Scots and Swiss German in Linguistically Superdiverse Education Spaces: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Scotland’s Scots Language in Curriculum for Excellence (2017) report and Switzerland’s Lehrplan 21 curriculum

Language hierarchies within diglossic and superdiverse education contexts (Mehmedbegovic 2017; Creese and Blackledge 2018; Vertovec 2007) may create barriers to children and young people’s learning (Benson 2014; Wong and Benson 2019). This paper compares the minority languages of Scots and Swiss German within Scottish and Swiss diglossic and superdiverse education contexts (Berthele 2020; Unger 2013; Lowing 2023). Previous critical discourse and content analyses of Scottish and Swiss language education policy and curriculum (Berthele 2020; Unger 2013; Lowing 2023), demonstrate the respective hegemonic positioning of English and German in Scottish and Swiss classrooms. Historically aligned (Gorlach 1985), the positioning of each language in their education system is compared in this paper to inform the future development of education language policy and practice for both countries. The study compares the texts: Scotland’s Scots Language in Curriculum for Excellence (2017) report and Switzerland’s Lehrplan 21 curriculum, as these texts potentially influence current language practices in Scottish / Swiss schools. The critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 2015) of each text provides a comparison between the positioning of multilingualism in both societies, the role Scots and Swiss German play in children’s acquisition of multilingual competences within each country, and the extent to which societal language hierarchies and linguistic practices are reflected in the curriculum of each education context. Results indicate that multilingualism is ostensibly welcomed within both texts, however Scots is frequently marginalised in Scots Language in Curriculum for Excellence (2017), whereas Swiss German remains a recognised language within Lehrplan 21. The outcome of the study invites further exploration of the positioning of Scots and Swiss German in their respective societies and school systems.