Category jumping & phase shifting? Reflections on applying the top-side-bottom model in the case of Võro revitalization in Estonia

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Problematizing Education Reform: Implementing Multilingual Education as Change from Above, from Below, from the Side — or a Combination?

Proposal

Like other revitalization efforts around the world (Hornberger, 2008; McCarty & Nicholas, 2014), language activists concerned with the future of the regional language of Võro turned to primary schools over twenty-five years ago to promote education in and about the language. This quarter of a century experience (1993-current) introducing, adapting, and institutionalizing a non-dominant language into the Estonian public school system provides a compelling case to consider Kosonen and Benson’s rich “top-side-bottom” model (forthcoming). Based on my analysis of the Võro case, I argue that we need to consider (1) the permeability of the boundaries between “top, side, and below” as policy actors like teachers, academics, and even government officials “jump” across categories; and (2) the causes of the accelerated and decelerated shifts between the initial, intermediate, and future phases within each model.

This paper is a diachronic comparison of the language policies promoting regional-language instruction in the Basic Schools (grades 1-9) and kindergartens (serving ages 3-6) of southeastern Estonia. I consider policy developments and changes both between the two periods of my fieldwork (2001-2003 & 2013-2014) and across the pre-primary and primary levels to gain insights into the Kosonen and Benson models. The analysis focuses primarily on the fluid movement of language policy actors evident especially from below and from the side as these language-in-education policies have developed. The diachronic comparison also points to the engines driving the school-based language movement to a different phase (i.e., initial, intermediate, or future).

I argue that the expansion of regional-language education in Estonia reveals the dynamic contribution of considering the analytic power of distinguishing the side and the bottom. As Albaugh (2007) also found in her work on language policy shifts in African schooling, civil society (or organizations on the side) can play an enormously influential role in shifting language policy. What I have found in the Estonian case, however, is language-policy actors’ “category jump” particularly between the side and below, which complicates the tripartite division. Teachers, government-funded research and development organizations, and NGOs populate this jumping group. This movement across categories suggests the important role of both the development and deployment of the language-policy actor’s social capital and influence in language policy shifts. The Võro-language case also points to the diverse reasons for acceleration/deceleration/ stagnation across the model’s temporal phases (i.e., initial, intermediate, and future). In my study, I found several forces leading to a marked increase in the use of the regional language in schools including the need to distinguish schools within choice systems; this lead to phase acceleration. The steady decrease in the rural population and resulting spate of school closures in the region has led to the stagnation and decline of regional-language education.

For this presentation, I draw primarily on an my analysis of 2013-2014 field data including (1) semi-structured interviews in Estonian of 16 basic-school teachers and 18 pre-primary teachers; and (2) participant-observation notes from 29 school visits, and from 5 language-nest in-service teacher training sessions. I then compared this data set with my ethnographic data from 2001-2003.

Albaugh, Ericka (2007) Language choice in education: a politics of persuasion. Journal of Modern African Studies 45(1): 1-32.
Hornberger, Nancy (ed) (2008) Can schools save Indigenous languages? Policy and practice on four continents. Hampshire UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
McCarty, Teresa & Nicholas, Sheilah (2014) Reclaiming indigenous languages: A reconsideration of the roles and responsibilities of schools. Review of Research in Education 38: 106-136.

Author

• Kara Brown, University of South Carolina