Digital Possibilities for Literacy Across the Curriculum in Ugandan Schooling

• In Event: Collaborative Research on Multilingual Literacies in African Communities

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
In our presentation we address findings from a study conducted in a rural, Ugandan secondary school from August 2009 to May 2011 that explored the challenges and possibilities of developing language and literacy across the curriculum, focusing, amongst other issues, on digital possibilities for the development of multilingual literacy. In Uganda, as in many other post-colonial African nations, English remains the dominant language of instruction from Primary 4 onwards, regardless of which local languages are spoken by the students and their families. Since 2007, there has been a policy of universal secondary education in Uganda, which has put a great strain on local resources (UNESCO, 2010). Our project addressed the enormous challenge students face in achieving the advanced academic language and literacy required to succeed in secondary subject areas.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
In the West, since the mid-1980’s, there has been an extensive literature on the teaching of English as a second or alternative language in mainstream, subject area classrooms (See Mohan, Leung, & Davison, 2001; Stoller, 2008 for reviews), however there has been virtually no research on this topic in the African context. The presentation will draw on the work of Mohan, Leung and Davison (2001) on integrated language and content instruction; Norton (2000; 2010) on identity, investment and imagined futures; Mutonyi and Norton (2007) on information and communication technology; and Burns and Richards (2009) and Hawkins and Norton (2009) on language teacher education, as it seeks to address a vacuum in the literature.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
The study presented is part of a larger on-going qualitative case study wherein we are collaboratively examining, with our teacher participants, the integration of language, content, and technology in the teaching of diverse school subjects. The central question we address in this paper is: In a rural Ugandan context, what are the challenges and possibilities in developing praxis that systematically integrates language and content instruction across the curriculum subject areas? The data was analyzed inductively and recursively, independently and then collaboratively by the two researchers, through three phases to establish emergent themes.

Data sources, evidence, objects or materials
Five data collection methods were employed: questionnaires, interviews, observations, document analysis, and researchers’ journal reflections. Two sets of questionnaires were conducted and interviews held with eight teachers, from both the sciences and the humanities.

Results and scholarly significance
Emergent themes include: issues related to the pre-service preparation of subject area teachers; issues related to difficulties and pressures faced by content teachers in addressing their students’ language needs; and possibilities and potentials for developing a more explicit and systematically defined pedagogy for teaching multilingual language and literacy across the curriculum. From the findings, we argue that to overcome the challenges faced in poorly resourced, rural schools in Uganda, context-sensitive, integrated language and content policies, curriculum and resources need to be established at multiple levels: pre-service teacher preparation, collaborative research-based teacher professional development, and classroom practice.

Authors

• Margaret Mary Early, The University of British Columbia

• Bonny P. Norton, The University of British Columbia