Abstract
This article seeks to understand what South African universities are doing by making use of language as a tool or as an enabling voice towards Africanisation and transformation with particular reference to Rhodes University, which serves as a case study. Although many universities now have language policies in place and are part of an enabling policy environment, when it comes to using language as part of transformation and asserting an African voice, there are still policy implementation challenges. It is argued in this article that implementation of policy, including university language policies, is now a key indicator for two levels of transformation; namely the more superficially visible or visual representation transformation, as well as deeper curriculum transformation through appropriate language usage. It is the latter form of transformation that largely eludes the contemporary South African university, whether these are historically black universities (HBUs) or historically white universities (HWUs). With the exception of a few best practices that are highlighted in this article, it is argued that transformation of the curriculum remains a long-term process, in the same way that language policy implementation is an ongoing process and requires commitment at all levels of university managerial and academic culture. The African voice in higher education remains an elusive one; though it is gaining ground, as evidenced by the recent removal of the Cecil John Rhodes Statue at the University of Cape Town. Furthermore, there is evidence of selected ongoing curriculum and pedagogic transformation, as presented in this article.
Highlights
The former Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University, Dr Saleem Badat, raised a number of pertinent issues when delivering his welcoming address to delegates attending a seminar on “Africanisation and the Higher Education Sector” on 30 April 2014 in Grahamstown
Universities need to engage with producing students who show social accountability and who use their skills as instruments of the economy in an alternative manner to the neo-liberal globalisation epoch – students who produce fresh ideas, rather than those who reproduce what they are taught
What stops a history class, for example, from being taught and examined in isiXhosa at Walter Sisulu University, where the majority of students and the lecturer are isiXhosa-speaking? The answer is simple. It is not the lack of isiXhosa vocabulary, but rather the neo-colonial, silenced or oppressed voice and attitudes of students who embrace the hegemony of English no matter what the intellectual cost to themselves, and lecturers as well as a minority of students who do not wish to experiment with multilingualism in the sense of embracing language as a resource
Summary
Universities need to engage with producing students who show social accountability and who use their skills as instruments of the economy in an alternative manner to the neo-liberal globalisation epoch – students who produce fresh ideas, rather than those who reproduce what they are taught This means finding an African voice in both the political and pedagogic sense of the word. It is not the lack of isiXhosa vocabulary, but rather the neo-colonial, silenced or oppressed voice and attitudes of students who embrace the hegemony of English no matter what the intellectual cost to themselves, and lecturers as well as a minority of students (often monolingual) who do not wish to experiment with multilingualism in the sense of embracing language as a resource. The role of language planners, whether they be at universities or not, is to confirm whether these orientations have been accommodated in the existing policies, and to advocate them in newly-established policies (Ruíz 1984:16)
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