Swahili Professor Dennis Simiyu was joined with his student (CIIS Fellow) Lehlomela Simon Mofali for research. The two carried out research in Kenya (Naivasha, Nairobi, Mombasa, and Malindi) titled “Language Policy and Equality in Kenya: Examining the Status and Implication of Language Policy of Instruction in Urban and Rural Orphanage.” Using Tollefson’s (1991) critical language planning and policy approach, the researchers argued that while learners from Orphanages do not have immediate families to nurture their first languages, their counterparts in public and private schools do, hence the gap.
The study illuminated the status and implications of the language (s) of instruction used by teachers in the Orphanage’s classroom and investigated the motivation behind the language of choice in classrooms. Finally, it identified the challenges Orphanage classroom teachers face in applying the national educational language policy at the early childhood school level in Orphanages in rural and urban centers. Although this study considered that orphanage children are a minority in society, do they even stand to be noticed in the education system regarding their language of instruction problems?
The CIIS Fellows Program provides funding for a faculty member and one to three students to pursue research outside the regular semester and to share an experience of working off-campus in a significantly different cultural setting. The students' research will not be credit-bearing though it may lay the foundation for future academic work and will involve learning essential research skills.
Faculty members interested in this program should contact the Associate Dean of International and Intercultural Studies.