Professional development programmes for teachers moving from majority to minoritised language medium education:Lessons from a comparative study

Education through the medium of a minoritised language is widely regarded as a critical component of language revitalisation initiatives. Given the demographic and social position of many minoritised languages, however, it may not be easy to find teachers who are fluent and literate in the language, confident about using and teaching it, and prepared for the demands of working in classrooms where the language is the medium of instruction. This article presents findings from a comparative study of teacher education programmes adopted in Catalonia, the Basque Autonomous Community, Wales and New Zealand, to prepare teachers to teach through the media of Catalan, Basque, Welsh and Māori respectively. The research was conducted to inform new professional development initiatives in Scotland, designed to enable qualified teachers to transfer from English-medium to Gaelic-medium education. The findings have wider relevance for other contexts in which the recruitment, professional development and retention of teachers to work in minoritised language medium education represent a challenge

Quasi-Federalism and the Administration of Equality and Human Rights: Recent Developments and Future Prospects – A Preliminary Analysis from the UK's Devolution Programme

Following the UK's move to quasi-federalism in the 1990s, the Parliament and Assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland gained powers over the promotion of equality of opportunity in the exercise of devolved functions. Constitutional law also placed human rights obligations on the regional administrations. Analysis reveals that the first years of devolution have seen a rapid growth and territorialization of regulatory bodies, such as commissioners, inspectorates, ombudsmen – whose remit includes these cross-cutting issues. Given the rise of distinctive sub-state ‘equalities infrastructures’ in the devolved nations, a key question is whether the dynamics of self-reinforcing feedback processes predicted by historical institutionalism offer the potential for more effective equality and human rights practice at the meso-level. While the discussion reveals a significant increase in the state's capacity to monitor and regulate, examples of innovation and policy transfer – and a cautious, yet generally positive, assessment by policy actors – a number of issues and shortcomings are also identified. These include limited government oversight and a lack of inter-agency coordination. Overall, the emerging evidence suggests that, from a functional institutionalist perspective, devolution has made advances in embedding the regulation of equality and human rights in the regional state; however, historical institutionalism indicates that, while devolution may be viewed as a ‘critical juncture’, notions of ‘path dependency’ towards more effective equalities practice are, as yet, unfounded and significant challenges remain