Department of Education in partnership with CSLF, establish effective practice models for francisation in PEI

• 
  Establish a committee to research current effective practices and resources used (i.e. NB) in francisation.
  
• 
  Establish an agreed upon definition for francisation and define parent, school, and community roles and responsibilities.
  

2. 
   Department of Education in partnership with CSLF, offer an official francisation program in PEI and collect programming data to monitor success of the program. Effective practices might include but are not limited to:
   

• 
  Provide early intervention in French with pre-school care and francisation.
  

• 
  Assess student, teacher, and parent (K-12) needs vis à vis the francisation program (need for information, use, and training).
  

• 
  Provide literacy strategies for vocabulary development from K – 12.
  
• 
  Provide francisation program training and information for teaching professionals.
  
• 
  Provide francisation program information for teaching professionals and parents about engaging parents, including and especially NF parents. Concrete suggestions include to offer parent workshops in English to: explain school mission; show literacy and numeracy goals each year; help with vocabulary development, use music, books, radio, television, video, and multimedia technology; suggest other activities to encourage French outside of school; offer pronunciation tips; establish a parent buddy system or support system; and encourage all parents to be involved in differentiated and diverse ways.
  

• 
  Identify at least one professional at each school responsible as a school-based francisation resource for teaching professionals and parents (involvement initiatives, policies, and strategies).
  
• 
  Create a bank of school based and home based ideas for celebrating the Acadian and francophone heritage of Islanders, heritage of others, and celebrating diversity and bilingualism, as well as French.
  
• 
  Consider resources for special needs and programming for K-12 academic and extracurricular programs to be equitable across schools
  
• 
  Create marketing information to inform parents of francisation programming and the importance of early intervention and pre-school, if possible, in French
  

3. 
   Department of Education, in partnership with UPEI and CSLF, provide pre-service and in-service francisation and language learning training for teaching staff.
   

• 
  Engage UPEI to offer pre-service teacher training on francisation
  
• 
  CSLF or UPEI to offer in-service teacher training on francisation
  
• 
  Train ALL pre-service and update in-service teachers in the French system with professional development about language learning and language transference.
  
• 
  Present language learning and language transference information or workshop sessions in newsletters or at PEITF conferences to share information with all English and French system teachers.
  
• 
  Leadership development for school leader roles in context of francisation
  

4. 
   CSLF explore options for making communication with parents more accessible to NF parents.
   

• 
  Have schools consider options for NF parents to more easily understand the communications from the school (i.e. have bilingual messages, have e-documents or emails that are bilingual or easy to translate from French, web-site with information in English for NF parents).
  

School boards and school administration can make choices about policy and practice that will not have an anglicising effect in the schools, yet will respond to the needs of NF parents, assist students, and reduce the barriers to PI, while still being respectful of school policies. The role of parents has been shown to be important for educational success. With increasing numbers of NF parents present in French schools, their choice of school and involvement is important and can have significant results for the French community, in terms of student numbers in the schools, and ultimately on the EV of the francophone minority population in PEI.

This project had a small homogenous sample and thus generalizations cannot be made based on our findings. Nevertheless, we have made recommendations extrapolating from our findings which both corroborate with and go beyond other researchers’ findings. For future research we recommend working with a larger sample and less homogeneous population of parents. We also recommend focusing on the diversity of types as well as the needs of non-francophone parents whose children attend French minority language schools. We think it is important to continue to research and better understand the experience, beliefs, and involvement of NF parents in other French minority language schools in PEI and across Canada. More research needs to be conducted with other French minority language schools and in other regions to identify teachers’ and school leaders’ concerns and to improve pre-service and in-service teacher training. This research is recommended to help understand the French revitalization process but also due to the fact that our classrooms in Canada, and globally, are becoming more multilingual and multicultural. What we learn from the French school setting will be of use to francophone minority situations, but also will have value for English classrooms or any classrooms where linguistic diversity is present, and where parents or children do not speak the dominant language of the school.

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Appendix A

Please respond to the questions in each category with only YOUR answer, not that of a partner. The information collected will help us understand the experience and involvement of non-francophone parents, identify successes and any challenges faced by families at this school. Thank you for your time and your participation.

Top of Form

Please provide an answer for each of the following questions:

• 
  Father
  
• 
  Mother
  
• 
  Other please specify _________________
  

Marital Status*

• 
  Single
  
• 
  Married or equivalent
  
• 
  Separated/Divorced
  
• 
  Widowed
  

Age of person completing the survey? *Please enter a number

• 
  less than high school
  
• 
  high school diploma or equivalent
  
• 
  some college
  
• 
  some university
  
• 
  college diploma
  
• 
  university Degree
  
• 
  master’s degree
  
• 
  Ph. D. or other equivalent
  
• 
  Not Applicable (there is no female head of household)
  

Regardless of your ability in French, how CONFIDENT are you to speak in French at the school? [Level of confidence]

• 
  less than $24,999
  
• 
  $25,000 - 49,999
  
• 
  $50,000 - 74,999
  
• 
  $75,000 - 99,999
  
• 
  100,000 +
  

Highest Level of Education of parent/guardian #2*

• 
  less than high school
  
• 
  high school diploma or equivalent
  
• 
  some college
  
• 
  some university
  
• 
  college diploma
  
• 
  university Degree
  
• 
  master’s degree
  
• 
  Ph. D. or other equivalent
  
• 
  Not Applicable (there is no male head of household)
  

First language learned and still understood by person completing this survey:

• 
  English
  
• 
  French
  
• 
  English and French from birth
  
• 
  Other:
  

First language learned and still understood by parent/guardian # 2:

• 
  English
  
• 
  French
  
• 
  English and French from birth
  
• 
  Other:
  

Rate your ability to communicate in English*

Rate your ability to communicate in French *

Regardless of your ability in French, how CONFIDENT are you to speak in French at the school?

Mother-tongue of student's grandparents

Percentage of time that French is spoken at home.

Do you expect your child/children to complete grade 12 in this or another French school?

GRADE level of first (oldest) child attending the school?*

Compared to English, rate your Second child's ability to communicate in French in a conversation when he/she began school (whether it was kindergarten or grade 1).

Compared to English, rate your THIRDd child's ability to communicate in French in a conversation when he/she began school (whether it was kindergarten or grade 1).

Did your child or children attend a French preschool?