Canada is an officially bilingual country (French-English), and yet school boards nation-wide struggle to find and retain French as a second language (FSL) teachers (OCOL, 2019). Exclusionary beliefs and practices in schools, where French as a subject is not valued and French teachers report being treated as 'second class citizens' in their schools (Lapkin, et. al., 2006), contribute to a sense of de-professionalization among FSL teachers.
De-professionalization can undermine teachers' sense of agency (Masson, 2018) or their sense of legitimacy as speakers of French (Wernicke, 2017). For language teachers of colour, their racial identity intersects with their 'native-/non-native' speaker identity, often revealing deep-rooted racism and discrimination (Kubota & Lin, 2009). Crucial to curbing de-professionalization is understanding language teachers' professional identities (Kayi-Aydar, 2019). Yet, we know very little of how FSL teachers come to identify themselves as professionals.
Using arts-based narratives, we examined the professional identity formation of FSL teacher candidates during a 2-year training program at one of the largest English-French bilingual universities in Canada. Data were collected from seven (N=7) teachers via Venn diagrams, plurilingual portraits and life-story interviews to examine how their social identities and experiences with languages shaped their developing practice. Drawing on critical race theory (Anya, 2021) and raciolinguistics (Alim, 2016), findings reveal that all the participants are second language learners of French with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds (i.e., Black, White, Asian) which shapes their entry into the profession in unique ways.
The aim of this study is to challenge eurocentric, monoglossic norms and ideologies about FSL in Canada to consider the plurilingual, pluriethnic and pluricultural richness among FSL teachers (Esch, et. al., 2020). Ultimately, we ask how teacher preparation programs and school boards that hire FSL teachers respond to the linguistic, cultural and ethnoracial diversity of teacher candidates to prepare them to remain in the profession long-term.
Alim, H.S. (2016). Introducing raciolinguistics: Racing language and languaging race in hyperracial times. In. H. S. Alim, J. R. Rickford, & A. F. Ball (Eds.), Raciolinguistics: How Language shapes our ideas about race (pp. 1-29). Oxford University Press.
Anya, U. (2021). Critical race pedagogy for more effective and inclusive world language teaching. Applied Linguistics, 42(6), 1055-1069.
Esch, K., Motha, S., & Kubota, R. (2020). Race and language teaching. Language Teaching, 1-31.
Kayi-Aydar, H. (2019). Language teacher identity. Language Teaching, 52(3), 281-295.
Kubota, R., & Lin, A. (2009). Race, culture, and identities in second language education: Exploring critically engaged practice. Routledge.
Lapkin, S., MacFarlane, A., & Vandergrift, L. (2006). Teaching French in Canada: FSL teachers' perspectives. Canadian Teachers' Federation.
Masson, M. (2018). Reframing FSL teacher learning: Small stories of (re) professionalization and identity formation. Journal for Belonging, Identity, Language and Diversity, 2(2), 77-102.
OCOL (2019). Accessing Opportunity: A study on challenges in French-as-a-second-language education teacher supply and demand in Canada. https://www.clo-ocol.gc.ca/en/publications/studies/2019/accessing-opportunity-fsl
Wernicke, M. (2017). Navigating native-speaker ideologies as FSL teacher. Canadian Modern Language Review, 73(2), 208-236.
