Exploring the Language and Literacy Challenges of Entry-Level Education Students and Experienced Teachers at a South African University: A Stance-Taking Analysis

The huge number of learners dropping out of the formal schooling system has a significant impact on the ever-increasing unemployment rate in South Africa, which can be perceived as a major reason for numerous parents and caregivers living in dire poverty. Learners from socio-economically deprived areas rarely have access to educational resources and literacy materials and neither do most of them attend schools that do. This post-apartheid South African reality has given rise to an education system which is marred by inequality, exposing the masses of learners from rural areas, townships and other under-resourced locations to difficult and complex challenges at institutions of learning. One such challenge, as emphasised by scholars like Howie (2017) and Spaull (2013), relates to learners’ poor performance in literacy-related tasks, especially when participating in continental and international evaluation programmes. Within the context of these literacy challenges, this study explored the literacy and language practices of students, lecturers and other role-players at a higher education institute in the Western Cape, particularly to establish how these role-players negotiate the challenges relating to their educational interactions. In order to contribute to the study of literacy and language practices at this selected higher education institution, this study deemed it necessary to not only focus on students who are currently studying, but to also include teachers who completed their teacher training four decades ago at the same institution. In this way, the article provides insight into past and present role-players’ engagement with literacy and language as learners, students, teachers and lecturers at the educational institutions they attended. Using a qualitative approach to data collection, the study involved conducting focus groups and semi-structured interviews to gather data relating to participants’ schooling histories, their challenges with language and literacy, and their perception of their educational futures. The data emanating from these methodological approaches are analysed and interpreted, followed by a presentation of the findings with suggestions for future research.