Albanian Parents and the Greek Educational Context: Who is Willing to Fight for the Home Language?

Abstract

This article examines views of Albanian immigrant parents regarding home-language maintenance in Greece. It aims to reveal language ideologies in relation to broader ideologies about schooling and education. Following a qualitative interpretative approach, we conducted semi-structured individual and group interviews with 19 parents of bilingual students. Parents express a range of ideological stances from total resistance to the dominant school monolingual ideology to passive acceptance and could be grouped into three categories: (a) the “fighters,” who make a conscious claim for home-language use and education; (b) the “probilingualism” parents, who partially consent to the dominant discourse of monolingualism in the Greek school; and (c) the “indifferent” parents, who appear not to be concerned about the future of the Albanian language. Data from interviews suggest that dominant school-language attitudes and practices play an important role in shaping the language views and practices of immigrant parents.

Keywords:

• Albanian immigrant parents
• bilingualism
• language ideology

Notes

¹ According to Law 2413/96, which regulates matters regarding, on the one hand, the provision of Greek language education to the Greek Diaspora and, on the other, the provision of “intercultural education” in Greece, the purpose of “intercultural education” (the Ministry’s term) was the foundation and operation of primary and secondary schools that would “provide education to young people with a specific educational, social or cultural identity” (the Ministry’s translation). Following the implementation of the law, a total of 26 “intercultural” schools were established throughout Greece. Although they were supposed to cater for the needs of a “special” student population through the use of specially designed curricula and material, in reality this has not been achieved. Students of non-Greek background do not find themselves in a cognitively challenging and stimulating environment that would enhance their potential (Mitakidou et al., 2007).

² Unfortunately, the scarcity of research on other ethnic communities makes intergroup comparisons impossible for the time being.