Schooling Of National Minorities In Slovenia - Two Approaches Cover Image

Školovanje nacionalnih manjina u sloveniji - dva različita pristupa
Schooling Of National Minorities In Slovenia - Two Approaches

Author(s): Tadej Vidmar
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Универзитет у Нишу
Keywords: national minority; Italian national community; Hungarian national community; Slovenia; bilingual school; ethnically mixed territory; multicultural education; intercultural education.

Summary/Abstract: This paper treats the situation of two "national minorities" or "national communities" in Slovenia, the Italian and the Hungarian, in the field of education. For both of them we analyze two different approaches or models of schooling. In the ethnically mixed territory of the Slovenian-Hungarian border a bidirectional model is used, where both languages are an equivalent medium of communication in education in general. On the other hand, the traditional model is used in the mixed territory with the Italian national community, i.e. in the schools, where the Italian language is the language of instruction. Italian is also the language of the school administration and communication with parents. Slovenian is a compulsory subject, and Italian is a compulsory subject in all Slovenian schools. The different approaches that were developed in bilingual education in Slovenia also represent an important contribution to the didactics of bilingual education in general. Such approaches are especially important, because with their implementation and use, it is possible to preserve the equal status of the language of certain national minority irrespective of size.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 01
  • Page Range: 31-43
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English