Re-imagining knowledge canons in South African education: An inquest into mother tongue-based bilingual education

This paper examines Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education (MTbBE) in South Africa as a site for epistemic transformation rather than mere linguistic reform. While policy efforts have widened access by including African languages, classroom and institutional practices often remain anchored in Eurocentric epistemologies. Drawing on decolonial theory and existing empirical studies, the paper argues that MTbBE can only fulfil its transformative promise when language reform is coupled with pedagogi