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

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.KeywordsLinguistic diversity language policyEpistemological accessHigher educationLanguage policyTranslangauging