ABSTRACT
In this chapter, language-in-education policies and their sociopolitical rationalities and consequences in post-colonial multilingual contexts are critically discussed. While focussing on sub-Saharan Africa, the analysis offered also draws on findings from other contexts in the Global South. Adopting critical approaches to language and multilingualism shows how the choice and management of language/s of learning and teaching in post-colonial contexts reflects coloniality and commodification of certain languages and multilingualisms. The chapter shows that despite some ideological and legislative shifts towards multilingual policies in education and in society, language practices in schools and in other formal contexts are still informed by the monolingual bias. A key argument permeating this chapter is that the promotion of multilingualism in education and in society should include dispensations that enable conviviality and coexistence of diverse languages, language varieties and speakers as well as address language-related social injustices. Illustrative epistemological, policy and experiential efforts towards delinking from the colonial matrix of power will be discussed and directions for future research and practice outlined.
