Multilingual education in South Africa: the role of publishers

Abstract

The South African constitution and related legislative tools provide a supportive framework for multilingual education. Successful implementation, however, requires appropriate learning materials and questions remain as to the vision and commitment of publishers to producing them. Based on an analysis of currently available books for children and interviews with publishers and key figures in the book value chain, this paper explores both the educational rationale for African language publishing and the issues that constrain expansion. These issues include the heavy dependence on the schools market in a society where the majority of the population cannot or do not buy books, the consequences of the slow implementation of the government language-in-education policy, and the particular challenges faced by small publishers. It argues that in order to move beyond dependence on the schools market, publishers need to look critically at the content of the materials they are producing, methods of reaching the huge, untapped markets, and pricing strategies. It also considers differing opinions about the usefulness of translation in increasing the amount of reading material in African languages. Finally, it concludes that responsibility for finding a way out of the current impasse lies with both government and the publishing industry.

African language books for children: issues for authors

“…Yet even here the data are incomplete for our purposes: the industry annual review (Galloway & Struik, 2009), for instance, offers information on breakdown by language for the market, 3 but fails to differentiate between children's books and books for adults. However, recently produced catalogues of children's books in African languages (PASA, 2007(PASA, /2008(PASA, /2009; Department of Arts and Culture [DAC], 2008) made it possible for us to undertake our own analysis (Edwards & Ngwaru, 2010, 2011a, 2011b, at least in relation to South Africa. The documentary data were supplemented by information on other African countries gathered in interviews and focus groups and hard-to-access material drawn to our attention by participants.…”

“…Materials development is a complex issue, involving a wide range of stakeholders, including publishers, educationalists, writers, and translators. As part of a project on Interdisciplinary perspectives on African language materials for children, we have reported elsewhere on the role of translators (Edwards & Ngwaru, 2011a) and publishers (Edwards & Ngwaru, 2011b). Our present focus is on the challenges for authors of African language materials and particularly those aimed at children aged 0 -11.…”

“…By far the most detailed country-specific picture, however, is provided by the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on African Language Materials for Children Project (Edwards & Ngwaru, 2010, 2011a, 2011b. This analysis is based on two main sources: the 2007 PASA Writing in nine tongues 4 catalogue and its 2008 and 2009 supplements; and the Catalogue of South African literature (DAC, 2008).…”

Some Long-Standing and Emerging Research Lines in Africa

“…But the implementation of this policy faces significant challenges from the education profession and from the general public, especially with respect to the normalization of bilingualism (Banda, ; Heugh, ). Meanwhile, all across the continent, the dominance of the former metropolitan languages as media of instruction has served to constrain the publication of texts for adults and for children in the indigenous African languages (Edwards & Ngwaru, ). This has in turn tended to stunt the literary development of those languages.…”

The Reconstruction of Positive Multicultural Environments Through Translingualism in Taiwan

“…The community, therefore, has an obligation to its members. As the owner of both the minority and majority, it is responsible for these individuals and for helping to resolve conflict (Gardner, 1996;Edwards & Ngwaru, 2011). As a consequence, community commitment is complex because it involves different peoples, age groups, and different attitudes towards languages and cultures involved.…”