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Pilot project results: The experience of non-francophone parents who chose a francophone school for their children

Mary M. MacPhee, Miles Turnbull, & Rachelle Gauthier, Faculty of Education, UPEI

Research Questions

1. What are the experiences and beliefs of non- francophone (NF) parents who chose francophone schools for their children?

2. How and to what degree are non-francophone parents involved in the education of their children?

3. What barriers to parental involvement exist and how can they be addressed?

4. What do PEI francophone school leaders and teachers know about francisation and what do they identify as key issues in supporting and ensuring involvement of NF parents and academic success for NF children enrolled in their schools?

Theoretical framework

Canadian Context and Demographics

.

Data collection

Parent Profile

.

Perceived advantages

Methodology

School Leaders’ Perspectives

Teaching Staff Perspectives

Yes + non-francophone students Varied definitions for francisation Francisation interest and need but must identify effective

practices for implementation and teacher training Francisation as a shared responsibility: home, school, and

community Early intervention & childcare in French Importance of parents and support for NF parents but

schools’ plate is already full Acknowledged that skills in L1 transfer to L2 Schools resist English but NF parents need English to

understand and be understood; maximize French at school but respect the bilingual identities

Parents are important; English with parentsVaried definitions for francisation Texts; literacy, vocabulary/terminology strategies neededEncourage French outside of class Need for francisation help due to CSLF’s open invitation to

have children start in kindergarten Acadian roots and pride = + French results Jobs, travel, identity, small size as parental motivations

Our Recommendations :1.Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), in partnership with CSLF, establish effective practice models for francisation in PEI. 2.DEECD, in partnership with CSLF, offer an official francisation program in PEI and collect programming data to monitor success of the program. 3.DEECD, in partnership with UPEI and CSLF, provide pre-service and in-service francisation and language learning training for teaching staff. 4.CSLF explore options for making communication with parents more accessible to NF parents.

Acknowledgement pilot project

funding provided by JERG

Joint education research group

Parental educational involvement Hornby, 2011; Jeynes,2010

Parent school choice Dalley & St-Onge, 2008; Gérin-Lajoie, 2008

Francisation Cormier, 2005; Cormier & Lowe, 2010

Additive bilingualism Cummins, 1979; Lambert, 1975

Ethno-linguistic revitalization for minority francophone population

Landry, Allard, Deveau, 2006

Counterbalance model Landry, Allard, 1992; Rocque, 2008

Parental involvement is an important indicator of student school and social success

Parental involvement is even more important in minority language schooling where parents need to show value and support for the acquisition of the minority language

Increasing anglo-dominant and immigrant student population in some contexts: Diverse backgrounds & linguistic abilities

Low academic performance

Multiple methods

Purposive sampling, one school

•Survey by parents (N=15) in English 27 items; 4-5 point Likert

•Focus groups:•Semi-structured interviews

(N=6) Non-francophone parents- in English (N=7) Teaching staff - in French (N=10) School leaders- in French Individual interviews (N= 5) parents in English

Small class size Teacher quality Skill transfer between languages

One on one attention

French learned welland quickly

English in communication with School staff

“Are you kidding me, I can’t believe everyone isn’t in this school,…..I just know this is highest quality, best environment, best expertise and support, even parent relationships, we are such a team.” parent participant in focus group

Parents’ involvement at home

M=3.93 (SD .26) parents should be involved M=3.47 (SD .52) want to be involved at schoolM=3.6 (SD .63) supplies & spaceM=3.53 (SD 1.25) help with homeworkM=2.93 (SD 1.58) reading with childM=2.47 (SD 1.55) help improve vocabularyM=2.47 (SD 1.73) French mediaM=2.2 (SD 1.42) activities at home in French

Parents’ involvement at school

M=3.87 (SD .35) meet the teacher nightM=3.13 (SD .64) parent teacher interviewM=3.14 (SD 1.83) volunteerM=3.33 (SD 1.11) fundraisingM=4.8 (SD .56) contact school via notes, calls, visitsM=3.87 (SD 1.13) request updates on child’s progress