ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the forms of communication used, particularly in relation to education in Africa, are further explored against the backdrop of language and power. More specifically, it aims to: explore the notion of critical language awareness and how it relates to power relations in education, look at the use of African languages and the role these languages can play in education, discuss and critique South Africa’s language-in-education policy as an example of an empowering policy that is lacking in terms of implementation, understand new language in education terminology, such as ‘superdiversity’ and ‘translanguaging’ and provide some African educational case studies with accompanying observations. The challenge in Africa is how to make the official and national languages more powerful in order to improve the lives of the average citizen. The chapter has linked the relationship between language and power to the debates around education in Africa, particularly in the South African schooling system.
