State-Building and Multilingual Education in Africa
State-Building and Multilingual Education in Africa

Author: Ericka A. Albaugh

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-04-24

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1139916777

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How do governments in Africa make decisions about language? What does language have to do with state-building, and what impact might it have on democracy? This manuscript provides a longue durée explanation for policies toward language in Africa, taking the reader through colonial, independence, and contemporary periods. It explains the growing trend toward the use of multiple languages in education as a result of new opportunities and incentives. The opportunities incorporate ideational relationships with former colonizers as well as the work of language NGOs on the ground. The incentives relate to the current requirements of democratic institutions, and the strategies leaders devise to win elections within these constraints. By contrasting the environment faced by African leaders with that faced by European state-builders, it explains the weakness of education and limited spread of standard languages on the continent. The work combines constructivist understanding about changing preferences with realist insights about the strategies leaders employ to maintain power.

Languages and Education in Africa
Languages and Education in Africa

Author: Birgit Brock-Utne

Publisher: Symposium Books Ltd

Published: 2009-05-11

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1873927177

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The theme of this book cuts across disciplines. Contributors to this volume are specialized in education and especially classroom research as well as in linguistics, most being transdisciplinary themselves. Around 65 sub-Saharan languages figure in this volume as research objects: as means of instruction, in connection with teacher training, language policy, lexical development, harmonization efforts, information technology, oral literature and deaf communities. The co-existence of these African languages with English, French and Arabic is examined as well. This wide range of languages and subjects builds on recent field work, giving new empirical evidence from 17 countries: Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as to transnational matters like the harmonization of African transborder languages. As the Editors – a Norwegian social scientist and a Norwegian linguist, both working in Africa – have wanted to give room for African voices, the majority of contributions to this volume come from Africa.

Languages in Africa
Languages in Africa

Author: Elizabeth C. Zsiga

Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Published: 2015-03-03

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1626161534

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People in many African communities live within a series of concentric circles when it comes to language. In a small group, a speaker uses an often unwritten and endangered mother tongue that is rarely used in school. A national indigenous language—written, widespread, sometimes used in school—surrounds it. An international language like French or English, a vestige of colonialism, carries prestige, is used in higher education, and promises mobility—and yet it will not be well known by its users. The essays in Languages in Africa explore the layers of African multilingualism as they affect language policy and education. Through case studies ranging across the continent, the contributors consider multilingualism in the classroom as well as in domains ranging from music and film to politics and figurative language. The contributors report on the widespread devaluing and even death of indigenous languages. They also investigate how poor teacher training leads to language-related failures in education. At the same time, they demonstrate that education in a mother tongue can work, linguists can use their expertise to provoke changes in language policies, and linguistic creativity thrives in these multilingual communities.

Language and Development in Africa
Language and Development in Africa

Author: Ekkehard Wolff

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-05-26

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 1107088550

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This volume explores the central role of language across all aspects of public and private life in Africa.

Education in Africa
Education in Africa

Author: A. Babs Fafunwa

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-09-01

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1000642941

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First published in 1982, Education in Africa offers a comprehensive treatment of the development of education in Africa. Until now only scattered documents on educational growth in individual countries have been available; works devoted to Africa as a whole have tended towards the general and have, by and large, been written by outside observers. This book is a collection of illuminating syntheses of major trends in educational development in Africa, by renowned African educationists, and is the first attempt to supply the need for a comprehensive book on African education written from an African viewpoint. All but one of the chapters were written specially for the book by leading African educators each of whom has had a distinguished career and wide experience in education in his or her own country; they represent eleven nations in all. The volume is designed for African students, teachers and administrators and will also be welcomed by educational planners and by scholars working in the fields of comparative education and the history of education. It will be of special interest to departments, institutions and faculties of education in all the universities and colleges of education in Africa, and to educators and students worldwide who are concerned with comparative African education.

New Language Bearings in Africa
New Language Bearings in Africa

Author: Margaret Jepkirui Muthwii

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 9781853597275

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The collection of papers in this special volume discuss issues and challenges that are pertinent in understanding present-day moves and tendencies in the use of languages in the African contexts. The volume's major asset lies in the diversity of topics, the range of languages and the African geographical areas covered. Not only do the contributors come from different nations in Africa but also many of them are established scholars who interact with and interpret the unique situations in their nations on a daily basis.

Decolonising Education in Islamic West Africa
Decolonising Education in Islamic West Africa

Author: Anneke Newman

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-12-24

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1040273912

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This book uses perceptions and experiences of Qur’anic schools in West Africa to outline a much-needed postsecular approach, reconsidering the place of Islamic education within African decolonial debates about educational pluralism, and the contributions of religious perspectives in academic and international development spaces. Decolonial theory is used to overcome the challenges of problematic Eurocentric and colonialist stereotypes about religious actors and faith-based schools which persist within international education scholarship and global policy agendas. Through fine-grained ethnography, chapters discuss how parents and young people today engage with classical Qur’anic schools, Islamic schools and French-medium secular education in Senegal, thereby exposing inequalities around gender, descent-based or caste identities and socioeconomic status, as well as their influence on young people’s pursuit of knowledge. These findings are valuable for scholars exploring the development-education-religion nexus and promoting Education for All in communities characterised by other-than-secular worldviews. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students working in the sociology of education, international education, anthropology and religious education. Practitioners involved in postcolonial and decolonial debates will also benefit from recommendations regarding educational reform in plural educational contexts.

Have You Thanked an Inventor Today?
Have You Thanked an Inventor Today?

Author: Patrice McLaurin

Publisher: Digital Arts, Incorporated

Published: 2016-05-01

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 9780997315202

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Have You Thanked an Inventor Today? is a journey into the often forgotten contributions of African-American inventors, that contributed to the American landscape. This book was written to appeal to African-American youth, inspiring creative thought and innovation. It was also written to demonstrate to children how the genius of African-American minds is utilized on a daily basis. Biographies about each inventor, as well as activity sheets are included in the book to further stimulate the minds of young readership.

African Languages
African Languages

Author: Bernd Heine

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2000-08-03

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9780521666299

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This book is an introduction to African languages and linguistics, covering typology, structure and sociolinguistics. The twelve chapters are written by a team of fifteen eminent Africanists, and their topics include the four major language groupings (Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Afroasiatic and Khoisan), the core areas of modern theoretical linguistics (phonology, morphology, syntax), typology, sociolinguistics, comparative linguistics, and language, history and society. Basic concepts and terminology are explained for undergraduates and non-specialist readers, but each chapter also provides an overview of the state of the art in its field, and as such will be referred to also by more advanced students and general linguists. The book brings this range of material together in accessible form for anyone wishing to learn more about this challenging and fascinating field.