This chapter seeks to develop some of the conceptual work in the field, drawing selectively on the body of scholarship addressed to L1 education and the L1 subjects over the past four decades. It is principally concerned with what are identified as three key issues, or ‘problematics’, namely: the idea of ‘nation’, and relatedly, of nation-hood and nation-building; the question of ‘literacy’, as arguably a third term, strategically, with regard to the established ‘language and literature’ dyad; and the problem of ‘paradigm’, as a conceptual and methodological principle organising research in the field to date. The chapter explores what it means to consider a shift from contexualising the L1 subject in the age of nation-building to an era marked by globalisation and its associated features, notably digitalisation, international curriculum and assessment reform, new forms of population flow, ‘Anglification’, and multilingualism. In this regard, it is proposed that nations do matter, but differently now. The chapter asks: what does it mean to re-think the nexus of language, education and nation today? More specifically: what are the implications and challenges for L1 education and the L1 subjects, and accordingly for L1 curriculum change and renewal?