Resumen de Structural constraints and agentive responses: comparing two systems of Greek heritage language education in Sweden

Natalia Ganuza, Zoe Nikolaidou, Maria Rydell

• This study investigates two distinct ways of organising heritagelanguage education within one national context. Morespecifically, we investigate the teaching of Greek in Swedenthrough: (a) mother tongue instruction provided by the nationaleducation system and (b) a complementary school run by aparental organisation. Drawing on Archer’s morphogeneticapproach (1995), where structure, culture and agency are seen asseparate but interrelated analytical layers, we investigate keyactors’ agentive responses to structural and cultural enablementsand constraints. The study includes a historical overview and alinguistic ethnography conducted in both contexts. The dataencompass policy documents, classroom observations andinterviews with teachers, board members, parents and students.The findings show that the educational contexts have differentlegal statuses and are governed at different policy levels (nationalvs. transnational), while sharing many structural constraints at thelevel of praxis, such as being based on voluntary participation,limited instruction time and inconvenient scheduling. However,the key actors navigate the constraints of each setting in differentways, thus pointing to distinctive differences between them.Ultimately, the study shows how both educational systemscomplement each other and serve important roles in supportingthe maintenance and development of heritage language andculture in Sweden.