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"We have no idea what she’s saying, but we’re really proud she’s saying it": exploring the experiences of non-Welsh speaking parents who chose Welsh-medium education for their children

Lookup NU author(s): Ashleigh Regan, Dr Sara GanassinORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Since it was established in 1999, the Welsh Government has implemented several initiatives to increase the number of Welsh speakers in Wales. A core element of these initiatives has been strengthening Welsh-medium education (WME) provisions, which is now reflected in the high concentration of Welsh speakers in younger age groups, with an ever-growing number coming from non-Welsh speaking households. This paper draws on 8 semi-structured interviews with non-Welsh speaking parents from the South Wales Valleys, an area of Wales where Welsh is not widely spoken, who chose a WME for their children. The findings demonstrate that parents' incentives to invest in a WME centred around acquiring various forms of capital for their children, notably with a greater emphasis on economic capital than has been indicated in previous studies. Parents' beliefs about the Welsh language, and subsequently their ideas about their children's futures, played a prominent role in their decision to enrol their children in WME. There was also evidence that parents' experiences became increasingly challenging as their children progressed through their WME. This highlights a need for more attention to the accessibility and promotion of existing provisions, as well as systematising and strengthening the support available post-primary education within the WME sector.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Regan A, Ganassin S

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Educational Review

Year: 2025

Pages: Epub ahead of print

Online publication date: 24/09/2025

Acceptance date: 24/08/2025

Date deposited: 06/10/2025

ISSN (print): 0013-1911

ISSN (electronic): 1465-3397

Publisher: Routledge

URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2025.2554124

DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2025.2554124

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