Showcase meeting 3 – January 25, 2024

PRESENTATIONS

Please note: presentations will primarily be in French. However, English documents will be made available to facilitate the comprehension of non native French speakers.

1. Immigration to Francophone communities: context, challenges and opportunities

Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, doctoral student in political science, University of Ottawa, and associate researcher at Sociopol.

This presentation outlines the challenges and opportunities facing French-speaking immigrants seeking to settle in Canada. It looks at the data and what it reveals about the Francophone newcomer’s settlement journey – including where they come from, where they choose to settle, the settlement services available to them, and their professional and social integration. Immigrants’ motivations for staying or leaving Canada speak volumes about the importance of welcoming and integrating immigrants in this country.

PRESENTATION

2. Professional and integration challenges and strategies among FSL teachers who are Francophone immigrants

Luisa Veronis, full professor, Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, and researcher in social and political geographies of immigration and Franco-Ontarian communities at the University of Ottawa. Monika Jezak, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ottawa and language policy expert for UNESCO, the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks and the Government of Canada, among others.

The growing shortage of French as a second language (FSL) teachers in Ontario is prompting the federal and provincial governments to recruit internationally from the French-speaking world. Teachers from French-speaking immigrant backgrounds are a desirable workforce because of their mastery of French, but once they arrive in Canada they face a number of professional challenges. These can be attributed in part to their different educational backgrounds, poor command of English, mismatches between school cultures, and a lack of knowledge of digital tools.

The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of the challenges and strategies identified by immigrant teachers and FSL programme managers in Ontario schools as part of a study conducted in partnership with the Alliance pour une communauté éducative inclusive (ACEI).

PRESENTATION

3. Portraits de l’éducation collection

Josianne Beaumont, Program Officer, Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF)

Since 2018, the priority area for the CTF’s Francophonie program has been the shortage of teachers in French-language minority schools. The CTF has worked with a number of researchers and professionals to develop the Portraits de l’éducation series, which, in its 12 French-language booklets, contains a wealth of information and avenues for reflection and action to adopt a posture of openness and caring – whether you are a colleague, a school principal or a teacher from an immigrant background. The information is grounded in research yet accessible. Although the collection was developed with French-language minority schools in mind, most of the content is transferable to other contexts.

PRESENTATION