Dialect variation as source of discrimination in Flemish higher education? Insights from a large-scale student survey
Anne-Sophie Ghyselen, Kayley Meeuw & Roxane Vandenberghe (Universiteit Gent)
In research on language and education, the relation between language diversity and inclusion stands as a prominent area of inquiry. This is also the case in Flemish academia, where much of the scholarly attention gravitates towards multilingualism as a challenge for equal educational opportunities (cf. Pulinx, Schrooten & Emmers 2021). Regional variation within Dutch, however – the official language of education – is only rarely addressed from an inclusion perspective (observation also made by Delarue & Zwart 2022). More than four decades after Stijnen & Vallen’s (1980) seminal work on dialect discrimination in Netherlandic education – dialect being defined as geographically determined language varieties – the question can be asked whether dialect variation impacts educational opportunities in Flanders. On the one hand, it might be postulated that amidst advanced dialect shift and levelling (Ghyselen & Van Keymeulen 2014) and a broader trend towards informalisation (Wouters 1990), dialect variation exerts only minimal influence on educational practices. However, a substantial body of sociolinguistic research demonstrating linguistic bias pertaining to regional variation among Belgian speakers of Dutch (see e.g. Grondelaers et al. 2020; Lybaert 2017; Vandekerckhove & Cuvelier 2007) lends credence to the counter hypothesis.
In this paper, we address the issue of Dutch dialect variation as a source of educational discrimination in Flanders by reporting the results of a large-scale online survey administered to 835 Flemish students of higher education in 2023-2024. The survey probed (1) the self-perceived dialect proficiency of students, (2) the contexts in which they employ dialects (replicating Van Keymeulen 1993; Ghyselen & Van Keymeulen 2014 to facilitate diachronic interpretations), and (3) students’ experiences of dialect discrimination in higher education.
Although the quantitative analyses are still work-in-progress, initial analyses suggest that self-reported proficiency in dialect among Flemish students in tertiary education is modest, exhibiting discernible regional differences, yet surpassing levels reported in Ghyselen & Van Keymeulen (2014). Agreement scores concerning the statement “I sometimes feel discriminated against due to my dialect background” are generally low (with respective mean and median values of 19.22 and 8.50), but strongly depend on (1) the regional background of the participants, (2) the type of study pursued and (3) the reported dialect competence. Interestingly, linear regression analyses indicate that female students are generally significantly less convinced that students’ dialect backgrounds impact the way they are treated in higher education. Reflecting on the repercussions of these findings, we will stress the need for (1) more contextualized research on accent and dialect bias in Flanders (geared towards educational contexts) and (2) more awareness of and debate on “intralinguistic (in)justice” (De Schutter 2020) in education.
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