Translanguaging: Not European concept in Africa, but a decolonizing agent

This is the first in a series of dialogues I want to engage on why decolonization or thinking outside of the colonial invasion is a worthy cause for language and literacy education. We live in an era where literacy rates, levels, skills, practices are considered low- a very basic form of human existence. As a result, many African children are surviving through a harsh educational pathway, believing that they are stupid, unintelligent and not worthy. The ultimate result is not only being excluded from opportunity mobility in the capitalist world [eat or be eaten], they are removed gradually from a sense of who they truly are; they pose and live a false life until they hate themselves. Fathers are economically emasculated and there are no models to raise the future generation of boys and girls. Schools wane them down through the myths that one needs only one language to learn and that their own languages are useless! Self hatred is guaranteed. The colonizer can relax at a beach, knowing that the cursing has happened and will continue until 'minds are decolonized' and 'consciousness' kicks in their souls so they unmask the shades of falsehood. 

As for me, it was accidental that I became acutely aware of the relationship between language, literacy and ways of knowing that are indigenous to speakers of African languages. Growing up in a remote rural village under the care of a mother who was not able to make sense of the Roman Alphabets and what they represented, I struggled to come to terms with the literacy programmes used in schools. I went through learning programmes where teachers used to drill us into singing letters, memorizing and regurgitating without real content of what these stood for and what reference they had for our lived experiences. Many friend-children struggled to connect dots of knowledge at school and failed dismally at every examinations opportunity. While the one language  schooling system [yes it is one language posing falsely as 11) pushed many learners out, I had the resilience to stay on and take on the literacy journey while asking myself the question: Why is there so much gap between school and our lived community experience? But even Plato said those who master the curriculum master themselves- why is this not so obvious in the so-called post-colonial world?

I decided to study languages not only to understand how languages do not only represent ideas, but also how they embody ways of knowing. On this account, I questioned learning in a foreign language before one had at least 6 years on induction in familiar languages and considered alternatives. My scholarship looked at the possibility of valorizing the African cultural competence where there is a fluid intersection of languages as a normal linguistic behavior, a way of being and making sense of the world. When I started work on translanguaging as an alternative pedagogy for multilingual learners, I was responding to the well- researched, but obvious  fact that learners do not understand what teachers are saying in most African classrooms. This is the one and the real challenge for African education systems. Stop talking about anything else fancy and deal with this foundational problem. In this way I found translanguaging, defined as a pedagogical strategy where there is complex alternation of languages of input and output in the process of meaning making close to my the type of communication I experienced in my village, which is situated at the border of two provinces in South Africa, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In other words, my journey of questioning monolingual (aka colonial) bias  found resonance with my own lived experiences. I am connected to the subject and thus my research makes sense first and foremost to me. It took a long journey of being lost and found until I understood that "charity begins at home", but also learning how to move away from being a village chief to a global education disruptor, taking leadership roles and making world education systems and lives of people better!

 website: www.leketimakalela.co.za

Tiwitter: @leketimakalela

 

Matric exams underway and congratulations

That time for myths and fears has started as the grade 12 started with their exams yesterday. I was asked to comment on the questions around grade 12 examinations by a media representative and I wanted to share my views as follows:

Question 1

What advice can be given to those sitting for their first NSC examination?

Answer: Because there is a definite process of standardization and moderation of the papers for quality assurance, my advice in the 11th hour would be to study model papers in the past 3 years. Here one sees different options in which content knowledge can be assessed. Attempts at answering these would give a good feel for the real exam, which prepares one mentally and emotionally.

Question 2:

How can learners sitting for their language examination prepare for them?

Answer: There are key areas for language papers that are examinable, depending on whether it is paper 1, 2 or 3. Like maths, science and other content subjects, language examination needs practice and rehearsal. For example, summary, short and long transactional texts, and grammar items like direct/indirect speech are obviously going to be part of the exam. For evaluative questions, which are usually a challenge for the learners, it is important to note that a "yes" or "no" answer is insufficient and they need to know that there is no wrong or right answer here. Examiners/markers are interested in the reason/s of the "yes" or "no" and they judge reasoning rather than a correct answer. For comprehension texts, they should follow the old advice to read questions first so their reading of the text is intentional. It is advisable for the learners to have a good handle of these and other parts through practice, practice and practice. Examples of old papers and memoranda are all available on the DBE website.

Question 3

In comparison to last years examination, do you think this years examination will be easier or difficult?

Answer: We have seen an increase in the level of difficulty in the past three years as the CAPS started maturing. This is however not matched by improvements in the quality of teaching. Most learners are caught in this tension as teacher education institutions and a generation of retiring teachers have equally not been helpful in decoding the CAPS as they have serially proven underprepared. Yet the public eyes are narrowly focusing on the easiness/difficulty of the papers. It is delicate matter, not simple in black and white.

Standardization of papers by Umalusi ensures that cohorts of learners are not unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged by reasons other than their own capabilities. Although the quality of papers are gradually improved, the level of change cannot be so drastic to lower or raise a pass significantly. The public often decries marks going down or up ( especially if the results at face value show an upward trend) without understanding how standardization works (e.g., why a historical average is important to assure steady growth/decline- something normal with general population growth dynamics). In short, the exams will not be either difficult or easy as this will be unfair to either the previous or current cohort. Any suggestion to either way should be dismissed as sensational.

Question 4:

Efforts made by the department and schools, do you think the provincial rates will be higher than last year?

Catch up programmes at provincial levels are commendable. But recall that these are geared mainly at lower performing schools and in particular targeting the "progressed" learners. The idea is to mitigate overall pass rates, which stand to be low due to progressed learners who usually come to grade 12 underprepared. If anything, we can learn from the impact of these programmes in 2016. Because the overall number of progressed learners were slightly above 60000, the efforts did not have a significant impact on the overall national performance. The number will most certainly rise to about 90000 this year, but this will still be insignificant relative to approximately 700000 learners in total. At a very micro level, yes to see more learners passing due these efforts is encouraging and we are likely to see a repeat of urban provinces like Gauteng doing better than rural provinces where these efforts are not as effective. For example, Gauteng, in a bid to reclaim its position as the number 1 province, has introduced an unfair and discriminatory system called "targeting the talented" to boost results while leaving the weaker even weaker. They noticed that focusing on low performers was not in the end showing statistical change in the overall provincial results. Rural provinces, in the other hand, do not have this leverage as they have more underperforming schools. It seems in my view an uncoordinated intervention that is based on competition instead of a cohesive system managed to stem out deeply unequal outcomes.

Question 5:

What could be the reasons for the high number of drop outs, learners not making it to sit for their NSC exam?

 

Answer: A large number of drop outs occur in grade 10, counting up to 50%. There are as many reasons as these learners including transitional and structural factors I prefer to call "push outs". Beyond grade 10, drop out/push out rate is so negligible to cause any alarms. I am not sure why this is raising concerns. The assumption of this statement is categorically incorrect as there is no mark for one to obtain to qualify to sit for the exams. Even the SBA's would not disqualify any learner.

Congratulations to the 2017 cohort!

Professor Leketi Makalela

Founding Director: Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies

Twitter: @LeketiMakalela

www.leketimakalela.co.za

Latest Book: Shifting Lenses: Multilanguaging, Decolonization and Education in the Global South