Implementing Multilingual Teacher Education: Reflections on the University of Fort Hare’s Bi/Multilingual Bachelor of Education Degree Programme

Abstract

A central aim of this article is to reflect on the design and implementation of a bi/multilingual Bachelor of Education foundation phase programme offered at the University of Fort Hare from 2018. It reviews three major perspectives on bi/multilingualism: mother tongue-based bi/multilingual education, language and decoloniality, and translanguaging perspectives. It then proceeds to use these perspectives to discuss and illuminate various aspects of implementation, including the genesis of the programme, challenges of implementation, and decisions about curriculum, language use and assessment. It concludes with a brief discussion of lessons learnt for design of bi/multilingual education programmes in higher education.