The Hierarchization of Educational Rights of Minorities. A Critical Analysis of Discourses on Multilingualism in South Tyrolean Preschools

The article critically analyzes sociopolitical discourses about language(s) and multilingualism in South Tyrolean preschools by combining political and discourse theory. Drawing on empirical material from a discussion on the topic broadcast on public regional television, in which representatives of politics, research, pedagogical practice and parents participated, the author describes a hierarchization of educational rights in favor of the ‘German’ group, which is constructed as endangered. Through references to the historical era of fascism and Italianization measures associated with it, a continuity of minorization is constructed that requires special protection of the German group and makes it possible to demand the exclusion of non-German positioned children from the educational system. Overall, the analysis reveals a reversal of linguistic majority and minority relations. The targeted monolingualization and mono-ethnicization of preschools is legitimized with a quasinatural authority of the Second Autonomy Statute, which can be read as a strategy of depoliticization.