French-language Schools Research Articles

« On va les franciser » : la francisation scolaire comme outil de revitalisation langagière à l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard

In 2014, a francization program for young students requiring support in French was launched in French-language schools in Prince Edward Island. Since then, the francization program has evolved in schools, and the demand for the service has only increased. Creation of this program as a tool for language revitalization is of great importance for the province’s French-language school system. The goal of this qualitative study is to understand the systemic conditions that led to its creation and to highlight the successes and challenges of the program from the point of view of educational partners. In doing so, the study highlights the important decisions that informed this program since its beginning, as well as the pedagogical and administrative questioning of key people in the system who contributed to developing it and who work with students today.

Child Sexual Abuse and Employment Earnings in Adulthood: A Prospective Canadian Cohort Study

Child sexual abuse remains a worldwide concern with devastating consequences on an individual's life. This longitudinal study investigates the associations between child sexual abuse (official reports versus retrospective self-reports) and subgroups by perpetrator identity (intrafamilial and extrafamilial), severity (penetration/attempted penetration, fondling/touching, noncontact), and chronicity (single, multiple episodes) and employment earnings in adulthood in a cohort followed for over 30 years. The Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children database was linked to child protection services (official reports of sexual abuse) and to Canadian government tax returns (earned income). The sample included 3,020 individuals in Quebec French-language school kindergartens in 1986/1988, followed until 2017, and assessed with retrospective self-reports at age 22 years. Tobit regressions were used for associations with earnings (ages 33-37 years), adjusting for sex and family socioeconomic characteristics in 2021-2022. Individuals who experienced child sexual abuse had lower annual earnings. Those with retrospective self-reported sexual abuse (n=340) earned $4,031 (95% CI= -7,134, -931) less annually at ages 33-37 years than nonabused individuals (n=1,320), with pronounced differences for those with official reports (n=20), earning $16,042 (95% CI= -27,465, -4,618) less. Individuals self-reporting intrafamilial sexual abuse earned $4,696 (95% CI= -9,316, -75) less than those who experienced extrafamilial sexual abuse, whereas those self-reporting penetration/attempted penetration earned $6,188 (95% CI= -12,248, -129) less than those who experienced noncontact sexual abuse. Earnings gaps were highest for severest child sexual abuse (official reports, intrafamilial, penetrative). Future studies should investigate the underlying mechanisms. Improving support for victims of child sexual abuse could yield socioeconomic returns.

The Rise in Demand for Special Education in Ontario, Canada: A Focus on French-Language Schools

Over the past several decades, teachers have been increasingly challenged with a greater diversity of learning profiles within their classrooms. Historically, within Ontario, Canada, students who did not learn effectively through traditional methods were labelled and separated into alternate learning environments. Legislation and policy transformation have resulted in greater inclusion and stigma reduction. Changes to formal and informal identification processes have also increased the number of students accessing special education services. This conceptual paper examines the challenges arising from students’ changing learning needs, with a specific focus on the French classroom. Issues related to the Individual Education Plan, the formal identification processes, and the inconsistency inherent to special education terminology and teachers’ preparation concerning differentiated learning and resources in special education are explored. Further, employing Katz and colleagues’ (Hymel & Katz, 2019; Katz, 2013; Katz & Sokal, 2016) three-block model of universal design for an inclusive classroom as a framework, a case study from a French-language secondary school in Ontario, Canada, is examined to determine systemic gaps that need to be addressed to achieve the goal of fully inclusive classrooms that promote successful learning experiences for all students.

A comparative study on achieving universally designed schools. Two case studies at Aswan city, Egypt

Recently, the trend toward inclusiveness and inclusion of people with special needs in urban spaces and facilities, especially public schools has appeared. Where social inclusion aims to achieve an inclusive society that respects human diversity and supports the principles of equality, allowing all groups to participate in the community. This research aims to achieve universally designed schools, in addition to improving the educational environment inside public schools, and consequently, the ease of use of educational spaces for everyone through the application of a universal design approach. The study relied on the descriptive-analytical approach and applied approach through describing and analyzing the buildings of the case study (Ali Mubarak primary school and Naguib Mahfouz French language school). A checklist was prepared including four main categories which are: horizontal and vertical communication elements, educational elements, service-based elements, and recreational elements. The results, using the Likert scale, showed that Ali Mubarak primary school got 50% in terms of compliance with universality, while the Naguib Mahfouz School got 49.4%. The study concluded some recommendations that will contribute to achieving universal schools that accommodate all users.

Literacies in the Making: Exploring elementary students’ digital-physical meaning-making practices while crafting musical instruments from recycled materials

ABSTRACT This study describes the literacies practices of three bi/multilingual fifth-grade students attending a French-language school in an urban community in Canada during a digital-physical Maker activity that included three phases: Plan Making, Instrument Making and Multimodal Making. Framed by theories of new literacies and embodied/sensory literacies, the authors captured students’ first-person gaze with video spy glasses to inform understandings of their meaning-making practices in activity. Evidence suggests that students’ Making was shaped by the ways that they understood themselves in relation to others, to materials, and to the expectations of schooling. Given the embodied meanings situated in the musical instruments that students made and the diverse, dynamic, discursive nature of students’ literacies practices while Making at every phase, teachers are encouraged to adopt non-linear conceptualisations of Maker projects, and pedagogies that are active, responsive, and place value on the embodied meaning-making processes that bi/multilingual youth can use.

Constitutional Rights at the Kitchen Table: British Columbia Francophones and the Making of a Minority-Language Educational System

In a recent landmark decision, the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that the underfunding of British Columbia’s Conseil scolaire francophone constitutes a breach of Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees in matters of minority-language education. While this marked the end of a decade of judicial proceedings, this article situates the decision in a broader historical context by examining the struggle to develop French-language educational programs in BC. If the province did not experience the education crises that tore through other parts of Canada in the decades following Confederation, BC francophones seized on the growing acceptance of bilingualism in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s to fight for an education system catering to their linguistic and cultural aspirations. Shifting the scholarly focus from the constitutional negotiating tables at which sat politicians and high-level bureaucrats to the kitchen tables around which parent groups gathered to formulate their demands, this article traces the grassroots battle to bring French-language schools to the province with Canada’s highest rate of linguistic assimilation.

LE CONSEILLER PÉDAGOGIQUE EN TANT QU’AGENT DE CHANGEMENT : COMPÉTENCES ET LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMATIONNEL

Les conseillers pédagogiques participent à la mise en œuvre des orientations du ministère de l’Éducation et de celles de leur conseil ou commission scolaire en matière d’enseignement afin de répondre aux besoins d’innovation, de communication et de collaboration des apprenants du 21e siècle. Outre leurs connaissances pédagogiques, leur propension pour l’innovation et leurs habiletés relationnelles, ils sont peu préparés à exercer leur fonction d’agent de changement auprès de leurs collègues enseignants. Cet article fait état des résultats d’une recherche visant à comprendre de quelles façons se manifeste le leadership transformationnel de conseillers pédagogiques au regard de leur rôle d’agent de changement. Des entretiens semi-dirigés auprès de sept conseillers pédagogiques et de quatre directrices de services pédagogiques provenant de quatre conseils scolaires francophones de l’Ontario ont permis de dégager des liens entre les compétences qu’ils mobilisent pour guider les enseignants vers un changement de pratique et les manifestations du leadership transformationnel telles qu’élaborées par Bass (1998).

Conceptions about Electrical Circuits of English and French Pupils from Nova Scotia in Canada

The present research was intended to identify the conceptual of 84 students from the region of Clare in French-language public schools and 54 from the Argyle region in French immersion public schools in Canada on the operation of simple electrical circuits. To this end, they completed a pencil-and-paper questionnaire of sixty minutes duration. The analyses of the data show clearly the preponderance of erroneous conceptions about the current and voltage concepts like those identified in the international review of the literature. Thus, despite the cultural and language differences, their conceptual understandings related to the simple electrical circuit are similar.

Translanguaging and Linguistic Landscapes: A Study of Manitoban Schoolscapes

The purpose of this article will be to review how the theory of translanguaging can be used to explore the linguistic landscapes of bi- and multilingual schools. Such an approach requires researchers to view space and language holistically since translanguaging practices occur not only within an individual but also within a particular space. As a result, a school’s linguistic landscape (schoolscape) can be viewed as a representation of the students’ language repertoire. Qualitative data will be presented from three different secondary school contexts in Manitoba, Canada; French immersion single-track, French immersion dual-track and French-language schools. This data will illustrate how translanguaging offers a new way to approach the analysis of schoolscapes in bi- and multilingual contexts.
 Keywords: translanguaging, linguistic landscapes, French immersion education, French-language education

L’usage de l’anglais dans une école de langue française en milieu minoritaire : un véritable enjeu ?

This article presents the results of a study whose goal was to support French language learners and their teachers, in kindergarten classes in a French language school in Ontario. Data were collected through classroom observations and interviews with the teachers and early childhood educators, who also participated in a professional learning community addressing the needs of French language learners. The participants revealed that language use was their biggest concern. The majority of these teachers and early childhood educators indicated that participation in the professional learning community influenced their use of English in class. The participants stated that they had increased consciousness and confidence in students’ ability to learn French without the use of English, which motivated them to progressively reduce their English use while encouraging students’ French use.

Термины анализа дискурса в системе постулатов французской лингвистической школы

Термины анализа дискурса в системе постулатов французской лингвистической школы

A proposed program to teach children French language by playing the piano

The study aimed to use the piano and the level of improvement and teaching the principles of French language for children. Toachieve the goal of the study, the researcher used a French language school to test the French language with children to determinetheir level and test the tribal and the experimental group to determine the extent of French learning for children who learned toplay piano The study showed the following results: The existence of differences of statistical significance at the level of significance(5,.= α)between the averages and the percentage and standard deviation This indicates a very high level towards learning to playthe piano St researcher more attention to teaching piano and put other courses and other materials linked to his mind that thepiano, piano is the first instrument in dealing and educational in the refinement of the overall taste of the students in schools anduniversities. The researcher addressed her research in two parts: The theoretical framework: in which the researcher first showedthe objectives of playing piano for children and secondly the role of the piano in the academic achievement and the second pa rtthe applied framework. It includes the piano program for teaching the principles of the French language and the results of theresearch and recommendations. The research ended with Arabic and foreign references and abstracts in Arabic and English

Design and Standardization of a Speech and Language Screening Tool for Use among School-Aged Bilingual Children in a Minority Language Setting

AbstractThis study investigated the psychometric properties of a speech and language screening tool “Profil de la langue, du langage et de la parole” (Speech and Language Profile) (PLLP-SLP) used with franco-dominant and anglo-dominant children aged forty-six to fifty-eight months who had entered the school system in kindergarten. All kindergarten students (1092 boys and 1080 girls) enrolled in a French-language school board in Northern Ontario in 2004, 2005, 2009, and 2010. They were assessed using the PLLP-SLP and formed the standardization sample for this norm-referenced language assessment tool. Reliable data is now available for this new speech and language screening tool to be used with French-English bilingual students entering kindergarten in a minority language setting. Scores for receptive and expressive language, as well as initial speech sounds and clinical judgment are available. An independent samples t-test revealed significant differences between groups on 4/10 subtests. In these instances, girls outperformed boys, though the difference was always slight (between .13 and .28), and anglophones outperformed francophones on one subtest, with the difference being less than .25. Speech-language pathologists working in minority language settings face particular challenges with respect to the absence of norms available for this population. Norms specific to language and gender should be observed when using this tool, as significant differences between girls’ and boys’ results, as well as between anglo-dominant and franco-dominant students living in a minority-language setting was observed.

Measurements of Intelligence in sub-Saharan Africa: Perspectives Gathered from Research in Mali

One of the most controversial debates around intelligence testing regards how tests are used to measure intelligence among non-Western populations. Studies conducted since the 1930’s consistently indicate significant sub-average intelligence among African populations. The purpose of this study is to examine whether commonly used intelligence tests such as the Ravens Progressive Matrices are valid indices of cognitive functioning among children in Mali, Africa. Participants in the current study were 206 children from Mali attending French-language schools. The Woodcock-Johnson II math assessment was used to measure participants’ academic achievement. The Vineland II- Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) was used to indicate their adaptive functioning level. In this study, tests of IQ were compared against adaptive functioning and academic achievement, to examine whether IQ scores measured among African populations are artificially low or are an accurate measure of performance. IQ scores as measured by the Ravens were discrepant with standardized scores on math achievement and adaptive functioning. Results indicate that use of the Ravens may substantially underestimate the intelligence of children in Mali. This can be particularly problematic when comparisons are made across cultures using the same test and norms. . It is recommended that tests developed with local normative samples be used to assess for IQ.

Les partenariats école-communauté dans les écoles de langue française en Ontario

Partnerships between French language schools and their community actors are more and more common in Ontario. However, we know very little about them. This article aims to understand what partnerships mean to school actors. Based on a literature review, an ideal-typical definition is constructed and four characteristics are identified to guide further analysis of partnerships : the partners’ identification and origin (school or community sectors), the project’s initiative, its length and the roles assigned to each partner. The results of surveys to the school board’s directions and questionnaires to school’s principals show that a variety of activities, mainly for the benefits of students, exist between French language schools in Ontario and their community. The analysis reveals, however, that many of the participant school actors are uncertain about the definition of a school-community partnership. Many of them consider their specific one-shot projects as school-community partnership. In fact, few of the declared partnerships come close to the ideal-typical definition formulated in this article. 1 Cette etude decoule d’un projet de recherche plus vaste commande et finance par le ministere de l’Education de l’Ontario. Nous aimerions remercier les coauteures de cette etude, Phyllis Dalley et Liliane Dionne ainsi que Tina Desabrais, Anne-Sophie RuestPaquette et Helene Leone qui nous ont assistees lors de la cueillette des donnees.

Est-ce vraiment un « décrochage culturel »? Une analyse critique du concept de décrochage culturel à partir des écrits sur le choix scolaire des élèves en transition primaire-secondaire

A significant number of right holder parents do not choose the French-language school system for their children. Moreover, even when parents choose a French elementary school, there are many adolescents who choose, either alone or with their family, to leave the Francophone system during the transition to high school. In the last few decades, several researchers and educators from Ontario labeled francophone students who choose to attend an English school as “cultural dropouts”, an expression which seems to imply a rejection of the French language and culture entirely. Is this new expression appropriate? To find some answers to this question, the following article reviews the literature regarding parents and school choice, as well as school choice as a family process. This review uncovers

Les compétences en français : Agentivité et motivation des étudiants universitaires

L’agence de recrutement de l’Université de St-Boniface, petite université francophone de l’Ouest canadien, cherche à recruter des étudiantes et étudiants au sein de ses programmes de 1er cycle auprès des écoles d’immersion française, des écoles françaises ainsi que des collectivités d’immigrants francophones. Cependant, un pourcentage important des étudiants admis éprouve des difficultés relatives aux compétences linguistiques.Les résultats préliminaires de ma recherche qualitative fondée sur une série d’entretiens avec des étudiants allophones, anglophones et francophones révèlent une « responsabilisation linguistique » des apprenants grâce à l’intégration de certains éléments du Portfolio canadien des langues pour enseignants (CASLT/ACPLS, 2010) dans le cadre du cours de rattrapage, Français 1001 : Grammaire de l’écrit. Les répercussions sur l’encadrement linguistique des étudiants, la formation initiale des enseignants de langue et le rôle primordial des écoles secondaires sont mis en valeur dans ce rapport.

Human papillomavirus vaccine uptake in boys and girls in a school-based vaccine delivery program in Prince Edward Island, Canada

BackgroundIn 2013, Prince Edward Island was the first province to introduce HPV vaccine universally to grade six boys in a school-based program. Because uptake rates in boys are unknown in this type of vaccination program, uptake of HPV vaccination in boys was measured and compared with uptake rates in girls and then analyzed with factors such as county, urban–rural location of the school, and school board to identify where the vaccine program could be improved. MethodsHPV vaccination records from the provincial childhood immunization registry in PEI were merged with Department of Education data containing all grade six girls and boys in PEI. Vaccine uptakes between years and between sexes were compared using two sample tests of proportions. Logistic regression modeling which accounted for the hierarchical nature of the data was used to analyze associations between factors and uptake rates. ResultsAlthough uptake was high in boys and girls, a significantly greater proportion of girls (85%) received all three doses of the HPV vaccine compared to boys (79%; p=0.004). The odds of grade six girls being fully vaccinated for HPV were 1.5 times greater than of grade six boys, and the odds of students in the English Language School Board receiving all three doses were more than twice as great as the odds of French Language School Board students. ConclusionsHPV vaccination for boys in PEI has had a successful launch, almost reaching the Canadian Immunization Committee recommendations of >80% for the early years of a program. PEI has a highly organized Public Health Nursing program that is involved in all childhood and school-based vaccinations in PEI and in this context very high coverage rates were obtained. Areas to target for improving uptake include the boys and the students in the French Language School Board.

An Investigation of School-Level Factors Associated With Science Performance for Minority and Majority Francophone Students in Canada

AbstractMinority Francophone students in predominantly English-speaking Canadian provinces tend to perform lower on large-scale assessments of achievement than their Anglophone peers and majority Francophone students in Quebec. This study is the first to apply multilevel modeling methods to examine the extent to which school-level factors may be differentially associated with achievement for minority Francophone students compared to majority Francophone students. Forty-four percent of the variance in science achievement among Francophone schools was explained by the model. After taking into consideration gender as well as student- and school-level socioeconomic status, French-language schools in Ontario and New Brunswick had, on average, lower PISA 2006 science achievement scores compared to schools in Quebec. Findings indicate that differences in performance between linguistic minority and majority Francophone students could not be reduced to differences in socioeconomic status or to the school resource ...

Adolescent Technology Use: Profiles of Distinct Groups and Associated Risky Behaviors

Introduction: Adolescents make regular use of a wide range of technologies, such as console video games, mobile phones and a variety of Internet applications. Although this usage is not problematic for most individuals, some adolescents do use them excessively. Objective: The main objective of this article is to explore the presence of clusters within a sample of adolescents based on dimensions associated with risky behaviors (substance use, gambling and delinquency) and problematic use of technologies (Internet and console video games). Methods: The sample consists of 1,870 adolescents in the 14-18 year age group who were recruited in French-language high schools in Quebec (Canada). Results: The main results showed that one in ten adolescents was a high Internet user. A cluster analysis identified three groups of participants: non-problematic boys, non-problematic girls, and adolescents with multiple problems. The latter group included all of the high Internet users and some high video game users. These participants had the highest severity scores for substance use and delinquency and received higher scores for psychological distress, impulsivity and sensation seeking. Conclusions: These results support the presence of a subgroup of adolescents with high levels of co-occurring risky behaviors and suggest that excessive use of technology may also be a characteristic of this group.