National unity in cultural diversity: how national and linguistic identities affected Swiss language curricula (1914–1961)

Abstract

By the end of the nineteenth century, the relationship between the state, language and schooling had become extremely close: a state was supposed to be "national", and a real nation was supposed to be monolingual. Following the literature on nation-building, it is because schooling was charged with the task of forming such nations that curricula intended for the great majority of pupils included only one language. The theory of a direct effect of national identity on curricula was elaborated by focusing on the typical monolingual nation-state. This paper discusses the theory from the perspective of a multilingual state: Switzerland. The study's analysis shows that in the 1914-1945 period the Swiss state's multilingualism became part of the Swiss national identity and learning another national language became a matter of patriotic education. However, this new conception did not affect all curricula in the same manner. The economic and pedagogical rationales given voice by actors other than the state seem to be equally important factors in explaining the decisions made regarding language curricula as a state's national identity. Therefore, warning is given against the assumption that a school's language policy automatically aligns with a state's national identity.

Who Loses Motivation and Who Keeps it up? Investigating Student and Teacher Factors for Students’ Motivational Development Across Multiple Subjects

“…We also examine the language subjects German, English, and French, in order to see how motivation develops across languages that differ in their regional and contemporary relevance. While knowing more than one language is believed to be part of the Swiss national identity (Giudici & Grizelj, 2017;Stotz, 2006), the emerging role of English as a global language might interfere with students' motivation to learn other national languages. Regarding the stability of profiles over the three years, some prior evidence indicates more stability for extrinsic forms of motivation over time (Gillet et al, 2017;Lazarides et al, 2020), however, since we consider several academic domains simultaneously, we leave this an open question.…”

Viewpoints about Educational Language Policies: Multilingualism in Sweden and Switzerland

“…As an example, even though the term translanguaging is not mentioned in the curriculum, characteristics of pedagogical translanguaging, especially its spontaneous application referring 'to the reality of bi/multilingual usage in naturally occurring contexts' are clearly recognisable. In summary, Passepartout represents a language as a resource orientation and showcases an affinity to multilingualism described as part of the Swiss national identity (Giudici & Grizelj, 2017). In the curriculum, language learning is considered a lifelong process and teachers are encouraged to see potential challenges due to migration induced multilingualism as beneficial for students' academic success (Maluch, Kempert, Neumann, & Stanat, 2015).…”