Winter 2026 Speaker Series: Jasmin Msuya

Jasmin Msuya will give the first talk in the annual Anthro & Friends Winter Speaker Series, titled “Rethinking Language of Instruction in Public Secondary Schools in Tanzania: Ethnographic Case Study on the Implementation of the Educational Language Policy in the Classroom.” Jasmin’s research centers on how the transition from Kiswahili instruction in primary school to English instruction in secondary education shapes teaching, learning, and language ideologies in a semi-urban Tanzanian public secondary school. Grounded in an ethnographic case study design, she examines how teachers, students, and adult family members experience, negotiate, and respond to Tanzania’s Educational and Training Policy, which designates Kiswahili as the language of instruction in public primary school and English as the language of instruction in secondary school. The abrupt shift from Kiswahili to English instruction worsens educational inequalities that for decades have divided students into the dichotomy of rural and urban, and public and private. Amidst this dichotomy, contrasting language practices and resources expose the educational language policy gaps whereby the elite or middle class are more advantageous, unlike the working class.