The (re)making of an African language: Revisiting epistemologies for quality assessment practices

Abstract

It is a well-established fact that languages of the world have different typological parameters despite their universality in key structures. These different typologies predict various ways of knowing, teaching and assessing. Despite the plethora of knowledge systems available in linguistics and educational research worldwide, African languages of Bantu origin have been residually neglected and versioned from Germanic languages for curriculum development, teaching and assessment. In this paper, we review key tenets of indigenous African languages and examine how these parameters have not been considered in assessment regimes broadly. We use this analysis to gauge the extent to which mother tongue-speaking learners of these languages may have experienced a disproportional disadvantage over the years and explore the challenges that were experienced in the assessment ecosystem conducted by Umalusi, as the quality assurer of assessment in national examinations. Applying deconstruction as a decolonial tool and indigenous African knowledge systems, we argue that linguistic typologies and underpinned epistemologies need to be key drivers in designing assessment taxonomies. We then present a model that offers assessment bodies alternative ways aligned with the ways of being, acting and knowing based on the nature of African languages. In the end, we offer useful recommendations for further research and a practical assessment practices modality for African languages.