Changing conceptions of literacies, language and development: Implications for the provision of adult basic education in South Africa
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Date
2009
Authors
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Publisher
Centre for Bilingual Research, Stockholm University
Abstract
This study aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the circumstances under which
adult education, in particular adult basic education, can support and occasionally initiate participatory
development, social action and the realisation of citizenship rights. It traces developments in adult basic
education in South Africa, and more specifically literacy and language learning, over the years 1981 to
2001, with reference to specific multilingual contexts in the Northern and Western Cape.
The thesis is based on four individual studies, documenting an arc from grassroots work to national
policy development and back. Study I, written in the early 1990s, critically examines approaches to
teaching English to adults in South Africa at the time and proposes a participatory curriculum model for
the additional language component of a future adult education policy. Study II is an account of attempts
to implement this model and explores the implications of going to scale with such an approach. Studies
III and IV draw on a qualitative study of an educator development programme after the transition to
democracy. Study III uses Bourdieu's theory of practice and the concept of reflexivity to illuminate
some of the connections between local discursive practices, self-formation, and broader relations of
power. Study IV uses Iedema's (1999) concept of resemiotisation to trace the ways in which individuals
re-shaped available representational resources to mobilise collective agency in community-based
workshops. The summary provides a framework for these studies by locating and critiquing each
within shifts in the political economy of South Africa. It reflects on a history of research and practice,
raising questions to do with voice, justice, power, agency, and desire. Overall, this thesis argues for a
reconceptualisation of ABET that is more strongly aligned with development goals and promotes
engagement with new forms of state/society/economy relations.
Description
Printed copies of this publication are available from the Centre for Research on Bilingualism, http://www.biling.su.se/pub/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=13478&a=69198
Keywords
Adult literacy, Adult basic education, Agency, Citizenship, Critical applied linguistics, Linguistic citizenship, Multilingualism, Reflexivity, Resemiotisation
Citation
Kerfoot, C. (2009). Changing conceptions of literacies, language and development: Implications for the provision of adult basic education in South Africa. (Published PhD Thesis.) Stockholm: Centre for Research on Bilingualism, Stockholm University