Teachers' beliefs on multilingualism in the Basque Country : Basque at the core of multilingual education

The present study analyzes teachers' beliefs by looking at the value teachers give to the languages embodying multilingualism in the south of the Basque Country (Basque, Spanish, English and French). The research has a mixed methods design. On the quantitative side, the sample consists of 1093 in-service, pre-service and university teachers who completed an online questionnaire about multilingualism. On the qualitative side, 20 in-service teachers participated in several focus group discussions. The study revealed that the participants hold strong positive beliefs about a Basque-focused trilingualism. The data confirm protective beliefs toward the minority language, Basque, but also reaffirm the integrative and supportive beliefs of teachers toward multilingualism and the inclusion of other languages, especially English. Although these teachers connect multilingualism with natural, positive and enriching characteristics, our data show that they do not seem to value French. A major implication of the findings is that teachers' beliefs align with the current school of thought supporting up-to-date multilingual approaches in a context where a minority language under revitalization process coexists with a national-state language and a lingua franca.