French immersion (FI) programs in Canada have historically served predominantly Canadian-born, English-speaking students and families in their endeavour to learn both of the country's official languages, French and English. However, FI programs are becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse as a result of increased global…

Parental involvement is a crucial, but often, neglected factor for success in learning languages. A growing number of Canadian students from immigrant families attend French Immersion programs and bring additional languages to the classroom. Yet, the role of Eastern-European immigrant parents in their children's French Immersion education, their…

Elitism has been an issue in Canadian French immersion since its inception. This study examines how two racially diverse Ontarian school boards and Ontario French immersion policy, curricula, and other related documents construct and support an elite student within the immersion program. The elite student who emerged from immersion documents is a…

Since the 1980s, education in Canada has been through a process that led to school choice, targeting the improvement of students' performance through school competition. These policies fostering an education quasi-market became an ideal framework for the expansion of IB schools. Since the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate (IBDP)…

In this paper, we revisit Brown's ("Br J Soc Educ" 14: 65-85, 1990) concept of "parentocracy" which has been informatively applied in educational research in a number of studies in various countries internationally--but almost none in North America. We provide an expanded conceptualization of parentocracy and suggest that it…

The assessment of dual language immersion (DLI) students' proficiency in the partner language plays a key role in program evaluation. This article reports findings from a large-scale study, drawing on cross-sectional assessment data from 73 schools and longitudinal data from 25 schools. Students were tested in the interpretive (listening and…

In this article we describe the ways that academic opportunity is distributed within the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Canada's largest and most demographically diverse public education system. By putting a range of recent outcome data into historical, organizational, and policy contexts, we provide a snapshot of how one of North America's…

This paper examines French as a second official language (FSOL) teachers' perspectives as they relate to the inclusion of immigrants who are learning English (IMMs), in elementary FSOL education in an English-dominant region of Canada, in particular within French immersion. In this paper, I have tried to examine the question of access to…

A CBC New Brunswick Forum broadcast live on March 27, 2008, from Moncton's Capitol Theatre provided a cathartic moment for parents angry at Education Minister Kelly Lamrock, who was linked into the discussion via satellite from Fredericton. Two weeks earlier, Minister Lamrock had declared in a press release that bilingualism was changing from an…

In this position article, we explore what happens when school district policies regarding desegregation, accountability, and foreign language immersion education collide. Specifically, we contrast 2 immersion programs that experienced distinct outcomes as a result of the conflicting agendas underlying these 3 policies. One program, originally…

This volume builds on Fortune and Tedick's 2008 Pathways to Multilingualism: Evolving Perspectives on Immersion Education and showcases the practice and promise of immersion education through in-depth investigations of program design, implementation practices, and policies in one-way, two-way and indigenous programs. Contributors present new…

In this paper, I first review previous research on the topic of safetalk. I then apply some of the insights derived from this discussion to a case study of the Luxembourgish primary school system. The study uses both ethnographic and discourse analysis, and focuses in particular on the role of French language varieties in a system that forces…

This report reviews results of research on the outcomes of French immersion students with special educational needs related to low levels of general academic ability and low levels of first language ability (and possibly impairment), as well as those of students with difficulty or who are at risk for difficulty in learning to read. Studies of the…

Administrative problems that have been solved or accepted during eight years of early immersion programs are discussed including choosing locations, staffing, costs, logistics, and the need for suitable pupil progress reporting. (JMF)

Factors influencing the resistance to French immersion instruction in Ontario are discussed, and the change theory approach to program adoption and implementation is favored over the reproduction theory. (MSE)