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This paper seeks to situate Estonian language use and policy within the emerging field of critical language policy and planning (CLPP) by investigating the discourses that frame linguistic behaviour. This done by way of an analysis of a series of interviews carried out with key actors in language policy in Estonia. The discourses framing language use in Estonia are then related to the practices, or repeated activities, that maintain everyday language use. The aim is to uncover taken-for-granted categories framing social life, in particular those that maintain forms of inequality, and to investigate ways that these might be reshaped in order to bring about outcomes that take into account the everyday needs and realities of a greater proportion of Estonian society. The 2011 Estonian high school reform is a case in point regarding the importance of macro–micro dialogue and coordination in language policy and planning. As this paper argues, more is needed to engage local Russian-speakers in the process of learning and using Estonian and playing a bigger part in wider Estonian society, particularly in the case of the north-eastern county of Ida-Virumaa. This paper considers the ways discourses and practices in education could become more inclusive of Estonia's Russian-speakers while still furthering the key twin goals of the period of renewed independence: normalisation of the use of Estonian and societal integration.
