sun.ac.za/.../Language/Final%20Language%20Policy%20June%202016.pdf. Accessed 18 Apr2018.

  • Language Policy for the University of Cape Town. (2003). https://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/. Accessed 18 Apr 2018.

  • Language Policy for the University of Pretoria. (2016). http://www.up.ac.za/en/about-up/article/1900223/language-policy. Accessed 18 Apr 2018.

  • Language Policy of Rhodes University. (2005). https://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/chertl/document/Language_Policy.pdf. Accessed 18 Apr 2018.

  • Language Policy of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. (2007) registrar.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/policies/Language_Policy_-_CO02010906.sflb.ashx. Accessed 18 Apr 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mabuto, M. P., & Ndlovu, S. (2014). Teaching under-resourced languages: An evaluation of great Zimbabwe University’s initiatives in the teaching of Tshivenda and Xichangana. South African Journal African Languages, 34(1), 1–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madiba, M. (2014). Promoting concept literacy through multilingual glossaries: A translanguaging approach. In L. Hibbert & C. van der Walt (Eds.), Multilingual universities in South Africa: Reflecting society in higher education (pp. 68–87). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maiworm, F., & Wächter, B. (2014). Part I - the big picture. In B. Wächter & F. Maiworm (Eds.), English-taught programmes in European higher education: The state of play in 2014. Lemmens: Bonn, Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  • Makalela, L. (2014). Teaching indigenous African languages to speakers of other African languages: The effects of translanguaging for multilingual development. In L. Hibbert & C. Van Der Walt (Eds.), Multilingual universities in South Africa: Reflecting society in higher education (pp. 88–106). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Makalela, L. (2015). Moving out of linguistic boxes: The effects of translanguaging strategies for multilingual classrooms. Language and Education, 29(3), 200–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2014.994524.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Makalela, L. (2017). Bilingualism in South Africa: Reconnecting with Ubuntu Translanguaging. Encyclopedia of bilingual and multilingual education (pp. 297–309). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Makalela, L. (2018). Shifting lenses: Multilanguaging, decolonization and education in the global south. Cape Town: CASAS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Makalela, L. (2019). Uncovering the universals of Ubuntu translanguaging in classroom discourses. Classroom Discourse, 10(3–4), 237–251.

    Google Scholar 

  • Makhanya, T., & Zibane, S. (2020). Students’ voices on how indigenous languages are Disfavoured in south African higher education. Language Matters, 51(1), 22–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin-Rubió, X., & Cots, J. M. (2016). Englishisation at a global space: Students and staff making sense of language choices. Language and Intercultural Communication, 6(3), 402–417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazak, C. M. (2017). Introduction: Theorizing translanguaging practices in higher education. In C. M. Mazak & K. S. Carroll (Eds.), Translanguaging in higher education: Beyond monolingual ideologies (pp. 1–28). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mbirimi-Hungwe, V. (2019). Stepping beyond linguistic boundaries in multilingual science education: Lecturer’s perceptions of the use of translanguaging. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 37(1), 15–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mbirimi-Hungwe, V., & Hungwe, T. (2018). Translanguaging for epistemic access to computer science concepts: A call for change. Journal of Language Learning, 34(2), 97–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKinney, C. (2017). Language and power in post-colonial schooling: Ideologies in practice. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mkhize, D., & Balfour, R. (2017). Language rights in education in South Africa. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(6), 13–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Motlhaka, H. A., & Makalela, L. (2016). Translanguaging in an academic writing class: Implications for a dialogic pedagogy. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 34(3), 251–260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mukhuba, T. T., & Marutla, G. B. (2019). Reading challenges in English: Towards a reading model for grade 8 learners in Mafikeng district, North West province, South Africa. Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa (JGIDA), 8(1), 221–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mutasa, D. E. (2015). Language policy implementation in south African universities Vis-À-Vis the speakers of indigenous African languages’ perception. A Journal Language Learning, 31(1), 46–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ngcobo, S., Ndaba, N., Nyangiwe, B., Mpungose, N., & Jamal, R. (2016). Translanguaging as an approach to address language inequality in South African higher education: Summary writing skills development. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 4(2), 10–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palfreyman, D. M., & Van der Walt, C. (2017). Introduction: Biliteracies in higher education. In D. M. Palfreyman & C. Van der Walt (Eds.), Academic biliteracies: Multilingual repertoires in higher education (pp. 1–18). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennycook, A. (2017). The cultural politics of English as an international language. Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perera, M. (2015). Building bridges: National integration through the teaching of the second national language. In H. Coleman (Ed.), Language and social cohesion in the developing world (pp. 155–165). Sri Lanka: Colombo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillipson, R. (2015). English as threat or opportunity in European higher education. In S. Dimova, A. K. Hultgren, & C. Jensen (Eds.), English-medium instruction in European higher education (Vol. 3, pp. 19–42). Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Probyn, M. (2019). Pedagogical translanguaging and the construction of science knowledge in a multilingual south African classroom: Challenging monoglossic/post-Colonia orthodoxies. Classroom Discourse, 10(3–4), 216–236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, S., & Graven, M. (2019). Exploratory mathematics talk in a second language: A sociolinguistic perspective. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 101, 215–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, J. C., & Bosch, S. (2006). Language resources and tools in Southern Africa. Paper presented at the African Language Association of Southern Africa, Special Interest Group for Language and Speech Technology (ALASASIG). 22 May: 11–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sefotho, M. P., & Makalela, L. (2017). Translanguaging and orthographic harmonisation: A cross-lingual reading literacy in a Johannesburg school. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 35(1), 41–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spinelli, B. (2017). The multilingual turn in FL education: Investigating L3/Ln learners’ reading-writing. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts, 3(2), 184–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • UKZN (University of KwaZulu-Natal). (2014). Uhlelo lolimi olubukeziwe [Language policy].AccessedMay2020.http://registrar.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/policies/Language_Policy__CO02010906.sflb.as hx.

  • Van der Walt, C. (2015). Bi/multilingual higher education. In E. Wright, S. Boun, & O. García (Eds.), The handbook of bilingual and multilingual education (pp. 354–371). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Weinjen, D., Rijlaarsdam, G., & van den Bergh, H. (2019). Source use and argumentation behaviour in L1 and L2 writing: A within-writer comparison. Reading and Writing, 32, 1635–1655.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6), 1024–1054. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870701599465.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, U. (2018). Translanguaging: Affordances for collaborative language learning. New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics, 24(1), 18–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitelaw, E., Filby, S., & Dowling, T. (2019). Leveraging language: Preliminary evidence from a language-based intervention at the University of Cape Town. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 7(2), 75–93.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Limpopo, Polokwane, South Africa

    Hlavsio Motlhaka

Authors
  1. Hlavsio Motlhaka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Leketi Makalela

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Motlhaka, H. (2022). From ‘Black’ to ‘Kaleidoscope’: Institutional Curriculum and Linguistic Reforms at a Historically Black University. In: Makalela, L. (eds) Language and Institutional Identity in the Post-Apartheid South African Higher Education . Language Policy, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85961-9_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85961-9_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-85960-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-85961-9

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation