Kadri Koreinik (University of Tartu) & Kara Brown (University of Tartu, University of South Carolina)
In this presentation we share findings based on our comparative, longitudinal (2023-2026) qualitative research project, where we ask “How are schools de-empiring the Soviet (and Russian imperial) legacies that shape language-education policy?” We conceptualize de-empiring as an effort to counter, address, and undo multiple empiring processes residual in public schooling. Of central concern in our research is the long, ongoing, and complex process of de-Sovietization in Estonia particularly in pedagogy, curricular design, and systemic organization of separate schools by medium of instruction. Using perspectives from critical geography (Massey 2005; Soja 2010), we analyze the diverse experiences in two upper secondary schools in shifting instruction to Estonian and helping to unify the Estonian public school system by 2035. Our ethnographic study includes the observation of over 100+ events in both schools and interviews with over fifty people, several multiple times, involved directly with ‘our’ two schools. We also analyze secondary data (e.g., newspaper articles) and reviewed primary sources (e.g., policy documents, laws, etc.).
Our analysis of de-empiring in Estonia points to several insights relevant beyond this specific case. Most broadly, we found that de-Sovietization in Estonia highlights, what we see as, the “thickness” of the process in terms of time and space. De-empiring has multiple, pronounced temporal aspects. In Estonia, we identify de-Sovietization efforts around shifting the medium of instruction to Estonian to be, at various times, delayed, on pace, and accelerated. Moreover, it is a process that involves other languages as well, beyond Russian, including English. De-empiring education will be a multi-generational and multi-scale project in Estonia.