Citizenship Educational Policy: A Case of Russophone Minority in Estonia

Nikolai Kunitsõn,Leif Kalev

doi:10.3390/socsci10040131

Abstract

In the contemporary era, societies are divided, and political polarization is increasing. One of the most powerful instruments the government can use is general standard education, specifically citizenship education. We will look at the case of Estonia, because Estonia’s main political cleavage is the ethnic cleavage between the Estonian and the Russophone community. Our main research question is as follows: How would it be possible to use democratic citizenship education to decrease in the future the socio-economic inequality between different communities in Estonia? We will outline the context of ethnic socio-economic inequality in Estonia and show how these differences have been at least partially influenced by the current education system in Estonia and how citizenship education can be used to reduce these inequalities in the future. We will conduct an empirical analysis of the curriculum, and this will be followed by semi-structured qualitative interviews. In the discussion, we will make suggestions to the current Estonian citizenship education policy and offer various insights into tackling this issue.

Highlights

When Estonia regained its independence in 1991, it inherited a rather segmented society where the Russophone minorities made up more than one-third of its population.During the following decades, various policies have been implemented to improve the integration of different communities in Estonia
Our results are presented in three categories: curriculum analysis, teacher interpretation, and discussion following democratic citizenship education in Estonian–Russian schools
Our main research question is as follows: how would it be possible to use democratic citizenship education to decrease in the future the socio-economic inequality between different communities in Estonia? We have shown how inequality in socio-economic spheres is connected in the case of Estonia at least partly with democratic citizenship education and identify the challenges brought on a separated education system

Summary

Introduction

When Estonia regained its independence in 1991, it inherited a rather segmented society where the Russophone minorities made up more than one-third of its population. Various policies have been implemented to improve the integration of different communities in Estonia. There have been some improvements (e.g., increased proficiency in the state language), the socio-economic status of the Russophone minority is still considerably lower. In the contemporary era of heterogeneous lifestyles and increasing political polarization, having a common societal culture and basic political coherence is increasingly a challenge for the whole society as political community. Citizens have grown distrustful of politicians and of the democratic institutions and process in general (e.g., Dalton 2004; Hay 2007; Papadopoulos 2013). As Hay (2007, p. 11) has noted, “Our sense of political citizenship in national democracies appears to be under threat.”

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion