Stakeholder consultation relating to non-francophone students enrolled in minority French language schools in pei parents, teachers and school leaders
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Parental Involvement Parents’ comments revealed a range of levels of involvement from very high to low. One of the NF parents represented the highest involvement having been active on the school’s parent committee, involved with the community council, and hoping to run as a school board trustee. Three parents stated that it was easy to be involved, and gave examples of their PI at home and at school, including meeting with teachers, coming to parent - teacher interviews, and coming to the school for help. Two parents reported having little involvement beyond what they were invited to attend at school functions such as meet the teacher night, PT interviews, and school plays. Three parents stated they wouldn’t go to social functions unless the kids wanted to go. Table 9
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Other suggestions to address PI barriers applicable to any school were also raised. Three parents (60%) suggested that offering childcare could improve their ability to participate in school committees and fundraising efforts. Other recommendations included to survey parents for the best night for meetings, to offer door prizes for those who do attend school events, and to encourage parents to become involved members of committees by offering discounts with the school and community events. Finally, another consideration was to provide improved resources for children with special needs, as articulated by the following quote: “As a special needs mom, currently speech language once a month and it is off site, school pays for it. I appreciate that, but I would rather she receive that here at the school, rather than driving her to town on Saturdays, might be selfish but think she would get more out of it in the school environment.” Teachers’ Perspectives The perspectives presented in this section come from the transcription of the focus group discussion with seven teachers and one principal at our rural French school. We summarized the teachers’ answers to the questions that were discussed and identified themes and areas of common agreement which emerged. During our focus group interview, the teachers and the principal acknowledged a very high number of NF parents and students. The teachers did not agree on a definition for francisation, though it was suggested to be both an early years strategy for French language and literacy support and a needed strategy for culture and language learning in later grades as well. A brief discussion of the marketing campaign to attract students to the Commission Scolaire de Langue Française in Prince Edward Island, showed that teachers were concerned about resources to meet needs of increased numbers of students from NF families and they could see the need and benefit of a developed francisation program. Further to this, the teaching staff indicated the greatest need they see for their students is in developing and using literacy strategies for the vocabulary and terminology found in the French language text books. Because many of the students live in a minority language area, they are not exposed to much, let alone a diversity of French vocabulary once they leave school, and this limits their vocabulary development and reading comprehension of complex textbooks created for a Quebec student population. The teachers reported that they recommend that parents encourage students to use French outside of class as much as possible to help with vocabulary development and cultural and linguistic appreciation. The staff agreed that due to the Acadian roots of many of the students and families, there is a great deal of pride about the French culture and language and this seems to help motivate language learning and language use, to the point that the children speak in French rather than English in the hallways, playgrounds, and buses. When asked why they think NF parents chose a French school, the staff members surmised that it was likely due to the small class sizes, improved employability with French and bilingualism, usefulness for travel, and due to their Acadian heritage and identity; there is a strong correlation with results from the parent survey and interviews. Finally, the teachers who participated all agreed that parents play a very important role in the education of their children, and the ability to help the children be educated in French. Thus, these staff members were willing to communicate in English to enable the parents to understand the students’ progress, be involved, and understand the mission of the school even though French is ultimately meant to be the language of communication in francophone schools. School Leaders In this section, we summarized the transcription of school leaders’ answers shared during the focus group discussion. The group of ten school leaders (superintendent, director of instruction, principals and vice-principals) acknowledged that an increasing number of non-francophone students are enrolled in minority French language schools across PEI. The school leaders confirmed that many of these students come from exogamous families wherein at least one parent is a right holder for French language education; however, English is dominant in the home. In some cases, neither parent is proficient in French; in other cases, one parent speaks French yet English remains dominant at home. All school leaders indicated an interest in and a need for special efforts to support NF students and parents to ensure their involvement as well as the students’ academic success. However, there was no real consensus about what this support would look like in schools and which stakeholders (i.e. schools, school board, parents, and community) have the main responsibility for this support. When school leaders were asked to define francisation, some considered it to be a program for revitalization of a dormant minority French community (e.g., Rustico, Souris, and Deblois). Others referred to extra French language support strategies as francisation. Some participants indicated that francisation exists and is needed only during the early years of schooling. Others indicated a need for support strategies for all students throughout the k-12 spectrum, including immigrants who enrol in a French minority school. All participants favored early intervention, including early childhood francisation programs in French. In addition, all participants argued that francisation must address both language and culture and is the shared responsibility of the school with families and many stakeholders in the community. Other issues raised by the school leader participants included the need for a more structured ‘program’ with additional and specific resources, more focus on francisation during initial teacher education, more professional development for teachers already in the k-12 system (there has been a limited amount) and school-based research on this important topic. The participants highlighted the importance of parents and acknowledged the need for specific support for parents. However, participants lamented the fact that schools’ plates are already full and argued that it is necessary to get the school and families to work together, pointing to the need for a collaborative approach to parental support and education. Special attention was drawn to the effective parent-school program that has existed at l’École sur Mer for a few years (lead by Diane Ouellette). It was clear that participants resisted use of English in francophone schools and all were aware of the struggles with the presence of English in the francophone community and the attraction of English as a majority language. However, they recognized that students and their parents do use English and it is tied to their identity as bilinguals. Moreover, NF parents need communication from the schools in English to fully understand how to support their children. Participants acknowledged that skills developed in one language normally transfer easily to other languages being learned. All agreed that it is important to instill a sense of pride at school for the French language and culture; teachers and school leaders must model maximized use of French and a respect for English as an integral part of the identities of many of their students and families.
This pilot project has permitted us to improve our understanding of the state of francisation on PEI. This project benefitted from the participation of school teachers, school leaders, and of NF parents involved in French minority language schools in PEI. Francisation is not well defined, or developed yet in PEI, and though the term has been heard and used, francisation as a program appears to be in an infancy stage. This project has also permitted us to understand the experience of NF parents whose NF children are educated in a French minority language school in PEI. The majority of the NF parents in this study did not represent exogamous (mixed couples) mentioned in previous research (Cormier & Lowe, 2010; Rocque, 2008), but rather a totally non-francophone status, with little French proficiency. This highlights the need for more research about the diversity of NF parents and NF parent needs when their children attend French minority language schools. The survey results showed that despite possessing little French competency, the NF parents at this school reported a very positive experience with the school and staff. Parents felt very welcome, generally satisfied with the communication from the school, and the majority desired that their children continue to graduation in the French system. Comments expressed during interviews supported the quantitative findings that parents were satisfied and felt welcome and involved despite their NF status because English was used by school staff with parents. Parents’ negative experiences were more likely to occur in the community or at home rather than at the school, and were most often due to language challenges in understanding or translating French communications from the school or feeling uncomfortable in situations where others spoke in French or had negative opinions of the French school. Interview comments confirmed findings from Cormier & Lowe (2010) that for many parents it had been a difficult decision to choose the French school, but parents felt great satisfaction with the choice. Some of these parents’ children had received early francisation by choosing the French preschool which helped early language development. Those who did not have preschool still reported being satisfied with the choice of a French school. Parents who had a child enter the school in grade five, and who required francisation, were also happy with their choice. The parent participants reported frequent involvement and contact with the French school on the survey and varied degrees of involvement from the interviews. They also reported a desire to expose their children to the French culture as well as language when they chose this school; this finding is consistent with reports from Dalley and St. Onge (2008). Bilingualism was explained to be the most important motivation by parents in the interviews. Despite frequent involvement and positive experiences, some parents reported having considered changing their children to English schools. Some felt a lack of services available to the students in the French system, and they lamented parents’ feelings of being excluded and their feelings of incompetence for helping their children. The interviews also revealed varied and waning degrees of parental involvement as their children aged and the interests of the children changed. The parents in this study reported that the barriers which prevented or decreased PI, were more present at school or in the community than at home, because activities occurred in French. According to the survey data, the parents were accustomed to being involved in the children’s education at home and held strong desires for this involvement. Our study shows that parents are less involved at home when reporting about activities using French for vocabulary, music, or other events. It appears from interviews that parents feel less able, less confident, or less security to do activities in French at home; answering Arsenault’s (2008) questions about parent insecurity. An example from the focus group and personal interviews is that parents worried about how to ensure or model proper pronunciation of French words. The parent responses to the survey show that they believe in effort more than in ability for student achievement, which corresponds with their willingness to be highly involved as parents and work with their children (Hoover-Dempsey, 2011). Participants also reported that they rely on and need English in communication with the school to be able to help, agreeing with Rocque’s (2008) recommendation to address communication needs of NF parents. However, parents did not see a need for the school to use English with NF students. Participants acknowledged that the school does not have to use English with parents but it helps enormously to understand progress reports, homework assignments, and communications from school. The interviews revealed that parent motivations for the choice of a French school were similar to Rocque’s (2008) findings. Francisation was reported as helpful in the survey responses, despite having been described as an unfamiliar term in the interviews, and we believe those completing the survey may have reported high satisfaction with francisation efforts despite not being familiar with what it was. Teachers and school leaders shared the concern and motivation for helping NF students and parents as well as agreeing on the important role played by NF parents in education and language acquisition for the children. Both teachers and school leaders showed a lack of consensus for a definition of francisation, yet all agreed on the usefulness and need of a well-defined francisation program, especially if the campaign promoting the French schools on PEI brings greater numbers of NF children and parents to the schools. Early intervention and socialization in French was recommended by both teachers and school leaders to favor minority language acquisition. School teachers and leaders mentioned the importance of vocabulary and literacy development, as did participants in the New Brunswick report, (Vienneau, 2011) and how there is a transference of skills between languages. The school professionals resist the use of English to maximize French in school, but are willing to use English to help NF parents understand and be involved in their children’s education. Teachers and school leaders agreed that there is a need for pre-service and in-service professional development in the area of minority language teaching, and in francisation in particular. Overall our findings corroborate findings from other research, and we add to the research base with information specific to one PEI French minority school, and by acknowledging the need for research about different types of NF parents who have chosen French minority language schools. The current reality of minority French language communities is that the majority of students in the French minority school classrooms no longer come from traditional families with two francophone parents (Landry, 2010; Rocque, 2008). School administrators, teachers, francophone parents, and NF parents all have an important role to play in continued efforts in maintenance and revitalization of francophone and Acadian communities. The NF parents from NF couples or from exogamous couples who have chosen a French school have a role to play in the transmission of the French language and culture and community revitalization. If administrators and teachers who have a clear understanding, and strategy for parental involvement, can inform NF parents about the minority school mission and how they can help, then the better the outcome will be for student achievement, parental involvement, and the maintenance of the French language and culture.
Analysis of the data and review of previous literature have led us to propose the following four recommendations for policy, with specific suggestions for practice and future research. Fundamental to all recommended policies is the close involvement of the CSLF with the Department of Education as they must have a guiding influence over programming for use in French schools. Despite the research focus on parents for this project, the recommendations are wide ranging to include actions by the Department of Education, CSLF, school leaders, teaching professionals, and parents.
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