Language as a Responsibility in Teacher Education: Multilingual Pedagogies for Higher Education in South Africa

Working in a multilingual higher education context demands that lecturers not only acknowledge and embrace linguistic diversity to enhance inclusivity and equity but also promote knowledge access for academic success. At the North-West University, there is a concerted effort to equip lecturers with multilingual pedagogies. To this end, lecturers across the university enrolled in a short learning programme (SLP) in multilingual pedagogies and started implementing translanguaging as a resource for student empowerment and inclusion. This paper presents the design and implementation ofthe SLP, focusing on: 1) creating awareness of students' multilingual repertoires, 2) stimulating pedagogic innovation among lecturers, 3) employing pedagogic strategies that address multilingualism as a responsibility. The study is framed by translanguaging theory, Ruiz's (1984) model of ideological orientations of language, with an additional dimension-language as a responsibility. We also look at the sociocultural theory and scaffolding. An action research approach was adopted, with successive iterations of the course informed by participant feedback. The article shares hands-on strategies implemented by Faculty of Education participants to tap into students' linguistic repertoires, promoting inclusivity and learning through scaffolding of speaking, writing, and thinking, aligned with sociocultural theory (Li & Zhang, 2020; Wertsch et al., 1993). The findings reveal important shifts in lecturer orientations, practices, and innovations when engaging with multilingual pedagogies.