The Association of Home/Heritage Language Teachers of Finland was founded in 2018 and since that time the main goal was to advocate for promoting home language teaching in Finland and internationally. There are more than 100 members in the association, including home language teachers, university researchers and municipal coordinators.

Home language teaching has a position of a subject supporting general education and academic learning according to the national core curriculum of Finland (Finnish Agency for Education 2014). However, the position of the subject is facultative with weaker learning conditions for students and working conditions for teachers.

HL teaching has an essential integrational value, aiming to improve the general academic performance and the acquisition of a second language (Finnish/Swedish). In addition to that, it is important to offer students with multicultural and multilingual backgrounds highly qualified role models from the same background.

The Association of Home Language teachers of Finland cooperates with education officials on both municipal and national level (Opetushallitus, OPH, - Finnish Agency for Education, Opetus- ja kultturi ministeriö, OKM - The Ministry Of Education And Culture of Finland, OAJ - Finnish teachers’ trade union). The association became a member organisation of SUKOL - The Federation of Foreign Language Teachers in Finland from 2025.