Language, Democracy and Education in Africa PDF Download

Author: Birgit Brock-Utne
Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute
ISBN: 9789171064912
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
This publication is built on two papers. In the first paper the author looks at the language question through the eyes of a social and political scientist. The second paper is an extended version of the author's talk to the NAI Research Forum on 24 January 2002.

Author: Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9462099472
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
There seems to be general agreement that children learn better when they understand what the teacher is saying. In Africa this is not the case. Instruction is given in a foreign language, a language neither pupils nor the teachers understand well. This is the greatest educational problem there is in Africa. This is the problem this book discusses and it is therefore an important book. The recent focus on quality education becomes meaningless when teaching is given in a language pupils do not understand. Babaci-Wilhite concludes that any local curriculum that ignores local languages and contexts risks a loss of learning quality and represent a violation of children’s rights in education. The book is highly recommended. Birgit Brock-Utne, Professor of Education and Development, University of Oslo, Norway Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite’s illuminating African case studies display a mastery of the literature on policies related to not only language policies integrally related to human rights in education, but to the relationship between education and national development. The book provides a paradigm shift from focusing on the issue of schooling access to the very meaning education has for personal and collective identity and affirmation. As such, it will appeal to a wide audience of education scholars, policy makers and practitioners. Robert F. Arnove, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA A very important and timely book that makes crucial contribution to critical reviews of the policies about languages of instruction and rights in education in Africa. Brilliantly crafted and presented with great clarity the author puts into perspective issues that need to be addressed to improve academic performance in Africa’s educational systems in order to attain the goal of providing education for all as well as restoring rights in education. This can be achieved through critical examination of languages of instruction and of the cultural relevance of the curricula. Definitely required reading for scholars of education and human rights in general, in Africa in particular, as well as for education policy makers. Sam Mchombo, Associate Professor of African Languages and Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, USA This book contributes to enlighten a crucial academic as well as a democratic and philosophical issue: The right to education and the rights in education, as it is seen in the dilemmas of the right to use your local language. It offers a high-level research and the work is both cutting edge and offers new knowledge to the fields of democracy, human rights and education. The book is a unique contribution to a very important academic discussion on rights in education connecting to language of instruction in schools, politics and power, as well as it frames the questions of why education and language can be seen as a human right for sustainable development in Africa. The actuality of the book is disturbing: We need to take the debate on human rights in education for the children of the world, for their future and for their right to a cultural identity. Inga Bostad, Director of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo, Norway

Author: Chikumbutso Herbert Manthalu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000414345
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This innovative volume critically examines the intersection between democracy, education and communication in African educational domains. Providing a platform for multidisciplinary research, it advances scholarship in democratic citizenship education in African higher education through methodological and theoretical innovation. The book discusses the extent to which explicit or subtle communication frameworks that underlie policymaking, institutional culture, teaching and learning experiences in African higher education significantly engender democratic mind habits and practices in students as citizens. Chapters in the book examine how communication frameworks in pedagogy ought to navigate power imbalances between students on the one hand and the institution and academics on the other. The book also examines how (dis)empowering higher education policies are and whether they contribute to democratic equality. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of education, democratic citizenship education, communication, and African studies.

Author: Ericka A. Albaugh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139916777
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
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.

Author: David Johnson
Publisher: Symposium Books Ltd
ISBN: 1873927118
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
It is over 40 years since Coombs (1967) first drew attention to the World Education Crisis, and specifically problems in the educational systems of countries in the developing world. Today, many of these problems remain, and are most visible in the educational systems of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A large number of children remain out of school and for those who do enrol, less than half complete the primary education cycle. More worrying is the fact that those who do complete primary schooling leave with unacceptably low levels of knowledge and skills. The problems of access to education, and the quality of learning opportunities and learning outcomes are unevenly spread between rural and urban areas, better- and worse-off constituencies, and between boys and girls. This raises questions about the nature of the state and its commitment to equality and equity for all. The chapters in this volume argue that quality, equity and democratic accountability are inseparable objectives in the quest to strengthen and improve educational systems in the developing world. Between them they highlight the specific problems of quality, equity and democratic accountability in a number of African educational systems, and provide useful insights into ongoing work by national governments and international donor agencies to remedy these shortcomings.

Author: Ericka A. Albaugh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107042089
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This book explains why many governments in Africa are including African languages alongside European languages as media of instruction in elementary schools. It argues that a number of factors have combined to make multilingual education attractive: France has changed its foreign policy toward its former colonies, language NGOs are transcribing more languages, and pressure toward democracy makes African leaders look for ways to divide the opposition.

Author: Birgit Brock-Utne
Publisher: Symposium Books Ltd
ISBN: 1873927177
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
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.

Author: John Dewey
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN:
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.

Author: Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137473193
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
The debate about languages of instruction in Africa and Asia involves an analysis of both the historical thrust of national government and also development aid policies. Using case studies from Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia, Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite argues that the colonial legacy is perpetuated when global languages are promoted in education. The use of local languages in instruction not only offers an effective means to contextualize the curriculum and improve student comprehension, but also to achieve quality education and rights in education.

Author: M. Kuenzi
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230118917
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
This book examines the role of nonformal education (NFE) in African languages in promoting democracy in Senegal. Using data from a survey of rural Senegalese citizens, this is the first study to empirically test the effects of NFE on political participation and attitudes. The results indicate that NFE stimulates community and political participation and appears to have a stronger effect on participation than formal education. Both NFE and formal education increase the likelihood that people will embrace democratic, tolerant attitudes. Thus, NFE could be a potent force in the promotion of civic orientations in the emerging democracies.