Feliciano Chimbutane: Rethinking Bilingual Education in Postcolonial Contexts

Abstract

Chimbutane’s slim (170 pages) and readable text is an ethnographic study of bilingual education in Mozambique using research conducted in the country with the aim of answering the following questions: ‘‘How are views about the purpose and value of bilingual education in Mozambique manifested in bilingual classroom discourse practices? How do these discourse practices relate to the broader socio-historical context as well as to institutional and societal discourses about languages and bilingual education? How do the findings from the settings studied relate to other findings from similar settings…?’’ (4). Discursive practices were recorded in two primary schools comprising four classes in two different settings in Mozambique; teachers, students and community members were interviewed; and, questionnaires were administered. The methodology used to achieve these objectives included a combination of ethnography and discourse analysis, which was critically analysed based on the fact that ‘‘… speakers can opt to collude, challenge or transform the symbolic order’’ (7). A critical stance was deemed necessary as ‘‘… linguistic ethnography intersects with critical, interpretive approaches to bilingualism’’ (8). In the interest of ensuring that there had been no misinterpretation, the unorthodox step of allowing participants to view the transcripts and comment on conclusions reached was taken by the researcher. A chapter by chapter summary follows: Chapter one elucidates the methodology employed. Here linguistic ethnography was used to understand the nature of communicative practices in the classroom and how these practices affect and are affected by a wider spectrum of the community. The breadth of the sample is worth noting as it goes well beyond the classroom. As a speaker of both languages (Chagana and Choge), Chimbutane has an advantageous