Publication of the seventh issue of Minorités linguistiques et société/Linguistic Minorities and Society - May 2016
Diversity, Ethnolinguistic Boundaries, and Education in Québec and Canada
This seventh issue of Minorités linguistiques et société/Linguistic Minorities and Society co-edited by professors Marie-Odile Magnan and Patricia Lamarre of the Université de Montréal highlights boundaries that lead to a feeling of exclusion with regard to the “Québécois Francophone” majority in particular. The divide between the civic identity promoted by policy in Quebec and the ethnocultural boundaries experienced by the young on a daily basis is thought-provoking. The articles in this issue bring to light not only the difficulty of crossing the boundary but also that of feeling included in the “Québécois Francophone” “Us”—an “Us” that is still strongly tied to the terms “Québécois of French descent” and “pure laine old-stock Quebeckers”. These observations force us to rethink the role of the school. In the light of these studies, it seems crucial to develop initiatives that foster harmonious intergroup relations and to deconstruct the feelings of exclusion that young people from minority groups can experience with regard to the Québécois Francophone majority. From this viewpoint, we propose that the mission of the school be to encourage in a much more concrete way inclusion and living in harmony in a pluralist French-speaking milieu. It is a question of going beyond prescribed missions and actively implementing inclusion and living in harmony.
The articles presented in this issue focus on young people from minority groups in Canada, whether these are linguistic minorities - Francophones outside Quebec, Anglophones in Quebec - or ethnocultural minorities - young people from the immigrant population in Quebec. The articles reveal the existence of a strong boundary between “Francophone Quebeckers” and the “Others” (minority Francophones, Anglophone Quebeckers and youth from the immigrant population in Quebec). The different studies reveal that the ethnic concept of the Quebec nation endures over time. The inclusive concept of a Québécois identity put forward in the 1970s—halfway between linguistic assimilationism and multiculturalism—does not appear to have penetrated to any great degree either intergroup interactions or the identities of the young people presented in this set of articles. The efforts made to adopt a territorialized and civic definition of Québécois identity in official discourse and public policies seem to have done little to bring about the “de-ethnicization” of the Quebec nation.
The first three articles in this issue (by Rodrigue Landry and Réal Allard, Diane Gérin- Lajoie, and Paul Zanazanian) examine the experience of Anglophone youth in Quebec from different angles. While this minority “benefits” from the strength of English in Canada and elsewhere in the world, young people in the Anglophone community feel excluded with regard to “Francophone Quebeckers.” Two other articles reveal ethnic frontiers in French-language schools in Quebec. The articles by Marie-Odile Magnan, Fahimeh Darchinian and Émilie Larouche and by Jacques Ledent, Marie Mc Andrew and Gérard Pinsonneault throw light on the experience of young people from immigrant communities, their relationship with French-language schools in Quebec, and their subsequent choices with regard to language at the CEGEP and university. The article by Annie Pilote and Jo-Anni Joncas is a qualitative study on identity building among Saskatchewan university students. They show that experience in the Francophone teacher education program at the University of Regina contributes to creating a stronger feeling of belonging among these young Francophones living outside Quebec. Immersion courses that they take in Quebec actually appear to reinforce their sense of belonging to the Canadian Francophonie, as they feel excluded from the Québécois “Us” in their inter- actions in Quebec. Benoît Côté, Patricia Lamarre and Andry Nirina Razakamanana’s article enables us to envisage educational strategies that facilitate exchanges and better relations between young people from the two linguistic sectors in Quebec (the Francophone and Anglophone school sectors) by means of a program that would enable school institutional “boundaries” to be crossed. Through implementation of an exchange model based on the theory of intergroup relations in school environments, it was observed that young people maintain their identities, but develop more harmonious intergroup relations when in contact with the “Others”. Finally, Luk Van Mensel’s article adds a comparative point of view on linguistic power relations and school choices in another context: the city of Brussels in Belgium. This article in another national context enables us to see how difficult it is for stakeholders to deconstruct boundaries of exclusion and social and political representations constructed historically—reifications that affect the daily interactions of these parents.
To read the issue, click on the link below:
http://www.erudit.org/revue/minling/2016/v/n7/index.html?lang=en
This seventh issue of Minorités linguistiques et société/Linguistic Minorities and Society co-edited by professors Marie-Odile Magnan and Patricia Lamarre of the Université de Montréal highlights boundaries that lead to a feeling of exclusion with regard to the “Québécois Francophone” majority in particular. The divide between the civic identity promoted by policy in Quebec and the ethnocultural boundaries experienced by the young on a daily basis is thought-provoking. The articles in this issue bring to light not only the difficulty of crossing the boundary but also that of feeling included in the “Québécois Francophone” “Us”—an “Us” that is still strongly tied to the terms “Québécois of French descent” and “pure laine old-stock Quebeckers”. These observations force us to rethink the role of the school. In the light of these studies, it seems crucial to develop initiatives that foster harmonious intergroup relations and to deconstruct the feelings of exclusion that young people from minority groups can experience with regard to the Québécois Francophone majority. From this viewpoint, we propose that the mission of the school be to encourage in a much more concrete way inclusion and living in harmony in a pluralist French-speaking milieu. It is a question of going beyond prescribed missions and actively implementing inclusion and living in harmony.
The articles presented in this issue focus on young people from minority groups in Canada, whether these are linguistic minorities - Francophones outside Quebec, Anglophones in Quebec - or ethnocultural minorities - young people from the immigrant population in Quebec. The articles reveal the existence of a strong boundary between “Francophone Quebeckers” and the “Others” (minority Francophones, Anglophone Quebeckers and youth from the immigrant population in Quebec). The different studies reveal that the ethnic concept of the Quebec nation endures over time. The inclusive concept of a Québécois identity put forward in the 1970s—halfway between linguistic assimilationism and multiculturalism—does not appear to have penetrated to any great degree either intergroup interactions or the identities of the young people presented in this set of articles. The efforts made to adopt a territorialized and civic definition of Québécois identity in official discourse and public policies seem to have done little to bring about the “de-ethnicization” of the Quebec nation.
The first three articles in this issue (by Rodrigue Landry and Réal Allard, Diane Gérin- Lajoie, and Paul Zanazanian) examine the experience of Anglophone youth in Quebec from different angles. While this minority “benefits” from the strength of English in Canada and elsewhere in the world, young people in the Anglophone community feel excluded with regard to “Francophone Quebeckers.” Two other articles reveal ethnic frontiers in French-language schools in Quebec. The articles by Marie-Odile Magnan, Fahimeh Darchinian and Émilie Larouche and by Jacques Ledent, Marie Mc Andrew and Gérard Pinsonneault throw light on the experience of young people from immigrant communities, their relationship with French-language schools in Quebec, and their subsequent choices with regard to language at the CEGEP and university. The article by Annie Pilote and Jo-Anni Joncas is a qualitative study on identity building among Saskatchewan university students. They show that experience in the Francophone teacher education program at the University of Regina contributes to creating a stronger feeling of belonging among these young Francophones living outside Quebec. Immersion courses that they take in Quebec actually appear to reinforce their sense of belonging to the Canadian Francophonie, as they feel excluded from the Québécois “Us” in their inter- actions in Quebec. Benoît Côté, Patricia Lamarre and Andry Nirina Razakamanana’s article enables us to envisage educational strategies that facilitate exchanges and better relations between young people from the two linguistic sectors in Quebec (the Francophone and Anglophone school sectors) by means of a program that would enable school institutional “boundaries” to be crossed. Through implementation of an exchange model based on the theory of intergroup relations in school environments, it was observed that young people maintain their identities, but develop more harmonious intergroup relations when in contact with the “Others”. Finally, Luk Van Mensel’s article adds a comparative point of view on linguistic power relations and school choices in another context: the city of Brussels in Belgium. This article in another national context enables us to see how difficult it is for stakeholders to deconstruct boundaries of exclusion and social and political representations constructed historically—reifications that affect the daily interactions of these parents.
To read the issue, click on the link below:
http://www.erudit.org/revue/minling/2016/v/n7/index.html?lang=en
