Janne Väistö on esitellyt tutkimuksiaan myös eurooppalaisilla foorumeilla Berliinissä ja Uppsalassa. Onkohan Suomen erikoiselle kielipolitiikalle löytynyt ymmärtämystä?
Symposium “Economics, Linguistic Justice and Language Policy”, 2-3 March 2015, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
https://www.wiwi.hu-berlin.de/de/justic ... me-fin.pdf
Väistö, Janne
Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Developments of Nationalism and Language Policy: Mandatory Swedish Language Study in Finland
Finland is a bilingual country, where both Finnish and Swedish are official languages. Even though the legal status of the two languages is equal, there is a great disparity in the usage of the languages. Swedish-speakers make up only five percent of the population. Despite this disparity, it is mandatory for all pupils to study Swedish in primary and high schools. This language policy has been a cause for controversy in Finland for over a
century. The goal of my PhD-research is to find out the reasons why Finnish political elite has been so reluctant to change Finland’s language policy, in spite of pressure emanating from the majority. Finland’s geopolitical position is the biggest reason for its language policy. Today the needs of new global economy and the rise of the new “efficiency
nationalism” are the biggest challenges for Finland’s language policy.
When examining language policy one cannot bypass the impact of nationalism and its evolution. Historian Eric Hobsbawm has divided the development of nationalism in to different periods and stages, and this process can clearly be seen in the case of Finnish nationalism. Hobsbawm points out that the end of the First World War, and the rise of
small monolingual nation states was a prelude to the establishment of increasingly language-based nationalism.
After the Second World War the language-nationalism decreased both in Finland and in Europe. During the Cold War while under the pressure of the Soviet Union, it was useful for Finland to highlight its status as a bilingual nation in order to position it self in the camp of the Nordic countries and the west in general. Swedish language was held up as a proof that Finland belonged to Western Europe and was a part of its culture.
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the sudden collapse of Soviet Union made the questions of ethnicity and language-nationalism relevant again in newly “independent” states. These great geopolitical changes reflected on Finland and its language policy as well. In the late 1980’s the demands to weaken the role Swedish language education in Finnish schools rose again.
Finland’s accession to the EU again changed the language climate in the country. Since 1995 the demands to remove the mandatory Swedish language education from schools have intensified. These demands are based on the view that as a part of the EU Finland’s top priority is to have direct contact with the heart of Europe. This political orientation has weakened the arguments for Nordic co-operation and for the equal status of Swedish language.
As indicated above, the development of Finnish nationalism is closely linked to education and in particular to the mandatory Swedish language studies. On the other hand, the direction of Finland’s language policy has always depended on the state of world politics and Finland position in the world order. Today globalization and the rise of the so called efficiency-nationalism pose the biggest challenges for Finland’s language policy.
Den sjätte nordiska utbildningshistoriska konferensen, 20–21 augusti 2015, Uppsala Unversitet
http://du.diva-portal.org/smash/get/div ... TEXT01.pdf
Session 26: Historical Perspectives on Minority Language Education
N.B. The first half of the session will be held in English, and the second in Swedish.
In this session, four different approaches to minority education are presented.
In the first paper, Epistemic Horizons of Educators of Immigrant Children in the Danish Welfare Nation-State 1970–2013, Marta Padovan-Özdemir presents an analysis of educator’s manuals intended for teachers of immigrant children in Denmark. In the analysis, the concept of governmentality is used to examine the epistemic horizons made available to educators via these manuals. The paper identifies what knowledge is invested in shaping the conduct and men-tality of educators of immigrant children, and how it is made practical for the education of immigrant children.
In the second paper, entitled Imperial perspectives in the History of Education: Comparing France and Sweden, Julia Nordblad compares French instruction for Breton and Tunisian children with Swedish instruction for Finnophone and Sámi children between 1880 and 1925. Applying an approach from ‘new’ imperial history, the paper highlights patterns of imperial and nation-statepolitics in a four-part analysis.
The third paper, The Domestic Other in Postwar Finland: The Resolution on Swedish as a Mandatory Subject, by Janne Väistö, examines political and cultural ideas about language underlying the debate about mandatory Swedish instruction in the Finnish School system. Attention is paid both to ideological currents as Swedish state interest in Finnish cultural politics in the Cold War era.
In the final paper, German School Ltd: A First look at the School’s 1940s Activities, Johanna Ringarp and Germund Larsson present a newly initiated research project which examines the activities of the German school in Stock-holm in the 1940s. The paper focuses on the organisation structure of the school as well as its interchanges with the German and Swedish societies.
Sessionsansvarig: Nordblad, Julia, Uppsala universitet
Abstracts/Deltagare
Epistemic Horizons of Educators of Immigrant Children in the Danish Welfare Nation-
State 1970–2013, Padovan-Özdemir, Marta, Københavns Universitet
Det andra inhemska i det efterkrigstida Finland: Beslutet om svenska språket
som obligatoriskt ämne, Väistö, Janne, Åbo Akademi
Tyska skolan AB, Ringarp, Johanna & Larsson, Germund, Uppsala universitet
Imperial perspectives in the History of Education: Comparing France and Sweden, Nordblad, Julia, Uppsala universitet