Showcase meeting 3 – January 25, 2024

PRESENTATIONS

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 Association pour une communauté éducative inclusive (ACEI).

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 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.

LINKS TO PRESENTATIONS (COMING SOON)