Presenters:    James Collins (Professor, Department of Anthropology, University at Albany/SUNY)
Discussants:  Carolyn McKinney (School of Education, UCT)
                           Shirley Pendlebury (Emeritus Professor, UCT)

About the seminar

This talk develops the themes indicated in the title, with Prof Collins addressing some basic points about comparison of economic and racial polarization as well as language hierarchies in South Africa and the United States. He will then focus on preliminary South African ethnographic data, presenting an analysis of the ways in which language diversity and language hierarchy interact in a linguistically diverse Cape Town primary school. He will describe and discuss how classroom lessons reinforce multiple standard language registers, teachers' differing responses to language diversity among learners; and a frequently-encountered discourse of 'language barriers,' that is connected to assessment anxieties among school staff. He will conclude by examining assessment regimes in South Africa and the U.S.

A full draft of the paper will be sent only to those who confirm their attendance for catering purposes