This paper discusses contemporary societal roles of German in the Baltic states (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania). Speaker and learner statistics and a summary of sociolinguistic research (Linguistic Landscapes, language learning motivation, language policies, international roles of languages) suggest that German has by far fewer speakers and functions…

The article examines the content of teacher education curricula provided by universities located in European multilingual border regions of Austria, Germany, Estonia, Italy, Slovakia, and Slovenia with the aim to reveal the key components of primary teacher education curricula for multilingual schools and compare them against the EU guidelines to…

This article interrogates the meaning of marginalisation by comparing two non-dominant language communities in Europe, and in particular their language education and teachers. An interdisciplinary exploration of the marginalisation leads the authors to identify key aspects and expressions of the concept. The authors illuminate these broad…

This paper explores linguistic landscapes and the enactment of public visibility and presence of non-majority linguistic groups in EU member states. Non-majority linguistic groups gain power, visibility and presence through the introduction of bilingual or multilingual signposts on roads, streets, squares, and public buildings in towns and cities…

The paper explores children and youths' perceptions of the reasons for bullying in multicultural schools. How do their different backgrounds explain the variations in those perceptions? The questions will be answered based on data gathered from 9 to 10, 12 to 13 and 15 to 16-year-old students (N = 2781) in Estonia, Finland and Sweden. A survey and…

The number of students in England registered as speaking the languages of Eastern, and Central Europe has grown significantly in the past decade, but these migrants' educational experiences remain under-researched. This study, based on interviews with students, parents and teachers in four secondary schools in London and in the East of England,…

This article explores policy and pedagogical pliability as strategies for perpetuating and protecting regional languages, like Võro, in the twenty-first century. The concept of pliability, as I develop it in this article, refers to the flexibility and adaptability of policies that are free from prescriptive and strict mandates. By examining this…

This article considers the circuitous route of knowledge exchange from South (New Zealand)-to North (Finland)-to regional South (Estonia) by examining the development of Võro language nests ("keelepesä") in Estonia. Language nests reflect the global nature of educational knowledge exchange as well as the importance of networks of…

This regional dossier aims to provide a concise description of the European minority language, Võro in Estonia, in education. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects such as the number of schools,…

It is impossible to achieve the normalization of Basque schools when they are subjected to five sets of regulations on the use of the Basque language in different parts of Euskal Herria. Instead of an education system that differentiates between various language models, what is needed is a school system that recognises the right of all Basque…

Catalan and Estonian can be considered "medium-sized" languages with some key common features that allow us to analyze the evolution of the two cases comparatively. Firstly, other formerly hegemonic languages (Spanish and Russian, respectively) have historically minoritized them. Secondly, the political equilibrium has now changed in…

Ethnic identification is closely tied to language. Society's appreciation of one's first language and the opportunity to use it may help strengthen ethnic identification. This research examined the relationship between ethnic identifications and school language and investigated other factors that potentially impact language-minority students'…

This article seeks to situate Estonian language use and policy within the emerging field of critical language policy and planning (LPP). Critical LPP draws on poststructuralist theory to deconstruct normalized categories that maintain systems of inequality. It is akin to the queer theory project for gender and sexuality. Since the country regained…

This article analyzes qualitative data obtained from focus groups with students learning in schools with a majority and minority language of instruction from Estonia, Latvia, Romania, and Slovakia. The focus groups were developed within the framework of the project "Divided Education, Divided Citizens?" conducted by the Network of…

The focus of the current article is language testing in the context of citizenship and asylum in Estonia, a country that regained independence in 1991. Estonian as the single official language of the country (according to the new language legislation laws) and a new political system have caused changes in use of and attitudes toward Estonian among…