Tongue-tied: Language-based exclusion at a South African university
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38140/ijss-2024.vol4.21Keywords:
Exclusion, higher education, Indigeneity, language, multilingualismAbstract
The post-apartheid government in South Africa adopted a multilingual education policy to provide education in learners' home languages as a foundation for learning while promoting proficiency in at least two additional official languages. This marked a paradigm shift from the apartheid regime, which was characterised by racial segregation and discrimination, prioritising Afrikaans and English at the expense of indigenous African languages. Although widely celebrated, achieving the multilingual promise ushered in by the democratic dispensation remains a challenge for post-apartheid South African higher education. This study explored students' experiences of language-based discrimination at a selected South African university. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected from 20 purposively sampled final-year students through an open-ended questionnaire that was distributed electronically to students in the Education faculty and analysed thematically. The findings revealed that minority language speakers grappled with feelings of invisibility, alienation, frustration, and exclusion in their academic and social lives, making it difficult for them to engage fully in university life. Various coping mechanisms were also reported, demonstrating the agency of these minority groups; however, these were found to be insufficient. The study thus recommended prioritising inclusive language policies and training that foster lingua-cultural empathy among students and staff, among other things.
References
Al Ramiah, A., Hewstone, M., Dovidio, J. F., & Penner, L. A. (2010). The social psychology of discrimination: Theory, measurement and consequences. In L. Bond, F. McGinnity, & H. Russell (Eds.), Making equality count: Irish and international research measuring equality and discrimination (pp. 84-112). Liffey Press.
Asghari, F. (2022). A phenomenological study of the lived experience of Iranian students as international students. Journal of Higher Education Curriculum Studies, 12(24), 365–394. https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.25382241.1400.12.24.14.6
Bekiyeva, M. J. (2022). Development of linguoculturology and interpretation of language and culture in modern linguistics. Central Asia Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies, 2(1), 93-102. https://doi.org/10.24412/2181-2454-2022-1-9-102
Berger, J., & Packard, G. (2022). Using natural language processing to understand people and culture. American Psychologist, 77(4), 525–537. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000882
Bhatia, S. (2017). The semantic representation of prejudice and stereotypes. Cognition, 164, 46–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.03.016
Brown, J. (2016). The road to Soweto: Resistance and the uprising of 16 June 1976. Boydell & Brewer.
Cheung, H. K., King, E., Lindsey, A., Membere, A., Markell, H. M., & Kilcullen, M. (2016). Understanding and reducing workplace discrimination. Research in Personnel & Human Resources Management, 34, 101–152. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0742-730120160000034010
Christie, P., & Collins, C. (1982). Bantu education: Apartheid ideology or labour reproduction. Comparative Education, 18(1), 59–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305006820180107
Clark, N. L., & Worger, W. H. (2022). South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid. Routledge.
Cloete, N. (2014). The South African higher education system: Performance and policy. Studies in Higher Education, 39(8), 1355–1368. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2014.949533
Correll, J., Judd, C. M., Park, B., & Wittenbrink, B. (2010). Measuring prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination. In J. F. Dovidio, M. Hewstone, P. Glick, & V. M. Esses, The Sage Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination (pp. 45-64). Sage.
Dhanani, L. Y., Beus, J. M., & Joseph, D. L. (2018). Workplace discrimination: A meta-analytic extension, critique, and future research agenda. Personnel Psychology, 71(2), 147-179. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12254
Dlamini, S., & Tesfamichael, S. G. (2021). A review of place identity studies in post-apartheid South Africa. South African Journal of Psychology, 51(1), 121-133. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246320954040
Dro?d?owicz, A., & Peled, Y. (2024). The complexities of linguistic discrimination. Philosophical Psychology, 37(6), 1459-1482. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2024.2307993
Giliomee, H. (2009). A note on Bantu Education, 1953 to 1970. South African Journal of Economics, 77(1), 190–198. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2009.01193.x
Hendricks, E. A. (2022). Sexual harassment of female students in selected South African universities. African Journal of Gender, Society & Development, 11(1), 159. https://doi.org/10.31920/2634-3622/2022/v11n1a8
Hlas, A. C., Neyers, K., & Molitor, S. (2019). Measuring student attention in the second language classroom. Language Teaching Research, 23(1), 107–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168817713766
Hlatshwayo, M. N., & Fomunyam, K. G. (2019). Theorising the #MustFall student movements in contemporary South African higher education: A social justice perspective. Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, 7(1), 61-80. https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v7i1.3693
Hwang, J., Castle, S. D., & Karunakaran, S. S. (2022). One is the loneliest number: Groupwork within linguistically diverse classrooms. PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies, 32(10), 1140-1152. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511970.2021.2019149
Kumar, D. (2021). The language policy and inequalities in institutions of higher learning in South Africa. In P. Neema-Abooki, Quality assurance in higher education in Eastern and Southern Africa (pp. 174–183). London: Routledge.
Lasagabaster, D., & van der Walt, C. (2024). Students' perceived language competence and attitudes towards multilingualism at a South African university. Language Matters, 55(1/2), 165-188. https://doi.org/10.1080/10228195.2024.2345340
Lockley, T., & Yoshida, C. (2016). Language and culture exchange in foreign language learning: An experiment and recommendations. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 10(3), 238–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2014.960419
Madadzhe, R. N. (2019). Using African languages at universities in South Africa: The struggle continues. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 58(0), 205-218. https://doi.org/10.5842/58-0-843
Makoni, S., Severo, C., & Abdelhay, A. (2023). Postcolonial language policy and planning and the limits of the modern state. Annual Review of Linguistics, 9, 483-496. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030521-052930
Makeleni, S., Mutongoza, B. H., Linake, M. A., & Ndu, O. G. (2023). Teacher self-efficacy and learner assessment: A perspective from literature on South African Indigenous languages in the foundation phase. Journal of Curriculum Studies Research, 5(3), 44-64. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.30
Malik, A. Z., Guzmán, F., & Vo, K. (2024). The tip of the tongue: Language-based social exclusion and tipping as a refocusing strategy. Psychology & Marketing, 41(9), 2136-2151. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.22032
Manathunga, C. (2020). Decolonising higher education: Creating space for Southern knowledge systems. Scholarship of Teaching & Learning in the South, 4(1), 4-25. https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v4i1.138
Masala, P. (2023). Translation as a pedagogy in the development of English Second Language in a rural university. Journal of Social Sciences, 6(4), 67-77. https://doi.org/10.52326/jss.utm.2023.6(4).06
Matshikiza, S., Luggya, S., & Tanga, M. (2021). The medium of instruction in a multicultural classroom: Teachers’ perspectives in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 20(1), 342-255. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.1.19
Mayaba, N. N., Ralarala, M. K., & Angu, P. (2018). Student voice: Perspectives on language and critical pedagogy in South African higher education. Educational Research for Social Change, 7(1), 1-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2018/v7i1a1
Maylam, P. (2017). South Africa's racial past: The history and historiography of racism, segregation, and apartheid. Routledge.
Meda, L., Swart, A., & Mashiyi, N. (2019). Decolonising the curriculum at a University of Technology in South Africa. The Education Review, 3(6), 50–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/er.2019.06.001
Mkhize, D., & Balfour, R. (2017). Language rights in education in South Africa. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(6), 133–150. http://dx.doi.org/10.28535/31-6-1633
Mlambo, V. H., Mlambo, D., & Adetiba, T. C. (2021). Expansion of higher education in South Africa: Problems and possibilities. Journal of Sociology & Social Anthropology, 12(1/2), 30-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.31901/24566764.2021/12.1-2.363
Mulvey, B. (2021). "Decentring" international student mobility: The case of African student migrants in China. Population, Space & Place, 27(3), e2393. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2393
Mutongoza, B. H. (2024). Exploring the psychosocial outcomes of microaggressions against queer communities at a rural university in South Africa. The International Journal of Diverse Identities, 24(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-7866/CGP/v24i01/1-18
Mutongoza, B. H., Mutanho, C., Linake, M. A., & Makeleni, S. (2023a). Reflections on decolonising of medium of instruction at South African Universities. Research in Educational Policy and Management, 5(2), 95-108. https://doi.org/10.46303/repam.2023.11
Mutongoza, B. H., Mutanho, C., & Makeleni, S. (2023b). Ending curriculum violence and academic ancestral worship: An Afrocentric perspective on decolonising higher education in Africa. E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (EHASS), 4(12), 143-160. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.202341213
Ndimande, B. S. (2013). From Bantu education to the fight for socially just education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 46(1), 20-35. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2013.750199
Ndlovu, S. (2017). The Soweto uprisings: Counter memories of June 1976. Pan Macmillan South Africa.
Nelson, T. D. (2006). The psychology of prejudice. Pearson Allyn & Bacon.
O’Halloran, P. (2017). The Soweto uprising. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 35(2), 242-244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2017.1318553
Palardy, G., Rumberger, R., & Butler, T. (2015). The effect of high school socioeconomic, racial, and linguistic segregation on academic performance and school behaviours. Teachers College Record, 117(12), 1-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811511701206
Palumbo, R., & Manna, R. (2020). For better or for worse? Handling the side effects of organisational change on workplace discrimination. Journal of Organisational Change Management, 33(6), 1181-1200. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-05-2020-0147
Posel, D., Hunter, M., & Rudwick, S. (2022). Revisiting the prevalence of English: Language use outside the home in South Africa. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 43(8), 774–786. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1778707
Robertson, S. A., & Graven, M. (2020). Language as an including or excluding factor in mathematics teaching and learning. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 32(1), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-019-00302-0
Rudwick, S. (2021). The ambiguity of English as a lingua franca: Politics of language and race in South Africa. Routledge.
Shoole, C., & Adeyemo, K. S. (2016). Access to, and success in, higher education in post-apartheid South Africa: Social justice analysis. Journal of Higher Education in Africa, 14(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.57054/jhea.v14i1.1505
Simbao, R. K. (2007). The thirtieth anniversary of the Soweto uprisings: Reading the shadow in Sam Nzima's iconic photograph of Hector Pieterson. African Arts, 40(2), 52-69. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20447828
Stangor, C. (2016). The study of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination within social psychology: A quick history of theory and research. In T. D. Nelson (Ed.), Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (pp. 3–27). Psychology Press.
Thobejane, T. D. (2013). History of apartheid education and the problems of reconstruction in South Africa. Sociology Study, 3(1), 1-12.
Wang, Q., Leen, S., & Hannes, K. (2019). How do South American international students experience student life in Flanders? A photo elicitation project. Journal of International Student, 8(2), 742-768. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v8i2.102
Weber, T., & van Mol, C. (2023). The student migration transition: An empirical investigation into the nexus between development and international student migration. Comparative Migration Studies, 11(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-023-00329-0
Worden, N. (2011). The making of modern South Africa: Conquest, apartheid, democracy. John Wiley & Sons.
Xu, X., Schönrock-Adema, J., Jaarsma, A. D. C., Duvivier, R. J., & Bos, N. A. (2022). A conducive learning environment in international higher education: A systematic review of research on students’ perspectives. Educational Research Review, 37, 100474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100474
Zulu, N. T. (2021). The struggles and triumphs of South African black women professors. South African Journal of Higher Education, 35(6), 239–257. https://doi.org/10.20853/35-6-4272
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2024 Sive Makeleni
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
