The (Un)Sustainability and (Non)Use of the Educational Model for Czech as a Minority Language in the Republic of Croatia

Abstract

Given that the models of education in minority languages and scripts in the Republic of Croatia are aimed primarily at students belonging to minorities, the authors focus on reaffirmation of minority language education also for the children of the majority population. Teaching them together could not only contribute to the sustainability of specific minority language education models, but also the development of bilingualism in both language groups. That would also be a direct indicator of interculturalism, the goal that the educational-political discourse in Croatia has been striving declaratively for more than two decades. Therefore, the paper focuses on the most visible implementation problems of existing models but also on the possibilities of enrollment of the majority students. By interviewing 18 former participants of the model B of secondary education in Czech as a minority language, the paper examined whether the existing models achieve the goals of preserving the minority language and identity, what the implemen-tation of bilingual classes looks like in practice and whether it contributes to the continuation of education and the professional achievement of students. Based on the analysis of the obtained results, what was highlighted was the need for redesigning the curriculum and the introduction of new methods and content, which, in addition to the basic requirement for quality increase, would simultaneously enable the inclusion of the majority students.