Resumo

WOLHUTER, Charl  e  CARSTENS, WAM. An investigation framework for researching Afrikaans in the education sector. Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2025, vol.65, n.2, pp.574-606. ISSN 2224-7912.  https://doi.org/10.17159/2224-7912/2025/v65n2a2.

One can readily argue that, at the current point in time, Afrikaans finds itself in an unfavourable demographic, economic and socio-political situation. Close to 30 years after the dawn of the new socio-political dispensation in 1994, the Afrikaanse Taalraad (Afrikaans Language Council) decided to take stock of and assess the current situation of Afrikaans in five key societal domains, namely jurisprudence, organised religion, the economy and employment sector, the health professions and the education sector. The aim of this article is to explain the process of and rationale behind the investigation of Afrikaans in the education sector. This project is based on a comprehensive corresponding project regarding Dutch ("Staat van het Nederlands") about the use of Dutch in various domains, the outcomes of which can be used for planning purposes. The rationale is that sound research determines the approach to the implementation of strategies. The outcomes of a 2004project by the Voortsettingskomitee (Continuation Committee of a colloquium on Afrikaans held in September 2003 in Pretoria) on an audit regarding Afrikaans language projects, societies, organisations and initiatives eventually led to the establishment of a structure representing various Afrikaans interest groups. The article commences with a discussion of the societal contextual background that gave rise to the plan to lodge the investigation. The historical development of Afrikaans is outlined, and its current situation, demographically and socio-politically, is assessed. The ceaseless stigmatisation and marginalisation of the language, constitutional educational guarantees notwithstanding, are highlighted. Then the selection of the five key domains is motivated. The authors subsequently explain how 52 questions, which should form a research agenda for Afrikaans in the education sector, were identified. The 52 questions are organised into the followingfive focus areas: (1) teachers and teacher education; (2) leadership development (this includes both teachers as leaders and principals as school leaders); (3) the importance of education through the medium of the mother tongue, and the supply of such education and education for a multilingual society; (4) preschool education as supply pipeline for school education; and (5) parental guidance regarding parents making a choice with respect to the language of education for their children. It is envisaged that these themes will, to a significant extent, become the research problems of the immediate future of Afrikaans in the education sector in South Africa. The next step is to conduct a thorough literature survey and compile a research agenda, including identifying research priorities. What also transpired from this construction and statement of a research framework for Afrikaans in the education sector is that any future research should be inclusive of the entire Afrikaans-speaking community, which constitutes the target of the research. That means the focus cannot be exclusively on White schools. Census statistics and other sources show indisputably that the majority of Afrikaans first language speakers are not located in the population group historically classified as White. With the benefit of hindsight, it should also now be acknowledged that when the preparatory work for the construction of this framework was done, organisations such as the Stigting vir die Bemagtiging deur Afrikaans (SBA) were not involved. It is important to involve all organisations in projects and initiatives regarding the empowerment and development of Afrikaans. Afrikaans in all its varieties (and not only Standard Afrikaans) should be included and given space in order to generate the maximum effort to mobilise the entire Afrikaans-speaking community for the empowerment and development of Afrikaans.

Palavras-chave : Afrikaans; constitutional rights; domains of language usage; education; education as a field of scholarship; education quality; educational leadership; language of teaching and learning; language planning; language politics; state of Afrikaans education; levels of language health.

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