Epistemologies in multilingual education: translanguaging and genre – companions in conversation with policy and practice

Abstract

This paper draws attention to the central concern of authors in this issue, which is to offer translanguaging and genre theory as two promising pedagogical responses to education systems characterised by linguistic as well as socio-economic diversity. It also draws attention to the agency of teachers in the processes of engaging with the linguistic diversity of students. What lies at the heart of current provision of multilingual education in South Africa, the site of concern for most of the authors in this volume, is a systemic failure to engage productively with the linguistic and knowledge repertoires of students. On the one hand, there is misunderstanding of multilingualism in southern contexts and the country's multilingual education policy; on the other hand, there is a reluctance to engage with multilingualism within curriculum and assessment delivery. Translanguaging and genre, although conceptually originating from North Atlantic and Australian contexts, may well offer opportunities for students in southern contexts to expand their own linguistic repertoires and to bridge epistemological difference between community and school.