The Education System of Canada (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
In Canada, 22.9% of people report a “mother tongue” that is not English or French (Government of Canada, 2017) and most of them are newcomers. Within Canadian primary and secondary school, there were 4.75 million students enrolled in the 2015/2016 school year (Statista, 2018), and 2.2 million children under age 15 who were foreign-born or who had at least one foreign-born parent (Government of Canada, 2017). Thirty-seven and a half percent of all Canadian children have an immigrant background (Government of Canada, 2017). These statistics point towards large numbers of students in Canadian schools who have a depth of linguistic resources and repertoire. This diversity has implications on educational policy, programming, and pedagogy. In order to ensure that the education provided to students in Canadian classrooms is relevant, future-focused, and honouring to the depth of linguistic and cultural resources represented within the classroom it is necessary for teachers and policy-maker...
The Canadian Context: Monolingual Education in an Officially Multilingual Country
Reading, 2011
This article will examine the sociopolitical language contexts that exist in institutions of Canadian post-secondary education, through investigating how government policies affect the consumption and teaching of language in writing classrooms. A survey of Canadian multiculturalist policy, multilingualism, and post-secondary education in terms of multilingual immigrant student populations will describe steps the federal government has taken to promote linguistic pluralism. Questionnaire and interview analysis will describe how Canadian students see language and multiculturalism interacting in the academic work they do in the context of the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, and will illustrate how language diversity is not cultivated in Canadian post-secondary classrooms.
FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education
Indigenous languages are struggling for breath in the Global North. In Canada, Indigenous language medium schools and early childhood programs remain independent and marginalized. Despite government commitments, there is little support for Indigenous language-in-education policy and initiatives. This article describes an inaugural, country-wide, federally-funded, Indigenous-led language revitalization research project, entitled NE?OL?EW? (one mind-one people). The project brings together nine Indigenous partners to build a country-wide network and momentum to pressure multi-levels of government to honour agreements enshrining the right of children to learn their Indigenous language. The project is documenting approaches to create new Indigenous language speakers, focusing on adult language learners able to keep the language vibrant and teach their language to children. The article reflects upon how this Northern emphasis on Indigenous language revitalization and country-wide network...
Northern Native Canadian language education
Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 2008
Cet article debat de I'Ctablissement d'une education milingue anglaise dans les Ccoles autochtones de I'Ontario nord. Cet Ctablissement a coincidC avec un accroissement du contrBle gouvernemental fCdCral sur les Ccoles autochtones, ainsi que sur une implication accrue du federal dans la vie communautaire en gCnCral, Q partir des annCes 50. Une Cvaluation de la pratique de l'anglais chez les Ckves d'une &ole autochtone de I'Ontario nord en 1980 montre que le programme 'd'immersion anglaise' actuellement en usage ne permet pas de parler anglais tr6s couramment. Les programmes en langues autochtones dans le nord de I'Ontario reqoivent peu de subsides, peu de support institutionnel et ne sont pas considCrCs comme t r b importants. Les ClPves des Ccoles autochtones nordiques ne reqoivent pas de services adequats dans le domaine de l'enseignement des langues, et ce, dans quelque langue que ce soit. Cette faiblesse marquee constitue un Clement important du debat sur la transformation des resultats de I'Cducation scolaire. This paper discusses the institution of English-only instruction in Canadian Native schools in northern Ontario, coincident with increased federal government control of Native schooling and increased federal involvement in other areas of community life in the early 1950s. An appraisal of the English skills of students in attendance at a northern Ontario Native school in 1980 shows that the 'English immersion' school program now offered does not result in high levels of English proficiency. Native-language programs in northern Ontario receive little extra funding, little institutional support and are not seen as central to the objectives of school instruction. Students attending schools in northern Native communities are not well-served in the area of language education, in either language, and this failure is important in any serious discussion of changing educational outcomes.
Language Situation and Language Policy in Canada (In the Aspect of Multiculturalism)
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 2016
The article examines issues related to the typological arrangement and existence of the exoglossic, unbalanced language situation in Canada. Special attention is paid to the role of indigenous languages against the background of the language situation in the country. Canada's linguistic profile is described in the background of certain theoretical assumptions of multiculturalism and multilingualism. The article contains quantitative indicators related to the composition of the indigenous population speaking indigenous languages.
Multilingualism in Canadian schools: Myths, realities and possibilities - 2007
Bilingualism and multiculturalism have for four decades been official ideologies and policies in Canada but, as is often the case, the implementation and outcomes of such government policies nationally are less impressive than the rhetoric would suggest. This article reviews the political, theoretical and demographic contexts justifying support for the learning and use of additional languages in contemporary Canadian society and schools, and summarizes research demonstrating that bilingualism and multilingualism are indeed cognitively, socially, and linguistically advantageous for children (and adults), as well as for society. The five studies in this special issue are then previewed with respect to the following themes that run across them: (1) the potential for bilingual synergies and transformations in language awareness activities and crosslinguistic knowledge construction; (2) the role of multiliteracies and multimodality in mediated learning; and (3) the interplay of positioning, identity, and agency in language learning by immigrant youth. The article concludes that more Canadian schools and educators must, like the researchers in this volume, find ways to embrace and build upon students' prior knowledge, their creativity, their collaborative problem-solving skills, their potential for mastering and manipulating multiple, multilingual semiotic tools, and their desire for inclusion and integration in productive, engaging learning communities.