Children whose first language is not Slovenian in the Slovenian educational system : a critical analysis of normalisation

english

2013

volume 23, issue 2

child   Critical discourse analysis   Education   Educational systems   Immigrants   Linguistic minorities   Slovenia

Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

The paper presents an analysis of discourses on children whose first language is not Slovenian and their integration into Slovenian primary schools. The research is based on a critical discourse analysis of in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted in 2011 with primary school teachers, local experts and high-level government experts in two Slovenian towns Koper and Ljubljana. The paper shows how the lack of language proficiency of children whose first language is not Slovenian becomes constructed as a problem within specific regimes of truth.The paper claims that inclusion through language works as a governmental technique where language proficiency represents a symbolic threshold for the cultural and social integration of children whose first language is not Slovenian.This preconditions their acceptance in the hegemonic culture and society. Therefore, the paper shows how policy, experts and teachers declaratively aim for the democratic inclusion of children whose first language is not Slovenian in Slovenian schools, but at the same time they reproduce ethnocentric arguments creating an assimilationist discourse.

15.06.2015