“Kaksi kieltä, kaksi mieltä” * – Constructing cultural spaces in the public discourse on bilingual schools in Finland

Author(s):

Tuuli From(presenting / submitting)Fritjof Sahlström

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

07. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

07 SES 05 A, Diversity and Communality Contested

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

11:00-12:30

Room:

B004 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Ghazala Bhatti

Contribution

* Two languages, two minds

Cultural identities and categories are being produced on various levels of social life, in public debate as well as in the educational contexts of everyday life. They constrain and enable particular forms of public discourse on any topic, including education, as well as are constrained and enabled by them. In our approach, a spatial perspective will be applied to comprehend the physical, mental and social dimensions of cultural diversity. This paper aims to look at the production of identities through a study of how difference and otherness is constructed within the discourse on bilingual Finnish- and Swedish-medium education in Finland. This study is a part of a project where the construction of cultural diversity is studied in educational contexts of Nordic national minorities. There is also a strong relevance in the European dimension, while considering the topicality of intercultural issues in education and the theme of social justice, for example cultural diversity among minorities and cultural categorization in intercultural environments.

Bilingual educational solutions for Finnish- and Swedish-speaking children and youth have been a frequent topic in the Finnish media during the past years. The parallel school system of the nation, with separate schools for the Swedish and the Finnish language groups, has been questioned in ways not present earlier. According to the Finnish constitution, the two official language groups in Finland should be taught separately, which means that the Finnish schools are monolingual. Currently, there are approximately 35–45 monolingual Finnish-medium and Swedish-medium schools co-located in the same school buildings. The possibility to increase the number of co-located schools is being discussed at the administrative level in many of the bilingual regions. At the same time, there is a heated debate going on about the foundations of bilingual Finland. The public debate that has been running for two years has concentrated on school and language and raised questions such as whether we in addition to co-located schools should have actual bilingual Finnish- and Swedish-medium schools in Finland, or whether a bilingual environment should be seen as a threat for the language minority. The debate and process are re-shaping constantly and according to the latest news there will be a bilingual Nordic school in Helsinki starting in 2015.

In this paper cultural constructions, such as identities are regarded as components of cultural spaces. Space, place and culture are often seen as integrated in a way that connects certain identities with certain places and cultures. This assumption of resemblance between space, place and culture serves as a starting point for this study where the concept of space is used as a tool for observing the complexity of cultural spaces constructed in the discourse on bilingual schools in Finland. Moreover, processes of differentiation are seen as part of the socially constructed space where the minority position and language tie together with other differences, such as gender, race and social class.

Method

This paper relies on discourse analyses of the media debate in four Finnish newspapers during the years 2011–2014. The data consists of texts in four different newspapers, of which two are published in Finnish and two in Swedish. The material is analysed within a critical discourse analytical framework, in relation to representations of difference and otherness. Identity is examined as a cultural and discursive construction in a post-structural framework, and cultural identity is defined in relation to memberships in ethnic, linguistic and national cultures. In following phases of the project the discourse material will be combined with feminist ethnographic perspectives and field material from bilingual school environments. The post-structuralist framework of this study will focus on the construction of cultural spaces with a particular interest on constructing cultural and national identity, difference and otherness. The analytical approach ties together the several levels of cultural dimensions and takes into account the complex social reality by challenging determinated cultural identities, stereotypes and fixed categories. Thus, the analysis aims to make visible the cultural diversity in bilingual environments in order to promote social justice through education.

Expected Outcomes

While analysing the discourses emerging in the debate it has turned out that the construction of cultural identities among Swedish- and Finnish-speaking groups is strongly based on an established dichotomy, which is used for producing and naming the other. This dichotomy is being shaped within physical, mental as well as social space. The link between language and identity is mainly comprehended as straightforward. Belonging to the Swedish minority is linked to an essential, collective identity that can be considered as an essentialist strategy while standing up for the rights of the minority. However, the increasing amount of bilingual individuals challenges these dichotomous identities and fixed categories, which in turn puts a pressure on reconsidering the foundations of bilingual Finland and cultural as well as national identification. The outcomes of this study are of relevance both in the Nordic and the European context, in relation to intercultural issues, social justice, and cultural categorization in intercultural educational environments.

References

From, T. 2013. ”Kaksi kieltä, kaksi mieltä.” Diskurssianalyyttinen tutkimus identiteettien rakentumisesta koulukielikeskustelussa [“Two languages, two minds”. A discourse analytical study on the construction of cultural identities in the discourse on school and language]. Master’s thesis. Institute of Behavioural Sciences. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. Gitz-Johansen, T. 2003. Representations of ethnicity: How teachers speak about ethnic minorities? In D. Beach, E. Lahelma & T. Gordon (eds.) Democratic education: ethnographic challenges. London: Tufnell Press. 66–79. Gordon T., Holland J. & Lahelma E. 2000. Making Spaces: Citizenship and Difference in Schools. Houndmills: Macmillan. Gustafson, K. 2006. Vi och dom i skola och stadsdel. Barns identitetsarbete och sociala geografier. [Us and them in school and city district. Children's identity work and social geographies]. Uppsala Studies in Education 111: Uppsala. Hall, S. 1996. Who needs identity? In: S. Hall & P. du Gay (eds.) Questions of Cultural Identity, London: Sage. 1–17. Hall, S. 1997. Representation. Cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage. Hall, S. 1999. Identiteetti [Identity]. Tampere: Vastapaino. Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell. Sahlström, F., From, T. and Slotte-Lüttge, A. 2013. Två skolor och två språk under samma tak [Two schools and two languages under the same roof]. In L. Tainio and H. Harju- Luukkainen (eds.) Kaksikielinen koulu - tulevaisuuden monikielinen Suomi. Tvåspråkig skola - ett flerspråkigt Finland i framtiden. Jyväskylä: Suomen kasvatustieteellinen seura. 319–340. Slotte-Lüttge, A., From, T. and Sahlström, F. 2013. Tvåspråkiga skolor och lärande - en debattanalys [Bilingual schools and learning - a debate analysis]. In L. Tainio and H. Harju-Luukkainen (eds.) Kaksikielinen koulu - tulevaisuuden monikielinen Suomi. Tvåspråkig skola - ett flerspråkigt Finland i framtiden. Jyväskylä: Suomen kasvatustieteellinen seura. 221–244. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1993. Outside in the teaching machine. New York: Routledge. Yuval-Davis, N. 2006. Intersectionality and Feminist Politics. European Journal of Women’s Studies. 13(3): 193-209.

Author Information

Tuuli From (presenting / submitting)

University of Helsinki, Finland

Fritjof Sahlström