Luxembourg is an extremely diverse country where Luxembourgish, German, and French are the official languages. These languages are also successively taught in schools at a quasi-native level. As 47% of Luxembourg's resident population are not Luxembourgers and often do not speak any of these languages at home, the school system is characterized by educational inequalities and difficulties in language acquisition (Eurydice, 2022; MENJE, 2024). The country is becoming even more multicultural and plurilingual with increased immigration and cross-border workers. This poses further challenges, as the trilingual public education system no longer reflects the nature of the country (Eurydice, 2022; MENJE, 2024). Studies show that students from immigrant and/or low SES backgrounds often struggle in the education system (e.g., OECD, 2018; Sonnleitner et al., 2021).

After decades without major structural changes, comprehensive school reforms were introduced in 2009 to reduce educational inequalities, which were followed by further reforms since 2013, under the slogan “Different schools suited to different pupils” to diversify the educational landscape in response to an increasingly heterogeneous student population. These reforms led to the establishment of the Accredited European Schools (AES) or European Public Schools (EPS) (MENJE, 2020, 2024).

Originally created for students affiliated with EU institutions, the first European School offering multilingual education was established in Luxembourg in 1953. In the following years, the schools implementing the European Curriculum mushroomed in other countries, until 2005 when the curriculum was made available to the national schools in the Member States. Thus, what once seemed to be a school for the “elite” became more open and accessible. The main premise of the curriculum is to offer a comprehensive school system that provides multilingual and multicultural education at the K-12 level by prioritizing literacy in students’ mother tongue (or dominant language) in corresponding sections. Decades after its creation in Luxembourg, the curriculum returned to its home country as a public school offer (Office of the Secretary-General of the European Schools, 2023).

EPS follows the European Curriculum and offers English, German, and French language sections to help non-Luxembourgish residents to better integrate and support students who struggle in the Luxembourgish curriculum. In this way, they address the heterogeneous student population and educational inequalities. These schools operate independently of the traditional Luxembourgish public schools, which have a highly stratified structure that selects and segregates students at an early age into achievement-differentiated tracks. Thus, EPS offers an alternative in the public education landscape. Although the European school system is considered exportable and replicable (Leaton Gray et al., 2018), the establishment of EPS represented a major structural change in Luxembourg’s persistent education system. Whilst the national traditions remained strong among some groups, this so-called parallel school system raised many social, political, and pedagogical questions.

The present study aims to understand the rationale behind the establishment of EPS and to examine how the implementation of an additional curriculum in the Luxembourgish public education system addresses a decades-old educational policy problem. This study further examines whether a so-called parallel school system can be considered as a solution to tackling educational inequalities, particularly among different language groups by analyzing the discrepancy between what the problem was represented to be by different stakeholders and the effects of the introduction of these schools in the light of large-scale data.

The case of Luxembourg is used as an example to discuss educational transformations in response to current challenges and demands, as it observes the effects of changes in population structure, in line with trends observed in other countries. Given the increasing migration and diversity of the student population in Europe, this case is interesting and potentially relevant to other contexts.

This study aims to understand the genesis and outcomes of the establishment of EPS by analyzing the policy-making process that led to their opening and legitimization. The rationale for EPS’s establishment and their potential contribution to managing student heterogeneity is analyzed through a mixed methods approach, namely a concurrent embedded design (Creswell, 2009). For this purpose, three data sources were used: (1) a document analysis of policy and public debates, newspapers, and union newsletters; (2) semi-structured interviews with policymakers, education scientists, union representatives, and school principals; and (3) a secondary data analysis of administrative student panel data (Fichier Elèves and Scolaria) and large-scale competency tests collected as part of the National School Monitoring (ÉpStan). The data were gathered during the school year 2023-24. This study prioritizes the qualitative methods, with the quantitative method is embedded within the former to integrate the information, compare one data source with another, and gain broader perspectives (Creswell, 2009). The initial part of this study consists of a document analysis of the aforementioned resources to reveal the reasons for the establishment of EPS and the patterns of legitimation that accompany their establishment. Following a comprehensive database search and exclusion procedure, the analysis incorporated 142 newspaper articles, 33 parliamentary questions, and 6 union newsletters published between 2015 and 2023. This was followed by expert interviews with 16 stakeholders who possess system-related knowledge (Gläser & Laudel, 2010). The interview schedules included questions to understand the reason behind the implementation of the European Curriculum in Luxembourg as a form of a public school offer, the problem that was intended to be addressed by this initiative, the contributions, challenges, or unintended consequences associated with its implementation. The preliminary qualitative analyses were conducted using multicyclic coding (Saldaña, 2009; VERBI Software, 2017: MAXQDA18). The secondary data analyses were conducted by using large-scale data from the same school year, and the two methods were mixed during the interpretation and discussion of the findings. To systematize our analyses and embed them in a functioning theoretical framework, Carol Bacchi’s (2009) “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach is used. This approach proposes 7 questions/steps for the process of problematization and its effects in research, policy and practical applications. The genesis and outcomes of the establishment of EPS were analyzed by examining the “problem” represented in the policy, the silences in the problem representation, and the effects produced by this problem representation.

The qualitative analysis indicated that EPS’s establishment was driven by the need for a more inclusive/diverse educational environment, ensuring equal opportunities for students. Several stakeholders highlighted their positive contributions and suggested the integration of the best practices into the Luxembourgish system. While EPS do not target a specific population, secondary data analyses confirmed that they attract both Luxembourgish and international students, with higher proportions of French-speaking students and those from relatively higher SES backgrounds. This suggests that EPS may seek to reach a particular clientele, raising concerns about social segregation, especially due to the parallelism in the education system and language sections within schools (see Leaton Gray et al., 2018). Indeed, EPS offer different language sections with flexibility in the medium of instruction, allowing students to primarily attend sections corresponding to their dominant language. However, students are not completely isolated from their peers from different linguistic backgrounds. This flexibility reduces language barriers compared to Luxembourgish public schools, while still emphasizing the importance of multilingualism and Luxembourgish for integration. Furthermore, EPS students who remain in the same curriculum are less likely to repeat grades, partly because of the system-related differences and better linguistic fit (see Backes et al., 2023; Gezer et al., 2024). These findings shed light on the “problem” represented in the policy regarding EPS’s establishment and suggested preliminary evidence for its potential role in managing student heterogeneity. Although these findings are consistent with predominant media narratives, there are still some silences in this problem representation, as the offer is small and does not address all disadvantaged students’ needs. While EPS have yielded positive effects, their long-term effects remain uncertain. Therefore, more data and longer observations are needed to draw robust conclusions and to assess what lessons can be applied to other school systems, both in Luxembourg and beyond.

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