Abstract
Language-in-education policies in Sub-Saharan Africa is a topic that has attracted several researchers. The adoption of alien languages as legitimate languages of instruction is a matter that has been seriously challenged. Since the 1960s, the debate in Tanzania has been on which language qualifies for the status of LOI. The answers have been favouring either the alien language (English) or the dominant language (Kiswahili). In 2014 the government launched the education policy, which declares both English and Kiswahili as LOI in post-primary education. In the 2023 edition, the policy was changed to declare English as the sole LOI in post-primary education. This study examined pre-service teachers’ epistemological understanding of using the two languages as LOI. The epistemological understanding model proposed by Kuhn (1991) was used as a conceptual framework. The data from interview revealed that the participants had different epistemological understandings about the issue. The study, therefore, provides a firm standing that pre-service teachers should be prepared and assisted to attain evaluatism understanding for a reasonable selection of LOI in a multilingual community like in Tanzania.
Recommended Citation
Biseko, John Misana
(2023)
"Pre-service Teachers’ Epistemological Understanding of the Language of Instruction: Can Education Policy Stop Kiswahili in Tanzania’s Classrooms?,"
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences: Vol. 12
:
No.
2
, Article 2.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.56279/jhss.v12.i2.1