theories that could account for the distribution of Irish-medium education provision have in common a focus on individual rather than collective values. Bourdieu’s Linguistic Market According to Bourdieu (1991), language choices basically work on a market principle. Elites’ (generally unconscious) choices language use are an attempt to maintain their position as elites; their language choices become socially valuable because these high-status group members are the only ones who can speak the code flawlessly. This results in the upwardly mobile imitating elites’ language use, which then leads elites to make new language choices in order to maintain their linguistic distinctions. This mechanism could help explain the shift from Irish to English in past centuries and could also explain trends in Irish-medium education as changes occur in the social value of the Irish language. Bourdieu does not seem to specify that the language choices made by the elite and upwardly mobile must have cultural significance to the group; the only requirement is that the language choice enables distinction for the elites and imitation for the upwardly mobile. While in the distant past, almost everyone on the island spoke Irish; and in the more recent past, Irish was seen as the language of the rural poor; today, even in the Republic of Ireland, few people use Irish frequently outside the education system (Government of Ireland 2012, 40) and those who study it as a subject in English-medium schools increasingly fail to reach competence (Harris 2008, Harris et al. 2006). The use of Irish is even lower in Northern Ireland (Mac Giolla Chríost 2006). Thus, Irish proficiency and Irish-medium education—not exactly the same thing, but still a form of cultural
theories that could account for the distribution of Irish-medium education provision have in common a focus on individual rather than collective values. Bourdieu’s Linguistic Market According to Bourdieu (1991), language choices basically work on a market principle. Elites’ (generally unconscious) choices language use are an attempt to maintain their position as elites; their language choices become socially valuable because these high-status group members are the only ones who can speak the code flawlessly. This results in the upwardly mobile imitating elites’ language use, which then leads elites to make new language choices in order to maintain their linguistic distinctions. This mechanism could help explain the shift from Irish to English in past centuries and could also explain trends in Irish-medium education as changes occur in the social value of the Irish language. Bourdieu does not seem to specify that the language choices made by the elite and upwardly mobile must have cultural significance to the group; the only requirement is that the language choice enables distinction for the elites and imitation for the upwardly mobile. While in the distant past, almost everyone on the island spoke Irish; and in the more recent past, Irish was seen as the language of the rural poor; today, even in the Republic of Ireland, few people use Irish frequently outside the education system (Government of Ireland 2012, 40) and those who study it as a subject in English-medium schools increasingly fail to reach competence (Harris 2008, Harris et al. 2006). The use of Irish is even lower in Northern Ireland (Mac Giolla Chríost 2006). Thus, Irish proficiency and Irish-medium education—not exactly the same thing, but still a form of cultural
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