We're sorry. An error has occurred
Please cancel or retry.
Translanguaging, Coloniality and Decolonial Cracks
Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Couldn't load pickup availability
-
13 January 2023

In this linguistic ethnography of bilingual science learning in a South African high school, the author connects microanalyses of classroom discourse to broader themes of de/coloniality in education. The book challenges the deficit narrative often used to characterise the capabilities of linguistically-minoritised youth, and explores the challenges and opportunities associated with leveraging students’ full semiotic repertoires in learning specific concepts. The author examines the linguistic landscape of the school and the beliefs and attitudes of staff and students which produce both coloniality and cracks in the edifice of coloniality. A critical translanguaging lens is applied to analyse multilingual and multimodal aspects of students’ science meaning-making in a traditional classroom and a study group intervention. Finally, the book suggests implications for decolonial pedagogical translanguaging in Southern multilingual classrooms.
Robyn Tyler is a Senior Researcher in the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She supervises graduate students and student teachers and is a member of the bua-lit language and literacy collective (www.bua-lit.org.za). Her research interests include semiotic repertoires for learning, translingual practice, youth and identity, inquiry-based science education and language across the curriculum.
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. De/coloniality and Language in South African Schooling
Chapter 2. Language, the Body and Identity in Learning
Chapter 3. Language at Success High: Ideologies and Practices
Chapter 4. Constraint in Curriculum, Assessment and Classroom Discourse
Chapter 5. Decolonial Cracks Introduced by Students
Chapter 6. Decolonial Cracks in Pedagogy: Freedom and Resistance
Chapter 7. Conclusion: Widening the Cracks
Appendix 1: A Multilingual Science Resources list
Appendix 2: Grade 9 Chemical Reactions Tests and Worksheets: English, isiXhosa and Translingual
Appendix 3: Transcription Conventions
References
Index