ABSTRACT

The poor young people of colour enter educational places they are often suspicious with good reason. White, middle-class youth are usually imagined to be the prototypical inhabitants of educational sites. Past and present social relations structure how language is used in specific places, with consequences for how young people learn in these settings. In schools and classrooms language use is heavily influenced by the visions and aspirations that nation-states have for their citizens. The social relations that shape schools and dialogic learning within them cannot be separated from the challenge of improving and redistributing material resources. Material and imagined space are always enmeshed. Material economic forces have resulted in Cape Town becoming a quintessential global city and one of the most unequal societies in the world. Dialogic learning amongst the Doodvenoodskap (DVS) was related to another set of local and global social relations. Hip hop is underpinned by alternative norms and values, an alternative linguistic economy.