Renewed policy interest in extended mother tongue instruction: From mother tongue-based bilingual education as transition to mother tongue-based bilingual education as transformation

Abstract

Background: Despite the rhetoric of additive bilingualism, post-apartheid South African education is characterised by hierarchical colonial arrangements in which early-exit mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE) models undermine literacy at the Grade 4 transition, reproducing linguistic and epistemic injustices. Aim: The article critiques, maps out and deconstructs the power assumptions, dynamics and knowledges embedded in MTBBE to elevate the model from a temporary scaffolding strategy to an epistemic strategy. Setting: The study analysis draws attention to the multilingual South African school system in the wake of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act. Methods: Rather than a traditional empirical, participant-led method for data gathering, the study engages in a conceptual analysis based on the critical interpretivist paradigm, and relies on three interrelated conceptual lenses: Postcolonial language theory, decolonial epistemic justice and translanguaging theory. Results: The study reveals how the current resurgence of MTBBE is plagued by policy amnesia of cosmetic and cyclical revivals and a profound conflict between performative symbolism and real decolonisation. The analysis unpacks five MTBBE prevailing myths (transitional, monolingual, reactive, utilitarian and magical). In opposition to these myths, the article offers an alternative theoretical framework based on five essential principles, along with a corresponding three-phased implementation approach (R-3, 4–7 and 8+). Conclusion: Educational transformation entails an epistemological reorientation as well as infrastructural investments, which will ensure the permanence of African languages as part of epistemic success. Contribution: This article fills an important theoretical void through offering a decolonial praxis-based framework of MTBBE.