TY  - UNPB
UR  - http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.534890
TI  - 'Black children in a white school' :language ideology and identity in a desegregated South African primary school
N2  - This thesis is an account of a qualitative study, which set out to investigate how black
multilingual children in their first year of formal schooling are socialised into the
cultural practices, particularly the English language practices, and ethos at a former
white English medium school in South Africa. This study is interdisciplinary drawing
on social theories and poststructuralist epistemology to explore the relationship
between ideology, language/knowledge practices and identity. In particular, I consider
the discursive construction of English as legitimate language, while other forms of
representation are viewed as 'abnormal'.
Set in the context of post-apartheid South Africa, the study was located in a
desegregated primary school in a suburban area of Johannesburg. Data was collected
using ethnographic methods and drawing on the traditions of school ethnography.
Qualitative data collection methods included non-participant observation, video
recordings of classroom interactions, audio recordings of interviews, and learners'
tasks. Forms of discourse analysis, blending approaches from sociology, education
and applied linguistics, are used to analyse social interaction as a discursive site where
resources are validated and marginalised, and as a site of identity construction.
Bourdieu's notions of linguistic capital, linguistic markets and linguistic habitus
inform my analysis. The analysis will also be located in Foucault's work, which sets
out the constitutive forces, and discursive practices by which identities are constructed
and negotiated within institutional contexts. The study reveals that proficiency in
English, and access to specific cultural practices associated with English, enables
learners with those resources to claim certain identity positions while those who do
not have access to them become disadvantaged and marginalised. Despite the
linguistically diverse nature of the institution, the school practices, discourse and
ethos work toward monolingualism. I argue that the value and legitimacy attached to
English plays a significant role in how black multilingual children in year one of
schooling imagine themselves as members of this community. Through making
visible, the ideological practices and assimilationist activities, especially with regard
to dominant language/knowledge, this study hopes to raise questions of inequality and
social justice in a society in transformation.
A1  - Makoe, Pinky B.
PB  - Institute of Education, University of London
Y1  - 2009///
M1  - Doctoral
ID  - discovery10019886
N1  - Thesis: (PhD) University of London Institute of Education, 2009.
EP  - 242
AV  - public
ER  -