Embracing the melting pot in teacher training: Language and inclusion in education

The study, through desk research, aims to explore some of the challenges and opportunities of teaching in multilingual and multicultural teacher education contexts. Guided by a sociolinguistic lens on the funds of knowledge (FoK) and Vygotsky's sociocultural theories, findings reveal that pre-service teachers and in-service teachers acquire pedagogical skills in addition to what they have been taught mostly in a monolingual pedagogy and this does not only affect their teaching but also influences the way they think about multilingual learners. This poses both constraints and opportunities for learners, some of whom fail to understand the epistemology of concepts while others get to be advantaged due to the diverse home languages. Some of the challenges include communication, cultural sensitivity and equity, while opportunities include fostering inclusive learning environments, promoting intercultural understanding and preparing students for a globalised world. It is concluded that by embracing the diversity within these contexts, teachers can create enriching educational experiences that empower students to thrive academically and personally as their teacher identity develops through practice. It is recommended that translanguaging in South African higher education (HE) be upgraded to allow lecturers, teachers and students to use their home languages, in addition to English, to broaden their understanding and help in their training to be linguistically competent and relevant teachers in the rainbow nation.