Language management and language ideologies in parents’ bottom-up initiatives in Germany
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Abstract
This dissertation examines three bottom-up Initiatives founded by Polish-speaking migrants in
Germany to support heritage language maintenance and development. Drawing on ethnographic
fieldwork, the study analyses their practices within the Language Management Framework, extending
it with concepts of community resilience, adaptability, and transformability. The analysis traces how
language strategies develop at the classroom, community, and institutional levels. The study highlights
the intertwinement between adaptive strategies adjusted to the expectations of relevant actors, and
transformative strategies that address underlying language beliefs and introduce innovation. The
research introduces a transferable model of bottom-up language management that maps mismatches
related to language and stakeholder expectations and distinguishes between adaptive and
transformative responses.
Findings point to the critical role of language beliefs, particularly regarding the approaches used by
educators in HL classroom, the importance of aligning goals among diverse actors, particularly among
educators and parents, and the potential of horizontal networks. While acknowledging the
considerable emotional labour already invested by Initiatives, the study offers recommendations for
sustaining and scaling their efforts. By integrating sociolinguistics approach and theories and
community resilience thinking, the dissertation contributes both to academic understanding of HL
education and to practical strategies for strengthening community-driven language maintenance in
superdiverse contexts.