Multimodality and English education in Ugandan schools

Abstract

In all societies children have many layers of representational resources Ia vailable to them. Play, movement, song, drama, language and artistic activity are but some of the modalities by which they learn to make sense of their world (Short, Kauffman and Kahn 160). The concept of multimodal ways of communicating, however, although very much in vogue in literacy studies, is not a new model within the Ugandan communities in which we work. In many parts of Uganda, indigenous knowledge and ways of communicating have been integrated into non-formal learning contexts, particularly in Freirean-based adult literacy programmes such as UPLIFTUganda (Pokorny 10-1 1) and REFLECT (Attwood, Castle and Smythe 137- 158). Within the formal school system, however, teachers are often constrained in their ability to recognize alternative or indigenous modes of representing and communicating knowledge due to a strong emphasis on examinations, teaching to the curriculum and a lack of resources and teacher training, particularly in rural areas.