This paper explores the relationship between language education and identity realization and the consequences of choosing either an Indigenous or a colonial language education approach. The focus is on the African postcolonial context; however, the arguments are also substantiated by examples from other parts of the world. I argue for a…

The purpose of this research was to gain understanding and awareness of the perspectives of Black teachers who were raised in Africana Vernacular English (AVE)-speaking households and how they used their upbringing to navigate home and school settings. The specific linguistic and cultural needs of AVE speakers are not being adequately accommodated…

In recent (socio)linguistic research there is a growing awareness that rural, small-scale multilingualism as the most widespread communicative setting across the globe. Yet, literacy programmes accepting and incorporating this diversity are non-existent. LILIEMA is a unique educational programme currently based in Senegal that addresses the need…

This research, conducted at a major university in Tanzania, investigated the personal experiences of multilingual students vis-à-vis the government's language policy requiring Swahili as the language of instruction (LoI) at the primary level and English at the secondary level. The participants, who spoke 25 different languages as their L1, were…

The presence of Africans in China has been phenomenal since the late 1990s. In recent years, there has been a dramatic uptick in people from Africa coming to the major cities of China such as Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, Yiwu, Shanghai, and Beijing. They are in the process of building linguistic, cultural, and economic bridges between their source…

Framed by decolonial theory, this paper explores how language and literacy ideologies, including Anglonormativity, or the expectation that children should be proficient in a standardised version of English and are deficient if not, shape language and literacy practices in South African classrooms. While not legitimised, the use of fluid language…

This paper examines how the children of African immigrants construct their identity in the United States. The U.S. immigration policies allowing citizens of foreign countries to migrate into the country, have favored the immigration of many Africans into the country. Many of those immigrants experience challenges ranging from language and economic…

The study was a linguistic examination of the use of lexical cohesive devices in Ngugi Wa Thiong 'O's "Decolonising the Mind"- an autobiography. The study was aimed at revealing how Ngugi - an African L2 writer, deployed lexical cohesive devices to achieve cohesion and coherence and how this has contributed to the meaning of his…

This article reports on a study that focuses on students from rural areas of South Africa and their experiences of higher education. These students have attracted little attention in widening participation research in South Africa, despite being one of the most marginalised groups. The article, drawing on the experiences of student co-researchers…

This paper seeks to understand how the curriculum is experienced across two higher education institutions to probe students' understandings of epistemic access in the context of decolonisation debates. Three particular aspects of student experience of the decolonised curriculum and pedagogy are scrutinised. First, we look at the kind of sociality…

Foregrounding the lived experiences and voices of children from refugee backgrounds, the authors adapted culturally sustaining pedagogy and refugee critical race theory frameworks to investigate how Nepali, Somali, and South Sudanese children from refugee backgrounds whose families resettled in western New York perceive family storytelling. The…

Education for multilingual Physics students in South Africa still has a monolingual bias despite such pedagogy being repeatedly identified as the key factor in students' academic underachievement in the subject. The paper reports on the pivotal role language plays in the comprehension and subsequent academic performance of students in science…

Despite setting high hopes on education, very few pastoral nomad children in Kenya transition from primary education to secondary education. This article argues that the national Kenyan compulsory formal curriculum fails to accommodate the needs of pastoralist communities. Literacy rates are particularly low among the Turkana people, pastoralist…

The recent student unrest in South African public higher education institutions highlighted the call for the decolonisation of education across post-colonial countries. This research explored the construct of the "decolonisation of education" through the lens of students of different nationalities across Africa, their perspectives on…

This article discusses the importance of family practices to children's acquisition of literacy and describes attempts to influence such practices through the institution of family literacy programmes. One of these is the Family Literacy Project in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, which both served as a model and provided material for a similar…