Grievability of First Language Loss: Towards a Reconceptualisation of European Minority Language Education Practices

Abstract

This paper presents the root causes of the resistance of mainstream European educational institutions to implementation of minority language programmes (bilingual programmes with both an official/dominant language and an immigrant minority language as media of instruction). Differential treatment of different minority languages in the mainstream educational discourse will be discussed. It will be argued within the conceptual framework of Said's Orientalism, especially as it relates to the construction of the oriental subject, that some minority languages are more legitimate than others vis-à-vis mainstream curricular practices, which allows for different degrees of grievability attributed to potential loss of those languages on both individual and community scales. Ultimately, it will be discussed how the power relations between centre and margin are recirculated in support of educational structures that lead to first language loss among immigrant children, and what conditions would bring about a reconceptualisation of minority language education practices.