English Across the Curriculum or Linguistic Epistemicide? The Erasure of Multilingual Epistemologies in South African Schools

Aims and Objectives: The English Across the Curriculum (EAC) approach, widely promoted in South African high schools, operates as a de facto monolingual strategy within a multilingual and superdiverse society. This article problematises EAC as a mechanism of epistemic injustice that privileges Anglocentric knowledge systems while marginalising indigenous African epistemologies embedded in local languages. Drawing on decolonial theory and the philosophy of language, the study argues that language is not simply a medium of instruction but the architecture of thought and world-making. Design and Methodology: To ground this philosophical critique, the study employed a sophisticated, multilayered research design. critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to deconstruct policy documents promoting EAC, revealing a latent ideology that conflates English with academic rigour and economic mobility. Data and Analysis: Concurrently, philosophical-empirical fieldwork was undertaken through phenomenological interviews with learners and teachers in three quintile-varying schools in the Eastern Cape. This dual methodology enabled a juxtaposition of the top-down ideological imperatives of EAC with the bottom-up lived experiences of linguistic alienation, cognitive dissonance, and epistemic disenfranchisement. Findings: The analysis demonstrates that EAC, in its current form, perpetuates a form of ‘linguistic epistemicide’, namely, the killing of knowledge systems by forcing learners to dissociate their conceptual understanding from their primary linguistic and cultural frameworks. Originality: The study extends beyond conventional pedagogical critiques by conceptualising EAC as a philosophical and epistemological issue, foregrounding the relationship between language, knowledge construction, and epistemic justice within multilingual educational contexts. Implications: The study concludes that a meaningful educational strategy for South Africa must move beyond a utilitarian, instrumental view of language. Instead, it should embrace a translanguaging philosophy that recognises the superdiverse classroom as a space for epistemic plurality, where knowledge is dynamically co-constructed across a multilingual spectrum, thereby affirming the intellectual sovereignty of the multilingual learners.