What Happens After the Law is Passed? Marketing to Parent Demands in a Canadian Francophone School

Abstract

ABSTRACT Language rights embedded in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Department of Justice, 1982) and implemented in the provincial education system have allowed parents to choose French language schools over their English alternative. But creation established by law does not fully protect the continuation of such a school. The image that it presents to its school community and the wider community within which it sits is equally important because it establishes economic, as well as legal, viability. This paper addresses the marketing that a legally mandated minority-language school in Canada developed in order to foster survival in its own particular cultural and educational community. The relationship between school, parents and public at large is analyzed to illustrate the balance that the school maintained between inclusive-ness and exclusivity. Document analysis, interviews and observation, as part of a larger case study, revealed the creation of an image that addressed several different parent stakeholder groups simultaneously. This paper reports the explicit and implicit messages that a school sends its community, while it adapts to suit client needs in a legal environment of growing school choice. doi:10.1300/J467v01n03_10