In Language and Education in Africa, Bert van Pinxteren undertakes an investigation into the limited utilization of African languages as media-of-instruction in higher education and explores potential language policy formulations within the educational landscape of the continent. He also explores large-scale cultural differences and similarities in Africa in relation to the topic under investigation. Departing from conventional approaches to medium-of-instruction research, which predominantly focus on educational outcomes at the primary education level or adopt a linguistic rights perspective (Haddad, 2008; Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000; Trudell, 2016), van Pinxteren adopts the less usual approach of envisioning desired educational outcomes at the tertiary level and subsequently working backward to earlier stages.
The book critically challenges prevailing assumptions in the field of language-in-education planning in Africa and productively engages with recent scholarship on how languages are defined. Its contributions are fortified by the employment of quantitative research methods, comparative analysis, and several case studies, culminating in, as well as illustrating, the presentation of a series of “rational choices for language in education” (81) in Africa that are designed to guide policy makers in long-term planning endeavors. Overall, the book project is launched from a decolonial perspective, which takes seriously issues related to power, self-determination, and ongoing cultural evolution.
Within the fields of linguistics and educational linguistics, one school of thought that has recently gained significant traction among scholars is concerned with decolonization and anti-imperialism. It challenges the notion of a language as a bounded entity and rejects the conceptualization of distinct linguistic “codes,” or distinct languages, as a colonial invention (38). Proponents instead emphasize a need for the actual language repertoires and language use by speakers to be the starting point for analysis. Van Pinxteren posits that, while there are advantages to this approach, a key disadvantage is its primary focus on oral language and neglect of the significance of written (standardized) language. He argues that adopting such a theoretical framework may inadvertently perpetuate an unquestioning acceptance of the status quo of predominantly using international languages, such as French or English, as the media-of-instruction in higher education in Africa (39).
Alternatively, building on Kloss’s (1967) formulation, van Pinxteren proposes a nuanced conceptual differentiation between “discerned” and “designed” languages. Within this framework, a designed language is one that, through a social process, undergoes a transformation from an oral form to a standardized variant, incorporating written elements; while a discerned language emerges through “the political and social act of pronouncing a dialect to be a language” (43). He elaborates that the visibility of the design element varies, with languages that are linked to institutional bodies like the Académie Française being more easily identifiable as designed in comparison to those shaped by everyday power-imbued social processes, as exemplified by Standard American English (44).
Van Pinxteren explicates that formal education invariably entails teaching children to use a designed language, even if that closely resembles the discerned language they speak at home (49). An example of this phenomenon is standard written German, which serves as the designed language accommodating numerous spoken German-like languages. This conceptual distinction assumes relevance within the African context, which is characterized by a relatively limited number of designed languages yet offers substantial prospects for language planning and corpus development.
An essential, but often neglected, inquiry posed by Language and Education in Africa revolves around the extent of educational demand at the tertiary level in Africa in conjunction with the feasible capacity of its education systems to instruct students effectively in a designated language to ensure their success in higher education in that language (55). This question assumes particular significance as the continent undergoes educational expansion, in contrast with the colonial period when only a select few students pursued education beyond a certain threshold.
The book contends that if a higher (even secondary) education system aspires to encompass a substantial proportion of the population, it would be most efficient to adopt a medium-of-instruction—a designed language—that aligns as closely as possible with the discerned language(s) already familiar to the students (50–51). Two factors underlie this approach: the magnitude of students needing education at a specific level and the “distance” between the discerned and designed languages at hand. Consideration of the latter factor is linked to the author’s astute observation of the uneven distribution of learning abilities and language-learning aptitude within any given population. Consequently, employing a foreign designed language as the medium-of-instruction becomes progressively less efficient, both in terms of pedagogy and cost-effectiveness, as the number of students seeking education climbs.
Van Pinxteren takes an intriguing departure from conventional approaches that implicitly or explicitly adopt the aim of education as educating all African children successfully at a certain level—effectively, in a language foreign to them most of the time. Instead, he sets as a more realistic benchmark what he identifies as the best European outcome in this area: Estonia’s education system, where Estonian is the medium-of-instruction, successfully enables 34 percent of the country’s youth to attain proficiency in English as a foreign language for higher education pursuits (69). Drawing on a strong foundation of theoretical and empirical support, the book offers insightful comparisons between African and European countries, both in contemporary and historical contexts, thereby yielding a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
The study culminates in the proposal of five principles that underpin rational language-in-education policies in Africa. These principles include the selection of a limited number of designed languages for educational purposes and the subsequent investment in their development. Such designed languages are to be selected with a focus on facilitating ease of learning for speakers of various discerned languages based on the linguistic distance between the languages at play. Moreover, the utilization of existing bilingualism within African communities is emphasized as a valuable resource for informed decision-making processes (87–88). Subsequently, these proposed guiding principles are applied to six meticulously chosen case studies that span a wide spectrum of linguistic, cultural, and historical contexts across Africa, encompassing countries like Tanzania, the Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, and South Africa. Through these examinations, and with a futuristic purview, the book strives to address the question of language selection for higher education within each unique context, while also critically assessing the successes and limitations of current language-in-education policies therein.
Language and Education in Africa will be useful to policy makers, language-in-education planners, researchers, educators, and students engaged in the realm of medium-of-instruction policies and practices. Its theoretical contribution, elucidating the nuanced differentiation between designed and discerned languages, emerges as a seminal and constructive framework that enriches present scholarly discourse in the field. Furthermore, the book effectively challenges prevailing assumptions pertaining to the imperative of corpus development for a multitude of languages in the African context that has arguably hindered progress in relation to using them as languages of instruction. The inclusion of six case studies serves to bolster and illuminate the book’s central argument. Importantly, the author adopts a modest stance, acknowledging the book’s proposal as an avenue for grappling with a complex issue and the tensions that arise when attempting to formulate rational and equitable policies within political and historic realities (161). Van Pinxteren explains that such an endeavor is not yet pressing or needed in many African countries, given low enrollment levels in higher education, but it is one that is becoming increasingly relevant in several of these countries. In these cases, he astutely argues, it is imperative to engage in rigorous modeling and to plan ahead.
Nonspecialized readers may encounter challenges in comprehending certain ideas and constructs presented in the book. Moreover, a more extensive integration of empirical evidence and scholarly literature to substantiate the book’s claims, such as the proposition that education in a designed language closely aligned with the discerned language yields superior academic outcomes at a reduced cost (49), would have fortified its argumentative framework, particularly for readers lacking specialized expertise. The alignment between the chapter dedicated to cultural identity and the broader thematic context of the book only becomes evident and compelling in its concluding sections. Additionally, while the book’s analysis and recommendations exhibit innovation and cogency, they predominantly adopt a binary perspective on medium-of-instruction—selecting one language or another to fulfill that role—thereby leaving open the question regarding the viability and implications of bilingual education programs.
Notwithstanding these concerns, the valuable contributions of Language and Education in Africa lie in its fresh perspective on language-in-education policies and planning, particularly within the African context. By challenging conventional assumptions and inviting out-of-the-box thinking, van Pinxteren’s book provides a theoretically innovative and data-driven pathway forward, drawing on comparative insights from diverse African contexts and transcending them.