Project Overview
- Research topics
- Region: Quebec and Ontario
- Project Overview
Project status
- In progress :
- March 2020-June 2025
Project manager or
resource person
- Dominique Scheffel-Dunand et Muriel Péguret
- Associate Professors
Partner organization(s)
Fabrique REL (Université de Sherbrooke)
Glendon College, York University
Glendon College - Accelerator for Innovation and Best Practices in French Teaching "Camerise"
Camerise is an initiative originally driven by a team from Glendon College at York University. It stems from a vision to provide students, educators, researchers and administrators with a collaborative space (a "hub" for FSL in Canada) to ensure the sustainability of French Second Language (FSL) programs in Canada.
The project is rooted in the values of inclusiveness, equity and valuing diversity in all its stages, from project team composition to the themes of the published open resources. It aims to provide FSL stakeholders with access to inclusive and engaging resources, collaborative tools and the support needed to realize one's potential as a bilingual or multilingual person in Canada.
Targeted Results
Launch of the Camerise hub (prototype 2) to promote collaboration between FSL stakeholders in Ontario.
Publication of quality professional development resources and events.
Publication of resources and events for pre-university students to promote FSL teaching as a career.
Publication of resources and events to welcome and support the transition of qualified education professionals from outside Canada.
Publication of resources and events for university students to promote the FSL teaching profession and better prepare them for this career path.
Main takeaways (learnings)
Lack of collaboration within the community to find solutions to challenges either:
- Horizontally: same professional status
- Teacher to teacher
- Administrator to administrator
- School board to school board
- Vertically:
- Teachers with 10 or more years of service and junior teachers or those graduating from a Faculty of Education
- FSL actors in urban and rural areas to compensate for the challenges of schools faced with intraprovincial mobility (e.g., from urban areas to the regions) that are not necessarily ready to receive these students and their parents, or to meet their FSL needs and expectations. Many students come from non-aligned French training programs (framework, enriched and immersion) according to Anglophone institutions.
- Few tools, resources and training to support school boards and teachers in integrating the new curriculum, transforming their teaching approach by integrating digital and educational technologies, or to implement the Ministry of Education's objectives and strategic plan such as:
- Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
- Intercultural skills (e.g. integration of aboriginal elements)
- Digital Literacies
- Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
- Initiatives for students with special needs
- Student success frameworks.
Potential/desired collaborations
Canadian Association of Immersion Professionals (ACPI)
- ACPI has developed a site for sharing resources by and for immersion teachers, with a validation committee.
- It would be of great benefit to both us and them if we could at least reference them, and at best if their database could be integrated with Camerise's (since we're targeting a wider audience than immersion teachers).
Idello and OER directories (open educational resources - ex.: the Université de Sherbrooke's Fabrique de RÉL)
- Idello has a bank of quality resources for teaching FSL. It would be of great benefit to us and to them if we could reference their resources and initiate peer discussions on their resources on the Camerise space.
- The same goes for all the resource banks that exist within universities and associations that offer open scientific or pedagogical resources (OER = open educational resources).
- We'd like to use the same referencing and harvesting techniques with directories that promote OER and open education on a pan-Canadian scale.
Canadian Parents for French (CPF)
- Optimize collaboration with CPF at the provincial (Ontario) and national levels to go beyond the co-creation of activities for workshops offered in grades 9-12 in Ontario school boards or programs - such as Explore, Destination clique - offered at Glendon.
- Develop a partnership with national and provincial CPF branches to co-produce resources to support parents/guardians or co-organize events to raise awareness of best or inspiring practices and to support children in learning French or a second or third language.
Ontario Public School Boards' Association (OPSBA) and Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association (OCSTA)
- Co-develop resources and support tools for leaders and managers of school boards, English-language institutions and educational consultants where FSL programs (mainstream, enriched and immersion) are offered within a track or bilingually.
- Co-produce measurement tools that will enable them to better measure successes and inspiring strategies for recruiting teachers and students into French programs, and measure student success in terms of linguistic and intercultural competencies and various literacies.
- Measure progress in implementing ministry objectives for inclusion, accessibility and the new curriculum goals.
Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers (CASLT)
- CASLT has a bank of quality resources for professional development in FSL teaching. It would be of great benefit to both us and them if we could at least reference them, and at best, if their database could be integrated with Camerise's.
- Collaborate to ensure the hub's long-term viability (e.g., have a representative sit on a management committee).
Faculties of education across Canada with FSL training programs
- Open their classrooms to allow us to present the opportunities offered by Camerise, provide collaborative training sessions and facilitate future teachers' adhesion to our community of practice.
- Collaborate to ensure the hub's sustainability (e.g., have a representative sit on a management committee).
