Between the devil and multiple deep seas: implementing monolingual language policy in a context of linguistic diversity

Flemish teachers' opinions about pupils' home languages are often closely in tune with official language policy, which strongly insists on Standard Dutch as the guarantee for all pupils' equal opportunities. While this suggests that teachers are loyal soldiers of the system, I report on ethnographically collected data that show that teachers cannot be lumped together under the same ideological umbrella. The data moreover show that the implementation of language policy is influenced by pedagogical and interactional concerns which in a number of cases creates more room for home languages than reported attitudes make out to believe. On this basis I suggest that language attitudes must not be confused with observable practices, that observable practice is influenced by various, sometimes contradictory processes, and that teachers subsequently need to develop multiple, layered and ad hoc solutions to the difficulties posed by linguistic policies.