Aiming high in heritage language education: the case of de jure policy for complementary Polish State Schools abroad

ABSTRACT

Informed by the conceptual-analytical framework of LPP and bilingual education policy, this study addresses a unique and under-researched case of heritage language education policy for complementary Polish State Schools abroad. These are Polish governmental educational offering aimed at Polish migrants and their descendants. Data consist of two policy documents issued by Polish parliamentary and governmental authorities and are analyzed through qualitative content analysis. The specific research question is: What ideological and implementational spaces can be identified in the policy documents regarding the following six areas: academic goal; language ideology; linguistic goal; language orientation; bilingualism orientation; cultural orientation? The findings show that the policy opens up implementational and ideological spaces not only for language maintenance but also for various epistemic goals and literacy forms that create opportunities for a multifaceted personal and societal development of the students. Polish language and culture are positioned both as right and as resource, and spaces for cultural pluralism and plurilingualism emerge. Even if bilingualism and biliteracy are not explicitly expressed as goals, the policy recognizes the multiple linguistic realities of the students by assuming bilingualism, the orientation that is here called bilingualism as default. Future research directions are suggested in the conclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• heritage language education policy
• bilingual education
• Polish schools
• Polish as a heritage language
• language and migration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In Polish, the schools are called ‘Polish schools’, while the schools run by the Polish communities are called ‘Polish Community schools’ or ‘Polonia schools’ (cf. ORPEG 2023; see also p. 11 for the explanation of the term Polonia).

2 The name of this ministry heavily fluctuated and was recently changed; I use the name that appears in the analyzed documents.

3 All translations are mine.

4 The part for elementary school grades 1–3 is instead concerned with Erziehung, which I do not develop more in this paper. My impression is that there is also a progression in the Curriculum (2019) from Erziehung to Bildung; this impression might or might not be confirmed in a study focused on the educational origins of the Curriculum.

5 Polonica = Polish prints and prints about Poland as well as artifacts and places related to Poland available in the receiving country.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dorota Lubińska

Dorota Lubińska is an assistant professor in language education and Swedish as a second language at Stockholm University. Her research interests include linguistic, sociolinguistic and educational perspectives on migrant languages. She has written about Polish language attrition and family language policy. Currently, she is working on a project focusing on Polish language education abroad.