Beyond the limits of language: An additive bilingual approach to Foundation Phase education as a social justice imperative

Abstract

Background: Language remains a central determinant of epistemic access in South African Foundation Phase classrooms, where many learners begin schooling in a language other than their home language. The 2025 shift in language-in-education approaches renewed attention to mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE) as a pathway to equity and meaningful curriculum access, particularly within Science, Technology, Robotics, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STREAM) education.
Aim: This review explored how MTBBE supported conceptual understanding, learner agency and educational inclusion in the Foundation Phase through sustained home-language instruction and additive English use.
Setting: A bibliometric analysis across global and South African contexts was conducted.
Methods: We conducted a bibliometric review, complemented by qualitative thematic analysis. Guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta- Analyses (PRISMA) selection process, we sourced and screened Scopus-indexed literature published between 2015 and 2025 using predefined criteria and analysed the selected studies within a transformative research paradigm.
Results: Three themes emerged: (1) multilingualism and MTBBE as pathways to epistemic access and social justice; (2) additive bilingual pedagogies in early schooling; and (3) positioning African languages in global and local scholarship. Although global scholarship increasingly recognises multilingual learning and translanguaging, it seldom frames these within additive bilingual education as mechanisms of epistemic access.
Conclusion: By advancing both pedagogical and social justice aims, MTBBE deepened learning and reduced early cognitive barriers linked to language exclusion.
Contribution: This study advances bilingual education scholarship by synthesising evidence-based research on MTBBE in the Foundation Phase, subsequently informing teacher education and policy implementation debates central to education.