Parental Attitudes Towards Early Childhood Education in Lower Sorbian: Challenges in Developing Bilingualism in a Critically Endangered Language

This dissertation explored reasons why parents choose daycare education for their children through the medium of Lower Sorbian. Lower Sorbian or Wendish is a critically endangered West Slavic minority language spoken in the area around Cottbus, a town in eastern Germany near the Polish border. As intergenerational transmission of Lower Sorbian has virtually ceased, bilingual education in daycare centres and schools was selected as an option to revitalise the language. Given the dearth of extant research on this topic, a mixed-methods approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews with practitioners in the field of Lower Sorbian were first conducted to inform the development of a parent questionnaire ensuring contextual relevance. The resulting survey was distributed to parents at three Lower Sorbian medium daycare centres. The study also explored parents’ attitudes towards bilingual Lower Sorbian education as well as their perceptions of bilingualism, Lower Sorbian cultural identity and language preservation. Overall, the parents expressed considerable levels of satisfaction with the current provision and supported bilingual early education. The local availability of Lower Sorbian-medium daycare emerged as a key factor in parents’ choice of daycare centre. However, the study highlighted differences in awareness and expectations regarding language outcomes among parents at the different daycare centres. This research also included practical implications for bilingual early childhood education in a critically endangered minority language.