Project Overview
- Research topics
- Region: Quebec and Ontario
- Project Overview
Project status
- Completed :
- September 2020-March 2021
Project manager or
resource person
- Jérémie Seror
- Director and Associate Dean
Partner organization(s)
Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI) - University of Ottawa
Learning through community involvement in the service of future teachers in minority French-language schools
"Last September 2020, the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI) launched a project with funding from Canadian Heritage, Learning through community involvement in the service of future teachers in French-language minority schools (EFMM) and French as a second language (FSL). Its goal is to provide educational support for FSL classes, particularly online classes, in public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
"OLBI partnered with the Community Engagement team (Michaëlle Jean Centre for Global and Community Engagement) to match its volunteer students with FSL teachers and professional associations specifically through the Community Service Learning (CSL) program. The latter enables students to contribute 30 hours of community involvement volunteer work as part of their course.”
Fifty-three undergraduate students enrolled in the community engagement program participated in the project. This volunteer experience accounts for approximately 20% of the course grade. To date, children across Canada have benefited from 1,830 hours of volunteer online homework tutoring.
Targeted Results
Main takeaways (learnings)
- Significant learning in the delivery of second-language educational content
- Networking with the world of education, diverse cultural contexts, realities of non-profit organizations (NPOs)
- Student integration strengthened by discovery of the richness of the second language
- Time management, patience, student interest
- Enriching for students to have an activity to keep them busy during the pandemic (personal benefits)
- Benefit of breaking the isolation of both students and pupils.
- Discovery of natural alliances between francophones and francophiles.
Potential/desired collaborations
- To continue collaborating.
- To discuss solutions to the shortage.
- To participate in discussions to address the shortage.
- For FSL working groups
- To provide expertise to teachers
- To talk about the profession, and promote it to high school students.
- To provide summer training for teachers to improve language skills, culture, technology and encourage networking (retention).
- To help foreign professionals enter the profession (e.g.: bureaucracy, skills recognition, etc.)
- For participation in conferences, training courses, workshops (e.g.: teaching materials)
- To exchange on research, best practices and knowledge
- For pedagogical training (e.g.: how to teach well in immersion, linguistic and cultural diversity).