Studies that focus on heritage language learning (HLL) have addressed a variety of questions in different contexts (see e.g., Kheirkhah & Cekaite, 2015; Leeman, 2015). Some research has been done in relation to Russian heritage speakers as well. For example, a study by Protassova (2018) demonstrated that Russian-speaking families value bilingual education as an important factor that assists in child's minority language support. Despite emerging studies that focus on Russian heritage speakers in Finland and on the families which aim to maintain and support Russian (see e.g., Protassova, 2019; Vorobeva, 2021), little is known about how families navigate heritage language support against the backdrop of the National Core Curriculum. The current study explores the nexus (Scollon & Scollon, 2004) of the official discourse concerning teaching heritage languages as articulated in the Finnish National Core Curriculum for basic education (EDUFI, 2016) and the families' perceptions of (HLL). The data consist of two semi-structured interviews with Russian-speaking divorced mothers. The interviews were tailored to explore their family language policies (FLPs) and included such themes as mothers' socio-cultural background, migration trajectory, language practices, language beliefs, and other topics that emerged as important for shaping their FLPs. HLL had emerged from the data as a significant language management factor which was later analyzed against the backdrop of the Finnish National Core Curriculum for basic education.
The study especially focuses on the two nexus analytical aspects, namely historical body (i.e., mother's experiences as language speakers and their internalized language beliefs), and discourse in place (i.e., heritage language teaching guidelines as articulated in the Finnish National Core Curriculum for basic education). Preliminary findings show that both mothers construct heritage language classes as important and encourage children to approach them as any other curricular classes, while Finnish National Core Curriculum for basic education highlights that these classes are elective and remain outboard of the general curriculum. Furthermore, exactly for this reason (i.e., HL classes as elective), in one family child's attendance of these classes emerges as problematic, because divorced parents have shared custody but opposite beliefs about the classes.
References:
EDUFI (2016), National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care. Finnish National Board of Education
Kheirkhah, M., & Cekaite, A. (2015). Language maintenance in a multilingual family: Informal heritage language lessons in parent-child interactions. Multilingua, 34(3), 319-346.
Leeman, J. (2015). Heritage language education and identity in the United States. Annual review of applied linguistics, 35, 100-119.
Protassova, E. (2018) "Longing for Quality: Experiences of Finnish-Russian Bilingual Kindergarten in Finland." In Preschool Bilingual Education Agency in Interactions Between Children, Teachers, and Parents, 135–162. Cham: Springer.
Protassova, E. (2019). The Russian-speaking parents in Finland about their children and their education. Language Studies and Modern Humanities, 1(2), 84–96. https://doi.org/10.33910/2686-830x-2019-1-2-84-96
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W. (2004). Nexus Analysis: Discourse and the emerging internet. Routledge.
Vorobeva (2021): Families in flux: at the nexus of fluid family configurations and language practices, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, DOI:10.1080/01434632.2021.1979013
