Globalisation has resulted in European families that have a variety of
home languages, leading to the need for heritage language learning
(HLL). The purpose of HLL is to ensure that in addition to learning the
language of their schools, children with migrant backgrounds also
maintain their heritage language (HL). Besides the ‘regular’ teaching,
in many countries, there are usually voluntary, extra-curricular
maintenance courses available for migrant children. The purpose of our
study was to investigate the impact that HL teachers working in Finnish
schools have on the process of learning HLs. The data were collected
using a Likert-scale questionnaire (N = 25) and semi-structured interviews (N = 15)
with HL teachers representing 24 different languages. Principal
Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted to check the survey construct
validity. The statistical and qualitative analysis of the data indicated
that HL teachers act as multilingual identity supporter, that is that
they showed understanding of their students’ multilingualism and were
convinced about the positive impact of HL for students’ future lives.
Our study also reported on the challenges teachers face in the
classroom.