Bilingual education in postcolonial Mozambique as a site for creation of ethical spaces of otherwise

Abstract

Abstract Using a broad decolonial approach and taking the bilingual education field as reference, in this article I analyse the intersection of language ideology, education and social order in Mozambique. More, specifically, I combine transformative notions of “Linguistic Citizenship” and “spaces of otherwise” to uncover “coloniality of language” in education and in other fields, and to understand how spaces of possibility are being created and maintained. The combination of these notions allows us to understand the politics of language in diverse multilingual contexts and how alternative modes of languaging, thinking and being may emerge and endure over time or be silenced. I argue that, in addition to the current “enabling” legislative and policy framework in Mozambique, there is a need to transform institutional structures as well as the positionality of the vulnerable and marginalised citizens, as these are necessary conditions for fostering “diversity of voice” and “mutuality and reciprocity” of engagement across difference. In this regard, I discuss how agency and transformation within bilingual education have the potential to trigger ethical transformations in other societal fields.