Still speaking properly: Scots Language in Scottish Education policy and practice

Citation

Lowing K Still speaking properly: Scots Language in Scottish Education policy and practice. Journal of Language, Identity and Education.

Abstract
A recognised European minority language, Scots resides within a distinct multilingual and socio-economically stratified Scotland. Although ostensibly welcomed in Scottish schools, results from this study suggest that a linguistic apartheid (Greenfield, 2010) situation occurs for Scots in Scottish classrooms. This paper presents a top down content and critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2015) of the Education Scotland report: Scots Language in Curriculum for Excellence (2017) (SCfE) . A bottom up thematic analysis of case study data explores the positioning of Scots in Scottish schools. Results indicate that Scots is assigned to disadvantaged and “lower-attaining” (SCfE, 2017: p7) children in the classroom, whilst Older / literary Scots is apportioned to more able, advantaged pupils (Shoba, 2010; p390). The study finds that English remains foregrounded, whilst Scots endures a marginal position, within the linguistic hegemony of Scotland’s education system (Law and Mooney, 2012).

Journal
Journal of Language, Identity and Education