Translanguaging, Coloniality and Decolonial Cracks

Through detailed ethnographic research, this book presents a vision of decolonial learning in South Africa – students drawing on their full semiotic repertoires to make their voices heard, as they shape the future of knowledge creation. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with de/coloniality in education and society. * Adrian Blackledge, University of Stirling, UK *

Robyn Tyler provides a beautifully detailed, as well as theoretically and methodologically innovative, linguistic ethnography of the ‘coloniality of language’ and ‘decolonial cracks’ in high school science learning on the periphery of Cape Town. Making visible the resourceful, multi-semiotic meaning-making of marginalized African language speaking students, the book makes an invaluable contribution to scholarship in critical sociolinguistics and bi/multilingual education from the Global South.

* Carolyn McKinney, University of Cape Town, South Africa *

...the book effectively conveys the intricate layers of language-in-education policy and practice in any given schooling context, encompassing the curriculum, school’s physical environment, teacher ideologies, student affect, and more. It implies that a potential remedy toward a future with less colonialty lies in the hands of teachers, students, education leaders, and policy makers.

* Maya Alkateb-Chami Editor, Harvard Educational Review *

Anyone who is interested in better understanding the decolonial potential of translanguaging would find this book interesting and helpful. As decoloniality is about thinking “otherwise” to pursue pluriversality (Mignolo, 2000), showcasing what such pursuit can look like is important, and Tyler’s work just does this. In addition, her work offers an example of the very job of noticing, valuing, and building on the emergent decolonial crack that is already in the coloniality.

* Eunjeong Lee, University of Houston, USA, International Journal of Bilingualism 28 (4) *