The Experience of Non-Francophone Parents in a French Minority-Language School

Abstract Parent involvement is an important indicator for student achievement and is especially important in minority language education. Across Canada a steadily increasing number of students in French minority-language schools come from Anglo-dominant families or other non-Francophone families, where little or no French is spoken. This highlights the importance of understanding the involvement of non-Francophone parents whose children attend French minority-language schools. This paper conveys the experiences, beliefs, and involvement of non-Francophone parents who have chosen a French minority-language school for their children in Atlantic Canada. French school administrators and teachers were also consulted. We relied on a mixed methods approach to improve understanding of this situation. The parents reported satisfaction with their choice of a French minority-language school but also shared challenges they faced to being educationally involved with their children at home, at school, and in the community. Resume L’engagement des parents est un indicateur important pour la reussite des eleves et il l’est encore plus en situation de langue minoritaire. Pourtant, au Canada, un nombre croissant d’enfants dans les ecoles francaises vient de familles anglodominantes et il y a un grand nombre de parents qui parle peu ou pas le francais. Il est vital de comprendre l’engagement des parents non francophones dans la situation des ecoles de langue francaise minoritaire. Nous avons examine les experiences, les croyances et l’engagement des parents non francophones qui ont choisi une ecole francaise au Canada atlantique pour leurs enfants. Des enseignants et des directions d’ecoles ont aussi ete consultes. Nous avons utilise les methodes mixtes afin de comprendre les complexites de l’experience sociale multidimensionnelle. Les parents etaient satisfaits de leur choix d’ecole, malgre les difficultes qu’ils eprouvaient a s’impliquer a la maison, a l’ecole et dans la communaute.