An utraquist school or utraquist gymnasium is a term for bilingual education in some countries, in which the subjects were taught both in a state language and in the language of some ethnic minority. The term "utraquist" here is in an analogy with the Catholic concept of utraquism (from Latin: uterque, utraque, "both"/"each (of the two)").

Such schools existed, e.g., in Poland, in areas dominated by Ukrainians and Belarusians ("Kresy Wschodnie"), and in Austria-Hungary/Austria of 19th and early 20th centuries, in the areas of numerous ethnic minorities. In both cases, these types of schools were considered to be instrumented of ethnic assimilation (Polonization[1] and Germanisation[2] respectively.) In Poland, some other utraquist schools taught in Polish and Yiddish languages. [3]

An account traced the root of the utraquist school to the concept called revelatio, which denotes an insight drawn from ancient authorities and texts.[4] The church was one of the earliest institutions to practice it.[4] The use of the utraquist model, however, declined for several decades due to the policies that ban compulsory second language use in the classroom.[5]

The concept was reintroduced in a different form, the Content and Language Integrated Learning or CLIL.[6] Bilingual schools are promoted in the European Union education policy, particularly for secondary education.[6]

References

  1. ^ Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10586-X, Google Books, p.144
  2. ^ Heinz Dieter Pohl, Die ethnisch-sprachlichen Voraussetzungen der Volksabstimmung (Accessed on 3 August 2006)
  3. ^ Isaac Landman (1939) The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 636: "Utraquist Schools"
  4. ^ a b Fudge, Thomas A. (2018-03-29). The Magnificent Ride: The First Reformation in Hussite Bohemia. Routledge. ISBN 9781351886338.
  5. ^ Wolf, Michaela (2015). The Habsburg Monarchy's Many-Languaged Soul: Translating and interpreting, 1848–1918. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 28. ISBN 9789027258564.
  6. ^ a b Thije, Jan D. ten; Zeevaert, Ludger (2007). Receptive Multilingualism: Linguistic Analyses, Language Policies, and Didactic Concepts. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing. p. 58. ISBN 9789027219268.
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