Possibilities of a Community Centred Pedagogy: A Snapshot of a Reading Project in Cape Town

Abstract

This article traces shifts in radical pedagogy from the post-Apartheid period to the present (1994 to 2014) in the Programme for Research and Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA), an organisation that advocates a bilingual language policy in schools and presently runs a ‘reading for enjoyment’ campaign. Radical pedagogy is included in the paradigm of critical education as it challenges oppressive relations and takes the knowledge of the oppressed as its starting point. PRAESA’s starting point is that children learn and progress better if they first learn in their home language and then become literate in a second language.