Secondary school leaders' attitudes towards second foreign languages

Second foreign languages (SFL) in Swedish schools face multiple challenges despite a general support from politicians and stakeholders for the idea that Swedish citizens should be able to communicate in at least two foreign languages (European Council, 2002). The subject lacks mandatory status, proficiency levels attained at grade 9 are low (ESLC, European council, 2011), they are accompanied by low motivation rates (Eurobarometer, 2012), and one third of pupils in secondary school abandon the subject within three years (Tholin & Lindqvist, 2009). Little empirical research has been carried out to examine the role that school leaders' attitudes towards SFL play in that scenario.

In this paper we examine, therefore, school leaders' attitudes through questionnaires (n=147) and interview data (n=15) from the TAL project (Granfeldt et al., 2016). Preliminary questionnaire results suggest that even though school leaders generally perceive SFL as having a high status and agree that all pupils should learn SFLs, they are nevertheless divided as to whether learning SFL should be obligatory. Interestingly neither school leaders' personal background (gender, experience, general education), nor school factors (location, size, type) explain the variation in responses. Formal school leadership education seems however to influence school leaders’ attitudes. The results will be discussed in light of the interview data, which give a more nuanced picture of the situation for SFL at school level in general and of the school leaders’ attitudes towards SFL in particular.