SETTING THE SCENE FOR SCHOOL LANGUAGE CHANGE LED BY INTERNAL CHANGE AGENTS
1.7 Executive Summary of Thesis
The thesis comprises seven chapters. The introductory chapter establishes the focus of the study, chapter two provides a selective review of relevant literature and uses insights from the review to construct a theoretical and conceptual framework for the study and chapter three details the research methodology used in the study. Chapters four, five and six collectively comprise the data analysis section of the study. Chapter seven uses insights emerging from the analysis to generate a theoretical framework explicating the process leading to sustained school language change.
Chapter one provides the rationale for the study, establishes the aims, purpose and key research questions of the study and unpacks concepts central to the study. In providing a rationale for the study, the imperative of school language reform to meet the diverse linguistic needs of learners was considered. The failure of many schools to realign their language policies and practices with South Africa‟s post-apartheid LiEP (DoE 1997) which espouses the principles of additive multilingualism and increased use of the previously marginalised African languages in education was presented and counterbalanced by evidence of some attempts to implement the LiEP. These attempts which involved the work of internal change agents leading language change from within
schools evidenced in a project on Multilingual Education (HSRC 2004) provided the motivation for undertaking the study. The background to the study, which showed the link between the study and the HSRC project, was presented and the focus of the study was established. It was argued that sustaining school language change initiatives that promoted multilingualism was critical to addressing the linguistic diversity of learners in post-apartheid schools. Arising from this the focus of the study was framed, viz.
Interrogation of the attempts by internal change agents to sustain the language change that they had initiated in their schools. Guided by this focus the aims, purpose and critical questions of the study were stated. These comprised exploring the experiences of the change agents with a view to establishing how and why initiated school language change was sustained or not sustained and using these insights to deepen understanding of the school language change process.
Chapter Two comprises Part A and Part B. Part A is a selective review of existing literature on language policy reforms and bi- and multilingual educational provisions in multilingual educational contexts in South Africa, other African countries and Europe, USA, Canada and India, and literature on change agentry and sustainability of change.
Part B gathers insights emerging from the review to construct a theoretical and conceptual framework for the study. Existing research in the South African context revealed the persisting hegemony of English and very little noticeable attempt to implement multilingual policies and practices in post-apartheid schools. An overriding factor discerned in the review that militated against implementation of the LiEP was negative language attitudes, particularly the belief that African languages could not adequately support learning and teaching and had little value. The literature revealed similar trends in the wider African context. Despite this, the literature revealed attempts by language NGOs in South Africa to experiment with multilingual education and a resurgence of interest in African languages and their increased use in the education sector in the wider African context. A review of the literature in the international context beyond the African continent focused on bi- and multilingual programmes to promote multilingualism and entrench linguistic rights particularly those of marginalised minority language communities. The parallels between minority languages in the international
context and African languages in the South African context were drawn and the common grounding in additive bi- or multilingualism of the programmes in the USA, Canada and Europe and the experimental programmes in South Africa were underscored. The literature search on change agentry and sustaining change was extended beyond language change to educational change and behavioural change in social psychology. This was necessary because of limited literature focusing on language change agents and sustainability of language change initiatives. Insights emerging from the literature were used to advance conceptual understanding of the dynamics of the change process involving intervention of change agents and sustainability of change initiatives.
Part B used the insights emerging from the literature on multilingual education, language policy and practice reforms in multilingual educational contexts, change agentry and change maintenance to construct a theoretical and conceptual framework to interrogate the experiences of change agents leading language change from within their school contexts. In this respect three strands of theoretical understandings were identified, viz.
the social psychological perspective on change, educational change and language change.
The social psychological perspective on change conceptualises change as an intended activity by change agents to modify behaviour thereby making it socially acceptable.
Educational change focuses on change led from within schools by internal change agents i.e. principals, teachers and parents. Language change focuses on theoretical and analytical approaches examining language policy change, particularly implementation of multilingual policies and practices, and foregrounds the impact of a range of factors including social-political, historical, economic and cultural factors on language choice and receptivity (or not) to language policy change. This strand also includes guiding principles for education leading to multilingualism, which are incorporated in a framework to interpret language change efforts that encourage multilingual education.
Chapter three details the research methodology for the study. The study is located within the interpretive research paradigm and uses the case study approach. This approach provides rich data to deepen understanding of the complex process of school language change which is rendered more complicated by the competing ideologies impacting upon
language choice in a multilingual context. The type of case study used in the research is a qualitatively-oriented case study approach which made possible thick description of the experiences of the change agents thereby helping to deepen understanding of the school language change process. In using the case study approach, the study exploited the theory generation possibilities of case study research to develop a theoretical framework to advance understanding of and explicate the process leading to sustained school language change. In this respect, features of the grounded theory approach were used to generate theory grounded in the experiences of the change agents. The features of grounded theory exploited by the study were the use of sensitising concepts, which comprised critical change issues and principles for education leading to multilingualism, to guide data analysis. Other features of grounded theory included opportunistic data collection, and the employment of comparative analysis of data slices to generate categories, sub- categories and themes which were eventually merged and delimited to generate the theoretical framework on school language change. The main data collection methods comprised in-depth interviews with the four change agents and significant others (educators and school managers) in their schools, and a Focus Group discussion. The Focus Group discussion brought together the change agents to comment on their own and each others‟ experiences of driving language change at their schools, and to respond to selected excerpts from the interview transcripts and the sensitising concepts used for data analysis. The excerpts and sensitising concepts acted as prompts to generate further discussion on the participants‟ roles as language change agents, the school language change process and the threats, opportunities and challenges they experienced in their attempts to sustain school language change. The responses to selected parts of interview transcripts also provided added layers of interpretation of the raw data and helped to validate the data, albeit in a limited way. Analysis of school language policies, statistical returns and notices and circulars to parents aided in developing linguistic profiles of the four schools, which contributed to describing the contexts of each of the schools in which the change agents operated. This chapter also described validity measures used in the study. The validity measures used were all consistent with an anti-positivist research approach. The measures focused on enhancing credibility of the study and corroborating
findings. This mainly involved data triangulation, methodological triangulation and researcher-participant corroboration.
Chapters four, five and six collectively comprise the data record and analysis section of the study. Derived from grounded theory research, the analysis was oriented and guided by the use of sensitising concepts which acted as theoretical lenses to view the data. The sensitising concepts were informed by the three key research questions and encompassed the following: preconditions for change, sustainability of change and consequences of intended change, and guiding principles enabling a shift from monolingual to multilingual education. The sensitising concepts were used to view data slices and comparative analysis of these slices of data revealed that they were similar on some dimensions and differed on others and were grouped to generate themes. The themes were integrated to generate sub-categories and the sub-categories were integrated to form categories. The categories and sub-categories derived from the analysis were the following: Two forms of sustained school language change which comprised the sub- categories of Pressure to effect school language change and Acceptance and integration of school language change; Preconditions for school language change which comprised the sub-categories of Support for school language change, Potential of targets for school language change and Preconditions for institutional language change; and Understandings developed from initiating school language change. Engaging with the categories and sub-categories and the insights emerging from the analysis resulted in the manifestation of theorising moments which were the basic building blocks for the theoretical framework on school language change developed in the final chapter.
The final chapter develops a theoretical framework to understand and explicate the process leading to sustained school language change. This is a culmination of the theory generating part of the study and at the same time addresses the purpose of the study, which was to use the change agents‟ experiences of attempting to sustain school language change to deepen understanding of the process of school language change in post- apartheid South Africa. In developing and refining the proposed theoretical framework, the initial categories and sub-categories were further amended to generate three key
categories, viz. Managing School Language Change, Support for School Language Change and Evolving Understandings from initiating School Language Change. Each of these three key categories were further decomposed into their related categories and impacting factors. The proposed theoretical framework shows the key categories, related categories and impacting factors working conjointly; the interrelatedness of different parts of the framework are critical to understanding the process leading to sustained school language change. In proposing the theoretical framework, the researcher emphasises that the purpose of the framework is to deepen understanding of the complex process of school language change and not to make generalisations about the process of school language change. Hence, the researcher advises that the proposed theoretical framework be used with circumspection and only as an aid or guide in planning for school language change that promotes multilingual education.