Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences - Institute of Asian and African Studies

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences | Department of Asian and African Studies | Regional Departments | African Studies | Events | Upcoming Events | 03.01.2023 Colloquium on African linguistics: Introducing Taa into primary education (Riedel)

03.01.2023 Colloquium on African linguistics: Introducing Taa into primary education (Riedel)

“Introducing the multidialectal language Taa (Tuu) into primary education in Botswana” - Talk by Markus Riedel (HU Berlin, planned Ph.D. project) given within the colloquium of African linguistics and languages
  • When Jan 03, 2023 from 04:15 to 05:45
  • Where Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften, Invalidenstr. 118, room 410 & via Zoom
  • Contact Name Christfried Naumann (christfried.naumann (AT) hu-berlin.de, please contact for Zoom access information)
  • iCal

The goal of my planned PhD project is to work out strategies and guidances for the creation of a primer in order to introduce primary education in the multidialectal language complex Taa (also known as ǃXoon, the last vital member of the Tuu language family). Taa is spoken by about 3000 speakers, who historically lived as hunter-gatherers in Botswana and Namibia. In 2022, the Botswana Government presented an initiative to introduce mother-tongue primary education in the country's minority languages which had hitherto been ignored in the education system. The thesis's research question is: Which strategies and guidances exist for the introduction of the multidialectal language complex Taa into primary education in Botswana? This research question is to be answered from the field of linguistics as well as the fields of social anthropology and sociology of education. Two methodological approaches are being applied: First, primary education books from similarly complex language situations are to be analyzed as comparative cases by means of a structuring content analysis (Mayring 2010 [1983], Kuckartz 2018 [2012]). Currently, books from several dialects of Romansh as well as Serbo-Croatian primers from Yugoslavia are planned to be analyzed. A number of the latter have been viewed up to now and some first impressions are being presented. Second, two field researches among Taa speakers are planned. One aim of the first field trip is to define problems together, so that the second field trip can be conducted as much as possible by means of a community-based participatory research (Schensul et al. 2015 [1998]: 190).

 

References
Kuckartz, Udo. 2018 [2012]. Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse: Methoden, Praxis, Computerunterstützung. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa.

Mayring, Philipp. 2010 [1983]. Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse: Grundlagen und Techniken. Weinheim / Basel: Beltz.

Schensul, Stephen, Jean J. Schensul, Merrill Singer, Margaret Weeks and Marie Brault. 2015 [1998]. Participatory Methods and Community-Based Collaborations. In: Bernard, Russell und Clarence C. Gravlee (Hrsg.): Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology (2nd edition). Lanham [u.a.]: Rowman & Littlefield, 185-212.