Unlocking the grid: language-in-education policy realisation in post-apartheid South Africa

This paper reflects on the state of educational language policy two decades into a postApartheid South Africa caught between official multilingualism and English. The is on the national language-in-education policy (LiEP) that advocates additive /multilingualism, and a provincial counterpart, the language transformation plan (LTP). Using Ricento and Hornberger’s onion metaphor, the paper seeks to uncover meanings of policy realisation in education at legislative, institutional, and levels. The LiEP’s non-realisation at institutional level is indexed by a ‘gridlock of collusion’ (Alexander, personal communication) between political elites the majority of African-language speakers, who emulatively seek the goods that English-medium education promises. To illustrate how teachers can become policy , data are presented from a bilingual education in-service programme that the LTP. The paper argues that sociolinguistic insights into speakers’ practices should be used to counter prevailing monoglossic policy and school language practices, and that all languages should be used as resources. Strategic essentialism would recognise the schooling system’s to separately classify language subjects and to identify the languages most used for teaching across the curriculum. The paper concludes with a call the revision of the LiEP.