The Institute of Development Studies and Partner Organisations
Browse

The use of Shona language as a medium of instruction in the first three grades of primary school in a Tonga speaking community: parents and teachers' perceptions

Download (615.53 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2024-09-06, 06:48 authored by Ruth Gora, George Mavunga, Bertha Muringani, Febion Waniwa
This paper investigates teachers’and parents’perceptions of the use ofShona as a medium of instruction in the first three grades of primary school in a Tongaspeaking community. Research was carried out at four schools and their surrounding communities in Nyaminyami District of Mashonaland West Province of Zimbabwe. Data were collected mainly using interviews and some of the data were collected using observation and document analysis. The major findings were that while a few parents and teachers felt that Shona should not be used as a medium of instruction in the first three grades of primary school in a community where the majority of the pupils'mother tongue is Tonga, a large number of them felt that Shona should continue to be used as a medium of instruction at this level, mainly for the purpose of integrating Tonga children in the wider Zimbabwean society.

A ZJER investigation into the implications of having a local Zimbabwean language that is foreign to the Tonga community being used as the medium of instruction to impressionable youngsters in their first 3 years of formal learning.

History

Publisher

Human Resource Research Centre (HRRC), University of Zimbabwe (UZ)

Citation

Gora, R. et al., (2010) The use of Shona language as a medium of instruction in the first three grades of primary school in a Tonga speaking community: parents and teachers' perceptions, Zimbabwe Journal of Education Research, vol. 22, no.1, pp.87-102. Harare: HRRC.

IDS Item Types

Article

Copyright holder

University of Zimbabwe (UZ)

Country

Zimbabwe.

Language

en

Identifier ISSN

1013-3445

Usage metrics

    University of Zimbabwe Social Sciences Research

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Keywords

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC