Decolonizing education through language transgression: Presenting at the BAICE Conference

Angeline M. Barrett presented at the 2024 Conference of the British Association of International and Comparative Education (BAICE), 3-5 September 2024.

This year the conference was held at the University of Sussex, near Brighton and was on the theme:

• Transgression and Transformation: (re)bordering education in times of conflict and crisis

Angeline's presentation was titled:

• Decolonizing theory, practice and policy through language transgression: insights from Tanzania.

Abstract

The idea that a quality education uses English (or another imperial language) for learning and teaching is a powerful and enduring form of coloniality. Recent empirical research on secondary education in Tanzania, found that ‘English only’ policies at school and state level legitimized epistemic, structural and direct violence. Through analysis of curriculum documents together with classroom and interview research in 16 schools, we identified interlocking steps for decolonizing theory, practice and policy of language in education. The theoretical step, found in sociolinguistic scholarship, is to reconceptualize language as situated and fluid social practices, which may draw on one or more recognized languages. This frees learning to be a process of epistemic transgression through a continual cycle of crossing and re-crossing, dissolving and reconstructing boundaries between specified curriculum and indigenous knowledge. The second step is pedagogic improvisation, demonstrated by teachers, who transgressed ‘English only’ policies to open up multilingual dialogue between learner, teacher and subject matter.  The third step concerns curriculum and policy. It requires removing regulation of ‘which language’ should be used in classrooms and focusing instead on coherent curriculum planning for language learning across languages, across educational phases and across curriculum subjects.

ELSAT BAICE 2024.pdf

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