Research
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East Africa
West Africa
Southern Africa
IJEDICT Special Issue from e/merge 2008: e/merge in Africa
Announcing the publication of “e/merge in Africa”, a special issue of the International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT). This issue contains nine articles on issues of access, professional development and open educational resources by authors based in South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. The articles which were originally written for e/merge 2008 have been revised and edited for this issue. Read it here: http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewissue.php
NEW BOOK: Multilingualism in Education and Communities in Southern Africa
EDITORS: Gregory Kamwendo, Dudu Jankie & Andy Chebanne (2009)
Multilingualism in Education and Communities in Southern Africa, from the UBTROMSO/University of Botswana press, is an edited volume consisting of twenty-one chapters. Sixteen of the chapters are revised versions of papers that were presented at a regional conference on multilingualism in education in Southern Africa, held in Gaborone, Botswana, in 2005. Multilingualism, as the literature on the subject points out, poses both challenges and opportunities to language planners and policy makers. But more often, the challenges outnumber the opportunities. It is from this background that contributors to the volume discuss multilingualism in the context of the education domain. The volume is divided into seven thematic sections, namely: Introducing the debates (Section 1); Mother tongue education (Section 2); Adult literacy (Section 3); Sign language in education (Section 4); Linguistic marginalization of the San (Section 5); Development of educational materials/resources (Section 6); and Conclusion (Section 7). The book raises salient and critical issues that are of interest and relevance to a wide range of stakeholders: educational language planners and policy makers, language educators and their students, curriculum specialists, language researchers, language and human rights activists, funding agencies, politicians, publishers, parents and others. ABOUT THE EDITORS: Gregory Kamwendo is Associate Professor of Language Education in the Department of Languages and Social Sciences Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Botswana. Dudu Jankie is Lecturer in Language Education in the Department of Languages and Social Sciences Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Botswana. Andy Chebanne is Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Centre for the Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS), Cape Town, South Africa.
INQUIRIES ABOUT BOOK ORDERS should be addressed to: UBTROMSO@mopipi.ub.bw
Building Research Links Between Africa and the World: African Open Journals Available Online
May 5, 2009 – African Journals OnLine (AJOL) launches new full-text website, a great advance in making African scholarly research available to the world. At 346 journals from 26 countries, AJOL is the world’s largest online collection of African journals, but until now, has included only tables of content, abstracts, and journal information on the website. As of the beginning of May, 60% of the 40,000 plus articles on AJOL will be available for immediate download. By the end of 2009, AJOL aims to have 100% of its growing collection fully full-text online.
Visit AJOL: http://ajol.info/index.php/ajol/announcement/view/2
EASSI 2009 Young Women’s Internship Programme
Providing opportunities to females between the ages of 20 and 35 who are citizens of Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, or Uganda for learning, interacting, and networking. Its objective is to develop and enhance young women’s skills in leadership, gender, lobbying and advocacy, management, report writing and analysis, research and documentation, information management, resourceful database development, website maintenance, and resource centre management. Deadline: February 13 2009 http://www.comminit.com/en/node/278935
Transfer of reading from the language of wider communication to the first language
Contributed by: Agatha van Ginkel, SIL International
Multilingual education in Africa offers many opportunities for research into different aspects of reading. Between 2005 and 2008 a study was carried out to understand why transfer reading from the language of wider communication (LWC) to the first language (L1) of a person causes problems in certain linguistic and socio-cultural environments. It particularly focused on the linguistic and socio-cultural environment of the Sabaot people in Western Kenya. It used a qualitative mode of inquiry to explore what could be factors that contribute to transfer reading from the LWC to the L1.
This study has shown how studying the linguistic context, the literacy context, the socio-linguistic context, and the physical and economical context is necessary to develop a set of principles that guide the development of the transfer reading methodology suitable for a certain social and linguistic context. It proposes a contextual framework for developing guidelines for a transfer reading methodology for other, each unique reading transfer context. This study has shows that LWC to L1 transfer reading an area that needs its own attention, and cannot just be assumed.
A part of this research has been presented at PAN African Reading Conference for All, Accra, Ghana, August 6 – 10, 2007 as Reading in two languages, transfer reading from the L2-L1. A part of the research has been published: Van Ginkel, Agatha (2007) Transfer of reading from the language of wider communication to the first language. In Brian Tomlinson (ed.), Language Acquisition and Development, Studies of Learners of First and Other languages. London, Continuum, pp. 32-45.
For more information e-mail Dr Agatha van Ginkel: Agatha_van_ginkel@sil.org
Special On-Line Edition of English Studies in Africa Dedicated to Dr. Pippa Stein
This online publication of English Studies in Africa Vol 49.1, 2006, pays tribute to one of its guest editors, Dr. Pippa Stein, who is also one of the founders of the Africa Research Network on Applied Linguistics and Literacy. Pippa Stein, a much loved and respected colleague, passed away on August 7, 2008, at age 53. An Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, Pippa Stein is internationally renowned for her work on multimodality and multiliteracies, powerfully articulated in her 2007 book, “Multimodal Pedagogies in Diverse Classrooms”. Her democratic ideals for classrooms have inspired teachers, educators, and researchers around the world. We hope that this Special Edition, entitled English in Education in Africa, edited by Denise Newfield and Pippa Stein, will be of interest and use to teachers and scholars in Africa and the international community, and that it will encourage creativity, communication, and democracy in language classrooms.
We will always remember Pippa with affection and admiration. She is deeply missed by her colleagues, her students, and the Africa Research Network.
Denise Newfield, University of the Witwatersrand, newfield@iafrica.com
Bonny Norton, University of British Columbia, bonny.norton@ubc.ca
Yvonne Reed, University of the Witwatersrand, Yvonne.Reed@wits.ac.za
News on Access to Scientific Journals On-Line for Africa, from e-Learning Africa
Access to scientific journals requires subscriptions, but most university libraries in Africa cannot afford the high subscription costs. With more than 4,000 electronic scientific journal titles that can be accessed for free or at low cost, AGORA, HINARI and OARE are changing this situation. Brenda Zulu reports.
New in early childhood research: Early Childhood in Focus
This is a series of publications produced by the Child and Youth Studies Group at The Open University, United Kingdom, with the support of the Bernard van Leer Foundation, Netherlands. The objective of this series is to provide accessible reviews of recent research, information, and analysis on the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s key policy issues: strengthening the care environment, successful transitions, and social inclusion and respect for diversity of children. According to the Open University, consulting contributors are leaders of international research, policy, advocacy, and children’s rights….
International Professors Project (IPP) – Global
The International Professors Project (IPP) is a non-profit global network of professors who have begun working on university campuses in the so-called “developing world” – teaching, mentoring, and conducting local research as they internationalise college and university faculties in their respective host countries. A core goal of IPP is to enhance international and regional perspectives of developing and developed world universities, while meeting the developing world’s need for professors and instructors. The project consists of an interconnected web of academics, post-doctorates, independent scholars, and graduate students. The members provide global information, ideas, and knowledge channels – using both information and communication technologies (ICTs) and face-to-face interactions to share ideas, information, and knowledge of country and regional variations in teaching, learning, research, and living.
Contact Dr. Ron Krate info@internationalprofs.org
East Africa
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Uganda: 1st National Intergenerational Literacy Learners’ Conference
The 1st National Intergenerational Literacy Learners’ Conference organized by the Uganda Rural Literacy and Community Development Association and its partners. Theme: Literacies in Livelihoods and Development: Bridging the Divides. Dates: January 27 – 30, 2009.
Click here to read the Conference’s Concept paper.
For more information, please contact ReN member Willy Ngaka.
The East Africa Working Group on Multilingual Education Meets in Nairobi
Language, nationhood, pedagogy and policy: these were among the topics discussed as the East Africa Working Group on Multilingual Education met for the second time on 11 June 2008. Based in Nairobi, the Working Group is comprised of representatives from universities, non-governmental organizations and Kenyan government education offices. The one-day meeting of 18 scholars and specialists was characterized by both energy and vision, as the group explored concrete ways to influence the language and education situation in Kenya and in East Africa more generally.
One topic of particular interest was presented by steering committee member Dr. Angelina Kioko: “language, ethnicity, nationhood and multilingual education”. The role of language policy, and the use of African languages in the media, were linked to current perceptions of ethnicity and nationhood in Kenya. The group agreed that both vernacular media and multilingual education can be used to significantly enhance communication and learning among rural peoples, if used wisely.
Another important outcome of the meeting was a request by UNESCO Nairobi that the Working Group develop a discussion paper on language and education issues in Kenya, for use with policy makers and community leaders alike. This commissioned paper will be available for the use of UNESCO Nairobi and others in late 2008. Also, the need was recognized to broaden the scope of the Working Group to include representation and issues from elsewhere in Eastern Africa.
The East Africa Working Group on Multilingual Education is led by a steering committee consisting of Dr. Margaret Muthwii, UBS Africa; Dr. Barbara Trudell, SIL Africa; Mr. Seth Ong’uti, Academy of Educational Development; and Dr. Kioko, of the US International University in Nairobi. Funding for the working group meeting was made possible by SIL Africa Area.
West Africa
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Publication announcement ROBERTS, David (2008): Thirty years of tone orthography testing in West African languages (1977-2007). In Journal of West African Languages 35:1-2, 199-242
There is an ongoing debate about how tone should be represented in the emerging orthographies of African languages. One of the most significant strands in the debate is a small but growing body of literature describing formal experiments which test the different options. In this article, I present an overview of the existing repertoire which covers ten experiments and three decades. I adopt a comparative approach, examining all the experiments in parallel. I focus in turn on aims, design, sample profile, sample size, experience, training, test materials, tasks, scoring, results and interpretation. In conclusion, I offer some practical advice for future experimenters. I also attempt to identify whether any consensus is emerging about the profile of an optimal tone orthography.
Southern Africa
New On-Line Self-Publishing Tool
Via Afrika has launched a brand-new division. Crink, a ground-breaking online self-publishing platform, is set to lead the way in e-publishing in South Africa by enabling authors to self-publish, sell, buy and market their books online. Customers will be able to order books from Crink’s online shop and have it delivered to their doorsteps in printed format. The Web 2.0-enabled Crink platform is 80 per cent automated and the success of publications is determined mainly by the involvement of authors who now have the luxury of managing their titles. Crink simultaneously runs traditional self-publishing services to guide authors through the publishing value chain from manuscript origination to the final product in the bookstore.
Please visit www.crink.co.za for more information.
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