Decoloniality, Language and Literacy

Through a range of unconventional genres, representations of data, and dialogic, reflective narratives alongside more traditional academic genres, this book engages with contexts of decoloniality and border thinking in the Global South. It addresses processes of knowledge production and participation in the highly divided and unequal schooling and higher education system in South Africa, and highlights the consequences of the monolingual myth in post-colonial education, demonstrating opportunities for learning provided by translanguaging.  It explores both embodied, multimodal and multilingual instances of knowledge-making in teaching and teacher education that take place outside but alongside formal classroom, lecture and seminar modes, and the positionality and learning experiences of teacher educators in science, literacy and language across the curriculum. The book is not only transdisciplinary but also captures the learning that takes place beyond the borders of disciplines and formal classroom spaces.

Courageously following Harraway’s injunction to ‘stay with the trouble’, this important edited collection confronts the complex and complicit nature of teaching language and literacy in contexts of coloniality, while simultaneously providing possibilities for rethinking practice., Each chapter of this exceptional book offers a brave and uncompromising account of what universities must do to recognize the knowledge of marginalized multilingual students. Initially located in student protest in South Africa, the book quickly expands to address us all. It is an ethical call to action., McKinney and Christie have drawn on a wealth of experience to edit a compelling text on the relationship between decoloniality, language, and literacy. By identifying leading scholars who share their interest in language and power, the editors promote rich conversations on teacher education, multilingualism, coloniality, racism, poverty, and gender violence. Such conversations have profound relevance for teachers, researchers, and policymakers in contemporary education., I don’t have space in a review to do full justice to the various innovative ways this book will make you more aware not only of its immediate topic and context, but how it also challenges all of us to be more reflective about our own EAL contexts and reflect on our complicity in coloniality and our responsibility as educators to challenge it, within ourselves, our settings, and our system more generally., [The book] contributes to the expanding body of work on decolonising practices in teacher education that will interest not only teacher educators and teachers working in post-colonial settings, but also those preparing teachers for socially just schooling.

Carolyn McKinney is Associate Professor of Language Education in the School of Education, University of Cape Town, South Africa. She is the author of Language and Power in Post-Colonial Schooling: Ideologies in Practice (2017, Routledge).Pam Christie is Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Honorary Professor, The University of Queensland, Australia. She is the author of Decolonising Schooling in South Africa: The Impossible Dream? (2020, Routledge).