AAS 2315 - Language, Literacy and Liberation in Africa

Credits: 3 hrs

This course introduces students to issues of language in African education. Language is a major tool that each education system uses either to make education accessible or inaccessible to its intended population. Through close reading and critical analysis of carefully selected material on language and education in Africa, students will be exposed to different aspects of African indigenous knowledge and how language has been used to convey or offer those kinds of “knowledges”. Texts introduced in class will be used to foster students’ critical reading skills and at the same time enable them discover the pivotal role of lanaguage in African education prior to colonialism, during colonialism, and after colonialism. Discussions in this course will be used to generate critical perspectives on the role of African languages vis-á-vis former colonial languages that have now taken over the role of media of instruction in education. SLO: Critical Reading; AK: Foreign and Language and Culture; CuT: Globalization