Interdisciplinary perspectives on African language materials for children
New education policies are stimulating demand for African language books for children. However, African language publishing is at an embryonic stage. Challenges include heavy dependence on sales guaranteed by Education Departments, a lack of infrastructural capacity, a dearth of writers in African languages and translators with experience of children's literature and problems in distribution.
The aim of this project is to deepen our understanding of the conditions necessary for African language publishing to thrive in order to strengthen capacity and stimulate demand. The research will have two main components: (a) a case study of South Africa and (b) the evaluation of a pan-African publishing initiative. The project team will take advantage of existing professional networks which allow easy access to publishers, distributors and policy makers across Africa and use these same networks to ensure that the findings of research are disseminated in ways that have maximum impact on policy and practice.
Go to project blog: http://africanlanguagematerialsforchildren.blogspot.com/