Changing conceptions of literacies, language and development: Implications for the provision of adult basic education in South Africa

dc.contributor.authorKerfoot, Caroline
dc.date.accessioned2011-03-08T11:34:45Z
dc.date.available2011-03-08T11:34:45Z
dc.date.issued2009
dc.descriptionPrinted 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=69198en_US
dc.description.abstractThis 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.en_US
dc.identifier.citationKerfoot, 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 Universityen_US
dc.identifier.isbn978-91-7155-852-7
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10566/215
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.privacy.showsubmitterfalse
dc.publisherCentre for Bilingual Research, Stockholm Universityen_US
dc.rightsCopyright Centre for Research on Bilingualism. Permission was granted to deposit the work in this Repository.
dc.status.ispeerreviewedtrue
dc.subjectAdult literacyen_US
dc.subjectAdult basic educationen_US
dc.subjectAgencyen_US
dc.subjectCitizenshipen_US
dc.subjectCritical applied linguisticsen_US
dc.subjectLinguistic citizenshipen_US
dc.subjectMultilingualismen_US
dc.subjectReflexivityen_US
dc.subjectResemiotisationen_US
dc.titleChanging conceptions of literacies, language and development: Implications for the provision of adult basic education in South Africaen_US
dc.typeOtheren_US

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