Education and Language: A Human Right for Sustainable Development in Africa

Autor/inn/en	Babaci-Wilhite, Zehlia; Geo-JaJa, Macleans A.; Lou, Shizhou
Titel	Education and Language: A Human Right for Sustainable Development in Africa
Quelle	In: International Review of Education, 58 (2012) 5, S.619-647 (29 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0020-8566
DOI	10.1007/s11159-012-9311-7
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Sustainable Development; Civil Rights; Education; Indigenous Knowledge; Human Dignity; Native Language; Poverty; Neoliberalism; Africa + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Nachhaltige Entwicklung; Bürgerrechte; Grundrechte; Zivilrecht; Bildung; Erziehung; Menschenwürde; Armut; Neo-liberalism; Neoliberalismus; Afrika
Abstract	Pre-colonial Africa was neither an educationally nor a technologically unsophisticated continent. While education was an integral part of the culture, issues of language identification and standardisation which are subject to contentious debate today were insignificant. Children learned community knowledge and history by asking questions instead of being taught in a hegemonic alien language. This article argues that education and development should take place in a broader context of human rights, and explores the links between three areas often dealt with separately, namely: language, education and development. The authors of this paper demonstrate that changing the face of the multi-dimensionalities of poverty within societies is possible only when education is constructed in a rights perspective over the favoured colonial languages, which are not an integral part of the culture and resources of a community. The authors make a distinction between the "right to education" and "rights in education," the latter of which are found to be more significant for the challenges Africa faces. It is argued here that the elements of Amartya Sen's "threshold" conditions for inclusion in human rights and self-development in education are essential, and that a more promising architecture of education would include what the authors term meta-narrative frameworks, i.e. interrelated policies. The authors contend that the neoliberal commodification of the knowledge sector has only exacerbated human rights and capabilities deprivation--which encompasses both human and income poverty. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10