Students’ Orientations Towards Multilingualism and Social Justice in a Swedish-medium University Degree Program in Educational Sciences in Finland

Abstract

This study focuses on students’ orientations towards multilingualism in a Swedish-speaking educational degree program in Finland. Swedish is one of the two national languages in Finland and basic education is provided separately in Finnish and Swedish, even if the current national policies strongly support multilingualism in education. We analyzed the language orientations in the students’ coursework (N = 52) in an educational sciences degree program that has an emphasis on multilingualism and social justice. The results showed that multilingual identities and linguistic repertoires were presented as valuable, but the students rarely identified themselves as multilingual. They perceived multilingualism as a resource and a means for inclusion, but concurrently also saw challenges in balancing between protecting the minority language and multilingual practices. The connection between multilingualism and social justice was visible in the students’ multiple and sometimes contradicting views, but the texts hardly raised questions of broader language-related societal inequality or discrimination.

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