Negotiating Identities: Anglophones Teaching and Living in Quebec 9781442617179

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NEGOTIATING IDENTITIES Anglophones Teaching and Living in Quebec

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DIANE GÉRIN-LAJOIE

Negotiating Identities Anglophones Teaching and Living in Quebec

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London

©  University of Toronto Press 2016 Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-4426-4853-1 Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetablebased inks

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Gérin-Lajoie, Diane, 1953–, author Negotiating identities : anglophones teaching and living in Quebec / Diane Gérin-Lajoie. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4426-4853-1 (bound) 1. Canadians, English-speaking – Québec (Province) – Social conditions. 2. Teachers – Québec (Province) – Social conditions.  3. Teachers – Québec (Province) – Language.  I. Title. FC2950.5.G47  2016  305.7’210714  C2015-906875-4

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

     Funded by the Financé par le Government gouvernement du Canada of Canada

an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario

To my dear friend Vincent Ouellette, for our fruitful discussions always.

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Contents

Acknowledgments  ix 1 Introduction  3 2 The Social, Linguistic, and Educational Contexts of Anglophones Living in Quebec  24 3 Teachers’ Stories – Association A  36 4 Teachers’ Stories – Association B  83 5 The Complex Notions of Identity and Sense of Belonging  112 6 The Politics of Language  127 7 Teaching in English Minority-Language Schools in Quebec  145 8 Concluding Remarks  162 Appendix: Survey on Teachers’ Language Practices and Career Paths  173 References  197 Index  205

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Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to all of the people who made this publication a reality. Thank you to Sally, Christine, Sarah, Serafina, Shelley, Émilie, Jacques, and Diane, who spent long hours sharing their fascinating stories with me. My gratitude goes also to the members of their family and their friends, who took time out of their busy lives to meet with me and discuss issues of identity and belonging. I also want to thank the representatives of the two teachers’ associations that gave me access to their members. Their help was tremendously important in the success of the selection process. A special thank goes to Dr. Robin Liu Hopson, who served as a research assistant on the study. She was instrumental in the publication of this book. She devoted countless hours to reading revised versions, providing useful comments, and editing and formatting the manuscript in order for me to submit it on time. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of my other research assistants, Lydia Menna, Kirk Perris, Amanda Gebhard, and Mark Sinke, who participated in the fieldwork and the initial analysis of the results. My sincere gratitude goes to Douglas Hildebrand, my editor at the University of Toronto Press, for his patience and constant guidance during this challenging enterprise. His continued support was tremendous, and without him I do not think I would have completed this project. Thank you also to Douglas’s colleagues Lisa Jemison, Nancy Foran, and Stephen Shapiro for all their good work on the book. Lastly, thank you to my English editor, Elizabeth Fairley, for her efficiency and excellent work as always. Finally, my gratitude goes to Stephen Anderson for his support, patience, and understanding through this demanding process.

x Acknowledgments

The research on which this book is based was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through its Standard Research Grants program (2009–2012).

NEGOTIATING IDENTITIES Anglophones Teaching and Living in Quebec

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1  Introduction

Canada is often depicted as a country of two “solitudes,” with Frenchspeaking Canadians, or francophones, living in Quebec and Englishspeaking Canadians, or anglophones, living in the other nine Canadian provinces and three territories, as though those two linguistic groups are homogeneous and their relationship inevitably conflictual, or what Glick Schiller (2012) refers to as “binaries of differences.” Even if the metaphor of the two solitudes is not completely inadequate to describe Canada, it is flawed in two major ways. First, the composition of both the francophone and anglophone populations in Canada is heterogeneous. In addition, the two groups do not all live in their stereotyped parts of the country. It is rarely acknowledged that one million francophones live outside of Quebec, where they represent 4.5% of the total population in the rest of Canada, and that one million anglophones live in Quebec, representing 13.5% of its population (Statistics Canada, 2011). Second, for those who live as a linguistic minority in their province or territory of residence, the social and linguistic borders are not well defined. They find themselves negotiating their lives across two sociolinguistic communities – two worlds at the same time. Furthermore, their daily realities are not only quite different from the linguistic majority where they live but also vary within their own linguistic group. Being a francophone in New Brunswick is different from being a francophone in British Columbia. For anglophones in Quebec, living in Montreal is not the same as living in Saguenay. Heterogeneity among linguistic groups, either in a majority or minority context, must be acknowledged in order to understand what it means to live as an anglophone and as a francophone in Canada.

4  Negotiating Identities

Anglophones in Quebec represent one of the two official linguistic minorities in Canada under the law; however, they are not always perceived as such. When politicians and the public refer to the official linguistic minorities in Canada, it is usually with reference to the francophone population living outside of the province of Quebec. Most of the research in disciplines such as demography, sociology, education, history, and political sciences has focused mainly on this population. The second official linguistic minority, the anglophones in Quebec, has not received the same level of interest and attention from social science researchers, especially from those who work within qualitative research. This situation is changing though, and empirical qualitative studies on anglophones in Quebec have increased in recent years.1 My book is a contribution to the still emerging field of inquiry on official linguistic minorities in Canada. It is well known in Canada that the French and English have coexisted for hundreds years in a complex relationship. Demographically, most francophones live in the province of Quebec. Although francophones are numerically the majority in Quebec, they are still considered to be a fragile majority, one still in the process of becoming a majority in terms of power, whereas the minoritization of the Quebec anglophones has yet to be completely achieved (McAndrew, 2013). The two linguistic minorities are officially recognized by the federal government through various language-planning laws that acknowledge the existence of a linguistic duality within Canada. In 1969, the Official Languages Act was proclaimed, declaring English and French as Canada’s official languages. In addition, the two linguistic groups were recognized as the official linguistic minorities in the country. Since the enactment of this law, the Canadian federal government provides services in both English and French. The Official Languages Act granted francophones living outside of Quebec and anglophones in Quebec specific rights, including the right to be served in the minority language at federal government offices. In 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enacted to preserve the individual rights of all people residing in Canada. Among 1 The creation of the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities (CIRLM) might explain the rather new interest in studying anglophones in Quebec. This institute was established in 2002 through a trust fund created by the government of Canada. Its mission is to promote research on issues important to anglophones in Quebec and francophones outside of Quebec.

Introduction 5 

those rights is access to public education for the two official linguistic minorities in those provinces or territories where they are a demographic minority. Article 23 of the Charter guarantees that children whose parents are Canadian and members of the official linguistic minority of their province or territory are entitled to instruction in the language of the official minority of that province or territory. It is important to point out that in the case of the anglophones in Quebec, the provincial government had already established specific criteria for the admission of students in English minority-language schools, through its 1977 Charter of the French Language (Bill 101); those criteria were, in fact, similar to those of the Canadian Charter. This book is about anglophones in Quebec. It examines their rapport to identity, language, and culture.2 It tells the stories of individuals who live in Quebec and work there as teachers in English schools. There are several reasons for choosing this research topic. First, little is known about the day-to-day lived experiences of anglophones in Quebec and about their relationship with the francophone linguistic majority. Second, education has always been considered one of the most important institutions for socialization into the broader societies and communities in which we live. In the case of linguistic minorities, education’s role, through the work of teachers, is often portrayed as crucial to maintaining the minority language and culture. I want to explore if this is the case for anglophones in Quebec. Third, research performed on French minority-language education in English Canada is significant (GérinLajoie, 2012, 2006, 2003; Pilote, 2006; Labrie & Lamoureux, 2003; Labrie & Forlot, 1999; Dallaire, 2003; Landry & Allard, 1997; Heller, 1999); however, English minority-language education in Quebec has been studied less, although interest in the topic has recently increased dramatically (Lamarre, 2007, 2008, 2012; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011; Magnan, 2011, 2005; Pilote et al., 2011; Magnan & Lamarre, 2013; Vieux-Fort, 2009; Bourhis & Landry, 2008; Bourhis & Foucher, 2012). Fourth, there is an increasing need to compare the reality of both English and French minority-language education in Canada in order to better understand the role of education in the sustainability and continued development of linguistic minority communities. To do this, one must examine how

2 The term “rapport to” is borrowed from the French expression “rapport à” and refers to an individual’s position regarding identity, language, culture, etc. It is understood as a dynamic and fluid process, always evolving through time and space.

6  Negotiating Identities

teachers comprehend and enact their role in linguistic minority schools. What does it mean to teach in these educational settings? What are the tensions, if any? In order to examine the teachers’ discourses on their views of working in English minority-language schools and as members of a linguistic minority in Quebec, I chose a qualitative research methodology and opted for the life history approach to conduct the study. In the world of research, the researcher’s own history influences how the research process evolves (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). A researcher’s identity is indeed influenced by his or her own personal identity, the two hardly separable. For this reason, it is important to talk briefly about my personal and professional journey in order to situate myself in the research process. The Journey That Led to This Book As a critical sociologist of education, I have made minority education the focus of my research and teaching for some time. When I became a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, my professional responsibilities were to be divided between the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning and the Centre de recherche en éducation franco-ontarienne (CREFO), a research centre in the field of Franco-Ontarian education. At the time of my appointment, CREFO’s work focused on linguistic issues, mostly in the context of French minority-language schools. As a French-speaking individual from Quebec, I had become part of Ontario’s francophone minority when I moved to Toronto to pursue my doctoral studies. Subsequently, my work became closely related to my personal life, adding an interesting and positive dimension to my research. With my own lived experience as a member of a linguistic minority came additional insight. For years, I conducted research on francophones living in Ontario. Given the important role Franco-Ontarians have played in the maintenance of the French language and culture outside of Quebec, my research has examined multiple dimensions of education policy, practice, and experience in French minority-language schools. The notion of identity became my focus. I attempted to deconstruct this notion in order to more fully understand how social actors perceived their identity and how their sense of belonging to a minority group – or their lack of a sense of belonging – developed and manifested itself in their lives.

Introduction 7 

I conducted my first ethnographic study on francophone students over a period of three years. This study provided me with a deeper understanding of the notion of identity among youth attending French minoritylanguage secondary schools in Ontario. Their discourses introduced me to the complexity of the notion of identity in minority-language populations (Gérin-Lajoie, 2003). In addressing the identity paths of the young people who participated in the study, I specifically emphasized their rapport to language and their perceptions of their identity. I then became more interested in the role of the school and, in particular, the role of teachers as key contributors to the maintenance of the French language and culture in minority communities. Together with responsibility for knowledge transmission, this role has typically been cited as an argument for establishing schools in minority settings (Rocque, 2011; Ontario Ministry of Education, 2004). I became interested in developing a better understanding of the relationship between teachers’ linguistic identities and their cultural identities, which could be defined as their “personal” identities and their professional identities. I then undertook another three-year ethnographic study on this issue (Gérin-Lajoie, 2006, 2007, 2010). The result was a detailed description of francophone teachers’ linguistic, cultural, and professional identity trajectories within Ontario’s French minoritylanguage educational system. This study shed light on the context in which these teachers evolve, their relationship with language, the role of culture and identity in their personal lives, and their relationship with the teaching profession. A few years ago, I began to wonder how the other official language minority, i.e., anglophones in Quebec, made sense of their identity and sense of belonging. I wanted to compare their discourses to that of francophones living in Ontario. In 2005, I focused first on youth enrolled in English minority-language schools in the Montreal area. I replicated the study that I had conducted with youth enrolled in French minority-­ language schools in Ontario. The goal of this third ethnographic study was to understand the identity paths of these anglophone youth and then to perform a comparative analysis of these new findings and those from my ethnographic study of francophone youth in Ontario (GérinLajoie, 2011). My study on youth and identity in the Montreal area (2005–2008) opened up a new world to me. In my conversations with the students, their parents, and their teachers, I heard fascinating accounts of what it was like to grow up in and around Montreal as an anglophone. I then

8  Negotiating Identities

decided to explore how teachers working in English minority-language schools in Quebec described and made sense of their identity as members of a linguistic minority in conjunction with their professional identity as teachers. I replicated the study that I had conducted on teachers in Ontario in order to compare the situation within these two linguistic minority contexts. I soon realized that their stories were not just about their role as teachers. They talked about life in general, as members of Quebec society. What began as an exploration of their professional life became a rich narrative about what it means to be an anglophone in Quebec. Years of research have taught me that the notion of identity is at the centre of all spheres of life and that schools are only one of many places in which to examine social practices that contribute to and shape one’s linguistic and cultural identity. The Book The focus of this book is identity within linguistic minorities and, specifically, identity within the anglophone linguistic minority in Quebec. The sociological framework that I have adopted understands identity as a social construct that is constantly evolving. In my previous work, I referred to this constant evolution as mouvance (Gérin-Lajoie, 2003, 2008, 2011). Identity is also understood as a fluid concept (Hall, 2006, 1990; Woodward, 2002). In addition, identity is associated with the notion of hybridity (Bhabha, 1996; Yon, 2000). Lastly, another discourse, which originated from the field of geography, explains that mobility and place are important aspects of social life and that the way that we identify with the latter shapes our identity and sense of belonging (Easthope, 2009, Torkington, 2012; Anthias, 2012). One must recognize that the way individuals perceive their identity is always influenced by the social practices in which they participate and that these practices are themselves embedded in power relations (Glick Schiller, 2012). This perspective contradicts the essentialist view of identity as fixed and linear (Allahar, 2006). Furthermore, when examining the notion of identity, it is imperative to recognize the intersectionality of diverse identities (gender, race, sexual orientation, and social class, among others) to be able to understand the complexity of people’s lived experiences (Crenshaw, 1991). However, this is difficult to accomplish empirically due to the multidimensionality of those lived experiences. Within the particular context of anglophones in Quebec, I examine the notions of linguistic, cultural, and professional identities.

Introduction 9 

I also acknowledge the notion of minority as a social construct influenced by the social practices of members of society. As Juteau (1999) explains, “we are not born ethnic, we become ethnic” (trans. from French by author). However, not everyone sees the notion of minority this way. As reported by Castles and Davidson (2000), according to the most common definition, minority groups are seen as having the following characteristics: (a) they are fewer in number than the general population; (b) they share ethnic, linguistic, or religious characteristics distinct from those of the dominant society; and (c) explicitly or not, they demonstrate solidarity regarding the preservation of their culture, language, religion, and traditions. I believe that this definition, however widely accepted, is missing something. It does not address the issue of power, which is a central element in the definition of a minority group. Members of linguistic minorities are part of power relations that sometimes involve the majority group dominating the minority group. Asymmetric power relationships also exist within minority groups themselves. Castles and Davidson (2000) expand on the common definition of minorities to note that minority groups (a) have been marginalized by dominant groups on the basis of socially constructed markers such as race, origin, or culture and (b) might have some degree of collective consciousness based on a belief in shared language, traditions, religion, history, and experiences, which makes them feel that they are members of a community (p. 63). This distinctly postmodern definition goes beyond fixed characteristics; it recognizes, as a starting point, that the notion of minority is itself complex. As a researcher, it is through this lens that I have approached my work on linguistic minorities over the years. In telling the teachers’ stories, I wish to contribute to a better understanding of the complex reality of living in Quebec as a member of the anglophone linguistic minority. Their lives as teachers was my entry point into conversations about their work; however, their stories reveal a great deal about their lived experience as anglophones in Quebec. The study3 discussed in this book had three objectives. The first was to examine the identity paths, both personal and professional, of teachers 3 The study called “Rapport to Identity Among Teachers Working in Anglophone Schools in Québec” was funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) through its program of Standard Research Grants (2009–2012). I want to take the opportunity to thank my research assistants on this project: Lydia Menna, Kirk Perris, Amanda Gebbhard, Mark Sinke, and Robin Liu Hopson.

10  Negotiating Identities

working in English minority-language schools in Quebec. I wanted to examine teachers’ discourses on issues of identity, not only regarding their profession as teachers but also regarding their lived experiences as anglophones in a society in which the dominant discourse promotes the French language and culture through language-planning policies and has at its core the notions of identity and nationhood. My second objective was to listen to teachers talk about their experiences in various spheres of their life in order to better understand how these identity paths, through daily social practices, influence how they make sense of the task of teaching students who are, for the most part, members of Quebec’s official linguistic minority. For example, do they feel a pressing need to raise students’ awareness about identity and language issues, as is the case in French minority-language schools in Ontario, where concern over maintaining the French language and culture has resulted in language-planning policies in schools? Do they teach the same way as they would if they were working in a linguistic majority setting? And do they feel that they are actively participating in building the identity of their students and the sustainability of the English language and community? My third objective was to use data from my previous ethnographic study on teachers in Ontario to perform a comparative analysis of teachers in Quebec and Ontario in terms of their discourses on their work as agents of linguistic and cultural reproduction. Do the two groups of teachers share similar views of their roles as teachers? How does the dominant discourse influence the way in which they make sense of their work with their students? Participants in the study in Quebec were from two anglophone teachers’ associations4 located outside of Montreal. I wanted to work with teachers living in more predominantly francophone areas of the province in order to be able to contrast with the situation in Montreal, where it is still possible to choose to live in English most of the time. The first teachers’ association, which I refer to as Association A, is located north of a large urban area and counts more than 1200 members teaching youth and adults in elementary, secondary, continuing education, and vocational streams; the other, Association B, is in the centre of the province and has a membership of 300 working mostly with youth. Both associations cover a large territory and have both urban and rural English minority-language schools. 4 In Quebec, teachers’ unions are more commonly referred to as teachers’ associations.

Introduction 11 

The empirical study was divided into two parts and included 1 a brief survey on the teachers’ linguistic practices and career path (the survey was mostly intended to be a tool for selecting a smaller group of participants with whom to develop a qualitative component); 2 a qualitative component designed to relate the life stories of a small group of teachers. The Survey The survey questionnaire explored three areas of linguistic practices: family life, professional life, and social life. It comprised the following sections: (a) the teachers’ demographic and linguistic profiles; (b) the teachers’ family context when growing up and now; (c) the resources in the minority language available in their areas (books, magazines, newspapers, videotapes, television and radio stations, theatre, movies); (d) the teachers’ language practices at home and in leisure activities; (e) their language practices at work; (f) the teachers’ career paths. The questionnaire had 35 questions and was administered online to over 800 teachers from the two associations I selected for my study. As noted, the survey was primarily used as an exploratory tool to select a smaller number of participants for the life history component of the study, which is the focus of this book. In addition, the survey made it possible to build a demographic profile of the members of the two teachers’ associations.5 I also compared those survey results to the findings from a previous study on the identity of teachers working in French minoritylanguage schools in Ontario.6 I compared the findings pertaining to the teachers’ perceived identities, their recollection of their family’s language practices when they were growing up, and their language practices as adults with their own families. This comparison is of great interest because it provides insight into the reality of teachers from Canada’s two official linguistic minorities.

5 For the full report see Gérin-Lajoie, D., Perris, K., and Hopson, R. (2013). Survey on Linguistic Practices Among Teachers in Anglophone Schools in Québec. Toronto: CREFO, OISE, University of Toronto. 6 This study examined the identity of teachers working in French minority-language schools in Ontario and its impact on their work with their students (2001–2004). It received funding from SSHRC and took place in two schools located in two different Ontario school boards.

12  Negotiating Identities

Before delving into the life stories of the teachers selected to participate in the qualitative component of the study, I will give a descriptive summary of the main results in order to provide a clearer picture of the linguistic context in which the teachers participate. Comparative results between Quebec and Ontario from both the survey and interview findings will be discussed in chapter 8. Tables of the survey can be found in the appendix. The survey was answered by 326 teachers (40.75% of the total sample). Of these, 271 (83.1%) were from Association A and 55 (16.9%) were from Association B. Regarding the sample size, please note that not all survey participants responded to every question. As such, the percentages used when reviewing the various survey results refer only to those participants who responded to the particular question being discussed. Please refer to the tables in the appendix for the total number of respondents for each question. the teachers ’ demographic and linguistic profiles

(family context) A clear majority of the respondents were born in Quebec. A smaller percentage was born in Ontario (16.4% of the respondents from Association B compared to 7.1% of the respondents from Association A). More than 12% of participants from each association were born outside of Canada (Table 1). Asked about the way they perceived their linguistic identity, more than a third of the respondents from Association A saw themselves as having an anglophone identity. In the case of respondents from Association B, a slight majority reported having a bilingual identity. A relatively high number of respondents from Association A saw themselves as having a trilingual identity (19.7%). Those who saw themselves as having a francophone identity were the smallest group, with the highest percentage in Association A, with 15.2%, compared to 7.5% in Association B (Table 2). Participants who saw themselves as having a bilingual identity and who identified English as their first language made up 54.1% of the participants in Association A and 53.6% of the participants in Association B. This was followed by French as a first language (43.2% of the participants in Association A who identified as bilingual and 46.4% of the participants for Association B). This is consistent with the second-language results in both bilingual identity groups, where French is the second language. The number of participants who reported having a trilingual identity was higher in Association A than in Association B. The majority of the Association A trilingual group spoke English as their first language (58.8%) followed by “other” (31.4%). The two largest “other” languages

Introduction 13 

were Greek and Italian. In Association B, only four individuals identified as having a trilingual identity (Table 3). The survey also informs on the place of birth and first languages of the teachers’ parents.7 In Association A, roughly one-third of participants identified their mother’s place of birth as the region of Montreal and another 29.5% as elsewhere in the world (meaning a non-English-­speaking or non-French-speaking country). The last third were born in other areas of Quebec, in other Canadian provinces, or in English-­speaking countries other than Canada. In Association B, the largest percentage of participants identified their mother’s place of birth as the Quebec national capital region (21.6%) followed by English-speaking countries other than Canada (13.7%). The rest of the parents were born in other parts of Quebec and in other Canadian provinces. As with the participants’ mothers, the distribution of the fathers’ places of birth among participants in Association A is centred in Montreal (29.3%). A more balanced distribution is found among participants in Association B, with 16.7% identifying Ontario followed by the Quebec national capital region (14.6%) and the Montreal area (14.6%), and English-speaking countries other than Canada (12.5%) (Table 5 and Table 8). Of the Association A participants who reported their mother’s first language, 39.3% reported it was English, followed by 31.3% who reported it was French. A relatively large percentage of the Association A participants reported their mother’s first language was Italian (13.1%) or “other” (11.1%). By contrast, in Association B, 49% of the respondents reported their mother’s first language was French, and 41.2% reported it was English. The most common first language spoken by the father was English among the respondents from both associations. French was the first language spoken by the father for one-third of Association A participants who answered this question and 43.1% of the Association B participants. Similar to the results regarding the mother’s first language, around 13% of the Association A participants who responded to this question indicated having a father who spoke Italian as a first language and around 11% indicated having a father whose first language was “other” (Table 9). In sum, the data on teachers’ parents show differences between the two associations. First, among the participants in Association A, roughly

7 The areas listed correspond to the 17 administrative regions of the province of Quebec.

14  Negotiating Identities

one-third of the parents were born in Montreal, which may reflect the proximity of Montreal to parts of the geographic region covered by Association A. Among the participants in Association B, however, parents had more diversified places of birth. Another difference is the higher percentage of parents from immigrant backgrounds in Association A, which is likely associated with the presence in Montreal of a substantial number of post-war European immigrant families, which are more prevalent there than in other areas of the province. The survey also inquired about language use preferences in the teachers’ families when they were growing up. Participants were asked which language they spoke with their mother, father, and siblings. In Association A, 59.5% of the participating members who answered this question indicated that they always spoke English with their mother; this percentage was 56.1% for the Association B participants. In Association A, 44.4% of the members who answered this survey question indicat­­­ ­ed that they always spoke French with their mother, and 35.2% indicated that they never spoke French with their mother. In Association B, 50% of the sample who answered this question indicated that they always spoke French with their mother. Interestingly, 27.2% of the relevant sample in Association A indicated that they always spoke another language with their mother. In Association B, this percentage was only 3.8% (Table 7). In both associations, the majority of participants indicated that they spoke English with their father (56.5% of the relevant sample for Association A and 51.2% for Association B). In Association A, 40.1% of participating members reported always speaking French with their father, while 34.4% indicated never doing so. More than half (51.5%) of the Association B sample indicated that they always spoke French with their father (Table 10). The majority of participants in both associations reported always speaking English with their siblings: 65.2% in Association A and 53.5% in Association B. French was less commonly spoken always – 35.4% of participants in Association A and 44.1% of participants in Association B. Very few participants indicated that they spoke another language (“other”) with their siblings (Table 11). Results indicate that language practices varied in the participants’ families when they were growing up and that many of the teachers were raised in families who used more than one language. The survey also asked about language practices in the participants’ homes with their immediate family (partner and children). Participants in Association A predominantly spoke English with their partner, with 51.3% of the respondents stating that English was always the language

Introduction 15 

of communication. French was always spoken by 27.6% of the relevant Association A sample and 12.3% spoke another language sometimes. Among the relevant sample in Association B, French was always spoken by 37.5%, and English was always spoken by 20.9% (Table 12). Among participants who reported having children at home in their immediate family, 37% of those in Association A always speak English with their children. In Association B, 26.7% often speak English with their children, followed by 22.2% who indicated that they always speak English with their children (Table 13). When together as a family, the majority of the relevant sample of Association A participants always speak English (53.7%). This is also the case for 21.4% of the Association B sample. Speaking English often as a family was reported by 33.3% of the Association B sample. In Association A, 27% of the participants indicated always speaking French, compared to 29.3% of the participants from Association B. The percentage who indicated speaking French sometimes when together as a family is very close for both associations – 24.5% for Association A participants and 24.4% for Association B participants. Association A had a proportionally higher number of participants who spoke another language at home; in this case, 16.7% indicated that they sometimes spoke another language when together as a family, compared to 3.4% of the Association B sample (Table 14). I chose to present the above results in detail to stress two points. The first one concerns the variability of language practices among the teachers from the two associations, generally and even within the context of their families. That variability appears to be associated with the location and demographic particularities in which the participants have lived and worked. If one examines specifically the results from Association A, it is perhaps not surprising to find a larger percentage of participants declaring to have a trilingual identity. Immigrant populations have been found mainly in large urban settings in Canada, such as Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal (Gérin-Lajoie, 2008). The second point that I want to raise is the fact that although variety exists in the language practices in both associations, active presence and use of the majority language (French) is greater for teachers belonging to Association B, where close contact with other people from the minority language seems to be less frequent than is the case with teachers from Association A. We will see if that situation prevails when we look at the other categories of information. Finally, it is evident that many of the teachers in the English minority-language school system grew up and live in bilingual or trilingual households in which the choice of language

16  Negotiating Identities

used often depends on with whom they are talking, i.e., parents, partner, or children. minority - language resources available in the area and used regularly

Among participants from Association A, a very high percentage reported that they had access to a vast number of English-language resources, such as books, magazines, newspapers, television, and radio stations, outside of their homes – this ranged from 94.4% to 99.2%. The resource with the lowest percentage was theatre, with 83.4%. The responses from Association B participants were markedly different. For only three resources – videotapes, TV stations, and computer programs – did very high percentages of participants report access (98%, 100%, and 92%, respectively) (Table 15), which may reflect the lack of proximity to a major metropolitan area like Montreal with a diversity of resources available and accessible. Participants were also asked to identify what resources were available in English in their homes while they were growing up or currently, if they were still in the same residence. Among the participants from both associations, the most common resources were books, magazines, and dictionaries (Table 16). In terms of resources used at home, the majority of participants in both associations always read books in English, with some of the participants reading French magazines sometimes. The majority of participants in both associations always or often read newspapers in English. When it comes to reading newspapers in French, “sometimes” was the most common response among all participants. The majority of the participants also mostly listened to music in English. An overwhelming majority of participants in both associations indicated that they always watched television in English when growing up (Table 17). Participants were then asked if various English resources were currently available in their home. Based on the fact that a majority of participants in both associations responded “yes” to each item listed, English resources are abundantly available in the participants’ homes (Table 18). Those results seem to indicate that access to and use of English resources is common among the survey participants, even more now than when they were growing up. This could be explained by the omnipresence of the English language in people’s lives. For example, the Internet makes it easier for individuals living in a linguistic minority context to reach the outside world. However, it is also important to note that the results show that some teachers from Association A, who live closer to Montreal, might have better access than the teachers from Association B to resources other than radio, television, and music.

Introduction 17  teachers ’ linguistic practices at work

The percentage of participants in each association who always or often spoke to their students in the classroom in English differed. In Association A, this applied to 79.2% of participants who answered this question; in Association B, it applied to 100% of the participants. French was spoken sometimes by 34% of the Association A participants and by 41.2% of the Association B participants. Similar results were observed for the language that the teachers spoke with students in the school hallways. Results show that 84% of the Association A participants always or often spoke English to students in the school hallways, whereas this was true for 100% of the Association B participants. French was spoken to students in the school hallways sometimes by 38.2% of the Association A respondents and by 25% of the Association B respondents. Other languages were rarely spoken in the hallways with students in either association (Table 20). Regarding teachers’ language practices with other teachers and members of the administration at their school, 100% of the participants in Association B who answered this question indicated that they always or often spoke to other teachers in English. The percentage of the Association A sample who always or often spoke English to other teachers was 57.4% and 38.4% respectively. A high percentage of participants indicated that they sometimes spoke French to their colleagues (49.8% in Association A and 64.9% in Association B). A clear majority of participants in both associations indicated that they always spoke English with members of the administration (76.9% in Association A and 95.5% Association B), and 17.9% in Association A and 4.5% in Association B indicated that they often did so (Table 21). What language or languages did teachers use with students during extracurricular activities? English was always spoken by 63.2% of the Association A sample and 82.2% of the Association B sample. French was spoken sometimes by 31.6% of the Association A sample and 31.3% of the Association B sample (Table 23). The language or languages in which teachers interact with others within the school setting indicate that in Association A there seems to be less emphasis on the continued use of the minority language within the school when compared with the practices of teachers belonging to Association B. One reason to explain this difference could be that schools totally immersed in the majority-language context outside of the school setting make efforts to reinforce the use of English at school as well as during extracurricular activities.

18  Negotiating Identities teachers ’ career paths

Over one-third of participants, the largest percentage in both associations, indicated that they had 11 to 20 years of teaching experience. One-third of the participants in Association B were fairly new teachers. The average number of years of teaching experience was 14.7 years for participants in Association A and 12.1 years for participants in Association B (Table 24). Participants were asked the number of schools at which they had worked throughout their career. In Association A, two-thirds had worked in one to four schools, with four being the most common response (19.3%). Similar results were observed in Association B, where threequarters of participants had worked in one to four schools throughout their career. Association B participants who had taught in three different schools represented the largest group (25%) (Table 25). Survey participants were also asked if teaching in an English minority-­ language school in Quebec was different from teaching in an English majority-language school elsewhere in Canada. In Association A, almost half of the responding participants indicated that there was a difference compared to close to two-third of the respondents from Association B (Table 26). In conclusion, results indicate that the majority of teachers who participated in the survey claim to have either an anglophone identity or a bilingual identity. This finding is noteworthy because ethnic and linguistic minorities often demonstrate a tendency to claim the identity of the majority and, if not, then at least a bilingual identity. It is rather unusual to have the prevalent identity be associated with the minority group. More than one-third of teacher respondents define themselves as having an anglophone identity. It is also important to point out that almost onefifth of teachers from Association A claim a trilingual identity, compared to only 7.5% in the case of teachers from Association B, even though I do recognize the smaller sample size for Association B. Further, access to resources in the minority language seems to be a bit easier for teachers from Association A than for teachers from Association B. A third finding worth mentioning is the language practices within the family, either with the teachers’ partner or their children. Most of the time English is the language spoken by respondents in Association A; however, other languages are also present in both associations. While this finding could suggest that the English language is losing ground among the anglophone population in Quebec and being slowly erased, this might not actually be the case. Provided that English is the language used in our globalized world, its presence will stay strong. At the local

Introduction 19 

level, however, English as the minority language in Quebec will continue to share the scene not only with French but also with other languages, which are increasingly present in the daily experiences of people. The Life History: The Qualitative Component of the Study For the second part of the study, I used the life history approach to examine a small group of teachers’ discourses on their lived experiences, particularly regarding the way they make sense of their identity as members of an official linguistic minority and as members of the teaching profession. Ten teachers were selected in the first year of the study. Two of the participants, who belonged to the same teachers’ association, left the study after the first year: one moved outside of Canada and the other withdrew for personal reasons, leaving the total number of participants at eight. Five criteria served to select the teachers. First, the sample included teachers from two anglophone teachers’ associations in Quebec (five from each association). My initial objective was to work with teachers located in Montreal and in one other region in Quebec. I was unsuccessful in gaining access to teachers from associations in Montreal. However, one of the two associations selected (Association A) has teachers working in schools that are close to Montreal. Second, teachers were selected from both elementary and secondary levels, in order to see if differences exist in terms of the way teachers from different levels understand their role with their students. Third, the sample included both female and male teachers. Fourth, I deliberately chose teachers from both Englishspeaking backgrounds and from other backgrounds. Fifth, I limited the sample to teachers with more than 10 years of teaching experience.8

8 In order to contact potential participants, the last question of the survey asked teachers interested in the second part of the study to provide their contact information. Question 51 read as follows: “Would you be interested in participating in the qualitative component of the study presented on the information letter preceding the questionnaire? Yes, no, or I would like to get additional information. If you have answered either ‘yes’ or ‘I would like to get more information,’ please provide the following information: Name, Telephone number OR e-mail address.” A total of 25 teachers volunteered to participate. Based on the selection criteria listed, I made a pre-selection of 15 potential participants and contacted them by e-mail. Ten of them responded positively. The sample comprised five teachers in each of the two associations; eight were females and two were males; three claimed an anglophone identity, five a bilingual identity, one a trilingual identity, and one a francophone identity. Five were elementary school teachers and five were working at the high school level. They had all completed their teaching degree more than 10 years earlier.

20  Negotiating Identities

The teachers’ life stories constitute the most significant part of the empirical study, and this is why I chose to give as much voice as I could to the participants. As a result, the space devoted to their stories in this book is significant. I focused my analysis on the viewpoints of each of the eight participants in an attempt to highlight their contextual reality (Miller, 2000). Their stories demonstrate the complexities involved in attempting to explain their personal and professional identity as well as their daily experiences as members of a linguistic minority. As Bertaux (1997) explains, “life history represents a particular form of interview, the narrative interview [entretien narratif], where a researcher asks an individual to tell all or a portion of his/her life experience” (p. 6; trans. from French by author). This methodological approach is also about a life experience that a participant chooses to tell; the story is about what the participant remembers or what she or he chooses to share with the researcher (Atkinson, 2001). The life history approach fits well with the study of identity, where the latter is understood as a fluid and evolving concept. As Munro (1998) explains, The current focus on acknowledging the subjective, multiple and partial nature of human experience has resulted in a revival of life history methodology. What were previously criticisms of life history, its lack of representativeness and its subjective nature, are now its greatest strength. (p. 8)

This methodological approach allowed for a better understanding of how teachers develop their identity as individuals and as teachers and how they position themselves as agents of linguistic and cultural reproduction working with students who are also members of an official linguistic minority in Canada. I met with the participants on a regular basis over the course of the three-year study to discuss various parts of their life history. I chose to meet with participants at different moments of the study, focusing each time on different dimensions of their life instead of doing a one-time interview. Slicing their life histories into “moments” gave me the opportunity to meet with them on a regular basis and, over time, to develop a trusting relationship. Trust is indeed an important feature of the life history approach. It gave me the opportunity to perform a more in-depth analysis, as there were occasions to revisit aspects of the teachers’ discourses that needed further discussion. Finally, I had an opportunity to witness the evolution of the teachers’ discourses over a significant period of time. The teachers participated in

Introduction 21 

two in-depth interviews each year. The first slice of the life history began with an individual interview on the teachers’ own linguistic and cultural identity path from birth to young adulthood. A second individual interview examined the teachers’ career paths, addressing the notion of professional identity and teaching philosophy at length. In the second year of the study, I pursued their life history with a third individual interview on the notions of identity and belonging. This provided an opportunity to reflect on how these teachers had positioned themselves over time, i.e., from childhood to the present, with regards to minority language and culture. The teachers’ life history continued in a fourth individual interview, in which the teachers discussed their work with students and their daily practices from their first experiences as a teacher to the present time. During the third year of the study, the teachers completed their life history through two final individual interviews. The fifth interview examined their role as agents of linguistic and cultural reproduction in their school. Once again, teachers were asked to reflect on their experience from their first year of teaching to the present time. The teachers’ life history was completed with a final individual in-depth interview about possible changes that might have taken place in the course of the study with respect to their situation as members of the anglophone minority and as teachers in an English minority-language school. In addition to the multiple in-depth interviews, a semi-structured group interview was conducted with the teachers’ immediate family members about linguistic practices within the family and their sense of belonging to the anglophone linguistic minority in Quebec. Lastly, a semi-structured group interview was also performed with the teachers and their group of friends. Linguistic practices among the members of the group were discussed, views on linguistic minority issues were shared, and, as with the interview with family members, issues pertaining to identity and sense of belonging were addressed. Copies of all interviews were sent to the teachers to cross-check the information transcribed. Eight fascinating stories emerged from these conversations. These stories were also read by each teacher to make sure that the information was accurate. The detailed historical and sociopolitical information that came out of the interviews provides an understanding of the complexities of the social practices of anglophones in Quebec over time. Three major findings are discussed in this book. First, the analysis reveals that identity is understood and lived as a complex notion, whereby

22  Negotiating Identities

teachers feel the presence of an inclusion-exclusion divide in Quebec between anglophones and francophones. Second, language represents a strong political force in the lives of these teachers both inside and outside the school, and it is central to their discourses. These two findings are of particular interest because they transcend the boundaries of the participants’ discourses on being teachers. They demonstrate the complexity of their understanding of their identity not only as teachers but as members of a linguistic minority group. They highlight the complexity of their understanding of their place within Quebec society. The third major finding is that these teachers see their role in the classroom as one of knowledge transmission, not one of linguistic and cultural reproduction. Organization of the Book In chapter 2 I discuss the social, political, and educational context in which Quebec’s anglophone minority lives. I provide demographic information as well as a historical overview of language policies that have shaped language practices in Quebec. Chapters 3 and 4 describe the life histories of the teachers, with a similar presentation for each teacher, providing the reader with a framework to facilitate the reading of these stories. In chapter 5 I deconstruct the notions of identity and sense of belonging based on the participants’ discourses. Contrary to popular belief, identity is not set in stone at birth and it cannot be understood as a linear path. There are many grey areas that must be recognized as such in order to present a realistic picture of the social reality in which we live. I will also introduce the notion of an inclusion-exclusion divide in analysing the participants’ discourses with respect to the ways in which they perceive themselves as members of Quebec society. Often feeling that they are outsiders, some of the participants convey limitations in their participation in Quebec society. Chapter 6 examines power through the politics of language in the participants’ lived experiences. We will see that language practices are embedded within power relations at the centre of the participants’ discourses. These power relations reveal both linguistic measures to legally favour the French language in Quebec and the power of the English language in today’s globalized world. Chapter 7 addresses the issue of professional identity and teaching in minority-language schools in Quebec. In addition, I revisit findings from a similar study conducted with teachers working in French minority-language schools in Ontario and examine the Quebec results in relation to these to establish a comparison

Introduction 23 

between the two educational realities. The comparative analysis discusses the role of the school and the role of teachers as agents of linguistic and cultural reproduction. I examine how power comes into play between majority and minority groups as well as between and within the linguistic minority groups themselves. This comparative analysis is important in the context of official linguistic minority education in Canada and helps provide a better understanding of the anglophone and francophone minorities’ realities. The analysis highlights their heterogeneity, even though the official linguistic minorities are presented in rather similar ways in the federal government’s official discourse. Finally, in chapter 8 I revisit the major findings of my study and their implications for advancing our knowledge of linguistic minorities in general and in teachers’ work, most specifically of the two official linguistic minorities in Canada. I also reflect on the research process itself, presenting the teachers’ experiences as research participants and recognizing my own subjectivity in my role as researcher.

2  T  he Social, Linguistic, and Educational Contexts of Anglophones Living in Quebec

The Quiet Revolution in Québec in the 1960s brought about changes in relations between francophone and anglophone groups. In that period, language (more than religious or economic issues) became the principle [sic] point of conflict between the two language groups as a collective sense of identity emerged among the Francophone majority in reaction to the growing sense of the fragility of French language and culture in America. (Pilote, Magnan & Groff, 2011, p. 2)

In order to make sense of an individual’s present, we must first understand how the past has influenced his or her life trajectory. When examining social and linguistic practices, it is impossible to ignore the impact of the past on the present and future (Hundey, 2007). In Quebec, governments used language planning to change the symbolic order that prevailed in the province before the 1960s. The impact of language planning in Quebec was significant and changed the social fabric of the province. As Martel and Pâquet (2010) explain, the new symbolic order would be “based on the recognition of the distinct character of the Québécois society and the balance between the exercise of individual rights and the search for a common good” (p. 188; trans. from French by author). Part of the common good concerned education, and measures were put in place to ensure that access to English minority-language schools would be controlled, particularly in the case of immigrants’ children. This control was also applied to francophones who were enrolling their children in English minority-language schools in order for them to become bilingual. At the same time, Quebec citizens had to adapt to new linguistic

Social, Linguistic, and Educational Contexts  25 

practices in the public sphere, where French was now expected to be the dominant language. Anglophones in Quebec Demographically, anglophones were always considered a linguistic minority in the province of Quebec. Yet their influence and control over the province’s politics, economy, and language practices in the workplace and in public generally gave them majority standing in the decision-making process. Quebec’s linguistic duality was based on power. For centuries, anglophones had been in the dominant political and socioeconomic position, with power concentrated in the hands of a few anglophone families in Montreal. However, contrary to popular belief, not all anglophones were well off; in fact, many lived in poverty (Rudin, 1986). Over the past 50 years, there have been sweeping changes in Quebec’s social fabric. These changes continue to affect the lives of its citizens, irrespective of language, culture, ethnicity, and race. The desire of francophones to be in control of their linguistic, economic, and political destiny was at the very core of the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. The slogan maîtres chez nous (masters of our own house) captures the feelings of the francophone intellectual elite in Quebec at the time. This slogan quickly entered the popular discourse, allowing francophones to believe that change was possible. From that point forward, Quebec would never be the same. The period following the Quiet Revolution was marked by the affirmation of a Québécois identity and awareness, among Francophones, of the importance of the language issue. (de la Sablonnière & Taylor, 2006, p. 239; trans. from French by author)

The 1970s brought many changes. In 1974, Robert Bourassa’s Liberal government made French the official language of Quebec. In 1976, the Parti Québécois was elected to power. The following year, the Charter of the French Language was implemented by means of Bill 101. Each of these foundational events enabled francophones to become masters of their own house. Thus, through the politics of language, the Quebec government altered the rapport between francophones and anglophones at a deep structural level (de la Sablonnière & Taylor, 2006). In response, many anglophones, particularly those in Montreal, left

26  Negotiating Identities

Quebec for other parts of Canada. This exodus took place mostly between 1976, when the Parti Québécois took power, and 1980, when Quebec citizens were asked to vote for or against the separation of Quebec from the rest of the country in a referendum (de la Sablonnière & Taylor, 2006; Magnan & Lamarre, 2013). These structural changes altered the balance of power in Quebec. Increasingly, anglophones formed the political and economic minority, and francophones were the decision-makers. In his examination of English as a minority language in Quebec, Boberg (2012) describes the role that the English language had played in the province’s economy and how English had dominated linguistic practices in Quebec, especially in Montreal. Prior to the legislation [Bill 101], English had played a prominent role in public life despite its minority status, being widely used, for instance, in business and on commercial signage, especially in areas with large English-speaking populations. In this bilingual context, there were comparatively few reasons for Quebec English-speakers to learn or use French and contact between the languages was more limited, manifesting itself more in English influence on local French, than in French influence on local English. (p. 493)

This change in the balance of power is an ongoing process, with both linguistic groups still in the “process of becoming” – becoming the minority in the case of anglophones and becoming the majority in the case of francophones. McAndrew (2013) describes francophones in Quebec as a fragile majority, a group that has historically been the victim of inequalities in the national context. This describes the tension-filled relationship between the francophone majority and the anglophone minority. McAndrew’s notion of a fragile majority takes into account the circumstances in which francophones in Quebec have evolved over time as members of a linguistic minority group within Canada and as members of the majority group within Quebec, which cohabites with a powerful anglophone linguistic minority. In contexts such as these, concepts like “majority” or “minority” are hard to do without, but they must always be nuanced and used with care. Due to the ongoing dynamic of ethnic relations as well as the history of inequality between the groups, so called “fragile” majorities enjoy a power that is more shared and less consistent in many social settings. Many minorities, notably those consisting of persons who belong to the

Social, Linguistic, and Educational Contexts  27  majority group on the national level, often enjoy in such contexts a status unusual in societies marked by clear ethnic dominance. (McAndrew, 2013, p. 4)

As a result, there is constant tension between the groups over power and control, and some francophones and anglophones are still strongly influenced by past practices (Levine, 1997). Further, anglophones who chose to stay in Quebec are for the most part bilingual and willing to participate in Quebec society (Magnan & Lamarre, 2013; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011; Radice, 2000), although they do not always feel included in that society (Oakes & Warren, 2009; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011, 2013). According to the 2011 census, the anglophone population of Quebec is 1,058,250 (13.5% of the total population). This number is based on the statistics gathered on the first official language spoken, which is derived from successive questions about knowledge of official languages, mother tongue, and language spoken at home most often (Statistics Canada, 2011). The numbers in the 2011 census were collected in a way that inherently supports the notion that determining the size of a linguistic group is complex and cannot be based on a single criterion (Corbeil, 2011). Jedwab (2008) had already pointed out that, statistically speaking, the number of anglophones in Quebec could be higher if other language indicators, such as the language spoken in the home or other languages spoken in addition to English, were taken into consideration. Jedwab wrote that this would present a more realistic picture of the anglophone population of Quebec. Corbeil, Chavez, and Pereira (2010), commenting on the 2006 census data, share Jedwab’s view and suggest that, when calculating the size of linguistic groups, the first official language spoken should be factored in along with mother tongue. The criterion of the first official language spoken (FOLS) offers a more inclusive definition of the Anglophone population. The English FOLS population’s relative share is 11.9% (885,000) excluding those having French and English as a double first official language, and 13.4% (995,000) when half the population with both French and English as FOLS is included. This is a sizable difference, in comparison with the 607,000 persons who reported having English as their mother tongue. Such a difference is mainly the result of a significant historical attraction to the English language among immigrants who settled in Quebec. (p. 96)

28  Negotiating Identities

According to the 2011 census data, more than 80% of anglophones in Quebec live in the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area; three other regions, the Outaouais, Eastern Quebec, and the Eastern Townships, have the next highest concentrations of anglophones (Statistics Canada, 2011). The rest of the regions are noticeably different: anglophones represent a very small percentage of the population in these areas. Services and resources in English are scarce, the number of exogamous couples (one anglophone and one francophone) is higher, and linguistic transfers from English to French are more frequent.1 As reported by Corbeil, Chavez, and Pereira (2010). When the results available for the various regions of Quebec are examined … it emerges that English-speaking adults in the regions of Estrie and South of Quebec, Eastern Quebec, Montreal and the West of the province exhibit fairly comparable language behaviours. By contrast, those in Quebec and surrounding area and the rest of the province make much more room for French in their daily activities. Thus in Eastern ­Quebec, in the West of the province as well as in Montreal, respectively 64%, 69% and 66% of English-speaking adults report predominantly using English. As to those in Estrie and South of Quebec, 54% state that they predominantly use English in their daily activities. In Quebec and surrounding area and the rest of the province, respectively 10% and 36% of Englishspeaking adults report that they predominantly use English. (p. 37; trans. from French by author)

Linguistic practices have an impact on the ways that a community evolves. In the case of anglophones in Quebec, this calls into question the notion of a homogeneous community. The relationships that anglophones develop with members of the majority community, and with members of their own group, are influenced by external factors (Oakes & Warren, 2009; Lamarre, 2007; Jedwab, 2008). Differences in these relationships can be found even among anglophones living in the metropolitan Montreal area (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). Anglophones who live outside of Montreal do not have a choice; they must constantly cross linguistic and cultural borders in the public sphere if they want to be accepted in their social milieu. For them, French becomes a necessary

1 Corbeil et al. (2010) indicate that the rate of transmission of English to children under 18 years of age has dropped significantly, from 51% in 1971 to 34% in 2006 (p. 96).

Social, Linguistic, and Educational Contexts  29 

dimension and part of carrying out their daily lives. Does this mean that they will automatically reject the notion of belonging to the linguistic minority group, to their own community? Do individuals living in both French and English consider themselves to be a part of the minority or a part of the majority (Jedwab, 2005, as cited in Oakes & Warren, 2009)? Is it possible for those living simultaneously in two worlds to claim a bilingual identity (Magnan & Lamarre, 2013; Gérin-Lajoie, 2003, 2011, 2013; Vieux-Fort & Pilote, 2013)? With the structural changes that have affected Quebec following the Quiet Revolution, the rapport to identity, language, and culture has become even more complex for the province’s official linguistic minority. English Minority-Language Education in Quebec The politics of language has had a major impact on, and continues to play an important role in, the education system. Historical events affecting Quebec’s linguistic groups and education systems have been analysed extensively (Levine, 1997; Rudin, 1986; de la Sablonnière & Taylor, 2006; Corbeil, 2007; Oakes & Warren, 2009). Here, I will limit myself to the changes that have occurred since the 1960s. As mentioned in the previous section, Quebec’s linguistic duality was based on power. As reported by Corbeil (2007), in the early 1960s, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, also known as the Laurendeau-Dunton Commission, concluded that it was more beneficial for an individual living in Quebec to be a unilingual anglophone than to be a bilingual or unilingual francophone. At the time, most immigrants to Quebec sent their children to English minority-language schools. Corbeil (2007) reports that in the 1962–1963 school year, 75% of children from immigrant families were enrolled in an English minority-language elementary or secondary school. By the 1972–1973 school year, this percentage had increased to 86.3%. The Quebec government reacted strongly and looked for ways to make the English minority-language schools less accessible to immigrants and to francophones who sent their children to these schools. English minority-language schools were popular with immigrants because they believed that knowledge of English would open more doors in the labour market. Another less well-known fact is that, prior to the Quiet Revolution, it was difficult for immigrants to enrol their children in French majority-language Catholic schools in

30  Negotiating Identities

Montreal. The French-language school board strongly discouraged immigrant families from enrolling their children in its schools (Labrie, 1991; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). As a result, their children had to either study in the few English schools that were available in the Catholic system or attend an English-language Protestant school. The language of instruction in schools was such a controversial topic in Quebec that it even triggered conflict between francophones and anglophones in Montreal. In 1963, one school board in St. Leonard, in the east end of Montreal, decided to create bilingual classes at the elementary level in response to a request from Italian parents who lived in that part of the city. Francophones were unhappy with this decision and called on the government to intervene. At the start of the St. Leonard crisis, as the events are still referred to today, language integration was not considered a major issue; however, it did not take long to escalate. In 1969, the provincial National Union government attempted to resolve the issue by enacting a law emphasizing “freedom of choice” with respect to language of instruction. Bill 63, La Loi pour promouvoir la langue française au Québec (the act to promote the French language in Quebec) insisted that children attend francophone schools but also gave Quebec residents the option of an education in English. Parents in St. Leonard were pleased with the new legislation, but francophones were not. They felt that Bill 63 did not do enough to limit access to English minority-language schools (Corbeil, 2007; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). A few years later, in 1974, the provincial Liberal government passed Bill 22, La Loi sur la langue officielle (Québec) (the official language act [Quebec]). This act restricted English minority-language instruction in the public school system to children who had “sufficient” knowledge of the language, as determined by testing. Students who did not qualify based on their test results were required to attend a French majoritylanguage school. Tensions rose once again. Francophones believed that Bill 22 did not do enough to restrict access to English minority-language schools; anglophones, on the other hand, claimed that the law was discriminatory (Corbeil, 2007; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011; Levine, 1997). Bill 101, also known as the Charter of the French Language, took a stronger stand on language of instruction in 1977. It stipulated that entitlement to English minority-language instruction was based solely on whether one of the student’s parents had received English minoritylanguage instruction in Quebec. This clause was amended in 1982, following the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.

Social, Linguistic, and Educational Contexts  31 

Section 23 of the Canadian Charter states that the right to instruction in English extends to those who have a parent who received instruction in English in another Canadian English-speaking province or territory.2 According to the Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports (2011), under the Quebec Charter of the French Language, children in the following three categories may enrol in an English-language school: (a) children who are permanent residents of Quebec and who qualify for a certificate of eligibility for instruction in English, (b) children who are permanent residents of Quebec and who are entitled to receive instruction in English by special authorization, (c) children who are living in Quebec temporarily and who qualify for a temporary authorization to receive instruction in English. A certificate of eligibility is generally issued to children (a) who received most of their elementary or secondary instruction in English in Canada, (b) whose brother or sister received most of his or her elementary instruction in English in Canada, (c) whose father or mother received most of his or her elementary instruction in English in Canada, or (d) whose father or mother attended school in Quebec after August 26, 1977, and who could have been declared eligible for instruction in English on that date. In the first two cases, the child’s father or mother must be a Canadian citizen. In the third case, the child’s father or mother must be a Canadian citizen unless he or she was educated in Quebec. The certificate of eligibility for instruction in 2 Article 23 reads as follows: “(1) Citizens of Canada (a) whose first language learned and still understood is that of the English or French linguistic minority of the province in which they reside, or (b) who have received their primary school instruction in Canada in English or French and reside in a province where the language in which they received that instruction is the language of the English or French linguistic minority population of the province, have the right to have their children receive primary and secondary school instruction in that language in that province. (2) Citizens of Canada of whom any child has received or is receiving primary or secondary school instruction in English or French in Canada have the right to have all their children receive primary and secondary language instruction in the same language. (3) The right of citizens of Canada under subsections (1) and (2) to have their children receive primary and secondary school instruction in the language of the English or French linguistic minority population of a province (a) applies wherever in the province the number of children of citizens who have such a right is sufficient to warrant the provision to them out of public funds of minority language instruction; and (b) includes, where the number of those children so warrants, the right to have them receive that instruction in minority language educational facilities provided out of public funds.”

32  Negotiating Identities

English is permanent. When a child is declared eligible for instruction in English, his or her brothers and sisters may also be declared eligible (Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports, 2013). From 1977 to 2002, due to a loophole in Bill 101, non-anglophones could access Quebec’s English minority-language schools. Students could attend a non-subsidized private school for a period of one year then transfer to the public English minority-language education system.3 In 2002, the government of Quebec adopted Bill 104 to close this loophole and prevent further access to the English minority-language school system. Bill 104 was then ruled unconstitutional; it was struck down by the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2007. According to the ruling, Bill 104 was inconsistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Quebec government brought an appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada. On October 22, 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling that Bill 104 was unconstitutional and asked the Quebec government to adopt a new legislation within a year. Bill 103 was tabled in the Quebec National Assembly in June 2010. Consultations took place, and the heated debate continued. The government withdrew Bill 103 as it was not possible to enact it in time to meet the Supreme Court’s deadline. Bill 115, whose contents were very similar to Bill 103, followed shortly thereafter. It was adopted on October 19, 2010, and is currently in effect. It allows students who are not anglophone to have access to public English minority-language schools, but only after three years in the non-subsidized private English minority-language education system (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011, p. 19). In the spring of 2013, Bill 14 was tabled by the ruling Parti Québécois. Among the amendments that Bill 14 would make to Bill 101 were three targeting English minority-language education in Quebec. According to these amendments, (a) Canadian Forces families based temporarily in Quebec and other temporary residents would not be eligible to attend an English minority-language school, as is now the case under the temporary residence rule; (b) reasonable measures would need to be taken to ensure that anglophone students were sufficiently proficient in French when they left school; and (c) access to anglophone 3 The Quebec private school system consists of subsidized and non-subsidized institutions that offer general education to their student population. In the case of the former, the schools receive money from the provincial government, consequently decreasing the fees for parents. In the case of the latter, the government does not provide any money.

Social, Linguistic, and Educational Contexts  33 

CEGEPs4 would be restricted to anglophones. The tabling of Bill 14 was not well received by anglophones or the opposition party. Following numerous heated discussions, the government removed the first amendment, but, even with this change, Bill 14 was still seen as contentious, and in the fall of 2013 it was set aside by the Parti Québécois, the minority government at the time. Quebec’s English Minority-Language School System In 2006, the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) reported that there were 115,000 students in their schools. In 2009– 2010, there were 110,154 students in English minority-language schools in the province of Quebec (Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports and Ministry of Higher Learning, Research and Technology, 2011). On December 3, 2013, the QESBA reported on its website that the total number of students had dropped to 105,000. Declining student enrolment in English minority-language schools in Quebec is a fact, and it represents a real challenge for anglophones in Quebec. But there is more to it. The Quebec Advisory Board on English Education (ABEE, 2013) adds the following: Even the declining numbers of students, the variability in population density, and the movement of families from the regions or from downtown Montreal does not describe the subtle demographic challenges faced in English-language schools, some of which have a substantial population of students whose home language is French, but who are eligible for English instruction. (p. 20)

There are therefore concerns that Quebec’s English minority-­ language schools, and other institutions, will disappear over time (Bourhis & Foucher, 2012; Lamarre, 2012; Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages, 2011). For minority groups, the disappearance of institutions that reflect and support their continued existence as minority groups can lead to an increased risk of assimilation into the majority

4 The Collèges d’enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP) are postsecondary educational institutions in Quebec with mandatory attendance in a two-year program for students planning to go university. CEGEPs also offer three-year professional programs for students entering the workplace rather than going to university.

34  Negotiating Identities

group. When a minority group is no longer able to receive services and resources in its own language, the organizational structure of the group weakens, and remaining a strong community becomes a challenge (Breton, 1968). In 2011, a report from the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages indicated that the decline in enrolment in English minority-language schools has had devastating effects in some regions of the province, where anglophones represent a very small percentage of the population. In this context, living as an anglophone is challenging due to the lack of resources and services in English. As Lamarre (2007) points out, this isolation and lack of services mirror the situation of francophones living outside of Quebec. However, as was apparent in the report from the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages, the stakes are somewhat different when we compare the situation of Canada’s two official linguistic minorities. The Committee also found that the realities and challenges experienced by the English-speaking minority are sometimes different from those faced by its French-speaking counterpart outside Quebec. The English-speaking minority does not face the challenge of ensuring the survival of its language. Rather, its challenge lies in ensuring the community’s survival and supporting its vitality in all regions of Quebec. (p. 2)

These thoughts are echoed in the discourses of the teachers who took part in this study and in previous findings. English is not threatened in the way that French is often threatened in the other provinces and territories (Gérin-Lajoie, 2003, 2011). Anglophone communities in Quebec raised these concerns 20 years before the standing committee’s report, in the 1992 Chambers Report, which painted an alarming portrait of the local conditions of anglophone communities and the state of English minority-language education in Quebec at that time. This report played a key role by underscoring the importance of English minority-language schools in maintaining the vitality of anglophone communities in the province. As highlighted in previous work, there is no clear official mandate for the English minority-language schools in Quebec (GérinLajoie, 2011). Lastly, in the Quebec government, responsibility for English minority-language education falls to one of the assistant deputy ministers of education and receives support from two ministry offices, the Direction des politiques et des projets (the politics and projects directorate) and the Direction de la production en langue anglaise (the production of the English language directorate) (Lamarre, 2007).

Social, Linguistic, and Educational Contexts  35 

In 1998, the organizational structure of Quebec’s school boards went from being based on religion (Catholic and Protestant) to being based on language of instruction (French and English). At the present time, there are nine English minority-language school boards in Quebec. Four are located in the Montreal area. The other five are scattered around the province and cover massive territories. This is very similar to the situation of the French minority-language school boards outside of Quebec. The Educational and Geographical Contexts of the Study As mentioned in chapter 1, participants in this study are members of two anglophone teachers’ associations, or unions. There are nine anglophone teachers’ associations in Quebec, one for each of the nine anglophone school boards. The two associations whose members participated in this study are located outside of the Island of Montreal; in both instances, they cover a very large territory. The first association, referred to here as Association A, is located north of Montreal. It was created by the merger of the Catholic and Protestant Teachers’ Associations in 1998. The members of Association A work in a school board that took over eight merging boards; it currently operates 42 schools and educational centres. These schools are located in regions where the anglophone population ranges from 3% to 11% of the total population. By contrast, one study participant lives outside of this area, in a location where 33% of the population is anglophone. Association A has more than 1200 members; they work in three education sectors: youth, adult, and vocational. For the purposes of this study, only members working in elementary and secondary schools were asked to participate. The second anglophone teachers’ association, referred to here as Association B, is located in the centre of the province of Quebec. It is associated with a school board covering 30% of the province’s territory, with a total of 18 schools and one educational centre. These anglophone teachers live in a predominantly francophone environment, where anglophones account for only 1% to 2% of the total population. Association B represents close to 300 teachers who mostly teach youth. A few work in adult education and in the vocational sector. Due to its large territory, Association B has a number of regional directors. It is time now to turn to the teachers’ stories to learn more about their lived experiences as teachers in the English minority-language schools where they work as well as about their lives as Quebec citizens.

3  Teachers’ Stories – Association A

The teachers’ stories about to be shared in this and the following chapters reveal parts of their lives, from early childhood to young adulthood, showing what it was like to grow up in their respective communities. The teachers reflect on issues of identity and sense of belonging to the linguistic minority group (for some since birth and for others starting later in life). They talk about what it means to them to be active members of Quebec society. They also present family life and their language practices throughout their daily activities. Lastly, the teachers share their thoughts on their lives as teachers working in English minority-language schools and discuss their teaching philosophies. These stories are diverse and illustrate different experiences, but they also share some common elements, particularly concerning how the teachers make sense of their personal and professional identities. Returning to their memories of the past gave the teachers the opportunity to reflect on their present (and their future) as members of the anglophone minority, as teachers, and as citizens of Quebec. Now it is time for the teachers from Association A, Sally, Christine, Sarah, Serafina, and Shelley, to share their stories. The stories from the Association B teachers will follow in the next chapter. Sally Sally is a recently retired English teacher who lives in a small town north of Montreal. Her partner, James, worked as a teacher and is now retired as well. Sally has two adult stepchildren, Maggie and Thomas, and one grandson, Alex. Maggie lives in England; Thomas lives in a town close to Montreal with Alex, who is being raised in both English and French.

Teachers’ Stories – Association A  37 

Alex’s mother is francophone, and he is currently enrolled in a private French majority-language high school in Montreal. Since his parents are separated, Alex divides his time between the two family homes. Growing Up in Quebec Sally was born into an anglophone family and has two younger sisters. Both of her parents came from anglophone families with deep roots in Quebec. I was born in a family that had been in Quebec for a long time, an anglophone family on both my mother and father’s side. My father’s family had arrived in Quebec City in 1852. The Goodsons, that’s my mother’s side, had been in Quebec also since the 1800s and we had a very strong rooted-ness here. On my mother’s side, the men in the family had worked as engineers and had helped build the Quebec Bridge and the Lachine Canal and their memories of living in Lachine as a child … That was all part of my childhood, that sense of very much belonging here, and my father’s family had moved from Quebec City to Chicoutimi and my grandfather grew up in Chicoutimi.

Sally’s parents had known each other all of their lives, through their families. Sally’s mother’s family was from Montreal; her father’s family was originally from Quebec City. Sally’s mother had worked as a secretary at the English-language university where her father was pursuing a degree in engineering. He spoke French and English, but her mother spoke only English. At home, the language of communication was English. Sally spent the first part of her childhood in Beauharnois, a francophone locality that was considered rural at the time. My father got his degree in engineering and unlike a lot of his compatriots he did not leave Quebec. He wanted to stay in Quebec but he did not go back to Quebec City. You could see that that period was a period of decline for Quebec City and there were no jobs in Quebec City. He moved first, he worked for Domtar, he worked in Portneuf and then he worked for Domtar somewhere around T   hree Rivers, he got a job in Beauharnois, and we lived in that French town, on a French street.

Sally remembers having picked up French from the neighbourhood kids by the age of five. She laughed when recalling the following anecdote with a francophone friend: My best friend was Madeleine and I remember one of my first memories with language, I was really conscious of language, was that I wanted to give

38  Negotiating Identities Madeleine an apple and there were apples under the sink. I remember running into the house and grabbing an apple out of the bag under the sink. I held it to my head and I looked at it and I thought “pomme.” I must have been 3 or 4. “But it’s not a ‘pomme,’ it’s an apple.”

At that early stage of her life, language was not an issue in Sally’s world outside of the home. She had francophone friends and felt well integrated in the neighbourhood. However, Sally’s life changed when she entered Grade 1. Her family moved to Louisiana for her father’s job. They did not stay there long and returned to Beauharnois the following year. The neighbourhood had changed. Several anglophone families had moved into the area. She described her town as being characteristic of the social reality of the 1950s. The town was the typical, you know, the workers French, the management was English. It was all that stratification; there was also the conflict between the Protestant and the Catholic Church. I have such strong memories of that time, being an alien in that town.

Sally’s description of the town illustrates tensions between francophones and anglophones, where control and power were seen by many to be in the hands of the linguistic minority. This divide could also be seen in other regions of the province. In many towns outside of Montreal, anglophones and francophones lived in separate neighbourhoods. By the time Sally returned from the United States with her family, she had lost the ability to speak French. As a result, her interactions with francophones became more confrontational. She had lost all of her francophone friends, and a divide was created. Sally began to socialize with other English-speaking children. She attended a small English minority-language school that had between 300 and 400 students, and she made friends there. Then, in Grade 9, her parents decided to move to Montreal to give Sally the opportunity to receive a better education. She attended a large English minority-language high school in the west end of the city, and she enjoyed this new experience. After moving to Montreal, Sally lived her life in English without much contact with francophones. When she graduated from high school, she got her first summer job. My mother said I had to get a job so my summer job was at a diabetic youth camp and I worked in a unilingual francophone kitchen and that was very interesting. That was my re-introduction to the French, and of course the

Teachers’ Stories – Association A  39  nationalist forces were brewing at that point and I met someone called Lucie, she was a dishwasher and I was a dishwasher.

This was Sally’s first experience with the linguistic duality of the working world outside of Montreal. She found herself immersed in French. Despite the fact that Sally was anglophone and Lucie was francophone, the young women got along well that summer. Sally enrolled at a Montreal English-language university that same year. In her first year, she studied Latin, French, and German. She fell in love with the German language and participated in an exchange program at the end of her first year that took her to Germany. She continued studying German in her second year of university. At the age of 18, Sally went back to Germany and worked there for the summer. When she returned to Montreal, she decided to quit her studies and work as a translator. As we shall see in the fourth section of Sally’s story, teaching came a few years later. Identity and Sense of Belonging Sally claims an anglophone identity. However, she does not consider this identity to be something that is fixed or that was ascribed to her at birth. She believes that the places where she has lived in Quebec have shaped, and continue to shape, her identity and sense of belonging in different ways. My identity is definitely rooted in the English language and the English culture. And it is a fine and horrible culture [laughs]. It has got a political legacy which I think will never pay enough for the things that were done by that empire. That is where I start, but then, if it finished there, I would not be the person I am. I am so lucky that I live in another language where I physically live. I am so lucky that I am constantly reminded of the relativity.

Sally’s rapport to identity is complex, as are her day-to-day social practices. Growing up as an anglophone in Quebec, her identity and sense of belonging have always been closely connected to political issues. As a young adult in the 1970s, she witnessed major linguistic and political changes in Quebec. From her point of view, the national discourse at that time in Quebec excluded anglophones as active citizens in Quebec society. She has always felt like an outsider. She recalls her first summer job: The camp was a bilingual camp, but the workers in the kitchen were entirely French, and a lot of the counsellors in the camp were French and

40  Negotiating Identities it was like the social life went on without me. You know, like I was an observer, and I was very interested and curious and admiring but I didn’t feel included.

Sally understands why francophones in Quebec want to keep their language and culture alive. To illustrate this, she explains that she was in favour of the changes that were happening in Quebec in the 1970s; she believed the Quebec Charter of the French Language, better known as Bill 101, was necessary at the time and she believed that the Parti Québécois (PQ) could make a difference. I voted PQ in 1976 … I felt very strongly that the PQ was a socially democratic party and it was part of the modernization of Quebec and I did not believe it was going to lead to separation.

Sally feels strongly about her Quebec roots. Quebec is where she was born, where she grew up, and where she has lived almost her entire life. Her sense of belonging goes beyond membership in a minority or majority group. She states that the geographical space is also part of her identity: This place is important to me, this physical place is important. It is not just language. I was born here, the landscape is my landscape. The St. Lawrence is my river, I lived on it for 3 years. I was so lucky as a child, it changed the way I saw things, so I have this kind of, I do not know if it is patriotism, or nationalism, or what it is, but it is this really visceral connection to this place.

At the same time, however, she feels like an outsider in the province. I would argue that the feelings Sally expresses towards Quebec demonstrate that the relationship between identity, sense of belonging, and places should not be denied when trying to understand individuals’ lived experiences. Sally explained that she has never taken anything for granted and, over the years, has always reflected on where she stands in regards to the anglophone minority and the francophone majority. She stated that she did not know whether this constant questioning will ever be resolved. The inclusion-exclusion divide in Quebec society has always been a part of her life, and she has learned to live with it. Sally made the conscious choice to stay in Quebec. However, she believes that she might have been more involved in political and social activities had she been living in a predominantly

Teachers’ Stories – Association A  41 

English environment. Being a member of a linguistic minority, Sally has never felt that she was invited to be a part of the francophone community or the nationalist movement in Quebec. I never had the feeling that I was part of it. Well, part of it is that [French] is not my first language, and I did not learn it well when I was a child. I had to struggle as a young adult and an adult to learn French, so there was always that dynamic of just struggling to get to first base. Maybe I’m the kind of person if I had grown up in Ontario or Manitoba, I would have ended up in politics or I would have done something, because I have a lot of interest in those things. There’s never been any question that I would do that here. I just couldn’t because I didn’t have the confidence.

This feeling of exclusion does not only apply to Quebec; it also applies to English Canada, which Sally does not feel a part of either. Although she speaks English, being from Quebec creates a different reality for Sally, and this has had a significant impact on her sense of belonging to English Canada. She does not feel like an English-Canadian. As Sally’s discourse demonstrates, despite all the challenges associated with being an anglophone in Quebec, her attachment to Quebec is deeply rooted in her experiences as a child, a teenager, an adult, a teacher, and a citizen of Quebec. She concluded her reflection by saying, I think it’s astonishing, the kind of dynamism that’s here. Actually, I think wherever there are many languages, that happens. You know, it’s like, a release of something in the human spirit; when that happens, there’s a friction and it’s good and it’s bad, it’s uncomfortable and it’s productive, it’s a really interesting place.

Family Context Sally’s partner, James, was born in Montreal and attended English minority-language schools growing up. Although he understands French, speaking it has always been a challenge for him. When asked how he defines his identity, James responded: But then I began to formulate a few ideas of my own. I went through a stage where I was Quebec first and Canadian second. That’s a hard question because it’s changed quite a bit over the years, you know, I mean it was quite clear to me for my parents and grandparents that I was not only Canadian but probably British and that more from my grandparents I guess.

42  Negotiating Identities

He ended by saying that he is a “Quebecer living in Canada.” There was never a question about what language to use at home. The children were raised in English. Maggie and Thomas went to English minoritylanguage schools. Even at a young age, Thomas was aware that a linguistic divide existed, but he was not alarmed by it. Both children spent some time with their mother, who lived in England for a few years. Maggie remained in England, and Thomas came back to Quebec to complete his postsecondary education. He moved to Montreal for CEGEP and university. From that point on, French became an important part of his life. Once I moved to Montreal, I kind of discovered that most of my friends were French. You know I had a big group of anglophone friends from CEGEP, but once I got in to university … that’s the time that I met Alex’s mom, who was francophone, two of my best friends were francophone.

Thomas is still living in both linguistic worlds, mainly because of his work. His circle of friends includes francophones, and he does not see major cultural differences between them and himself. They can talk about everything. However, one topic is off-limits: politics. Alex, Thomas’s son, lives in both languages and both cultures. He attended an English minority-language elementary school and currently, attends a private French majority-language high school in Montreal. When he is with his mother, who lives in Montreal, most activities take place in French. When he is with his father, who lives on Montreal’s South Shore, English dominates. Alex defined his identity as being bilingual, with a preference for the English world; however, he feels comfortable in either English or French. Alex does not view English and French as two opposing languages, nor does he see English as a minority language. Everybody speaks English around the world, and French is kind of smaller and like only in some countries they speak French. And well like now I feel that most of my friends do not really care if you are English or French.

Teaching Career Path As mentioned earlier, when Sally returned to Montreal after working in Germany she abandoned her studies. She went to work as a translator for a company that produced science kits for children. Her second job was at an engineering firm. However, she became bored while working

Teachers’ Stories – Association A  43 

there and began to think about becoming a teacher – something she had considered when she was very young. I think I always thought about teaching. At the time, I was in Grade Four and I was watching the teacher trying to explain the multiplication table and saying to myself, “I could do better than that.” Although, I also, when I had graduated from high school thinking I don’t want anything to do with this system, like I rejected it but then it kind of came back to me. I was bored. I wanted to teach, you know, I wanted some intellectual stimulus.

Watching a friend who had become a teacher, Sally began to think about how a teaching career could be satisfying on many levels: summers off, stability, and gratifying work. She chose to teach high school. Sally completed her pre-service training at her former university. She did one practicum at a French majority-language school in Montreal, where she taught English as a second language. Her second practicum was at an English minority-language regional school in the Gaspé region, where she taught English language arts. Upon completing her teaching certificate, Sally was offered a teaching position in a small town north of Montreal. She accepted and taught there for 25 years. I was hired to teach English Language Arts. I was hired through interviews with the principal and the department head. And there were a strong group of people there who were like back to the “landers,” it was the ’70s so intellectuals who’d moved up there, like me … and when they left I stayed.

In her first year of teaching, Sally taught English to Secondary 2, 3, and 4 (Grades 8, 9, and 10) students. She did not feel adequately prepared to handle classroom discipline issues, and this was the most challenging part of her job when she began. Sally’s discourse is not uncommon among new teachers. They often feel as if they have not received adequate “practical” training for working in the classroom. For a lot of new teachers, theory learned at university and work in the classroom, with real-life activities and students, are two different entities. For universities offering pre-service teacher training, this remains a challenge in the 21st century. Early in her teaching career, union issues caught Sally’s attention. She became a union delegate in her school and pursued union work for a good part of her career, with most of her involvement between 1976 and 1982. She stayed involved until the early 1990s, but to a lesser extent. I was a very high energy person. I was able to balance those things for most of my career. At the beginning I probably didn’t do that good a job. I was so

44  Negotiating Identities fascinated with the union. I was actually an assistant negotiator for our board and I was given leave… I felt this was important work.

During her tenure at this high school, she was transferred to a Grade 6 class at an elementary school for one year. She returned to her high school the following year. After 20 years in teaching, Sally decided to complete her master’s degree in educational psychology. In 2000, she moved to a suburb of Montreal to teach at an English minority-language high school. For eight years she taught to a culturally diverse group of students. In addition, she had the opportunity to teach gifted students. Sally admitted that students at this school were, for the most part, a difficult group to handle. I was teaching English. I had never seen anything like that behaviour. You could stand in the middle of your classroom and say sit down and they would all be out of their seats and no one would sit down. I mean, by the time I left [the small town up north], I was so in control of the classroom. I knew how to run a classroom except I didn’t know how to run those classrooms. I didn’t, and the noise level was off the scale.

Wanting to be closer to home, Sally transferred to an English minoritylanguage high school with francophone and anglophone students. After a year and a half, she retired to spend more time with her family. During her retirement, she agreed to take a three-month supply teaching position at an English minority-language alternative high school in the area. She truly enjoyed this experience. The work of the other teachers at this school resonated with her own views on teaching. When asked specifically about her philosophy of teaching, Sally paused and reflected for a few minutes before answering. A teacher, I guess it starts with wanting to share the joy that I have in language, so I have something to share. Not all kids feel that, so how do you enable some experience of that? You have to set up your classrooms so that, that there are opportunities for kids to enjoy that and to learn through that enjoyment. That’s the basic model. I think it should be pleasurable, but I also think that everyone has to commit to work … I would expect my students to work very hard, no matter how smart they are, how not smart they are, how much they know, how little they know … I have to provide an environment where that’s possible. So when I structure instruction, I structure it so that it lasts for a couple of months. I do project oriented thing[s], I always do that. I found some kind of a centre, and then I start layering and there’s all kinds of different tasks.

Teachers’ Stories – Association A  45 

Sally has incorporated group work and non-traditional methods into her pedagogical practices. For example, her students read different novels instead of reading a class set of the same book. Sally also believes that you have to adapt the way you teach when you have a diverse student population; she gave the example of students from different racial backgrounds. Reflecting on the role of a teacher in the classroom, Sally mentioned the multiple facets of teaching. From her point of view, a teacher has many responsibilities. A teacher is a model, a facilitator, you have to know how to inspire and to get things rolling, and you have to know how to withdraw, and you have to know how to reinsert yourself at the right time. For some kids you have to be everything that anybody needs … the sense of where it is all supposed to be going. You have to have a sense of child development, you have to recognize warning signals for kids who are in trouble, and you have to have a bag of tricks, and you have to think on your feet.

Sally added that a teacher needs to be a good listener, to have knowledge of child development, and to be prepared to recognize “warning signals of trouble” in students and to act on them. Sally’s description of the teacher’s responsibilities reflects an ideal that may not be generalizable. Teachers conceptualize these responsibilities in a variety of ways. This influences the ways in which individuals define themselves as teachers and how they construct their professional identities. Sally stresses that teaching has a lot of frustrations and that it is sometimes difficult to put these principles into practice. Among the challenges she mentioned were a lack of collaboration among teachers, administrative rules that are not conducive to the best teaching practices, and a lack of interest on the part of students. She added that teachers need to be more autonomous and more imaginative and that more should be expected of them. About the role of English minority-language schools in Quebec, Sally said: To educate the children of the English-speaking community is to give them broad education that prepares those children to live in Quebec, and enables them to live elsewhere in the world if that’s what they choose to do. They have to prepare kids to speak French. I mean that’s so important. They have to give a good, broad, general education that will allow kids to have choices and to do it in English. Basically schools should teach kids to read, write, know about mathematics, know about the world, to prepare kids to become citizens.

46  Negotiating Identities

Sally’s description of the role of the English minority-language schools in Quebec is mostly concerned with knowledge transmission. Interestingly, later in the discussion, she also mentioned the important role of developing a sense of linguistic minority community among school members. She admitted that, in a way, the mandate of linguistic minority schools was broader than knowledge transmission. Nevertheless, she concluded that trying to answer this question was a major challenge for her. Sally’s example illustrates that teaching in linguistic minority settings can place teachers in contradictory positions in terms of how they relate to both their professional and their individual identities. At the end of our conversation, Sally shared that, looking back on close to 35 years as a teacher, she did not regret her career in teaching and was happy to have been a part of young people’s lives over the years. I think I had some amazing moments. And I think my legacy is not in stone, but it’s in people. I had some wonderful times.

Christine Christine, in her 50s, lives in a small community north of Montreal, in the Laurentians, and teaches at an English minority-language school. She is married to Bill, and they have two children, Stephanie, 21, and Phillip, 23. Stephanie and Phillip both attended French majority-language schools and graduated from a French-language university in Quebec. Growing Up in Quebec Christine grew up in Montreal, the youngest of four children. She explained: I grew up in the city, in Montreal. My father was English. My mother was francophone. She had been raised in a small rural village in Quebec. My father came from Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. When they met, in Ottawa, my mother didn’t speak a word of English, and my dad didn’t speak a word of French. After they married, my mother learned English. He never learned French … he tried hard but it didn’t register. So, I grew up in Montreal in an area that was mainly English near Ville St. Laurent. It was 85% English, there were a few francophone families, but everyone spoke English.

English was the language spoken at home. Christine mentioned that her mother was proud to be able to communicate in English because speaking a second language was a major accomplishment. For

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her mother, speaking English rather than French at home was never an issue. The difficulty encountered by Christine’s father in speaking French might explain why her mother chose English over French as the language used within her family. In a linguistic minority situation, and more specifically in the context of families where the parents belong to different linguistic groups, it is generally the case that the majority language is most commonly spoken between family members. In Christine’s case, however, her parents opted for the minority language. Christine did all of her elementary and secondary schooling in English; however, she spent her summers in rural Quebec with her mother’s family. In this francophone environment, they were the only anglophones. Apart from speaking English with her father, Christine spent these months speaking French, and she has fond memories of this time. It was only francophone and we were the only people there that spoke English. So as a result of that, the four of us, the children, we all learned French. No one spoke a word of English in the whole village. We were able to see the differences between the English culture and the French culture in the different sizes of the families, the different religious habits, and just the general lifestyle of both sides.

Her language skills made her feel special in both settings because she was able to speak English and French. Her friends and classmates, who were unilingual, admired her for this ability. Although Christine continued to go to school in English, as she entered CEGEP and then university, her social life became increasingly French. And then there were boyfriends that spoke French and no English, and as the circle of friends became wider it included many francophones. I was going to CEGEP during the referendum and most of my friends were definitely separatists so, for a few years, there were a lot of very opposing political opinions all around me.

Christine witnessed tensions in both linguistic groups in the 1970s and 1980s, as francophones became more vocal about the future of Quebec. Commenting on this, Christine said that some francophones’ reactions to anglophones at the time were based on misconceptions. For her, not all anglophones were rich, and they did not all have the best jobs. The political debate in Quebec made Christine curious about the historical circumstances that had made Quebec society what it was. I remember going to read some books about the history of Quebec, because I remember in history class being told certain things and then

48  Negotiating Identities hearing [francophones] talk and say, “Well gee, that’s not what we were told in history,” and I remember reading a few history books that had been written fairly recently and getting a whole other view, written by francophones.

As a teenager, Christine’s first job was babysitting. She also had various part-time jobs, mostly in customer service. She recognized that being bilingual helped her to get these part-time jobs. During CEGEP, Christine also worked in Banff during the summer, as did a lot of her francophone friends at the time. A look at Christine’s upbringing and social practices as a young person reveals that the way in which she navigated between the two linguistic and cultural worlds had a definite impact on her understanding of her identity and sense of belonging. Identity and Sense of Belonging In her survey, Christine reported having a bilingual identity. Being from an exogamous family, with a francophone mother and an anglophone father, she was always in close contact with both linguistic groups. Although she attended an English minority-language school, she felt more connected to her French heritage as a child. Maybe, I was closer to my mom than to my dad. Maybe also because I preferred the French culture, the French family, their joie de vivre. I think that the French families they were more open, maybe with less rules. My dad was in the military, so there were lots of rules and they always came from him, that was sort of the English side. Um, maybe more fun, you know, it was [a] little more fun and I think, too, it was because I spent all my summers immersed in the French culture and I grew very close to that side of the family.

Growing up with an English side of the family and a French side of the family, Christine saw a clear divide between the two worlds. She identified more with her French roots, in spite of the fact that the family spoke English at home and she went to an English minoritylanguage school. One would expect that being socialized in English in the family home and at school would create a greater connection to the minority language; however, this was not the case for Christine. Her frequent extended stays in rural francophone Quebec as a child, surrounded by French language and culture, may help explain her preference for the French language and culture and may also have affected her life later on.

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Christine’s close connection to the French language and culture continued throughout high school, even though she attended an English minority-language institution. Christine did not have the typical active social life with her classmates outside of regular school hours. Because I went to a high school that was so far from home, I didn’t hang around the area after school. We would take the bus and there were about six of us that lived in my neighbourhood that went to our school. So the six of us ended up being friends ... we started going out on weekends and sort of going beyond just the high school and in our neighbourhood. A lot of us would then meet new friends, and many of them were francophones.

As a child, Christine never thought about her identity, even though she was constantly crossing linguistic and cultural borders. Growing up in Montreal, Christine never felt that she was part of a linguistic minority. In my opinion, two reasons might have influenced her views. First, anglophones living in Montreal have greater access to public resources and services in English, giving them more opportunities to live in their minority language and culture. Thus, living in the minority language is rendered a “normal” thing to do because it is possible. Second, Christine is bilingual and capable of moving easily back and forth between English and French, and between her francophone circle of friends and her anglophone circle of friends. She mentioned that living simultaneously in both English and French worlds was never a problem, even as an adult. I think I didn’t experience that frustration, or that identity frustration, that I think many anglophones do, that they were brought up in an English community that didn’t really speak French ... And yes, I think for some of them … [they] definitely felt that they were a minority … I never felt like that.

Living her social life mostly in French allowed Christine to see both sides of the political discourse in Quebec in the 1980s. At the time, she had a francophone boyfriend whose family was separatist; they held strong views on anglophones living in Quebec and on the development of a French-­ speaking Quebec. Christine never felt excluded or judged by her francophone friends even though her feelings about separatism were not as intense as theirs. She admitted to not taking politics as seriously as others did. When she met Bill in her mid-20s, Christine began to slowly distance herself from her francophone friends. Spending more time with Bill, her life shifted more towards the anglophone world. She visited him frequently, and after a while she decided to leave Montreal for the small

50  Negotiating Identities

francophone majority community where he lived. It was around this time that Christine began to perceive a shift in her identity. She felt her anglophone side becoming “stronger.” Then when I moved up north, I think I just remember feeling the fact that I was English, I felt it a lot more than in Montreal, because in Montreal there is both, it’s multiethnic. I remember coming up here, it was like being an anglophone surrounded by French people, so the fact I was anglophone, I felt it a lot more.

Moving from Montreal to the Laurentians had a significant impact on her. Christine’s new life with Bill was in English, especially since her social circle was composed of Bill’s friends, who were all English speakers too. She was also teaching in an English minority-language school. Her use of French in her private life became almost non-existent. Christine eventually discovered that her freedom to choose to speak one language or the other in the community had seriously diminished. Speaking French in the public sphere was now more of an obligation because it was the language to use in order to be understood. For the first time in her life, she felt like a minority because they were the only anglophone family in a unilingual French community. In this new living space, opportunities to go back and forth between English and French became few and far between. After I moved up here I just remember feeling frustrated because the moment I wasn’t with a group of friends, when I went out, it was always French and sometimes, and I was losing my French now a little bit, too. I could understand that I couldn’t speak as well. And I remember just feeling, sometimes, I think it was probably the first time in my life that I was a minority.

Christine, however, acknowledged that, over the years, more and more people living in the community are bilingual, and this has allowed her to regain a certain level of linguistic freedom outside of the home. Family Context Christine’s husband, Bill, was born in Montreal and raised in English. His mother was an anglophone of Scottish descent born in Montreal and his father, although from a francophone family in Manitoba, lives as an anglophone, and Bill’s family spoke English with one another. He was educated in English, from elementary school to CEGEP, where he studied business administration. After his postsecondary education, Bill had several different jobs before deciding to start his own carpentry

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business. Bill’s parents bought a cottage north of Montreal when he was a teenager, in the town where he now lives. He likes the lifestyle associated with Laurentian cottage country. When we were teenagers, we would come up north on weekends, and then my parents bought a cottage in the Laurentians, and so we started to renovate that and work on it on weekends … I came back to live with some friends, so it was basically where we would hang out to ski.

When asked why he chose to settle down in a francophone community, Bill explained that, when you live in Quebec, French is simply a part of life. While discussing his identity, Bill said he sees himself as a Canadian from Quebec. He referred to languages when talking about his identity. He admitted that he spoke broken French and that he does not always understand conversations in French. He believes that, due to poor teaching methods, the French that he was taught in school is of no use. Christine and Bill chose to educate their children in the French school system instead of exercising their right to instruction in English. Their children were the only two anglophone students in their entire school. When my children were in school, they got extra services because they were [considered] immigrants ... “Your children, because they’re immigrants, will have extra services in French.” They were the only two anglophones in the whole school at the time so they hired someone to give them extra French classes.

Bill added, however, that Stephanie and Phillip had already been exposed to the French language and culture, through their babysitter, who spoke French. Both children chose to attend a French majoritylanguage CEGEP and university. Christine and Bill do not regret their decision to have their children schooled in French. For them, it was the best possible decision because, in order to live in Quebec, one needs to be fully bilingual. Stephanie and Phillip were both in serious relationships at the time of the study. Stephanie’s boyfriend comes from a family that is half-French, half-English. Phillip’s girlfriend is a francophone from Chicoutimi with no English background. Thus, Christine and Bill’s children are living in both worlds. Stephanie and Phillip see their identities as complex and not fixed in time. They each took a few minutes to reflect before expressing their thoughts. stephanie: Well

it’s probably more a quarter/three-quarters, three-quarters English because, I mean, my base is English, my family is English, I grew up

52  Negotiating Identities listening to English songs, English TV, English everything, English traditions, Thanksgiving turkey, and all that is still in me, part of me. And even, it’s funny, because even for my boyfriend that I have now, it’s like I’ve always looked for a guy who has a bit of English just so we can relate, and my boyfriend is half English and half French. It’s actually one of the positive points that he knows what T   hanksgiving is, and he knows English traditions, and he knows how it works, and it’s not something that I’d have to explain and make an effort to come for Thanksgiving. So I think that all the English traditions I will keep on doing them. But there’s French traditions, like I never celebrated St. Jean with my parents, but I would celebrate it now, you know? phillip : Well, I’m super close to my family, and I’m also super close to my friends, but family is English and my friends are French. Like I have one really close friend who’s English, and I think we’re best friends just because being the two only English-speaking kids, like, since before kindergarten, it was just us; our parents are the two English-speaking parents, and me and Sean started hanging around together pretty young, but he’s my only English-speaking friend. But now I speak better in French than English I think. Having all my friends speak French all the time and going to school in French all the time. When I’m not with my family, it’s 100% French. But I really see myself as a 50/50.

Stephanie’s and Phillip’s expressions of their identity illustrate the fluidity of this notion. It also reveals that border-crossing is part of their lives and reflects the complexity of living simultaneously in two worlds, where identity and belonging are always negotiated through day-to-day social practices. The result is an identity that is dynamic, never taken for granted, and always evolving. Interestingly enough, neither Stephanie nor Phillip ever felt left out or marginalized due to being viewed as members of the anglophone community. Teaching Career Path Christine wanted to become a teacher from a very young age because she enjoyed school and taking care of young children. At the age of four, I already wanted to be a teacher. I loved books from a very young age. And then when I started school, I just absolutely loved school. I loved learning things, and I remember coming home and I had play chairs and I’d line up the chairs and put teddy bears on them and using a little blackboard – I was the teacher.

She enrolled at McGill University in the four-year bachelor of education degree program but was only there as a full-time student for one year.

Teachers’ Stories – Association A  53  I went to McGill for a year and I took one extra night course. And in the night course I met a woman who was a teacher whose husband was being transferred, and they were looking for a teacher on the south shore. And I said, “I can’t go, I only have one year at McGill,” and she said, “Go, go! They’re really desperate …” So I went and I was hired, so I ended up teaching full-time at 19 years old and I continued my classes at McGill at night.

Christine was hired to work with children with language, behavioural, and learning exceptionalities as well as with gifted students. She worked at her first school for seven years. In order to complete her teaching degree, she attended classes in the evening and during the summer. Christine mentioned that she had to take a leave of absence to complete her school practicum at the end of her degree program because she had to be a fulltime student while doing her practice teaching. After graduation, she continued studying, completing diplomas in reading, in special education, and in TESL (teaching English as a second language). Later on, she successfully completed a master’s degree in educational leadership. When Christine left her first teaching job on Montreal’s South shore, after moving up north, she quickly found employment at the local anglophone school board. After two years, Christine substituted for a short time, and then she took a job teaching at a local residential centre for young offenders. I put my name in the different schools to substitute teach, so I was called often to substitute teach in the different schools. There was three English schools within a 20 minute drive and then someone suggested that I go and put my name in, at the time it was called [name of the centre], then it was changed to another name. But it was for children aged 12–18 that generally come from Montreal. They’ve committed crimes, they have been sent here from court. So when someone suggested I go … I thought, “No I don’t think that’s for me,” you know.

Despite her hesitation, however, Christine went to the anglophone centre to apply to be a substitute teacher. She was hired the same day and worked there for 15 years. She described her work at this school as being challenging. I was replacing someone who had just quit, who had had a burnout and my job was to teach, I think it was Grade 7 and 8 French, Math and English. So of course I had to bring all the books home and have a look through them … The curriculum wasn’t the challenge there, the challenge was working with the students and getting them to work and getting them to putting effort into school work. Most of the students came from extremely poor backgrounds.

54  Negotiating Identities They stole because they didn’t have food. It wasn’t so much emotional or psychiatric problems, it was real, they lived on the street … and they were between 12 and 18.

She enjoyed her experience and the challenges associated with the job, as well as the close-knit relationships she developed with the staff there. But after 15 years she chose to go back to teaching at the elementary level and accepted a position as a resource teacher at a small English-minority language school in a small neighbourhood close by, where she still teaches. She described the school population as mainly francophone, even though the language of instruction is English. While discussing the school’s population, Christine began to talk about the role of English minority-language schools for the anglophone community in Quebec, which she does not see as being very different from the role of the French majority-language schools. I think if I was in a school where the students were all anglophone, my perception would be quite different, but I’m in a school where it’s 95% francophone. So I often don’t even feel that I’m in an English school because outside the children are speaking French, the parents come in and when we have meetings they often don’t speak English or they speak a little bit of English.

When asked specifically about the English minority-language school as a producer of identity that encourages students to develop an anglophone identity, Christine said that it was unrealistic to think in those terms. I don’t think so. I think ... I mean they’re going to know the English lan­­ guage, they’re going to know English authors, they’re going to know English holidays, they’re going to know English idioms, you know, um ... traditions, but I think it’ll just be something that they store away. I don’t think the children will consider themselves bilingual. Children will consider themselves francophone, but they speak English because they went to English school, but even now with the little amount of English that they speak, socially when they’re really having fun, when kids think of school, it’s fun, it’s the yard, the recess, the basketball team, when it’s not the class, they’re speaking French. And we can’t control that.

It is important to point out that, in her discourse, Christine associates the use of English with schoolwork and the use of French with leisure and fun for the students. Use of the minority language in school is often portrayed as something that is imposed on students rather than as something they select. In this sense, the school has limited influence on the

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language practices of the students, except perhaps in the classroom. She added that, in her opinion, being surrounded by English media and culture from anglophone Canada and the United States prevents anglophones in Quebec from assimilating into the French-speaking majority. Coming back to the general role of the teacher, Christine insisted on the importance of developing a love of learning. She added that she feels very fortunate to be able to adapt her teaching to the needs of her students, since working with small groups allows her greater freedom in her classroom methods. She shared that, over the years, her approach to teaching has evolved. At the beginning, I felt that I was the one that was always going to be deciding what they were going to be learning, and I think now, as I’m getting closer to the end, I think I look at the children first and I say, “Okay, what do they need to learn?” I think it’s just a matter of experience. You just sort of follow through with what you’re supposed to be doing. I would think that now I do more of what I believe in, but I think it has to do with the experience, because my philosophy hasn’t changed all that much.

Christine pointed out that she has gained a lot of teaching expertise over the years, in addition to pedagogical skills and a better knowledge of her work. Having her own children, she explained, made her more aware of how important it is to understand each student’s family background. Christine concluded our conversation about teaching on a very positive note. I still think [teaching] is the best job in the world.

Sarah Sarah, who is in her 40s, is a science teacher in an English minoritylanguage high school in the Montreal metropolitan area. She is married to Joe. Together, they have three teenage children: Jamal, Rosa Nin, and Nathalie. The family lives in Montreal. Growing Up in Manitoba and Moving to Quebec Sarah was born and grew up in St. Boniface, one of the six districts of Winnipeg that is now predominantly English-speaking but still has a large francophone community. Historically, St. Boniface was the heart of the francophone community in Manitoba. Both her parents are anglophones who were born in St. Vital, which was historically a French-speaking

56  Negotiating Identities

village that is now also part of Winnipeg, as is the case with St. Boniface. Sarah has two younger siblings, a sister who lives in British Columbia and a brother who lives in Calgary. Despite the fact that there was a significant number of francophones in St. Boniface, her family lived as anglophones. It was mostly English, but there was a French core, like the old part of St. Boniface was French. Where we were was not. But there was still a significant number of francophones.

Sarah was exposed to French growing up even though she did not speak French herself. When she played with her francophone neighbours, they spoke English to her. As is commonly reported, members of the linguistic minority were willing to switch their language of communication in the presence of a member of the linguistic majority, even when that minority represents a significant number of persons, as in the case of francophones in St. Boniface. Francophones who live in minority settings are often bilingual; this is rarely the case for members of the English majority. As a result, the language of the majority becomes the language used for communication between groups. This is often described as a sign of “politeness” on the part of members of the minority group, who are most likely bilingual and, therefore, willing to accommodate individuals who are not. Sarah completed her education in English. She would have liked to enrol in French immersion, which was a new program at the time, but her father did not want her to. As a result, she always attended English majority-language schools. Through her experiences at school, she was nevertheless able to see the influence of French in her school life. I went to an English school, elementary and senior school all in St. Boniface. The French teachers were all from St. Boniface so we were lucky that we had francophone teachers from Grade 1 on. So we had an hour of French probably once a week. But we were taught things in English that kids outside of St. Boniface probably wouldn’t have experienced … Our principal was French and all the janitors were French. So we were in a very English part where I grew up, but it was still St. Boniface and it was still French.

Although her family was anglophone and there were francophones around them, Sarah does not recall any linguistic or cultural tensions between the two groups, either at school or in the neighbourhood. In fact, growing up, my next-door neighbours were French. I used to babysit them. They went to French school and there was never a conflict.

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Historically, relationships between anglophones and francophones in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada have been described as conflictual. This does not seem to have been the case for Sarah growing up. Despite being unable to speak French, living in an environment that was influenced by the French language was not challenging for Sarah. For postsecondary education, Sarah chose the University of Winnipeg; she graduated with an honours degree in science. During her undergraduate degree, Sarah thought about going into education but changed her mind when her father advised against it. My father was a high school teacher and vice-principal and the one time where I’d done my first degree and I said, “Well, what am I going to do? I’ll just go into education.” He convinced me not to; he reminded me that it was the worst career in the world. I said, “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. I’m not going to be a teacher.”

Instead, she took a job as a research laboratory technician. She worked in the lab for three years before deciding to do a master’s degree in science with a specialization in agriculture. It was during this time that, as a teaching assistant, Sarah realized just how much she enjoyed teaching. She went back to university to complete a bachelor of education. When she graduated, she found a full-time teaching position at a high school in Winnipeg, and she developed good relationships with her colleagues and administrators. Nevertheless, she remained curious about what it would be like to move to another province and live in a big city. She had travelled around the country, and she came to the conclusion that she wanted to live in Montreal; this decision was made halfway through her first year of teaching. Sarah went to visit a friend in Montreal and began to look for work for the following school year. She then returned to Winnipeg to finish the school year and began preparing for the move. These events took place in 1990. I started taking French courses at Collège St-Boniface in continuing education, so I started working on acquiring a bit of French … Immediately before I left I registered myself for a six-week intensive French course at the University of Montreal. I came here and looked for work, and I did a lot of substitution work. I had a short-term contract, and then the year after I was hired to do somebody else’s maternity leave … I also did [another] six-week course at the University of Montreal. Because … I moved here thinking I would learn French.

Sarah took French classes to prepare herself for her new life in French in Montreal. She made an effort to become a full participant in her

58  Negotiating Identities

new community; however, she faced roadblocks on her journey towards becoming bilingual. Identity and Sense of Belonging Sarah considers herself an anglophone. When she talks about identity and sense of belonging, her discourse focuses almost exclusively on the French majority language and her struggle to learn this language. Sarah believed she would learn French when she moved to Montreal, but she has found it challenging to practise her second language. I work in an English environment. It’s hopeless. [When I moved to Montreal] I joined the Canoe Club because I was interested in the outdoors, to learn French, and it was all a bunch of 29- to 35-year-olds who were dying to learn English so they insisted that I speak English because they wanted to practice. I didn’t learn any French.

Nevertheless, Sarah has never felt like an outsider in Montreal. Her life revolves around the anglophone world. She is able to live predominantly in English in both her private and public lives. I was always expecting, when you go basically east of St. Denis, that less people would speak English. And I thought that was my problem, not theirs. If there was an inability to speak French, I moved to Quebec, that’s the reality. I’ve never really felt like an outsider looking in. I have always thought, “Well, it’s my fault because my French isn’t any better.” And I also don’t feel as an “outsider” because there’s so much English where I am. It never bothered me that I wasn’t meeting any francophones … I was able to meet people fairly quickly, but primarily anglophones.

Despite the fact that Sarah says she does not speak French well, she does not feel as though she is part of a minority group in Montreal. From her point of view, resources and services are readily available in English in the city. Every service is possible, every service that I would want access to is there. I have never felt like I could not get everything I needed. I feel like I live in a French environment, but I don’t live that reality very often. I have said it before, I feel like we’re living in a little bubble here.

Sarah’s view on her capacity to access services and resources in the minority language is a good example of how their availability can help

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contribute to the vitality of the linguistic minority group. One can say that the minority language then becomes “visible” and accessible; it is no longer restricted to family and school. In the Montreal area, anglophones have many opportunities to live in their own language compared to the rest of the province, where services and resources in English are often more difficult to find. The situation of anglophones living outside of Montreal can perhaps be more comparable to the situation of francophones living in minority communities outside of Quebec. Sarah also explains that she does not feel as though she belongs to a linguistic minority because she works in English all day. Furthermore, her family communicates mostly in English at home, and the majority of her activities outside the home are in English, too. It’s pretty much in English. We’ve gone to the odd French play, mostly just because my husband would know the actors.

When interactions need to take place in French, Sarah always finds a way to get by. For example, there was an instance in which she had to meet with a francophone farmer in the context of her work; another teacher, who was with her and who is bilingual, did all of the talking. Furthermore, she understands and speaks enough French to use it if she must, like when she meets with parents who only speak French. Nonetheless, Sarah is quick to add that she feels self-conscious when she speaks French. Linguistic and cultural border-crossing in her life happens only occasionally. She recognizes, however, that this is not the case for every anglophone living in Quebec. For many, linguistic and cultural border-crossing is a regular occurrence. Family Context Sarah’s family lives in a neighbourhood of Montreal that currently has a mix of anglophones and francophones; traditionally, it was mostly anglophone. Sarah’s husband, Joe, is an anglophone lawyer from Montreal. When asked about his identity and how he sees himself, he gave the following reply: As an anglophone, a bilingual anglophone I would say. I went to English elementary school. I went to French high school, a public French high school, which was out in the east end. That’s where I learned French.

Joe attended an English minority-language CEGEP. He then did a bachelor’s degree in political science at McGill University, after which

60  Negotiating Identities

he completed a law degree in French at the Université du Quebec à Montréal (UQAM). He chose to go to UQAM due to his interest in the program as well as UQAM’s affordable tuition fees. Joe grew up in a family in which it was considered essential to be fully bilingual in order to live a productive life in Quebec. When Sarah and Joe met, they each had a daughter from a previous relationship. Their daughters, Rosa Nin and Nathalie, are close in age. The girls each have a francophone parent and were raised in both English and French. Sarah mentioned that she and Rosa Nin’s father discussed the issue of language early on; this is common in families in which one parent is an anglophone and the other is a francophone. They decided to raise Rosa Nin in both languages. As an educator I did the research, asked the question, what I have been told is if he spoke only French to the baby and I spoke only English, that her French and English would be much better. So we established it right along, he only spoke French, I only spoke English.

Nathalie, on the other hand, was mostly raised in French during her early years. After Sarah and Joe got married, they decided to speak to Nathalie in French. She was only one year old at the time and they thought it would make the transition to the new family arrangement easier. She was in shock from leaving her mother so we started speaking to her in French. Even I spoke to her in French. I told her when she was older, “You’re my French teacher,” so she liked that. The girls always spoke to each other in French, but they always spoke English to Jamal, who’s two and a half years younger.

Jamal is Sarah and Joe’s 16-year-old son, who, unlike his sisters, grew up in a family in which both parents are anglophone. He was raised mostly in English. As such, in Sarah’s family the rapport to language is not linear. Linguistic practices among the three children and their mother and father illustrate how border-crossing occurs in a context where two languages coexist. The way in which languages are spoken is often based on the context, such as in the case of Sarah and Joe’s family. As a matter of fact, Sarah claims to be the only member of the family who is not bilingual. In terms of his identity, Jamal considers himself a Montrealer. Rosa Nin, who is 19, describes herself as a Canadian, and she mentions that people assume she is anglophone. They both speak French and English. At the time of the interview, Jamal was attending the English minority-language

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high school where his mother teaches. Rosa Nin was attending an anglophone CEGEP with plans to attend McGill University in the fall. Sarah and Joe wanted their children to be fully bilingual and believed the best way to achieve this was to send them to elementary school in French and high school in English. The children revealed that they did not always fit in at the French majority-language school and that, from time to time, they were discriminated against by teachers. Rosa Nin expressed the following feelings: It was not the same culture maybe. It was not only a language barrier, maybe I just isolated myself and that’s why I did not fit in, maybe it was not that other people were bullying me, but I just did not want to be part of it.

The young woman does not see herself as a member of a linguistic minority because she can live as an anglophone almost everywhere she goes. She also thinks that the word “minority” implies being oppressed, and that is not how she feels in her daily life. This association between minority identity and oppression is worth exploring. Why do some linguistic minorities feel oppressed while others do not? Sarah and her family explained that they are not concerned with the potential disappearance of English in their lives even if French is the official language in Quebec. Teaching Career Path As explained earlier in Sarah’s story, she did not choose to become a teacher when she first went to university. Her desire to pursue a teaching career came during her master’s degree, when she had an opportunity to work as a teaching assistant. Because she enjoyed this role so much, she decided to take a new two-year program offered as a post-degree at the University of Winnipeg. I was doing the science after-degree program. I was with students who had PhDs, there were 4 or 5 of us who had Master’s and everybody had at least a B.Sc. So we were all a bit older, it was a very vibrant mixed group. It was exciting. We realized quickly that we knew a lot more than our professors. So it was intellectually challenging as in we were challenging professors we knew did not know as much science as we did.

Sarah chose to teach at the high school level. She acquired a specialisation in science, but she also has a major in English literature. Right

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after graduation, Sarah was hired to teach science and computers fulltime in a school in Winnipeg. After teaching for one year, Sarah left Winnipeg and moved to Montreal, where she started off as a substitute teacher in two school boards. Within three months I was working full-time. A science teacher who is qualified to teach sciences, you know, it’s hard to get a science sub. So I was called constantly and then one of the schools, their math teacher was sick and they asked if I could fill in for 3 months. And then right after that there were teachers on maternity leave, so I had that job for 2 years.

In 1993, she took a full-time teaching position in a different school board, in a small town outside of Montreal. She enjoyed teaching at this school and stayed for five years before transferring to a school closer to home, where she still works. The student population at this school is predominantly of Greek heritage, and the working environment is very dynamic and vibrant. Under the leadership of a new principal, hired shortly after her transfer, the school changed dramatically. It’s since become a really vibrant, insane but vibrant place. We were in the lowest third in the rankings. We’re now in the top third. We have one of the lowest, I think the second lowest, dropout rate of any English school in Quebec. So that’s the new principal, he’s just been brilliant. Because these kids are bright, they’re motivated, energetic, multicultural, exciting, so for the last two years [of high school] I pulled [my daughter] out of her private school and she has joined [my school], and now my son goes there too.

The school offers sports programs as well as arts programs to counter student dropout rates. Over the past 12 years, the school population has increased from 600 to 1600 students. Sarah is head of the Science Department and is the leader for science teachers at her school. She has broad experience, ranging from being a part of various pilot projects organized by the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports to writing provincial exams for the anglophone sector. All of this happened during the educational reforms and changes to Quebec’s school curriculum that took place beginning in 2000 and continuing over a period of 10 years. Like most teachers, Sarah is involved in several extra-curricular activities, such as the environmental club and a yoga class, building the school community garden, and organizing the robotics team. She also takes her students on numerous field trips, including an international field trip to Costa Rica.

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Sarah’s philosophy of teaching is student-centred and emphasizes interactive activities. She refers to herself as a learning facilitator for her students rather than as a content transmitter. She is an advocate of experiential learning, and she does not consider herself a traditional teacher because she likes trying new things and mixing classroom strategies. It’s hands on, it’s experiential learning, it’s always broadening the students’ horizons. It’s exposing them to things they would not have been exposed to otherwise. So that, as young adults, as they mature into adults, they’ve got other perspectives that they would not have had, they’ve got a better global view of the world.

For Sarah, a good teacher is also someone who can instil passion in their students for what they are learning in class. Sarah believes her philosophy has evolved over her 20 years of teaching. For example, she knows more about what works and what does not work with her students. She is not afraid to try something new when something is not working. She is always eager to become a better teacher. She has participated in professional development throughout her teaching career and finds it stimulating. Sarah is a lifelong learner. With respect to the role of English minority-language schools in Quebec, Sarah does not believe that they have a mandate to preserve the English language. She attributes this perception to the fact that anglophones in Montreal are very isolated from the rest of Quebec and, consequently, do not see themselves as a disadvantaged linguistic group. I do not think at any one time any of the teachers have a real sense of a mission that we are a minority in Quebec. I think we are just teaching our group of kids. We are in a little bubble and we do not know we are in a bubble. So we do not really look at the bigger picture, we are just getting them ready to go to English CEGEP, which they all do.

Although Sarah does not feel she is part of a minority, she, like other participants, believes that one essential role of the English minoritylanguage schools in Quebec is to ensure that students improve their French so they can become full citizens of Quebec. The concern is that they learn better French. And a lot of people at the school have that concern. We have the opportunity to go spend a day at CEGEP “A” to go and spend a day in French, and we took 100 kids to that, and the whole day was in French.

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As a teacher, Sarah tries to model the importance of learning French by incorporating the language into the students’ extra-curricular activities and excursions. She believes that it is important for them to develop excellent French skills because, otherwise, they will feel less connected to Quebec and be more likely to leave the province. I would like my kids to stay in Quebec, and the only way that they are going to do that is if they are comfortable, if they’re totally bilingual. And I think that as an anglophone school, we should be doing more to meet those needs.

She compares French minority-language schools in Manitoba, where francophones are adamant about maintaining the French culture, to English minority-language schools in Quebec, where anglophones do not seem at all concerned about transmitting the English culture. I know in Manitoba, the francophones fight very hard in their schools. They do everything they can so that the French students do not get immersed in the English background. They try to postpone that as long as they can, because it is the only way to maintain a small, isolated community within a very large community. But there is, I do not think there is a sense of that here.

Sarah’s comments about the fight to preserve French culture in French minority-language schools in Manitoba also apply to French minoritylanguage schools in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada. Why, then, is the discourse so different in Quebec? Why do teachers and staff at English minority-language schools in Quebec seem to think it is more important to turn out bilingual students than to maintain the English language and culture? The answer may be that English is the most common language in our globalized world; however, this does not exclude the presence of complex linguistic practices in Canada generally, and in minoritylanguage schools in particular. Sarah expressed concerns about the future of English minority-language schools in Quebec. She believes that the number of schools will decrease because Bill 101 requires immigrants to enrol in French majority-language schools. Sarah’s discourse on language planning and how it affects Quebec’s anglophone minority is part of the current debate in the province on newcomers and their participation as citizens in Quebec. Reflecting back on her professional life, Sarah is happy with her career choice. After 20 years, she is still finding ways to renew herself as a teacher, and she still enjoys teaching. I am having a lot of fun doing what I am doing.

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Serafina Serafina is an elementary school teacher in her 40s. During the first two years of the study, she was working temporarily for the Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports. During the final year of the study, she returned to classroom teaching. She has two adult children in university, Gina and David. Growing Up in Ontario and Moving to Quebec Serafina was born in Sicily and came to Toronto with her family when she was six years old. Her father had arrived in Toronto two years prior in order to find work and establish himself before the rest of the family came to join him in 1969. They immigrated to Canada for economic reasons. When Serafina and her mother and sister arrived, they lived with another Italian family before moving into their own place. Serafina grew up in a part of Toronto called Little Italy. She was raised in Italian and was only exposed to English when she began school. My first day of school … we went down to recess and I was listening to all these voices, and it did not make sense and I decided, “That’s it, I’m not staying. I don’t belong here and actually, I’m leaving.” I memorized the path, it was not too far from our house, and I decided to just go back home.

It did not take long for Serafina to learn English. Although most of the children at school were Italian, they mastered the English language. If Serafina wanted to make friends, she had to learn the majority language; however, she continued to speak Italian with her parents. Later on, she would speak English with her younger sister and two younger brothers. Her family’s Italian culture played a significant role in shaping her social experiences when she was growing up. Serafina’s parents kept her within the boundaries of the Italian community as much as they could, even though she did not always agree. It was a challenging time for Serafina. Despite the restrictions on her social life, she stayed involved in extra-curricular activities at school; she was class president, she was on the yearbook committee, and she participated in the drama club. Serafina valued education throughout her childhood, knowing from an early age that she wanted to go to university even though that contrasted with her family’s views on the role of women. Her siblings also shared Italian values.

66  Negotiating Identities She [her sister] was okay with being Italian; she embraced it; she still does. She decided that she did not even want to go to the same school that I did. Instead of going to O School, she decided to go to W School and do commerce, which is where a lot of Italians were.

School became central to Serafina’s life; she was eager to learn and loved reading and writing. Despite strong encouragement from her teachers, her parents did not support the idea of her going to university. Nevertheless, Serafina applied to two Toronto universities to study English literature and was accepted to both institutions. However, she had to defer her acceptance for a year in order to save up for her tuition and books. After finishing high school, Serafina worked full-time in a bank and was able to save enough money for university. Her personal values contrasted sharply with those of her parents, and she struggled to embrace her Italian culture. She felt that her family’s values were oppressive to women, and she did not want to be a part of that. I didn’t want to be Italian. Another thing was being a girl put a lot of barriers up for me … you know, my identity was only defined as being a woman and married, having children. I really rebelled against that … for me it was a constant struggle not to be associated with that culture because that culture was keeping me from doing what I want.

For Serafina, education was the only way to distance herself from the Italian culture; however, her parents wanted their young daughter to get engaged and marry within the Italian community. By the time she was 20, Serafina had received eight marriage proposals, all of which she had turned down. Then a ninth marriage proposal came from a man who would become her husband. His name was Giovanni, and he was a young engineer who had a university degree. Serafina thought that being married to an educated man would be a good decision. She said that one condition for her marriage to Giovanni would be the freedom to finish her education. He agreed to this condition. Giovanni informed Serafina that he would likely be transferred to Montreal for his job. During this time, Serafina was attending university, as she had planned a year before. Unfortunately, her engagement and planning of the wedding made it difficult for her to focus on her studies. Her first set of postsecondary marks was disappointing, and she decided to drop out of university. A few months later, she enrolled in a distance education program, earning 12 university credits. She planned to complete her degree after moving to Montreal. Giovanni and Serafina were married in 1983 and moved to Montreal in 1984.

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Serafina had asked for a transfer from the bank she worked at in Toronto and was able to secure a position at a branch in Montreal. During this period, Giovanni completed an MBA degree. Serafina was given a choice of three bank branches, two of which were in a francophone environment. She picked the branch in downtown Montreal that had anglophone customers. However, this position involved working as a teller, not at a desk, as she had done in Toronto; she gave up her seniority in order to work at this location. Even though the branch was located in a more anglophone environment than the other two branches, she still faced challenges working with the francophone customers. She left the bank for good when she became pregnant with her first child, Gina. Identity and Sense of Belonging At our very first meeting, Serafina started the conversation by commenting on how her francophone colleagues at her place of work perceived her identity. Last week we were at a luncheon at the ministry and somebody made a joke about anglophones and somebody said, “Whoops, you know Serafina is here,” and I said, “You know I do not consider myself an anglophone, I do not consider myself anglophone,” and they said, “Well what do you consider yourself?” and I said, “I do not know, Allophone, Italian …” but I never had a sense I was Italian until I moved here.

I intentionally began this section on identity and sense of belonging with an interview excerpt that demonstrates how we are often defined by others and how their definition of us does not always correspond to our own perceptions of ourselves. Serafina claimed a trilingual identity when she responded to the survey, which reflects the dynamic process of which she is a part. She does not see her identity as monolithic. She explained that her identity is intertwined with her Italian culture, the languages she speaks (English, French, and Italian), and her profession. For Serafina, personal and professional identities go hand in hand. I cannot deny that for sure my teaching career has formed and given me my identity. It is just part of who I am, as much as what I grew up with, my Italian culture is as much a part of who I am.

Her discourse presents the notion of identity from different angles. For example, she does not think of herself as an anglophone, due in part

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to the fact that she grew up in Toronto and is still not accustomed to this label, despite the fact that she has lived in Quebec for over 20 years. Furthermore, during childhood and adolescence, Serafina rebelled against her Italian identity because her parents did not support her desire to pursue postsecondary education. So it was really a struggle, because at the same time I was trying to fight that identity [Italian]. I was trying also to stay within the parameters [of the Italian norms] … so it was a real struggle.

When she attended school for the first time at the age of six, only six months after immigrating to Toronto from Italy, she did not understand the language and quickly realized that she had to learn English if she wanted to make friends and succeed in school. From a very early age, education became the centre of her life; it has remained so ever since. For me, school, and throughout all the stages of my life, even to today, it defines who I am … and it became … a gateway to freedom in every aspect because it allowed me to escape a restrictive and oppressive culture.

Despite having French classes in school from Grade 4 all the way through high school, Serafina quickly discovered when she moved to Montreal that Quebec’s majority language was a challenge for her. She had a difficult time adjusting to living in a francophone environment. She recalled not feeling comfortable enough to communicate in French at social gatherings, at the store, or at the bank where she worked. Her challenges with French made her feel inadequate and powerless. She felt isolated. I had to at the bank I worked … until I got pregnant with Gina [in] 1986 … so just day to day talking. And going to the stores … I had no choice. I really had to, you know, learn, but … at the beginning I needed to keep who I was, so I was not going to read the French newspaper, I was not going to watch French TV, because I needed to keep who I was.

Gradually Serafina mastered the French language, eventually immersing herself in it. Further, her feelings of being inadequate and powerless disappeared when she began to teach anglophone students. Serafina explained that these emotions returned when she taught in a school in a French community and again when she worked for the Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports. Even though Serafina is now more

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fluent in French, English remains her dominant language, and she still considers herself to be a member of a minority. Yes, for sure [I feel like a minority]. I think that more so when I was working in the private system like in the bank, in schools not so much. When I was here in a school … and it was in an English, more English area, I did not. But I really felt once again like a minority … when I went to [name of the town] to teach because it was such a large francophone majority and even the students were 95% francophone, the staff was also split 65% francophone, but we were all teaching in English. I really felt it again, you know, because at lunch time the language would be French … now that I am working at the ministry I feel like, considerably like a minority right now, like I am the minority. I’m the only anglophone on the team … I do not feel any negativity [though].

She concluded by saying that her stay at the ministry had been beneficial. She now has a better understanding of the educational and social contexts in Quebec, and this in turn has allowed her to truly appreciate being a part of these contexts. Family Context When Gina and David were growing up, Serafina and her husband, Giovanni, spoke English at home. Already speaking to each other in English, the couple did not feel comfortable speaking Italian with their children, even though they were strongly encouraged by their parents to do so. When I was pregnant with Gina both parents, my parents in Toronto and my in-laws here, were very adamant about, you know, “they need to learn the language, they need to speak Italian, you guys should speak Italian to them” ... we [Giovanni and I] discussed it and I tried at the beginning to speak in Italian to them a little bit, but it was, it just felt not comfortable enough. Like, you know, it just was not me. Even though they were understanding, it was, that is not you, and because Giovanni and I would speak in English all the time it did not seem, it just seemed so out of whack to turn around and talk to them in Italian and then to speak to Giovanni in English. I kind of regret it now … that I did not speak [Italian to Gina and David].

Nevertheless, Gina and David were exposed to Italian through their grandparents, who babysat them. Serafina and Giovanni divorced in 2001 and shared custody of their two children. When we met them, Gina was in her last year of a degree in anthropology at an English-language university and was hoping to pursue graduate studies. David was in his

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first year at the same university and studying commerce. Both children attended English minority-language schools and socialized mainly with anglophones. The two children view their identity and language practices differently. The following is an excerpt from the interview with Gina. I think, first and foremost, I describe myself as being Canadian and then say if I were to meet someone and they would say, you know, if I was asked where are you from I would say Canada. And then if they say, okay, well what is your background? Then I would say, well my parents were born in Italy and I am Italian, but as far as language goes, English is definitely my first language.

David views his identity differently. Well you see for me, if someone asks me where I am from I never say, because I do not travel a lot, so if someone asks me where I am from I say I am Italian. I always say, I have never actually in recent memory, remembered myself saying I am Canadian. I do not say I am Canadian, I always say I am Italian … even though I do not know really how to speak the language very well, I am not really fluent in it, but I just say I am Italian, that is how I identify myself.

These excerpts demonstrate how perceived identities can vary even between members of the same family. Even though Gina and David have different views on their identity, they both claim Italian culture as their own. Neither would ever call themselves Québécois because they do not share the same primary language or culture. David does not feel an affinity with Québécois culture, which he thinks is a lot more laid-back than his own. Gina feels that she is a member of a minority, mainly due to the language barrier and the lack of services and resources in English in her immediate social environment. For example, things like medicine and medical care, I never feel like I can really get my point across or, you know, make, have someone, a doctor understand my ailments or what I am going through or even when, you know, if a prescription is given to me and there is some kind of confusion with the pharmacist, I cannot say yes this is what the doctor told me.

Gina added that she often feels isolated as an anglophone in Quebec. David, on the other hand, stated clearly that he does not consider himself to be a member of a linguistic minority. I was most of the time just in an English bubble because I went to school with English people, and when I did go to do sports with the other French kids,

Teachers’ Stories – Association A  71  basically they were not any different from any others. I did not feel like I was being any different or discriminated against in any way or something like that. I just felt that, just that I was being English. I thought, when I was growing up, I thought Quebec was half like English, half French.

Once again, the contrasting views on what it means to be a member of a linguistic minority bring to light the socially constructed nature of this concept. As for the notion of identity, even for individuals who share a common background – siblings who were raised together, for example – perceptions and views can still differ significantly. The example that Gina and David provide illustrates different social and linguistic practices, how they impact the way individuals participate in society, and how, for some, there are feelings of exclusion. Teaching Career Path After the birth of her children, Serafina decided to go back to university to complete a bachelor of arts in English literature. In 1995, as she was finishing her degree, she considered graduate school but was unsure of how useful a master’s degree in English would be. She met with her university adviser, who gave her a book to help her to make the right choice. I read a line in there and it said, “Think of one thing that you would do if you were not paid for it.” And I thought you know, I think I would teach. I would not have been the person that I am today if it had not been for the people I encountered in my life, in my family, but [also] the people I encountered in the novels that I read, in the books that I read, historical figures. So I said, how can I best make use of that? And I thought would not that be a wonderful gift to children? To show them that education is liberating.

Serafina was in her mid-30s when she enrolled in a new two-year bachelor of education program. She chose to work with elementary students because of her familiarity with this age group from having spent a lot of time at her children’s school, so she felt comfortable in that environment. Serafina enjoyed her time in this pre-service program. There were 35 of us, and a lot of them were older students, I guess I was one of the eldest, but most of them were in their late 20s because they had done another degree. It was really a different, a good experience … It was hard juggling, I remember sitting with my son on my lap sometimes and typing my essays, but it was really, for me, it was a passion.

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After graduation, Serafina was a supply teacher for a few months before obtaining her first full-time position as a kindergarten teacher at her daughter’s school. After four years of teaching at that school, Serafina asked to be transferred to a new school located further north, about 30 minutes from her home. The school board responded positively to Serafina’s request, and she became a teacher in a split Grade 3/ Grade 4 class. Though these students had the legal right to attend this school, most of them lived in the French majority language and culture, which was a shock for Serafina. Even though they were in Grades 3 and 4, their English was rudimentary, so here was my challenge. Because the parents wanted them to learn in English, however their sports teams outside of school, their extracurricular activities, their family, they watched French television, they read French. Like, they were still having to learn English, let alone learn in English.

After one year, she switched to teaching Grades 5 and 6. During this time, she went back to McGill and, in 2008, completed her master’s of education. She stayed at her school for seven years and then left to work at the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports. Her work involved adapting French-language course materials for the religion, ethics, and culture curriculum for use in English minority-language schools. She stayed at this job for three years before returning to the classroom in September 2011 in a school closer to home, where the student population is mainly Italian. Serafina firmly believes that teaching is a vocation, not a job, because of the ways in which teachers become involved in their students’ lives. It is impossible for her to be completely detached from her work. I always say that it is not a job, it is a vocation, it has to be a vocation, so when I say that I define myself as a teacher, it is just that it becomes so important, like the role that I feel that I have is huge. So I take it seriously, I love what I do. I want to do it more than well, so I am always looking to expand on whatever I know … ethics become a huge part of being a teacher and because you are a teacher, I do not believe there is a huge delineation between the person outside of the classroom and in the classroom.

This interview excerpt explains why Serafina thinks that it is impossible to separate who she is as an individual and who she is as a professional. She identifies strongly with her work as a teacher and believes that her career has enabled her to be who she is. She does not think her philosophy of

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teaching has changed over the course of her career; she does not subscribe to the traditional view of the teacher as a transmitter of knowledge. She sees herself as a guide or facilitator who instils a love of learning in her students. My philosophy of teaching is socio-constructivist. I do not believe in the child as a vessel that you pour things into. I really believe that we co-construct knowledge together. I think the only difference between a teacher and a student is that you know the teacher might have more training or more experience, but I have learned as much from my students if not more than what I have taught them.

Even though Serafina thinks that her philosophy of teaching has not changed over the years, she believes the educational context has changed. It is a lot more difficult for teachers to be in the classroom than when she first started her career. For her, teaching is a very complex task, yet society views it as very simple. She thinks that this is contributing to a lack of professionalization in teaching. As for the role of the English minority-language school in Quebec, Serafina states that its objective is to perpetuate the English minority language, especially for students who live in a French majority-language environment. She wondered whether or not schools should require students to speak only English within their walls, as some do, or whether it is the wrong way to deal with the infiltration of the French majority language into the schools. Addressing the notion of an anglophone culture, she pointed out that she does not view herself as a transmitter of any specific culture in the classroom. Overall, after listening to Serafina’s life story, we see that instilling a love of learning in her students has been her main goal from the beginning of her career and throughout her many years of teaching. I can still remember what I wrote on my first CV when I got my first job, that I loved schooling so much that I wanted to bring into children’s lives that love of learning.

Shelley Shelley, in her late 40s, teaches French as a second language and music in an English minority-language elementary school in a village in the Laurentians, north of Montreal. She has three daughters: Stéphanie, 18, Mélanie, 15, and Zoé, 11. Shelley shares custody of the children with their father, Pierre.

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Growing Up in Nova Scotia and Moving to Quebec Shelley was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and grew up in an anglophone family. Her mother’s side of the family has Acadian roots, but Shelley and her siblings were raised in English. In Shelley’s family, music is important; she is a musician and sings in a choir. Shelley has two brothers and four sisters, and of the seven children, three are bilingual in English and French. One brother and one sister teach in French immersion schools in Nova Scotia. Shelley attended an English Catholic elementary school; she started French classes in Grade 5 and remembers enjoying language learning. I loved languages, in that respect, and I loved music, and languages are very musical. I think maybe it is the same part of your brain, or something that functions, you know? And I enjoyed it, probably because I was very good at it. It probably made me feel like I was doing well in school. I was successful; I had always positive feedback when learning a language and as I got older I just realized, I think I realized that it was important to be able [to] speak French.

Shelley’s interest in the French language continued in high school, after which she attended an English-speaking university in the Maritimes. She chose it because it was walking distance from her parents’ home, where she was living at the time. In her first year she took courses in the arts while working part-time as a waitress. She began her second year at the university but did not finish it due to a lack of interest. Meanwhile, one of Shelley’s close friends got married and moved to Montreal with her husband. Not long after, in 1983, this friend invited Shelley to visit and spend some time in Montreal. Shelley was 23 years old. She visited Montreal and has been in Quebec ever since. I came to Montreal. I went to [a university] French immersion that summer. I moved in to the residence because when I went back to my friend’s place I was not speaking French and I felt like I was cheating. You are really not supposed to speak English for six weeks. So I snuck into a residence at [the university] and stayed on the guys’ floor. And I just stayed there and I popped over to my friend’s every once in a while to say hello, and then after I finished, I just thought, “What am I going to do if I go back to Halifax?” And all of my friends are there and my siblings and my life, and it is very difficult to keep up a life in French when you have lived a life in English, in Halifax. So I thought, “Why don’t I just see if I can find a job?” So I decided to try that instead and I just never went back to Halifax, I just kept on going. I have been here ever since.

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Shelley worked as a waitress after she moved to Montreal. She thought about going back to university to study music, which had always been her true passion. I’d always studied piano, violin, singing. I had always come from a bit of a musical family. My father played piano. My mother sings and so we grew up with that and I had the opportunity to study violin, piano, sing in a really good choir. It was already a big part of my life and then by the time I was 17 I was no longer studying anything musically, and I really missed it.

Her passion for music motivated her to continue her postsecondary studies at an English-speaking university in Montreal; she graduated with a bachelor of fine arts integrated with music studies in 1989. The following summer, Shelley took another intensive French immersion course, and by the end of August she felt ready to pursue a teaching degree in a French-speaking university in Montreal. She wanted to have the option of teaching in French majority-language schools. After taking one year off from school, she started her bachelor of music education. She met Pierre, a francophone, that same year, and they became involved in a serious relationship. Shelley got pregnant during her bachelor of music education. When her daughter was born, she stopped going to university but resumed her degree after spending time at home. Shelley finished her degree in 1994 and then became pregnant with her second daughter, Mélanie. By the time Shelly’s third daughter was born in 2000, the family had been living in a village in the Laurentians, north of Montreal, for two years. Identity and Sense of Belonging On her survey, Shelley claimed a bilingual identity. During the interviews, Shelley’s notion of identity appeared to be closely linked to language and to her ability to speak French fluently in addition to speaking English. However, when she first arrived in Montreal, Shelley realized that her language skills would not allow her to live completely in French or to claim that she was bilingual. When I first came, I was living in an anglophone area in Westmount with some friends. I had a couple of friends, and they were anglophone … I met their anglophone friends, but at the same time I was studying at [a university] in French Immersion to become as bilingual as possible, so I ended up leaving there so that I would not keep going back there to speak English. I really

76  Negotiating Identities wanted to learn to speak French, so I stayed in the [university] residence … and then I ended up going back to Westmount to live for a little while. Then my life was still pretty well more in English because I was in Montreal, and it seems that I just met more anglophones.

After taking more French immersion courses and staying focused on becoming fluent in French, Shelley finally got to the point where she was able to enrol in a French-language university in Montreal for a bachelor of music education in 1991. Besides loving French, she wanted to be able to work as a teacher in both languages. While Shelley was still in school, she worked at a jazz club for a few months, where she met Pierre, who was also working there. Early on, they communicated mostly in French because Shelley knew more French than Pierre knew English. Shelley did not mind interacting in her second language, and from that moment on, French became a big part of her life. Pierre’s family welcomed her without any hesitation and appreciated the fact that she spoke French with them. Well, I always spoke French to his mom and to his dad … It was rare that anyone ever spoke in English, but if they did, I would ... I do not think they had ever really met anyone like me. Like here I was now, in a French culture where it was really appreciated that I was so wanting and so open to being francophone.

This experience was the first time in eight years that Shelley felt accepted as a bilingual speaker by francophones. However, outside of Pierre’s family circle, she continued to experience some challenges when trying to fit into her social environment, and she did not always feel accepted as an individual living in both linguistic worlds. This situation was not new; Shelley realized soon after moving to Montreal in 1983 that speaking the majority language did not automatically mean that she would be accepted into Quebec society. It was not long after the first referendum on Quebec sovereignty, and there was still a very strong divide between the two linguistic groups in Quebec. This divide existed at all levels, but it was particularly sharp on language politics. Bill 101, passed in 1977, had been instrumental in setting the tone. From the start of the study, it was clear that Shelley’s discourse raised important questions about her sense of belonging to the anglophone and francophone communities and about how others perceive her as a member of these communities. In Shelley’s description of her personal experiences, she stated that people in Quebec from both linguistic

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groups saw her mainly as an anglophone from Halifax, not as an anglophone from Montreal or as a bilingual Quebecer. After her family moved to the Laurentians in 1998, she made the decision to work as a teacher in the francophone school board, teaching English as a second language in French majority-language schools. Despite her knowledge of both English and French, Shelley felt isolated on many occasions. She was one of few English-speaking teachers on staff, and she did not feel like she fit in. Even within her own family, she often felt as though she was a minority. I can remember times when I was raising my children and I felt that my English language and culture and identity and culture were threatened, because I was not sure how to balance all of that. Traditions that I held true and dear to me that were not practiced in my francophone life that I had to insist upon.

Shelley is not the only participant in the study to discuss feeling like a minority. This feeling of not “fitting in” is shared by many. To be perceived as the “other,” even when capable of participating in the majority language and culture, raises questions about civic participation. I describe this phenomenon as the inclusion-exclusion divide. Reflecting on her identity, Shelley concluded one of our many meetings on this note: I just think that maybe emotionally, no matter how many languages I learn and how many cultures I embrace and all of that, that I would be the oldest and the most real me perhaps, as an anglophone.

Family Context When Shelley’s first daughter, Stéphanie, was born, she and Pierre both wanted to raise their baby to be bilingual, and they agreed that Shelley would speak to her in English and Pierre in French. However, after Stéphanie was born, they went to live with Pierre’s family in a completely French-speaking environment. After a few months, they left and rented an apartment in another neighbourhood, but it was hard for Shelley to talk exclusively in English to Stéphanie. I was trying to raise her in English in a French environment and it was not working. It was so unnatural. I was rarely speaking English anymore. I was going to [the francophone university]. I had francophone friends. I had francophone family support. I had a francophone husband. I spoke French all day

78  Negotiating Identities and I was making it my business to speak French all day. So I was having a hard time living up to my English background.

Shortly after, the family moved back to their old neighbourhood. Shelley got pregnant for a second time, and Mélanie was born in 1995, when Shelley was finishing her bachelor of music education. Their third daughter, Zoé, was born in 1998. The family communicated mostly in French. Since they lived close to Pierre’s relatives, Shelley felt challenged in her role as the English-speaking parent by a family environment mostly composed of francophones. Shelley’s family was in the Maritimes, and they did not have the regular contact with the children that Pierre’s family had. The decision to send their children to a French majority-language school stemmed from Shelley’s personal language-learning experience and the belief that it is easier for francophones to learn English than for anglophones to learn French. When the family moved to the Laurentians, the children attended the local French majority-language school. In the family interview, the three daughters claimed to feel more francophone than anglophone because they predominantly use French in their dayto-day activities. Stéphanie, the oldest, described her identity as mainly francophone but admitted she also has a bit of an anglophone identity. For sure, I feel more francophone, because we speak more in French at home, because Daddy speaks French, and even with Mommy, we speak more in French. Often, when we speak English, it is because we are fighting. However, I also feel, as an anglophone, I remember when I was in grade school, I felt that I was successful because nobody else understood English in class, except for me. [Trans. from French by author.]

Mélanie agreed with her sister that her daily interactions are mostly in French. Me too, I feel more francophone, because I do not have any friends with whom I speak English. The only opportunities to speak English are with my mother, and even so, sometimes we speak more in French at home. The same as with Stéphanie, I am proud to speak English. [Trans. from French by author.]

Zoé, despite her young age, shared the views of her sisters. Yes, I also feel more francophone. However, I have a friend who speaks a little bit of English who goes to my mother’s school. I speak English with her, and her mother speaks to me also in English when I am with her. [Trans. from French by author.]

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Since Shelley and Pierre separated, the three children divide their time between their parents; they have noticed how the language they speak depends on which parent they are with. They have also noticed how they share family traditions from both linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Asked about her daughters’ identities in a previous conversation, Shelley pictured their identities the same way that her daughters did. She finds that basically they are francophones, due to their upbringing in a French-speaking environment with relatives in Montreal, their schooling in French, and francophone friends. Stéphanie and Mélanie mentioned that they are more comfortable speaking French and more reserved when they are with anglophones. Although they live for the most part in French, the sisters listen mostly to English-language music. The social, linguistic, and cultural reality of exogamous or mixed families, when one parent is francophone and the other parent is anglophone, presents another facet of living as a member of a linguistic minority. The majority language and culture are usually more present in the children’s lives, especially when they attend a majority-language school, as in the case of Stéphanie, Mélanie, and Zoé. However, as can be seen from Shelley’s case, this does not necessarily mean that children in exogamous families automatically reject the minority language and culture altogether. Teaching Career Path Shelley comes from a family of teachers, which certainly influenced her career choice. She was also exposed to the work of a special education teacher for whom she babysat as a teenager; for a time, Shelley wanted to become a special education teacher. However, she was also interested in music, and at one point she wanted to become a singer. Shelley’s career path was complex and challenging. Between her bachelor of music education program and the start of her career as a teacher, a lot happened in Shelley’s life; she met her husband and her three children were born. She began teaching only after her family moved to the Laurentians. She chose to work at the francophone school board as a substitute teacher. This suited her schedule. I went to all the French schools, and I started getting work as a substitute teacher. So I was getting in the car and finding, at the time it was huge to find these little towns everywhere, asking the person on the phone, “What time should I leave in order to get to your school?” So that was okay for a while

80  Negotiating Identities and I got kind of a taste for what the schools were like up here and what the children were like and what the teaching would be like and I was not in any big major hurry to get into that teaching full-time.

It took Shelley a year and a half to get her first contract teaching English in four different French majority-language elementary schools all within the same region. In her second year of teaching, she took a contract teaching English at a high school in the same school board followed by a few other small contracts for a variety of positions in math, science, social studies, and music. Shelley was not happy in the francophone school system and switched to the anglophone school board in 2005. I changed over to the English school board. I got a phone call out of the blue from a principal from one of the English schools saying that she was looking for a grade five teacher. I do not know where she got my name. Anyway, she got my name somehow, called me up and school had already begun.

Shelley decided to take the teaching contract. Contrary to her experience in the francophone school board, Shelley received a good amount of support from her colleagues at her new school and her principal who, at the time, helped her obtain her permanent teaching licence. The following school year, she was planning to stay at the school, but her separation from Pierre and the discovery of a chronic illness forced Shelley to take medical leave for a few months. She returned to teaching the following school year, in 2007, but in a different elementary school, where the curriculum is taught in a bilingual format, similar to French immersion. She is still teaching at this English minority-language school as the homeroom teacher of a split Grade 4/Grade 5 class; she is the French teacher for all the subjects taught in this language. I teach them français langue seconde, science, sciences humaines, musique, but when the teacher comes in to my class, I go in to her grade six class, and I teach français, sciences, sciences humaines, art, and musique, during the week.

Shelley is happy to have found professional stability in her working life. She prefers her position in the anglophone school board to her previous experience in the francophone school board, where she did not feel that her work, or her bilingualism, was appreciated. Now I am in an English school board where I am so valued as a French speaking person because I can teach in French.

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As a teacher, Shelley firmly believes that it is important to develop her students’ creativity. She is always asking whether the school meets this objective. She talked about the push for the use of technology in the classroom, which she does not think is always successful in helping students develop their creativity. I would always feel … well, what about handwriting? And what about classical music? And what is that [technology] doing for the creative mind? Even today I say it is great to say that creative-based learning is all on the screen in front of you, but what about what your brain needs to do in order to be good at handwriting? And why do we still study classical music? Because it is fabulous and nothing you do on the computer is ever going to replace it, so I struggle very much with that.

Looking back, Shelley came to the conclusion that teaching has not been easy for her. The early years were challenging, as she tried to juggle her family life and her work life. She continued to question what it meant to be a teacher when she transferred to the anglophone school system. Nevertheless, she acknowledged that, in recent years, she has felt much more competent. She feels that she is more in control of what she needs to do in the classroom. I think that this year I am much more comfortable in my role as a French teacher. I think that I have a more solidified foundation, and a more developed feeling of competency and of program development.

Although Shelley has been a teacher for over 10 years, it took her a long time to find a stable teaching position. This lack of continuity and stability has undoubtedly contributed to the challenges Shelley has faced in her teaching career; however, she is not alone. It is common for new teachers to face challenges finding stable employment. They often need to do substitute teaching to acquire more experience in order to be competitive in the job market. How can they develop their professional identity? How can they be nurtured by the profession? Support from the school administration and from colleagues is essential. As Shelley found out during her first assignment in a francophone school board, this support is often rather limited. According to Shelley, the English minority-language schools play an important role in Quebec. In these protected spaces, anglophone students can be exposed to both English and French language and culture,

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and this bilingual environment is essential. As for the fear that English will disappear in Quebec, Shelley is confident that this will not happen. I would have to say we [the school personnel] do not feel like we are going to lose our language. The English language is all over the globe, it is everywhere. I do not think that anyone really truly feels that way, that their language would be lost. Maybe the quality of it, yes. I would say that would be something more that we talk about: the quality of the English language…. It is [also] to really emphasize the French, if you did have to put it to an order of priority, you would have to say English first, English and math. And hopefully, French is valued as well.

Shelley is aware that students are primarily sent to these schools to develop their English language skills. In her opinion, a good English minority-language school must have a strong language arts program but should not be limited to academic activities; it should also give students the opportunity to participate in a variety of clubs that reflect their range of interests. Shelley ended the conversation by saying that English minority-language schools will remain in Quebec even though the student population has decreased over the years. Becoming a teacher has been a long journey for Shelley. Her diverse experiences have contributed to who she is as a person, as a mother, and as a teacher. Shelley now feels that she is in a good place in her life. I really needed time before I knew that I wanted to settle into this career and find exactly what it is I am looking for, so that when I wake up in the morning I am happy to go to work. I think that a part of me says sometimes, “Oh, if you had just got a job right away when you finished studying, I would have 20 years under my belt right now and all of that,” but things have never happened to me like that, it is part of who I am and I brought three children into the world instead and, ah, I’m happy about that.

4  Teachers’ Stories – Association B

Now it is the turn of teachers from Association B, Émilie, Jacques, and Diane, to share their stories. Émilie Émilie is a francophone in her 30s who was born and raised in Quebec City. She teaches mathematics in an elementary/high school in the Quebec City area. Her father is an engineer, her mother is a receptionist, and she has a younger sister. Émilie is the mother of two young children, Étienne and Sophie, and she has a teenaged stepdaughter, MarieFrance. Émilie is separated from her husband, Laurent, but the family remains close. Growing Up in Quebec Émilie grew up in a francophone family where French was the only language spoken. She attended French majority-language educational institutions in Quebec City until she went to an English-speaking university in Montreal to complete a master’s degree. While she was growing up, Émilie did not have much contact with the anglophone world, except during summer vacations, which were spent every year on the east coast of the United States. Her interest in the English language came from her father’s fervent belief that it was useful. My dad always stressed the importance of knowing English. I did not really know why, you know, like, “You have to learn English,” I’m like, “Okay,” but we did not need it at all here in Quebec City. And it was the same for him, he would keep telling us when he was little that his dad always said, “You need

84  Negotiating Identities to speak English,” because his dad was working in a factory and the manager was an anglophone so my granddad had to speak English, even if he did not know [how] … Coming from there, like his dad kept telling my dad, “You need to know English,” so my dad did the same with us, even if we did not really know why.

Drawing on her grandfather’s and her father’s recollections of events, Émilie talks about the history of language politics in Quebec and the fact that it was common for management positions to be filled by anglophones. When she was growing up, Émilie learned and spoke English as a second language almost exclusively in school and on family vacations in the United States. After high school, she enrolled at a French-speaking CEGEP in Quebec City. She already had plans to become a teacher. I really like the maths, so I wanted to do the maths, but I wanted to be a primary school teacher. So I did human sciences with maths, which was administration at that time, and then, when I went to register at the university, everybody was going to be a primary teacher. There was so many people, so I was like, “Oh, I do not want to get into a program that everybody is getting into,” so I said, “Okay, I will go into maths,” but then for maths I needed my science, so I had to go back to CEGEP.

While studying at CEGEP, Émilie was offered an opportunity to attend a five-week English immersion program at the University of Calgary. She decided to enrol not only because of her desire to become bilingual but because she felt that the elementary schools and high schools that she had attended had not offered good English-language instruction. She spent that summer in Calgary studying and working at part-time jobs to gain work experience in an English-speaking environment. I was working in a shopping centre, in a little boutique there, and I was also working in a daycare, and the daycare was really good because the kids, they did not make fun of me, like if I was making a mistake they would just probably correct me, like they would just say, “No we do not say it like that,” and for me it was great because they did not mind, and I did not mind for them to correct me, where at the boutique where I was working, if I was making mistakes they would just kind of make fun of me, and it was not fun. That daycare job was a good training.

During the summer that Émilie lived in Calgary, she started to date an American from California who spoke only English. When she returned to Quebec City, they stayed in contact, and she spent her summers visiting

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him in Los Angeles. Having an anglophone boyfriend allowed Émilie to gain more exposure to English. She thinks that this experience was very beneficial. Having to live in English when she was in California and communicating with her boyfriend in English significantly improved her English language skills. They ended their long-distance relationship after three years. Émilie’s CEGEP experience was meaningful. It reinforced her desire to become a teacher. She took a course in which students who were advanced in their program could receive a credit for tutoring other students who needed help. She worked with students who were having difficulty learning advanced math skills. In so doing, she discovered that she had a passion for teaching math. Subsequently, she enrolled in the concurrent bachelor of education program at Université Laval in Quebec City and obtained a degree to teach mathematics and computers. While in university, she worked as a substitute teacher. When I started university I started teaching at the same time because I was part-time the first semester. I started in January as a part-time student because I had a contract to teach part-time. [I was teaching] without my degree, because there was so many people here that were looking for math teachers that they would hire you even if you were not done with university. I had not even started with university and, you know, I got that contract.

After completing her bachelor of education, Émilie went on to pursue a full-time master’s degree in mathematics at Concordia University in Montreal. Afterwards, she returned to Quebec City to work as a teacher. Identity and Sense of Belonging In the survey, Émilie mentioned that she has a bilingual identity; she explained that there is more to a bilingual identity than being able to speak a second language. I think it is more than that [language]. It is more about the opening. For me that is how I see it, like the English part of me is the part that is open to the whole world. And now, like, with English, the friends that I have met are not from here, so they are opening my world to a different part of the world.

The ability to understand and speak English provided Émilie with a new “window on the world.” This is a recurring metaphor in Émilie’s discourse. She talked of expanding her horizons while discussing the

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relationships she had developed over time with anglophones in Quebec City, Calgary, and California and when she spoke of her love of travelling and discovering new places and people. When travelling, Émilie introduces herself as a Canadian because she believes that not many people know about Quebec. Nevertheless, Émilie feels that she is Québécoise, although this term does not have any political connotations for her. She is proud of her identity because she thinks that Quebec is unique when compared to the rest of Canada. I am French-Canadian. Often I need to mention that I am French-speaking and that there is a little province called Quebec. A lot of people do not know that it exists, that some people speak French in Canada. As a result, I often say that [that I am French-Canadian]. Often too, I like to say that I am Québécoise; I like our province, it is fun to live in a different milieu compared to the rest of Canada. However, it feels also good to be Canadian. We are lucky to live in such a great country. [Trans. from French by author.]

While French is still the primary language with which she identifies, Émilie finds that she switches between English and French easily when conversing with her anglophone and bilingual friends and with her colleagues at work. Crossing back and forth across linguistic borders is common in linguistic minority settings. Often, a language is associated with a particular individual or situation. The dynamics of language can also be influenced by the social sphere in which linguistic interactions take place. For example, Émilie recalled moments when she was out with her anglophone and bilingual friends and felt left out, due to the norm of speaking the language of the majority. I describe this practice as being “othered.” I realize sometimes when I am with my friends around and we speak English, because I do not really realize I speak English, because sometimes we will switch from French to English and it does not really matter, but when we are walking, or we are somewhere and we will speak English, a lot of people will look at us, like outsiders, I do not like [that], like we cannot just be here and speak English? You know, it does not mean we are not from here, that we do not like Quebec.

In situations such as this, members of the majority language feel left out; they feel as though individuals speaking the minority language are trying to hide something from them. This is particularly true in Quebec, where the collective memory – la mémoire collective – especially outside of

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Montreal, associates the English language with the economic and political power wielded by anglophones in the past. Émilie has felt comfortable in Quebec City’s anglophone community since she returned from Calgary as a teenager. While attending CEGEP, she saw an advertisement on a bulletin board from an anglophone association trying to recruit volunteers. I was looking for something, and I got lost in one of those corridors and I saw that ad. They were looking for volunteers for a program that was called “Take a break, drop in,” and that was a program that they created for the [Englishspeaking] moms. So the moms can come, meet, and we take care of their kids while the moms meet. I did not know we had an English community. I did not know we had English people here, but from that day I realized that a couple of moms would come to follow their husbands and, say, the husband would go to work, they are here, they do not know anybody, they do not speak French, they have kids, and they are kind of lonely, they feel depressed. I started as a volunteer there.

In Émilie’s opinion, anglophones in the province of Quebec are not a homogeneous community. She thinks that this is especially true in Montreal, where anglophones have different ethnic origins. According to Émilie, anglophones in Quebec City have a lot in common and are much less diverse. She believes that getting closer to, and involved in, this community has been a valuable experience for her. Family Context Émilie met her husband, Laurent, a francophone from Rivière-du-Loup, when they were playing on the same soccer team. They have two young children, Étienne and Sophie, who are both in school. Laurent also has a teenaged daughter, Marie-France. Laurent has a degree in literature. At one point he planned to get a bachelor of education, but for various reasons he decided to take another path. He worked as a technology consultant for the private sector for a few years before getting a teaching position at the local CEGEP. Laurent identifies himself as a world citizen. For him, identity is not just about being a member of a specific group. Generally speaking, I consider myself as a citizen of the world. I have my own baggage, but I still recognize the diversity around the planet. This is how I would define myself globally. I am also Canadian, this is my citizenship, if we look at it [identity] this way, I am Canadian. [Trans. from French by author.]

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Laurent spent a year in Saskatchewan as a French minority-language teaching assistant (moniteur de langue), helping students in French minority-language schools develop their skills in French. Laurent considers himself as bilingual, and he thinks that the fact that Émilie works in an English minority-language school has connected their family to activities and a community they would not otherwise have been involved in. Laurent and Émilie both speak to their children in French, but they also sometimes speak English. This is particularly true of Émilie. Having learned English when she was older, Émilie believes that her children will also be able to acquire it without attending an English minority-language school. Émilie makes a point of exposing her children to the English language as often as possible. Both parents believe that it is important to have experiences in English. A few years ago, they spent a year abroad, living in New Zealand. As adults and parents, Émilie and Laurent enjoyed this experience and believe that it also benefited their children. They [the children] have developed listening skills [in English] that will benefit them, I suppose, in their studies in the future. I am very happy with that. I have a 16-year-old daughter who came with us to New Zealand, and I think that she has also benefited from this experience in her high school studies. I think that any interest that someone has in regards to language will be transmitted to the next generation. [Trans. from French by author.]

Émilie and Laurent stressed the significant discrepancy between Montreal and the rest of the province where language practices are concerned. They remarked that, compared to Quebec City, Montreal is quite anglicized. Émilie raised some concerns about the situation and concluded that some anglophones in Montreal do not appear to be able to speak French. This is not the case in Quebec City. In Montreal, it looks really scary, because often in the restaurants, people speak only English. Come on, it is two hours from Quebec City, what happened there? This is probably scarier for people there, because here we seem to be far from this reality because here, it is still very francophone. [Trans. from French by author.]

As we will see in later analysis, differences between Montreal and the rest of the province have not been extensively documented. It would be logical to believe that English resources and services are easier to access in Montreal, which still has an infrastructure that makes it possible to live in English. From Émilie and Laurent’s point of view, there is room

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in Quebec for both official languages, but they recognize that francophones quite often feel threatened by the place that English occupies in Quebec. Émilie said that while she does not personally feel this way, she has heard of unfortunate incidents of discrimination. I know that it happened to some of my colleagues who are basically anglophone; when speaking English, they would get dirty looks, and they would feel as if they were some sort of intruders, even though they have lived here for 10 years, simply because they speak English. [Trans. from French by author.]

Laurent does not believe that Quebec’s anglophones will inevitably be assimilated into the francophone majority. He believes that English will survive, no matter what happens in Quebec. I think that our mother tongue represents how we think, and it is certain that Quebec gets a lot of pressure from everything and everybody around us in the world. For sure, English is dominant and finds always its way. We still have strong government language-planning policies to protect our language and to preserve it. That is long-term commitment, and decisions are made and we will see results down the road. It is certain that there has to be a political will to preserve French in our social context, this is for sure. In regards to the anglophone minority, there are a lot of other anglophones out there … I would be extremely surprised to find anglophones assimilated to the French language. Our reality is maybe different though. [Trans. from French by author.]

The debate over the politics of language is certainly evident in Émilie’s and Laurent’s discourses on the survival of the French majority language and the English minority language in Quebec. Because of the politics of language in Quebec and the power relations that are embedded in language, this debate involves far more than simple verbal interactions between members of different groups. Teaching Career Path Growing up, Émilie always wanted to be a teacher. As long as I can remember, I’ve always liked to help the little ones, even when I was younger I always liked to help. Math is something that I really enjoyed doing, all my years in high school and CEGEP. First I wanted to be an elementary school teacher and then I realized everybody was going to be an elementary school teacher, so I wanted to make it a bit different [and decided to teach at the high school level]. Knowing how much I liked the math

90  Negotiating Identities part, I thought it would be a good idea. When I was studying, I started teaching too as a part-time job and that confirmed my choice that I was to do that.

Émilie was already familiar with the English minority-language schools in Quebec City when she graduated with her bachelor of education degree. I started doing subbing for the English schools when I was at university, I guess. I do not know why they had my name. They called me and I was just coming back from Concordia and they called me for the interview at the beginning of July, they called me for the interview. I did the interview, they said, “Can you wait a few minutes? Wait outside.” They came out, “We have a job for you,” and I am like, “Okay.” So … I took the job right away, and I am still in the same school board.

Émilie was happy to find a job, even though she had not necessarily planned on working in English minority-language schools. During her first year of teaching, Émilie taught high school mathematics and computer science. Although she considered herself bilingual, her first year of teaching proved to be challenging; she was teaching in English and felt inadequate. She felt that she could not be as spontaneous as she normally is with her students. On the other hand, she thinks that it was good for her students to be able to help her with her English from time to time because they understood that she was not perfect. She described her first year of teaching as a good teacher-student collaborative experience. The second year of teaching was better for Émilie. Her English skills had improved, and she was only teaching mathematics. She and Laurent married, and she went on a one-year maternity leave in January of that year. She came back from her leave for six months but then took another leave to teach in New Zealand for one year. Émilie worked as a math teacher at a large school in New Zealand, and she really enjoyed her time there. I was really lucky because that school is a big school. Here, we had [a] 300-student school. Over there it was a 2000-student school, and here, there are maybe, like, 25 teachers [in the entire school,] and over there we were 25 in the math department, so that was a huge school. For me it was nice to see something completely different, more resources, more sharing of everything. Here, I am the only one teaching the Sec 3 [Grade 9] math so I cannot share with anybody.

When she returned to Quebec City with her family, she taught for a few months before getting pregnant again. She was quite sick, left the school early in her pregnancy, and then took her second maternity leave. At the

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end of this maternity leave, she chose to take a year of unpaid leave. During this time, she took the opportunity to work part-time for the Ministry of Education, evaluating the implementation of the new curriculum in mathematics. In September 2008, she returned to full-time teaching but became ill soon after and took sick leave. The following school year, she transferred to a school with both elementary and secondary students to work as a math teacher for both levels, with a 60% full-time position. In the last year of the study, Émilie was still working at this school, with an 80% full-time position, which was her choice. Émilie’s philosophy of teaching consists of motivating her students and choosing the teaching methods that suit them best. She firmly believes that a teacher must have expertise in the subject being taught and that this expertise is sometimes more important than the teacher’s language skills. I love mathematics and my goal is to succeed at motivating my students to love it too, to understand what we are doing and why, and also to understand that mathematics are used constantly in our lives.

As a math teacher, Émilie is constantly encouraging her students to understand the practical applications of her lessons and to realize how capable they are of understanding the concepts. She considers herself to be a traditional teacher who likes to incorporate different activities into her lessons. As a result, she is not lecturing the entire time. She strongly encourages her students to ask questions and to be inquisitive. Émilie does not think her philosophy of teaching has changed a lot since she started her career; she has always been interested in helping struggling students, but now she views herself as being more flexible and open to different methods and programs than when she first started. As is true of other English minority-language schools in the area, a significant number of students at Émilie’s school appear to be francophones yet have the legal right to attend anglophone schools. This presents a challenge for some of Émilie’s colleagues, who do not understand or speak French well. For example, during meetings with parents, it often emerges that the parents do not speak English. Speaking French is an advantage for Émilie; she can refer to French when her students do not understand something in English. However, she does not think she can offer her students the cultural values that an anglophone teacher might be able to offer. I have heard around my school, that they [parents] were really happy that Alice [anglophone teacher] was their kid’s teacher, because she is a real

92  Negotiating Identities anglophone, and that is really rare … I now realize they are not just teaching the right English, but also rhymes and songs and things that we [francophones] cannot really teach.

Émilie raises an important point here, namely the role of English minority-language schools in francophone areas of Quebec that are less exposed to English and whether it is the role of these schools to ensure that students acquire near-native English skills, such as those found in immersion schools, and whether these schools should also be expected to teach culture and, if so, which culture(s). In addition to teaching cultural values, Émilie thinks that the staff at her school should make sure that students speak English at all times. To accomplish this goal, she suggests rewarding students who always speak English. She believes it is important to insist on the transmission of the English language, especially at the elementary level, so that students get a head start absorbing the new language. Looking back, Émilie has enjoyed her work as a math teacher, even more so because she has been able to teach at both the elementary level and the secondary level. It is fun to teach to elementary children the basic mathematics concepts. It also represents a nice challenge for me to teach at the elementary level; it makes me realize that there are not a lot of people that enjoy math.

Jacques Jacques, in his 40s, is a high school mathematics teacher in Trois-­Rivières. He is married to Caroline, and they have two children, Esther, who is 10, and Vincent, who is 12. Growing Up in the United States and English Canada and Coming Back to Quebec Jacques was born in Quebec into a francophone family. Both his parents speak French; however, when he was two years old, his family moved to the United States for his father’s work as an electrician. They lived in different American states as well as in British Columbia. Although his father spoke French and English, when they arrived in the United States, his mother could only speak French. When Jacques was older, he would often act as a translator for her. Jacques enjoyed living in the United States. I fit right in. Like I said all my friends were all English. The biggest problem was my name. In English it is just not a common name, they do not get it, so a lot of people made fun of me. But that was the biggest hazard, just because

Teachers’ Stories – Association B  93  of my name, but it was not a language barrier. It was French and English, I grew up with both at the same time, and I never had a problem with that.

Jacques and his family moved back to Trois-Rivières when he was 14 years old. He attended an English minority-language school even though his parents were francophones. These events took place in 1979, two years after the implementation of Bill 101, which restricted access to the English minority-language school system by imposing specific eligibility criteria on prospective students. In theory, Jacques was not eligible to attend an English minority-language school, but he was able to gain access nevertheless. With every law, there’s always a loophole. One of the loopholes to Bill 101 was the person or the family was temporarily in the province, so my Dad told the school board he was only in the province for two years. So the first two years, Sec 2 to Sec 4, no problem, and he managed to prolong it a little bit so I could graduate.

Jacques’s sister, who is four years younger, chose to attend a francophone high school after completing elementary school in English. This finding shows that siblings do not always share the same views on language practices, identity, and belonging. In his new environment, speaking English at school and French outside of school, Jacques developed new friendships, first with francophones from the neighbourhood and then with anglophones at school. After graduating from high school, Jacques did not want to pursue a postsecondary education but finally agreed to go to CEGEP. Ideally, he would have liked to continue to study in English, but this was not an option for him. So after high school, I wanted to stop school. I wanted to go into the army. I was ready to go sign up, and my dad convinced me not to because I did not really want to go to school in French, but being in Trois-Rivières, [and] my parents were not the richest people on the planet. I could not go out of town. I could not go to Lennoxville, I could not go to Champlain in Quebec, or John Abbott in Montreal. So I had two CEGEPs in town. One was private, the other was public. So my only choice was a public French CEGEP.

He enrolled in the pre-university two-year pure and applied science program at the CEGEP, hoping that he could later pursue a university degree in engineering. He studied engineering and geology in French at the Université de Montreal but struggled with his grades. He left the program after a year and a half. He took a year off before returning

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to complete a bachelor’s degree in geology at the same university. He graduated in 1989 and landed a contract job as a geologist soon after. I got a contract for one year, six months I should say, in Chibougamau, finished that one, and then the following spring another contract in Chibougamau. So, the first year in Chibougamau was for the Université du Quebec à Chicoutimi, UQAC. There was a contract, one of the professors there, she needed people. Then the following summer it was for the Association de l’exploration minière du Québec, and then the price of gold dropped, and the contracts were all cancelled. So I took off and ended up in Montreal, worked on construction for a 5 or 6 months, saved my money.

When his contract was cancelled, Jacques worked as a construction worker for a period of time. He then decided to take three months off to go to the Caribbean. When he returned to Trois-Rivières, he found a job at a cardboard factory. During this time, Jacques went to visit his former high school principal, who offered him a part-time job teaching mathematics. Jacques accepted the position, but he was still not sure if teaching was for him. Eventually he decided to complete his teaching certificate at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, a francophone institution, while working part-time as a teacher at his former high school. Meanwhile, he had met Caroline, his future wife, who was also a francophone from the area, and he knew that their relationship would become serious. Finding stable employment became very important for Jacques. I think I was looking a bit in the long run. I wanted a stable job. I wanted a stable revenue. I hate nine to five [jobs], but I do not like the unknown, I think. When I was a geologist I did not mind. We would start a job, the contract was done, we would get fired, no problem, pack up and go. That did not bother me, but once you start, you meet somebody and then you want to have kids with somebody, I did not want that kind of instability for my family. I did not want to move my kids around like my father did. I did not want that at all, not at all. I think that is why I looked at teaching: stable, nine to five.

Identity and Sense of Belonging On the survey about language practices, Jacques reported having a bilingual identity; however, at our first meeting, he talked about how he considered himself an American. I consider myself more American and English than French. I still have trouble speaking, well not speaking French, I can speak it, but I am not as fluent in

Teachers’ Stories – Association B  95  French as I am in English. Writing is a real nightmare, it is just too difficult for me to understand the concept behind it … I like to play Frisbee. I like burgers. We used to sing the national anthem every morning in school, which we do not do here in Quebec. I consider myself more American. I have no trouble understanding people from the States, the way they think, I find I can relate a little bit more with them than the Canadian way of being polite, nice, and politically correct all the time. That is what I find.

When we met again the following year, Jacques’s views on his identity had changed somewhat. Well, since last year, what has changed, like I said I went to Cuba with the kids in the spring, so I am glad I am not American because I would not be able to go to Cuba and come back. I feel more Canadian, and anyone who does say, “Where are you from?” “Well I am Canadian.” Just because of the travel, because as soon as you travel abroad and you say you are American, right away you get labelled, you get this, you get that, people kind of scowl at you. If you say Canadian it is all smiles.

This acknowledgment of feeling Canadian is reinforced by the fact that Americans are often viewed less positively around the world. In this context, Jacques talks about being proud and grateful to be Canadian and to have a Canadian passport. Jacques’s discourse on his identity is a good example of the fluidity of this concept. In his opinion, even when limited to ethnicity, language, and culture, identity is multifaceted. I chose those three interview excerpts addressing the notion of identity because they reveal the different angles from which Jacques negotiates his identity. His discourse presents identity as fluid and non-linear; this example distances us from the essentialist view that identity is set in stone at birth and remains the same throughout one’s lifetime. The ways in which Jacques discusses his identity clearly demonstrate that a dynamic interpretation of identity is possible, taking into account the ever-changing world in which we live and the places where we live. When discussing his francophone majority environment and its influence on his identity, Jacques explains that it does not affect his anglophone linguistic identity, which is a set component of who he is. I think once the brain is set, I think it is set. I mean I grew up in English, I dream in English … I think in English. If I would be working elsewhere, in a French school, I would still watch TV in English. I would still think in English, I would still dream in English. So I think that once you are set, you are set. I think no matter what you do, unless you start at a very young age, before

96  Negotiating Identities being an adult, I do not think that will ever change. It is easier for me to write in English, to think in English. Writing in French, it is horrible for me, I really have to think, okay, how am I going to say this? English it is no problem, it just flows.

Jacques cannot choose to live exclusively in English in Trois-Rivières. He explains, however, that he does not have any problem interacting in French. He recognizes that he lives in a francophone area of the province and that this is his reality. Speaking mostly in French in public, Jacques is aware that, for some francophones, using English in public is still problematic. I think some people are still living in the ’60s and ’70s. It has changed a lot compared to the 80s, when we started going to school here in town … we stuck out, the English population. Now it is not so bad, but, like I said, I still get a few stares when I am out with my kids and we speak English. It seems not so bad now because lots of times my kids answer back in French.

Most of Jacques’s friends are bilingual. Sometimes they speak English; sometimes they speak French; sometimes they speak both languages. Even in private, such as when he is with his friends, Jacques must still cross linguistic and cultural borders. Not only does he switch between languages and cultures with his friends, he also does this with his family. Jacques and his wife and children constantly switch between French and English. Family Context My wife is a very open-minded person, for sure, for sure, but she is headstrong too. She is no sheep, so if she has something to say or something to do, she will do it, so that is her French background. My son, I find he is more English, he associates more with English things, so I get the feeling that when he gets the chance he will take off from Quebec, he is not a biggie on the French language and everything. My daughter would probably stay local, I would think. So throw all that together and throw in your friends and your relatives, and it makes for a lot of fun at parties.

The way in which Jacques presents the members of his family illustrates once again the different linguistic and cultural realities in his life. With his lived experience as an anglophone, he is constantly negotiating around language, culture, and identity. Jacques’s wife, Caroline, is also from Trois-Rivières. She spent two summers in Saskatchewan studying English, so she has an understanding of the language. She identifies

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herself as a Québécoise francophone; however, unlike the popular discourse, she does not ascribe any political meaning to the word Québécoise. No, it is rather because I am from this province [Quebec], this does not mean that I am Québécoise … from a political standpoint. We do not “surf” too much on this issue here. Politics is not really a topic of discussion. I am a francophone “de souche,” I am proud of it, but this does not prevent me from learning other languages. [Trans. from French by author.]

She added that she will sometimes identify as Canadian when the other person might not know where Quebec is. When their son, Vincent, was born, Jacques and Caroline decided to raise him in both English and French. For the sake of consistency, Jacques would always address Vincent in English, and his mother would only speak to him in French. They do not allow their children to use both languages in the same sentence, or code-switch. Caroline described the family’s linguistic practices as being rather complex. They speak English, I speak French, they answer in English and in French, it is all mixed up. However, we ask them when they speak that sentences be either only in English or in French. Vincent has mixed up both languages for a long time. Esther did it a bit less. For her, some words existed only in English and others only in French. [Trans. from French by author.]

They also decided to send their children to an English minority-­ language school. They believed it was important for their children to be immersed in an English education environment since all of their other social interactions take place in French. For example, most activities outside of school, such as sports, are usually only available in French. Caroline’s parents had to adjust to their daughter and son-in-law’s decision to raise their grandchildren mostly in English; however, her parents now feel fine about their family’s linguistic and cultural arrangement. When asked about their identities, Vincent sees himself as a Québécois anglophone and Esther feels more francophone. Both of them speak English fluently, and they cross linguistic and cultural borders all the time. According to Vincent: I speak English, I go to an English school, my friends are French … My mother speaks French, my father speaks English. I do not have a problem to understand people who speak English and neither to understand people who speak French. [Trans. from French by author.]

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Vincent explained that he prefers English because it is easier to learn than French. Both children say that they speak mostly French with their friends, even at school. Both parents pointed out that it is difficult for the English minority-language schools to keep everything in English. But even though they see an increasing number of students who are not fluent in English at the school, which creates a challenge for the school’s staff, who would otherwise function entirely in English, for Jacques and Caroline, the English minority-language schools must continue to exist. Teaching Career Path Jacques did not consider becoming a teacher while he was growing up. After earning a degree in geology, he expected to work as a geologist, which would have required him to leave Trois-Rivières. However, when he entered into a serious relationship with Caroline, he was no longer interested in leaving his hometown. Although teaching was not his first choice, it offered a practical and stable employment opportunity. After getting back in touch with his former high school principal, Jacques began teaching part-time at his former high school while completing his teaching certificate in education. Jacques’s first year of full-time teaching was challenging, especially classroom management. His pre-service training had not prepared him for this part of the job. He did not have the pedagogical methods he needed to work with his students. For a while, teaching was difficult and Jacques thought about quitting his job. That hit me hard, I think the fourth or the fifth year. I said, “Enough, enough, I have to get out of this,” and I did not, so I stuck it out a bit. My wife got pregnant and we had our first child, and then your perspective changes a lot when you have a kid. You have someone that is dependent on you 100%, you have to … pay the bills. And then when you look at it, it is not so bad. We have our bad days as teachers, but you get some good time off, you have some really smart kids. Some kids, they do want to learn, they do want to participate in class, they are a pleasure to have in your class, so for the one or two bad apples that you have in a class, there are 10, 20 of them that are really good kids, and it really makes you feel good.

Jacques acknowledged the rewarding nature of teaching. He knows that, in the case of some students, he has made a difference in their lives. In addition to his work in the classroom, Jacques has been the union representative at his school for the past seven years. He enjoys his role

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in the union, although he often feels like a referee between the school administration and the teachers. Jacques describes his style of teaching as traditional. He uses the blackboard and asks students to take notes. He has always used this teaching approach; it suits him, and he does not plan to change it, although sometimes he finds himself wondering if his approach is good or bad. In the classroom, Jacques’s philosophy of teaching is to make sure that the students get a chance to try their best. We [teachers] are there to be a guide. We are there to help the students. Ideally the kind of students we want are the students who have the will, and they have the knowledge to do their own work. And when they need help they are smart enough to ask for help. Do I have all the answers? Absolutely not. Do I make mistakes? Absolutely. I think what I try to show the kids the most is at least give it a try. Try, if you screw up, you fall flat on your face, get back up and try it again. If it works the first time, good, we will move on to something else. So do it, get it done, and let’s move on. I think that would be my philosophy.

However, he added that it is becoming increasingly difficult to motivate students to do their work and to participate in class. Jacques also finds it challenging to have to work with a prescriptive curriculum aimed mostly at testing students on what they have learned in school. As a result, he finds himself “teaching to the test.” Covering the curriculum, that’s our main stress. You have to show this because that is on the exam at the end of the year; that is the biggest stress. When we get some good groups, things go very smoothly, the kids work and you go through it. When you get some kids that are a bit more rock and roll, that adds to the stress level. They do not want to do the work, they do not want to follow, you know that it is building up on you. You still have to carry on one way or another, you know the exam is coming, we do not make up the exams, it is coming down from the Ministry. We have to cover all the material. I think that is the biggest challenge.

In my opinion, “teaching to the test” is now a quasi-universal reality in education systems throughout the world. Accountability has become a central theme in the dominant educational discourse. Education ministries and school boards have begun to make individual schools accountable in various ways. Standardized testing, which has grown drastically in popularity in recent years, is a good example of fostering accountability in schools.

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Jacques appreciates that the student population in English minoritylanguage schools in Quebec is much smaller than in the French majority-language schools. From his point of view, this makes it easier to work with the students and benefits them individually. We do small groups. That is one of the things that we try to promote at our school, because we have such small groups. If we do have a child that is having trouble learning, then we can do the one-on-one. Okay, I can assign some work to the kids that are sharp, that are quick, okay do this, and then I can go to that one student, one-on-one. You hold their hand a bit more than you hold the other one’s hand, it seems to help. You do not save them all though. Some kids, they give up, no matter what you try, no matter what you do. They do not want anything to do with you. We have been through that too.

Jacques is referring to a sense of community that is harder to find in a large school. Minority language education stakeholders often speak of “family” when describing the atmosphere of the smaller school. Administrators, teachers, students, and parents all become part of a big family whose members share common values and goals. Jacques mentioned that there are more francophones than anglophones at his school. They think in French, they speak French with each other, they speak French at home, and they watch television in French. In his opinion, the situation is different in cities such as Montreal and Quebec City, which have larger anglophone populations. In Trois-Rivières, anglophones represent a very small percentage of the population. The situation Jacques describes is very similar to the situation in French minority-language schools in Ontario. The strong presence of the English majority language in these schools is problematic, just as French is seen as problematic in anglophone schools outside of Montreal. Jacques believes that when parents insist that their children acquire excellent French skills while attending school in English, it is detrimental to their acquisition of the English language. He thinks that English minority-language schools are becoming increasingly French-focused and that, as a result, they will eventually disappear. Whether or not more French should be taught is also being debated at his school. We have heated discussions. We have two opposite poles. The French department, they are pulling for more French, we must give more French. The parents want more French. In math and science if you cannot read proper English, there is no way you are going to understand math, there is no way you are

Teachers’ Stories – Association B  101  going to understand chemistry, physics, or science. So we have heated, heated discussions.

The insistence that students develop strong skills in French in English minority-language schools in Quebec is not exclusive to Trois-Rivières. This insistence can be found in other schools in the province. Jacques is not optimistic about the future of English minority language schools in Quebec; he sees them slowly disappearing. Nothing can change the fact that people live mostly as francophones, even when they have the legal right to attend these English minority-language schools. Despite some of the challenges that he has faced, Jacques does not regret choosing to become a teacher. He did mention that if he could change one thing, it would be to teach at the CEGEP level. Nevertheless, he is satisfied with where he is now and appreciates the benefits that teaching has given him. I like it. I would not change it. After 20 years, I can tough it out another 15, no problem. Will I go a full 35 years in teaching? That I do not know, but 15, no problem.

Diane Diane, who is in her 30s, teaches mathematics, chemistry, and science at an English minority-language high school in Quebec City. Diane is an only child and grew up in Ontario in a French-speaking family. She moved to Quebec City as an adult only a few years ago. She is in a serious relationship with Brad, a francophone living in Quebec City. Growing Up as a Francophone in Ontario and Moving to Quebec Diane was born in Cornwall, Ontario, to a francophone family who spoke primarily French at home. This is how Diane describes her family: I’m an only child … my father’s bilingual like me. He was born in Abitibi, but he moved to Northern Ontario when he was, like, nine years old; he is very bilingual. My mother is from Saguenay and she is very francophone. She can speak English just fine, but it is clearly not her native tongue.

Diane’s mother, Marie, now retired, worked in education. Diane’s father, Alex, is also retired. He had a career as a civil servant with the Ontario government. Diane’s parents met in North Bay, Ontario. After marrying, they lived in New Liskeard, in the same province. Soon after,

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they moved to Cornwall, in eastern Ontario, near the Quebec border. For a brief period, Diane attended a Catholic French minority-language elementary school. At the time, her mother was working in the French immersion program in the public English majority-language school board. Dissatisfied with a number of aspects of the Catholic school system, her parents decided to transfer Diane to the French immersion program in the public English majority-language education system, where she remained for the rest of her schooling. To ensure that Diane retained her French, Marie and Alex intentionally spoke French at home while their daughter was growing up. Diane’s classmates were all anglophones, as a result of the fact that French immersion is designed for students from an anglophone background. Most of her friends were from school, and she always spoke English with her classmates. Diane remembers having some francophone friends who lived on her street while she was growing up, but she did not stay in touch with them in high school. At first most of my friends were from school. They were almost all French immersion students. And at this point they were French immersion in grade 10, grade 11, they were pretty fluent for immersion students. My boyfriend was anglophone, and I had the same boyfriend all through high school, so all that was only in English, but when my friends would come over they would speak French with my mom.

Diane made a point of participating in activities in French through the provincial Franco-Ontarian student federation; she sat on the federation’s provincial council. She also participated in the Franco-Ontarian Games. She was involved in public speaking contests in French and used French in her part-time jobs during high school. After graduating from high school, Diane applied to a few universities in Ontario and one in Quebec. She was accepted to all of them and chose to go to McGill University in Montreal instead of going to the University of Ottawa, where she could have studied in French. Both of her parents agreed with this choice; they wanted their daughter to experience the linguistic duality of a large city such as Montreal. She enrolled in a concurrent program at McGill University, earning a bachelor of science and a bachelor of education in mathematics and chemistry. While at McGill, Diane lived mostly as an anglophone, sharing a university residence apartment with other students who were mostly from Ontario. She attended classes with other francophones with whom she did projects, but they never became close. She was in her first year of university in 1995, when Quebec held

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its second referendum, asking voters whether Quebec should become sovereign. She considers this an exciting time in her life, and she shared those moments with her roommates. So everyone was very on the “No” side, so we all went to that rally, which was really exciting. And the night of the referendum we all watched it together.

She graduated from McGill University in December 2000, and she applied to a private anglophone high school in Montreal for a six-month teaching contract, beginning in January 2001. She interviewed for the position but did not get the job. At around the same time, she received a call from the principal at the French minority-language school in Cornwall. The school needed a part-time science teacher and offered Diane the position. She accepted. She taught at this school for the remainder of the school year. She then taught at a school in the Ottawa area for four years before moving to Switzerland to work as a teacher for an additional four years. In 2009, she decided to return to Canada and to move to Quebec City. Identity and Sense of Belonging I always thought I was francophone until I moved to Quebec City.

This was the first thing that Diane said about her identity when we met at the start of the study. As a native French-speaker born and raised in Ontario, Diane grew up in a family in which identity and sense of belonging were closely associated with the province’s francophone minority community. However, the family recognized that using English in social interactions outside of the home was inevitable. Diane had always had a dialectical relationship with the anglophone majority, crossing linguistic and cultural borders on a regular basis. In my opinion, in most areas of Ontario, living entirely in French is quite challenging. Many regions lack services and resources in French, Ontario’s labour market operates almost exclusively in English, and English is spoken in a growing number of exogamous marriages and families. The minoritization of francophones living outside of Quebec is not a new phenomenon; it remains a serious concern. In the survey, Diane reported having a bilingual identity, but in our conversations she frequently talked about how she did not know exactly how to identify herself. Even though she feels francophone, most of the

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francophones whom she met after moving to Quebec City questioned her identity and even acted surprised. They noticed an “accent” when she spoke French and immediately asked her where she was from. This caused Diane to feel excluded from a group to which she felt she had belonged since birth. These were not the only times when Diane had to deal with feelings of exclusion. She spent several summers in Switzerland working as a sports monitor in French, and similar remarks were made to her by teachers from France. And it was interesting there, because there were not many French Canadians. And I was still in university … There were teachers, there were sports monitors, and then there was administrative staff. Most of the teachers were French from France, some were American, and then there was me and one other guy [who] were Canadian out of a staff of, like, nine. And they would not hire Canadian teachers because of our accent. And actually, this was when I first started to become self-conscious about my accent because the French can be kind of rude sometimes, “Oh your accent is so cute, oh that expression, what does that mean, ç’est mignon, blah, blah, blah,” like, [and I felt like asking,] “Did you understand what I said? Then stop commenting.” It got very frustrating to me.

In the normative linguistic world in which we live, having an accent is often a handicap, even for those who, like Diane, are native speakers. They are treated as “others”; in many cases, second-language speakers are more readily welcomed into the linguistic group than these native speakers. Contrary to popular belief, language is neither universal nor neutral. As a result of being perceived as an outsider in Quebec City’s francophone community, Diane struggled with her identity. She tried to figure out whether she was francophone, anglophone, or perhaps even both. When her identity as a francophone was questioned, she decided to introduce herself as a Franco-Ontarian, despite thinking that she did not fit the definition perfectly. I feel like my family did not quite fit [the description of Franco-Ontarian] because my parents were Québécois originally. The people that have always lived in Cornwall and are francophone, they are still francophone, but they are usually more comfortable in English even if they are fluent, and their French is, maybe, it is not a judgment, but they are more likely to make mistakes … My mom would correct me all the time in French. She would always correct my grammar, and so I was very self-conscious, coming to Quebec, I was very nervous about making a mistake in French. Not that I made mistakes, but I was very aware that, if I made a mistake, they [francophones] were going to point out that I am anglophone again. And I still kind of feel that way, but I have outgrown it.

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At work, Diane speaks English to everyone, including the Frenchspeaking teachers. Sometimes she switches to French when the other teachers do not know a word or an expression in English. This is something she would never have done in the past because her parents were adamant that she not switch between languages when speaking while she was growing up. Diane mentioned that she has become more comfortable among francophones over time, gradually feeling less like an outsider. She added that Brad, her boyfriend, has helped her a lot. As for making sense of her identity, Diane recognizes that what suits her best is to see herself as having a bilingual identity. She never thought this was possible before, always viewing identity as one or the other. I have really adopted that [the notion of having a bilingual identity] … I think that is the best way to explain who I am. It fits me the best, so when people ask me I tell them that now, but people do not like that. A lot of people do not see that as an identity, so I usually say I am Franco-Ontarian and that usually satisfies people because I am francophone but I am not really from here, and I am probably more anglophone than they are, but personally, for me, I think I have accepted that I am different from everyone here or from a lot of people here, and I think that is good. But I thought, actually, at the beginning I found it really hard, because I thought I would just fit in because I am French Canadian, you know, but it did not work that way.

Family Context Diane’s mother, Marie, now lives in Quebec City. Before that, Marie had spent most of her adult life in Cornwall, with some time in Toronto working on contract to the Ministry of Education. She was offered a fulltime position, but she declined. So, I decided to retire. I said to Diane, I want to go “home.” I am going to live in Quebec City. And she said, “Go for it.” I wanted to get closer to my family. I thought that I had arrived at that point [in my life]. [Trans. from French by author.]

Diane’s father, Alex, retired to Thailand a few years ago, and Diane travels there to visit him on a regular basis. For a long time, Marie identi­­fied as a French-Canadian. Then she changed and started identifying herself as a Franco-Ontarian. For her, a Franco-Ontarian is an individual with strong convictions about the minority language and culture – ­convictions that she is not shy about sharing. Marie provided the example of telling her francophone students in Cornwall to request services in French when

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calling government offices. Marie mentioned that she did not experience any problems as a francophone when she moved to Quebec City. Her identity was not questioned, as Diane’s had been. In my opinion, several factors might account for this: being able to work in her own language, being married to a francophone man, and speaking mainly French in the home. It is also possible that because Marie was raised exclusively in French and exposed mostly to French culture in Saguenay, she had already developed a strong francophone identity by the time she had moved to Ontario. This is not to say that Marie was not influenced by the anglophone majority, but she resisted it by ensuring that her family lived in French. French was spoken exclusively in the home while Diane was growing up, and switching languages mid-sentence was not allowed. I had realized that, when you are the majority, you are allowed to mix the two languages. But in Ontario, it was very important for me, but also for Alex, that when we speak French, we speak French; when we speak English, we speak English; you do not mix both languages. We knew that if ever we began to speak English at home, French would end up not being spoken. So, for us, it was always very important. [Trans. from French by author.]

Diane thinks that her father is more bilingual than her mother. Although he is francophone and agreed to speak only French in the home, he lives his life in both languages. Diane admitted that, as she got older, she started to speak English with her father on some occasions, for example, when discussing mathematics or science. Science and math were always what interested me the most, and I learned that in English. So, and my father was really interested in that too, so if we were going to talk about it, we would talk about it in English.

Her parents separated about 10 years ago. Since the separation, Diane reported, she mostly uses English when communicating with her father. Diane’s story clearly demonstrates that whatever the linguistic minority group, the process of negotiating identity involves constant linguistic and cultural border-crossing. In some cases, the willingness or the obligation of other individuals to cross linguistic and cultural borders is indicative of the power exercised by the majority group, whether the majority group is anglophones outside of Quebec or francophones in Quebec. Comparing Canada’s two official linguistic minorities, Marie thinks that anglophones in Quebec are a stronger community than francophones outside of the province. She finds that they have better

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access to resources in their own language than francophones in Ontario do. Within Quebec, however, Marie points out that it must be easier to live as an anglophone in Montreal than in Quebec City. She finds that anglophones are well integrated into Quebec City society and that most of them are able to participate in activities in French, such as going to shows or movies. Nevertheless, she would not go so far as to say that they live exclusively in French. While discussing anglophone schools, Marie commented on the role of the English minority-language schools in Quebec, comparing their role to the role of French minority-language schools in Ontario. After several discussions about this throughout the study, Diane came to the following conclusion: French minority-language schools in Ontario are there for the survival of the French language, whereas the English minority-language schools in Quebec City, from what I can see, are used to learn a second language. [Trans. from French by author.]

Marie agrees with Diane that the linguistic minority schools in Ontario have a more political agenda that is reflected in their official mandate. Teaching Career Path From a young age, Diane knew that she wanted to be a teacher. That has probably mostly to do with my mother. She was a teacher when I was born, and then she became [a] French as a Second Language consultant, and then once I was in high school she became a principal, and I was always exposed to her career and I just always, ever since I was little, I always thought I was going to be a teacher. So it was kind of a no brainer when I finished high school I had to pick a program at university.

In addition, Diane enjoyed her part-time jobs in high school, working with kids in summer camps and teaching swimming. When she graduated from university, after spending a few months as a teacher at the French minority-language high school in Cornwall, she moved to the Ottawa area and was hired to teach mathematics and science full-time at a public high school. Diane was very involved with the student council, which was part of her workload. She had a positive experience at this school, where she felt supported by both the administration and her colleagues.

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After four years at this school, Diane decided it was time for a change. She returned to the school in Switzerland where she had worked as a sports monitor for a few summers and accepted a position as a full-time chemistry teacher. My summer director called me and asked me if I wanted to come back and I said yes. And we were chatting and I said I was ready for a change, thinking of doing something else, I do not know what yet, and he said, well, we are hiring 30 teachers for the fall if you are interested, we need a chemistry teacher and I will put in a word for you, and it went from there and … the headmaster called me and they offered me a job.

After four years of working abroad, Diane decided to move to Quebec City, where she found a position teaching science at one of the English minority-language high schools. Her first year in Quebec City as a teacher was difficult, to the point where she considered quitting her job even though it was a rare tenure-track position. Before the end of the year, she asked the school administration team for help. She received it, and her situation improved. At first it was, well, adjusting to living in Canada again, so that was a stress in my life, adjusting to a new culture. A culture here, it still surprises me how it’s not what I expected, and how different it is: the French culture, in the community, but also the English culture in the school. I felt really unsupported this Fall, I realize now that’s why I struggled. I did not know at the time that I needed more support. I didn’t have the classroom management, the behaviour of the students is just, I cannot even think of the right adjective … unbelievable.

She finally decided to stay at the same school, and her second year of teaching was significantly better. She is now tenured, and her position is permanent. Diane’s philosophy of education has always been to put the students first. She believes that her role as a teacher is to help them succeed. In her classroom, she incorporates technology, such as a Smart Board, and she encourages group work. She still describes her teaching as mostly traditional because the time and resources that she would need to make it more creative are limited. In referring to her philosophy of teaching, Diane reports: I always say, I have been saying this since university, that my philosophy is just students come first, my job is to help them succeed. And succeed is very broad, it could be succeed in the path of class, or I like to think a bit broader

Teachers’ Stories – Association B  109  than that, to be valuable members of society. And I teach science, so it has to be scientifically literate. You do not need to remember everything you learn in science class, but you need to be able to think critically about science concepts and know basic science concepts, so when you hear about science in the news you can know what it means, that kind of stuff. I think that things should be done in terms of the student, what is best for the student.

Over her career, Diane has learned the importance of enjoying her students and finding the balance between being strict when necessary and building strong relationships with them. Although it was hard to stick to these principles in her first year, she believes that in order to know what is best for the students, it is important to listen to their needs. Diane’s main concerns in education right now are the needs of special education students, whom she feels are not receiving the support they deserve. Drawing on her experience teaching in Europe and in Ontario, Diane thinks that Quebec is falling behind in this area and needs to look at how it allocates resources. When she began her current position in an English minority-language school, Diane was surprised to see how different the school’s philosophy was from that of French minority-language schools in Ontario. I feel that in Quebec, it’s not very much about the English culture as much as it is just the language. For most of the students, the only time they are going to speak English in their day is when they are in the school. They might watch TV in English, or watch movies in English, but the only time they will speak it will be at school, so we definitely encourage that more. Although there are some teachers that speak to the students in French, like English teachers who teach English will speak to the kids in French, which I don’t agree with.

Diane does not think that Quebec’s English minority-language schools make an official contribution to the reproduction of the linguistic minority identity through their curriculum and policies, as is the case with French minority-language schools in Ontario. I think of it more as something that is done in French language schools in Ontario than it would be in English language schools here. I think it comes to not being a minority, like we [anglophones] are in a minority here, but we are a majority in the country. I feel that we do not have the history – by “we” I mean anglophones – do not have the history of being oppressed and having to fight for who you are, and for your culture.

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Nevertheless, Diane thinks that the English minority-language schools in Quebec deserve better in terms of the materials that are available in English from the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports. For example, she believes that every family that sends its children to a linguistic minority school should receive all of the documentation from the ministry in English, not in French, as is currently the case. She believes that the school administration and teachers should fight for these rights; however, in her opinion, none of her colleagues are concerned about these issues. In raising the notion of oppression, Diane reflected on the political debate on identity, minority issues, and education. What constitutes a minority? Is it based solely on numbers? Or is it based on how much power a group has? Can it be both? How should schools for linguistic minorities position themselves in their own social context? Why do some linguistic minorities feel threatened while others do not? Reflecting on her philosophy of teaching, Diane noticed that some things about her approach to her students have changed over the years. I think the biggest thing I have learned, maybe I will start with that, is to just enjoy the students. And that is something that I just relearned again this year, because last year I lost sight of that, but I enjoy being with them.

Conclusion to the Life Stories of the Association A and Association B Teachers Overall, what can be said about the eight teachers’ stories? What do they have in common? How do they differ? How do they inform us about identity and belonging? How do the politics of language in Quebec impact on the participants’ personal and professional lives? What is their expected role as teachers working in a minority-language environment? One striking conclusion after having listened to all of the teachers’ stories is the diversity of their past and present lived experiences as individuals and as professionals living and working in a linguistic-minority setting. To represent them as members of a homogenized linguistic group, as is sometimes done in the official and popular discourse, is impossible to do in the present context. However, what is interesting is the fact that,

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despite diversified backgrounds and working environments, they raised similar key issues. Three themes emerge: 1 The notion of identity is complex. The teachers’ stories illustrate how complex their social realities are when it comes to defining their identity and their sense of belonging to both linguistic groups in Quebec. 2 Language is understood as a powerful agent of regulation. Through their stories, the teachers reveal the importance and power that the politics of language exercise in their lives as citizens in Quebec. 3 Working as educators within a minority language context is complex. The teachers work as educators within a minority language context, and, through the description of their philosophies of teaching, they stress the essential components of what teaching should be about. Their reflection on the role of the English minority-language schools in Quebec emphasizes the complexity of their working reality.

5  T  he Complex Notions of Identity and Sense of Belonging

The present chapter is the first of three chapters dedicated to an indepth analysis of my interviews and discussions with Sally, Christine, Sarah, Serafina, Shelley, Jacques, Émilie, and Diane, as well as with the members of their families and their friends. Despite the challenge of separating personal and professional identities – especially in the case of teachers working in linguistic-minority settings, where issues of identity and language are paramount – I consciously chose to do so for the purpose of clarity. In the next pages, I look closely at the participants’ views on their personal identity and examine how they make sense of it through their daily lived experiences. Their professional identity is discussed in chapter 7, where linguistic minority education and the role of the teacher are examined in the context of English minority-language schools in Quebec. The significant social and linguistic changes that occurred in the last 50 years in Quebec have created a new social and symbolic order that is still “becoming.” In this new social context, issues of identity, belonging, language, and community can no longer be defined in dichotomous terms, what Glick Schiller (2012) refers to as “binaries of difference.” The ways that the teachers in the study express themselves about their perceived identity and belonging to their communities reveal the presence of constant negotiations between them and members of the linguistic majority as well as with members of their own minority group. As indicated by the teachers, nothing is black or white when it comes to positioning oneself on the issues of identity and belonging. A close examination of the grey zones will help to better explain the complexity of those two notions. The first part of the chapter examines the participants’ position towards their identity. The second part takes a

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closer look at how the participants engage with the notion of being anglophones in Quebec.1 Identity Hall (2006) presents three discourses on the notion of identity, which he defines in terms of “subjects”: the Enlightenment subject, the sociological subject, and the postmodern subject. The Enlightenment subject is born with a specific identity that remains the same throughout life; influences from the outside world do not modify it in any way. According to the second notion, the individual is a sociological subject and his or her identity is formed in relation to “significant others” who act as mediating agents, transmitting cultural values to the subject and providing a bridge between the “inside” world of the subject and the “outside” world. According to the third view of the individual, as postmodern subject, identity is not permanent or fixed; rather, it is continuously formed and transformed through social practices that are embedded in relations of power. In this context, Anthias (2012) claims that “identity is indeed a slippery concept” (p. 104). Essentialist and Non-essentialist Perspectives on Identity The first two notions of identity described by Hall (2006) fit the essentialist discourse on identity. From the essentialist perspective, identity depends heavily on biology; it is fixed and ascribed at birth. Race or ethnicity is used to define a person’s linguistic or cultural identity, and identity is a permanent marker of a person. This perspective has been highly criticized. An important limit of essentialism is its articulation through binary oppositions, for example, the dichotomies of nature and culture, or “insiders” and “outsiders.” Such dichotomies may construct the outsider as the “other” in a fixed static relationship … Boundaries are firmly fixed, one or the other where interrelationship and ambiguities cannot be accommodated. Part of this image is a fixed past with a single linear storyline that accommodates no divergence, change or flexibility and no differently afflicted moments as we reconstruct our identities. (Woodward, 2002, p. 143)

1 Their sense of belonging to the Quebec majority society, also an important issue, is explored in the next chapter.

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The non-essentialist perspective, on the other hand, sees identity as socially constructed, not biologically inherited. Identity is fluid; it changes over time and is always influenced by the social practices in which an individual engages (Bhabha, 1996; Yon, 2000). Furthermore, it is historically situated (Hall, 1990, 2006; Woodward 2002, Allahar, 2006; Yon, 2000). Other scholars, adding to the non-essentialist discourse, argue that in the globalized world of today, identity is also related to mobility and place (Urry, 2005; Easthope, 2009; Glick Schiller, 2012; Torkington, 2012; Anthias, 2012). As explained by Torkington (2012), “the relationship between the identities of people and places is dialectical: whilst places are produced and given … meanings and identities by people, places may also be said to shape people in some way” (p. 76). Hall (1990), when talking about cultural identity and diaspora, reminds us that people’s identities shape themselves through an ongoing process of continuity and discontinuity. Two notions that are central to research on minority groups of all kinds are “politics of identity” and “politics of position.” Cultural identities are the points of identification, the unstable points of identification or suture, which are made, within the discourses of history and culture. Not an essence, but a positioning. Hence, there is always a politics of identity, a politics of position, which has no absolute guarantee in an unproblematic, transcendental “law of origin.” (Hall, 1990, p. 226)

I situate my analysis within the non-essentialist perspective, using a postmodern critical lens consistent with Hall’s (2006) third conception of the postmodern subject, where identity is a social construct that is always evolving (Gérin-Lajoie, 2003, 2011). I also refer to mobility and space in my analysis of the notions of identity and belonging. However, before examining the findings from the life history component of the study, I will briefly return to the survey on linguistic practices and career paths administered to the teachers at the beginning of the study. Even though the survey primarily constituted a selection tool rather than an end in itself, it provides helpful information on the social context in which the eight teachers live and evolve on a daily basis. The survey shows the variety of self-identification within the teachers’ communities. As an overview, results show that more than one-third of the participants (38.3% in Association A, 34% in Association B) claimed an anglophone identity, while 26.8% of the Association A participants and 50.9% of the Association B participants

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claimed a bilingual identity; 15.2% of the Association A participants and only 7.5% of the Association B participants claimed a francophone identity; lastly, 19.7% of the Association A participants and 7.5% of the Association B participants claimed a trilingual identity (see Table 2). Interestingly, a higher percentage of teachers claimed a francophone identity in Association A than in Association B, despite the fact that they are closer to the Montreal area. This discrepancy is probably not due to there being a fair number of francophones working in English minority-language schools but is rather due to the number of respondents from each association and their respective geographical locations. One would expect a higher representation of francophones in Association B, where the anglophone population accounts for between 1% and 2% of the total population, compared to the anglophones in Association A, who represent between 3% and 11% of the total population. However, this result could also be explained by the high number of Association B members (50.9%) who claimed a bilingual identity. Participants may also have interpreted this question to mean the capacity to speak both languages, referring more to bilingualism than to identity. This was the case for Émilie. The percentage of teachers with a trilingual identity in Association A seems logical, given its geographical location, as a higher percentage of individuals from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds live in areas close to Montreal, as in the case of Serafina. Negotiating Identity Despite the information that the survey provides in terms of selfperceived identity, it does not shed light on how participants concretely negotiate identity in their daily lives. Answers to this question emerged in the teachers’ life histories; clearly, their discourse on identity is significantly more complex than an answer checked in a box. Identity as described by the participants in their stories, and discussed with their family members and friends, is far from linear. Rather, it is constantly negotiated and renegotiated, even in the case of participants like Sally and Sarah, who claim an anglophone identity. Their understanding of who they are determines the way in which they position themselves as anglophones and as citizens of Quebec. This positioning is also the result of an individual’s upbringing, like in the case of Sally, who became the “other” when, as a child, she returned from the States no longer proficient

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in French. In Sally’s example, places where she lived when she was growing up influenced her sense of identity. As Easthope (2009) claims, Not only are identities seen as dynamic they are also positional ... In this sense, people’s identities are in part constituted by their definitions of what they are not and by the creation of (physical and mental) borders or boundaries around their identities. (p. 68)

Sarah’s family navigates between English and French, yet she positions herself as unilingual in the privacy of her home and in public, where she has developed strategies to get by, such as inviting a French-speaking colleague to accompany her on a classroom trip to visit a francophone farmer. In Diane’s case, several external factors have shaped her understanding of her identity and positioning. Diane found that the ways in which she is perceived by francophones in Quebec City created a crisis with which she still struggles from time to time. Not being accepted as a francophone has had a profound impact on her. Her identity has shifted from being a francophone to being a Franco-Ontarian to claiming a bilingual identity. Negotiating and renegotiating her identity has been an emotional experience for Diane. Similarly, Serafina never thought about her identity before moving to Montreal from Toronto; she never had a sense of being Italian until she lived in Quebec. Like with Diane, her identity has been shaped more by the outside world than by her. In those two stories, mobility played a role in the way that Serafina and Diane position themselves in terms of who they were and who they are now: places matter (Torkington, 2012; Urry, 2005). Christine’s identity is similar to Sally’s and has been shaped by her upbringing. Christine attributes her bilingual identity to her knowledge of French growing up and to her deep roots in French-Canadian culture, which was a result of her close relationship with her francophone mother’s family. For Shelley, who grew up in Halifax, having a bilingual identity relates more to her ability to speak both official languages than to living the culture, although she became immersed in the Quebec majority culture when she was married. Similarly, Émilie sees herself as having a bilingual identity through her knowledge of both languages, yet she realizes that, as a francophone, she cannot bring English culture into her work. Jacques reports that his identity has been greatly influenced by his upbringing in the United States. He embraced American culture, and it has had a lifelong impact on him even though he considers

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himself as having a bilingual identity. Teachers talk about identity as a process of identification that can be open-ended but also problematic at times (Hall, 2006). Talking about the postmodern subject, Hall (2006) emphasizes that “the subject assumes different identities at different times, identities that are not unified around a ‘coherent’ self. Within us are contradictory identities, pulling in different directions” (p. 250). For some of the participants, it became clear during the discussions with their friends and family members that defining one’s identity and talking about it was not easy. The rapport to identity described on those occasions took various and complex forms. For example, one of Diane’s friends, Allison, described herself as an anglophone “with Irish roots who was born in Quebec City”; another friend of Diane’s, Debbie, was born in Quebec City to one anglophone and one francophone parent. Although she also has Irish roots, she considers herself French-Canadian. It is worth noting that even siblings do not necessarily share the same linguistic and cultural identity. This was true of Serafina’s children, Gina and David. David speaks of his Italian identity; Gina identifies as an anglophone Canadian. For families living in remote areas of Quebec, the French majority language and culture affect siblings differently. Shelley’s daughters consider themselves more francophone than anglophone. Jacques’s children, Vincent and Esther, view their identity slightly differently. Vincent is more comfortable living in English than in French; for his sister, it is the other way around. Jacques’s sister decided to go to a French majority-language school when the family moved back from the United States, but Jacques attended an English minority-language high school. These various identity positions demonstrate the extent to which relations between language, culture, and identity are fluid; they suggest that there are many ways to make sense of one’s identity (Allahar, 2006; Magnan & Lamarre, 2013; Vieux-Fort & Pilote, 2013; Gérin-Lajoie, 2003, 2011). In addition, this wide range of identity positions emphasizes a dialectical relationship between the participants’ public and private lives when it comes to differentiated linguistic and cultural practices. Identity can become “fragmented,” that is impermanent and dependent on the situation (Cardinal, 1994; Juteau, 1999). We see that the participants’ politics of position (Hall, 1990) take into account the social, linguistic, and political environment in which they find themselves. It was sometimes challenging for the participants to provide a clear definition of their identity. In the case of Sally’s friends, there were long pauses after the question. Two of them, Peter and Kirk, eventually responded,

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and their answers were complex yet enlightening. After much debate among the group, Peter answered tentatively, I am not sure what I would say first. I tend to think geographically, so I might say, I am from Montreal. Um, I might say I am a Quebecer, I would not say I am a Québécois, because I am not, in that sense, and I do not say that in a disparaging way, I do not. I see Québécois as meaning more French speaking, in a cultural, educational, political sense. I am a Quebecer, and I am proud of it. I am not ashamed of that by any means. Um, as my identity, it is very interesting: I find it very difficult to say, because there are so many things going into the input there. I mean, obviously I am an English speaking Quebecer, I would say that.

Peter’s comment about the political connotations of the word Québécois was heard on a few other occasions during this study and during previous work (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). It is not clear, however, whether the reason for not using this word is its association with the separatist movement, which some disapprove of, or not feeling included in Quebec society (de la Sablonnière & Taylor, 2006). It could also mean that anglophones recognize that this word belongs to francophones. Kirk identified strongly with the community in which he grew up. I might say I am an Anglo-Quebecer, I am a Canadian. I was shaped by my experience growing up in Verdun actually, which was a lower middle-class community, and I think that is a strong element in my identity, my sense of myself as a person.

Quoting Dovey (1985), Easthope (2009) reports that “identity is tied to place … one’s spatial identity is related to ideas of attachment to places, and particularly ideas surrounding a special kind of place: the home” (p. 73). This is the case with Sally, Peter, and Kirk, whose connection to the place where they grew up influenced the way they defined their identity (Torkington, 2012). Jacques’s friends who live in Trois-Rivières said that they had a bilingual identity, yet they defined this identity in different ways. Here is what Mario had to say: [I have a] bilingual identity. I speak English and French. I am bilingual, yes. English people do not do the same thing as French people or as Quebecers or French people who come from France as Quebecers. We do not do the same thing. Christmas is not the same in an English household and in a Québécois household. What we eat, what we do and stuff like that. Thanksgiving is not the same. Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas are not the same. There are some

Complex Notions of Identity and Sense of Belonging  119  traditions that English families have that French Canadians or Québécois families do not.

Gary claims a bilingual identity too, but he defines his identity differently from Mario. I would use the same term, bilingual identity, in a French speaking province, part of [the] country of Canada. I feel as much part of Canada as I do as part of Quebec.

Gary’s views reflect those of some of the other interviewees; they often see themselves more as Canadians. Participants who live closer to Montreal tend to have different opinions and to use other terms, such as Quebecer, or terms that are more closely associated with Montreal. Such differences were also noted in a previous study (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). This dichotomy between Montreal and the rest of Quebec will be examined in the next chapter. Jacques’s discourse on identity succinctly captures the non-essentialist perspective of identity as something fluid and complex. We are who we are. I mean, my parents are French. I grew up in the States. I’d rather live in Canada than anywhere else in the world … and there are other people like me … in Quebec. There are a couple of union reps that are American that ended up in Quebec, they married a francophone, and they are living the same thing … They do not seem to be sad; they do not seem to be depressed. They seem to be all smiles, so it cannot be that bad. I mean if you can associate yourself to different cultures, and ideally you take the good from all, not the bad, I like that … I am okay with that.

Having lived in the Unites States over a period of time has influenced the way Jacques makes sense of his identity. Mobility had a significant impact on his life (Urry, 2005; Easthope, 2009). The ways in which the participants defined their identity support the claim that identity is not fixed nor monolithic. Rather, it is a very dynamic, fluid, and complex notion. Sense of Belonging The sense of belonging to a specific group is closely connected to the rapport to identity that individuals develop over time. As stated by Breton (1994), identification to a collectivity “is the perception of an affinity between the situation lived by the individual and the situation of the collectivity”

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(p. 59; trans. from French by author). In other words, Breton refers to the sharing of common values and objectives within the group. Sometimes perceived as “collective identity” or “national identity,” this sense of belonging is often questioned, especially in the context of an increasingly globalized world, with its emphasis on the local rather than the national (Giddens, 1991). Postmodern scholars consider the notion of “collective” identity or national identity that members of a group do or do not embrace as part of the essentialist discourse. In Hall’s (2006) opinion, “national identities are not things we are born with, but are formed and transformed within and in relation to representation” (p. 253). These representations are constructed meanings that influence how individuals make sense of their relation to diverse social groupings. In the case of anglophones in Quebec, these representations are unclear, and the linguistic and cultural borders between anglophones, francophones, and allophones are blurred.2 As Magnan and Lamarre (2013) point out, “to define the anglophone collective identity in Quebec has become an increasingly complex exercise” (p. 3; trans. from French by author). Sense of Belonging: A Social Construct As is true of identity, sense of belonging is not inherited at birth, in spite of often being presented this way in essentialist analyses. Rather, it is acquired through the process of socialization, both public and private, that takes place throughout our lives. Family, school, and friends play a major role in the socialization of children and teenagers (Gérin-Lajoie, 2003, 2011). Paraphrasing Simone de Beauvoir, Juteau (1999) once claimed, “On ne naît pas ethnique, on le devient” (we aren’t born ethnic; we become ethnic). As is true of other social constructs, belonging or not belonging to the group depends on an individual’s social practices. When does belonging to the group begin to count? And when an individual does not participate, or does so with little interest, does it mean that the group has no importance for that individual? Do individuals need to affirm only one linguistic identity in order to feel that they belong to a group? And what about those who claim a bilingual or multilingual identity?

2 Allophone refers to individuals who are neither from English nor French descent and reside in Quebec.

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Recent studies have shown that youth living in linguistic minority contexts who claim a bilingual identity can still feel a sense of belonging to both groups. In a review of the literature on anglophone youth in Quebec, Magnan and Lamarre (2013) found that youth who claimed a bilingual identity can develop a sense of belonging to the anglophone community and to the francophone community at the same time. Other studies have shown that French minority-language youth develop a sense of belonging to a group even when they engage in social practices with the majority group (Gérin-Lajoie, 2003, 2011; Pilote, 2006; Dallaire, 2003; Heller, 1999). This notion of belonging is not static or stable; it is not fixed in time, nor does it imply a permanent commitment to a specific community. For example, as members of social groupings, individuals might choose to belong to one specific group at a certain point in their lives and to another group at another time or even off and on. For some, like Diane, the choice is forced upon them. In spite of her francophone roots and fluency in French, belonging to the francophone community in Quebec City was denied to her. Sense of belonging is a changing and fluid phenomenon; allegiance may change or be adapted to specific circumstances, just as identity is. Breton (1994) developed a useful tool for understanding the nonlinearity of belonging. He defined the three dimensions of living as a francophone outside of Quebec: 1 a pragmatic or utilitarian dimension, where the minority language becomes both a tool with a market value and an important component of an individual’s cultural capital; 2 an interdependency dimension, where there is an identification with the minority group whose members are seen as a community of destiny, which some perceive as negative; and 3 a heritage dimension, where the sharing of a distinct cultural background and a minority language lead to a sense of belonging to the minority group, which can be situational or circumstantial. As with the second dimension, belonging to the minority group can also be perceived as negative by its members. While not perfect, Breton’s dimensions of belonging do provide a workable framework that makes it possible to distance oneself from the binary essentialist approach that recognizes either the total presence or the total absence of a sense of belonging among group members, with no middle ground (Woodward, 2002; Glick Schiller, 2012; Anthias, 2012).

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The Notion of Community Within the community, sense of belonging manifests itself through participation in common activities and access to common resources, services, and institutions. The more organized a group becomes, the more likely it is to develop a strong sense of community. For Breton, there are two types of community: strong and weak communities. In a strong community, individuals make a conscious choice to identify with and position themselves as members of the group. They work towards institutional completeness, or at the very least towards creating specific associations for the members of the community. A weak community refers to a group that has become minoritized and is unable to resist the majority. The term “minoritized” is understood here as a process that “insists that the relative prestige of languages and cultures and the conditions of their contact are constituted in relations of ruling in both national and international areas” (Mukherjee, Mukherjee, & Godard, 2006, p. 1). The participants in this study clearly raise the issue of minoritization, which is central to any examination of the lived experiences of Canada’s official linguistic minorities. This will be discussed in the next chapter, which is on the politics of language. I would like to return to what participants had to say about their sense of belonging to anglophone groups in Quebec and how they made sense of the notion of community. The majority of the participants and their family members and friends do not consider themselves to be part of a specific anglophone community in Quebec. Most also do not believe that Quebec has a homogeneous anglophone community. This point of view is aligned with those of scholars who question the notion of homogeneity when it comes to groups, especially immigrant groups (Brubaker, 2004; Anthias, 2012). As Anthias (2012) points out, “groups are seen as homogeneous … instead of processes of social relations” (p. 104). This is an important notion to keep in mind when examining ways of belonging to a group. Sally’s friend Kirk referred to his childhood community as something from the past, and he acknowledged the changes that have occurred over the years. It was an Anglo, it was a mixed community, like just about every community in Montreal. I have [a] strong sense of it being an anglophone community because we lived in an anglophone part of that town, so all the kids that I played with on the street and so on, very few were francophone, most were anglophone.

Complex Notions of Identity and Sense of Belonging  123  Although our next door neighbours were francophone, and we played together, this neighbour and myself played together a lot as kids until we went to school, and then ironically we went to either Catholic or Protestant schools, in my case a Protestant school, which was an anglophone school, and so we did not play together after that. So school had a major part, I think, in terms of linguistic community that you had a sense of in those days. [Now] I think there are many communities, many anglophone communities all across the province.

Christine, who grew up in Montreal, does not believe that there is one anglophone community; she notices differences mostly based on where anglophones live. In addition, she sees anglophone communities as having changed linguistically over time. [The] anglophones, I do not see [them] as a group in Quebec. I think it depends where in Quebec [they are] because there are some English communities where within kilometres, you know, it is mostly English people and then they have a community, but I think now there are so many, like even all the Northern Laurentians are being built up, so there is a real mix but it is not just English-French, it is English, French, Italian, there are so many other nationalities, so I think there is more of a mix. I do not think it is like where it used to be, one side of St. Lawrence [a street in Montreal] was English and the other side was French. I do not know, and even when I go to Montreal.

Peter, Sally’s friend, agrees that geography plays a role in the formation of anglophone communities. There are many communities, and I think … that the key thing often is geography, and if I live in the Gaspé region, as an anglophone, my connection is with francophones who live near me in the Gaspé region, because we are all concerned about, most people are concerned about putting bread on the table and putting a roof over their head and paying their bills, and, what helps us as a group in the Gaspé area is more important than “you are this, and I am that.”

Discussing the existence of an anglophone community in Quebec, Sarah also did not think that there is only one community: I do not think the anglophones have a strong sense of community. I think they, you know, you live in multicultural, multiethnic neighbourhoods … So I do not see much of an anglophone community: anglophones hanging together in a little ghetto, most anglophones are bilingual. Most of them do move in and out of various communities.

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Geographical differences between communities were also mentioned by participants. Sarah was the only teacher to live in Montreal; her perspective reflected an experience that is different from the rest of the province. The dichotomy between Montreal and the rest of the province is an important component of the anglophone situation in Quebec. In the province’s regions, the life of anglophones is thought to be similar to that of the francophones living outside of Quebec (Lamarre, 2007). The differences between the Montreal area and the Quebec regions were mentioned by the study participants on several occasions. The teachers did not emphasize their status as members of a specific anglophone community, although they do take part in some cultural traditions, such as celebrating Thanksgiving, going to a St. Patrick’s Day parade, and observing Remembrance Day. Their discourses suggest that their sense of being active members of a specific anglophone community is weak and that they do not believe that a collective or national identity among anglophones in Quebec exists. Some of the participants referred to English Canada when talking about their sense of belonging. Others indicated that they do not feel as though they belong to English Canada, due to the major differences that seem to exist between the two spatial realities. These participants talked about visiting English Canada and being treated as different from anglophones outside of Quebec, a situation that made them feel like out­siders. Sally thinks that Quebec’s anglophones are invisible to anglophones in the rest of Canada. Then when I go to the rest of Canada I just feel different. I had an image of Canada. I discovered that I really did have an image of what that was, and not to be part of it [because of an eventual separation of Quebec from Canada] was going to hurt. And you know that now, I do not feel the same way because I feel that Canada has cut me loose. But I feel like the rest of Canada does not recognize my community. I feel that they do not know we exist, and they do not care, they really do not care, I mean we’re never seen as a community.

Serafina’s friend Donna and Diane’s friends Allison and Debbie shared similar views. donna :

I think it is hard to explain, but I just feel like, maybe they, the way we see things and the way we perceive things here is different from people in other parts of Canada. And I have friends in pretty much, in every province across the country. And I know, on the East Coast, one of my very good friends lives in Halifax, and she sees herself very much as a Canadian, and

Complex Notions of Identity and Sense of Belonging  125  when I tell them things or they see things on the news happening in Quebec, they are horrified … And I also feel it on the other coast, visiting friends in B.C. I also feel that they do not seem to have a very, and I am making generalizations, but they do not seem to have a very good impression of people from Quebec in general, and I do not always feel accepted. allison : We do not fit in anywhere. When you are an English speaker from Quebec, you do not fit in … when I go elsewhere it is like she is French, Québécoise. And automatically I have the stereotypes from Quebec. debbie : It is actually very similar to Allison … growing up in such a French environment, our intonation and the accent, it is still present. So when I go to English Canada or the United States, they hear my French accent, even though I am in no way francophone.

Feeling as the “Other” These participants are describing a sense of otherness – a feeling of being seen as outsiders by the dominant group who exercises power over them. Power is central to the way in which social practices are defined; power is also central to the decision about who is excluded (Knight, 2008; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011; Connelly, 2008). What would make anglophones in Quebec so different from anglophones in English Canada? Why do some participants feel that they are not accepted by larger communities of anglophones in Canada? After all, they speak the same language and their ancestors came to Canada at the same time. Some participants mentioned the fact that they are speaking a distinctive form of English, a “Quebec” English, with words that apply specifically to their context, such as a depanneur for a corner store or metro for subway. Could it be that their version of English sounds too different to be considered sufficiently normative? As Boberg (2012) explains, The variety of English spoken by about half a million people in the Canadian province of Quebec is a minority language in intensive contact with French, the local majority language. This unusual contact situation has produced a unique variety of English which displays many instances of French influence that distinguish it from other types of Canadian or world English. (p. 493)

These questions arose in previous work (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). Interestingly, the situation reported by some of the participants does not cor­ respond to how anglophones are perceived by the francophone majority in Quebec, who see them as members of the Canadian majority. If, in fact, anglophones in Quebec feel excluded from the majority group

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in English Canada, they would consider themselves a minority group in that context too. Their sense of exclusion is not just in relation to English Canada though; it is also in relation to Quebec’s francophone majority, even among the anglophones who speak French. This is an important finding that needs to be examined more closely. Because this issue was constantly described as “political” in the interviews, it will be discussed further in the next chapter, which is on the politics of language.

6  The Politics of Language

The Quiet Revolution of the 1960s resulted in a shift in the balance of political and economic power between the anglophone demographic minority and the francophone demographic majority in Quebec, as was experienced by some of the teachers who participated in my study. Language planning became, for the francophone majority, a tool to take control of the destiny of the province. The language legislations enacted by the provincial government in the 1960s and 1970s radically changed the social, linguistic, economic, and political landscape of Quebec. Anglophones began losing some of their power as francophones became more assertive (Levine, 1997). Why are anglophones more of a minority now? Were they not always the minority in Quebec? To answer these questions, we must look at the notion of minority not only in terms of numbers – the most common understanding of minority – but also in terms of the power that the majority and the minority exercise over each other. And as Juteau (2004, p. 86) illustrates in the case of Quebec, the transformation from French Canadians as minority in both Quebec and Canada to Québécois as a nationally defined collectivity embodies a shift from a subordinate to a dominant majority. (Mann, 2007, p. 212)

Before the 1960s, the economic power was mostly in the hands of a few anglophones in Montreal, despite the fact that they were outnumbered by the francophone population. During this time, anglophones exercised power over the economic destiny of Quebec (Boberg, 2012). Levine (1997) explains that in the 1960s, most of the large companies were run by anglophones and foreigners and management positions

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were typically held by anglophones. Quebec’s language-planning policies helped change the social, economic, and political landscape. This chapter is an attempt to understand the process of change that took place in the province. In the present analysis, language, as in the case of the concepts of identity and minority, is considered the result of a social construction. The impact of Quebec’s language legislations, in particular Bill 101, has been tremendous. For the province’s anglophone population, it has meant a more restrictive use of English in the public sphere. Notions such as anglophone minority and minoritization have become part of Quebec intellectual and political discourses. A divide still exists between anglophones and francophones in Quebec. This was also clearly revealed in the teachers’ discourses. This inclusion-exclusion divide illustrates the shift in the relations of power within the social context of Quebec. Language and Discourse In our society, language is viewed mostly in a utilitarian way, as a communication tool. It is defined in a way that primarily reflects its technical or developmental aspect. Missing from this description is the fundamental role that language plays as an instrument of power. As explained by Bourdieu (2001): To speak of the language, without further specification, as linguists do, is tacitly to accept the official definition of the official language of a political unit. This language is the one which, within the territorial limits of that unit, imposes itself on the whole population as the only legitimate language especially in situations that are characterized in French as more official. (p. 45)

Language is not neutral (Bourdieu, 2001; Foucault, 1972; Martel & Pâquet, 2010). What is defined as a “universal language” or “legitimate language” as discussed by Bourdieu is, in fact, a language influenced by dominant ideologies. Gramsci (2011) explains that language is shaped by world view. In other words, contrary to what is commonly believed, language constructs reality, it does not reflect it. Language positions people in different ways, and it reflects symbolic domination. Martel and Pâquet (2010) write that language is political because it embodies our relationship to the real world (“la langue est politique car elle incarne notre rapport au monde réel”) (p. 14). In addition, depending on the social reality, the same language used in different discourses has different meanings.

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The notions of language and discourse go hand in hand. Discourse, like language, goes beyond the notion of formal and informal communication; it is socially constructed and reflects the way in which people make sense of the world. Discourse can be understood as a regulated practice in which conflict can occur (Foucault, 1972); in this context, power represents a key element in the examination of social and linguistic practices. The nationalist discourse that emerged in mid-20th century Quebec had a profound effect on its social, political, and economic destiny. The political discourse addressed issues of power through language legislation. Historical accounts report that, for a long time, a small percentage of anglophones, mostly from Montreal, controlled the Quebec economy (Rudin, 1986; Levine, 1997; Boberg, 2012). Anglophones held the reins of power even though they were a minority group, in terms of their numbers. Pettinicchio (2012) gives the following account: Until the end of the 1950s, Anglophones had maintained a privileged and superordinate position in Quebec society, particularly because they controlled Quebec’s economy. Although it was impossible in a democracy like Canada for Anglophones to form the Quebec political class … Anglophones had considerable political clout by virtue of economic dominance. (p. 2)

With the Liberal government of Jean Lesage, the early 1960s set the tone for a new era. A strategic plan was introduced to enable the francophone majority to regain control of the public sphere. It was also in the 1960s that a new provincial political party emerged in Quebec, the Parti Québécois. This party would go on to win the 1976 election, defeating the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa. Quebec Political Discourse and Language Legislation The official language is bound up with the state, both in its genesis and its social uses. The process of state formation creates the conditions for the constitution of a unified linguistic market dominated by the official language. Obligatory on official occasions and in official places (schools, public administrations, political institutions, etc.), this state language becomes the theoretical norm against which all linguistic practices are objectively measured (Bourdieu, 2001, p. 45). Language legislation was instrumental in changing the face of Quebec society. Bill 63 opened the door for important changes that would build

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the foundations of a French Quebec. Two other statutes were enacted that made Quebec a French-dominant province: Bill 22 and Bill 101. In adopting Bill 22, the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa made French the official language in Quebec, which had a tremendous impact on the future of the province. With this new legislation in place, anglophones felt betrayed by a government they had supported in the past (Pettinicchio, 2012). The Charter of the French Language, or Bill 101, was adopted in 1977, one year after the Parti Québécois was elected. This legislation was seen by anglophones as being even more restrictive than its predecessor; it was not well received, particularly by members of Quebec’s anglophone business community (Martel & Pâquet, 2010). Fearing the worst, many anglophones opted to leave Quebec, resulting in what is known as the “anglophone exodus.” Pettinicchio (2012) refers to this as a “politically motivated emigration within a contemporary Western democratic context” (p. 2). Anglo-Montrealers were over-represented in the exodus. However, as a number of authors have pointed out, other factors also played a role in the decreasing number of anglophones living in Quebec. Consequently, the claim that the political climate was the reason for the anglophone exodus must be made with caution (Radice, 2000; Pettinicchio, 2012). Lower birth rates and the lack of anglophone arrivals to replace those who had left also contributed to the decline of the anglophone population. As expressed by Pettinicchio (2012): However, the direct link between migration and ethnic nationalism has been called into question, because it has been difficult to establish whether economic factors (i.e. decline in manufacturing in the east, the rise of Toronto as Canada’s economic capital, etc.) had an effect on out-migration independently of ethnic nationalism. (p. 2–3)

Quebec’s New Social Order Anglophones who stayed had to adjust to the new social and political context of Quebec. In a 2000 study by Radice on Anglo-Montrealers, participants shared their thoughts on why they had decided to stay, leading the author to conclude that: People did not live in Montreal for lack of a better choice [faute de mieux]. They were not waiting to move to a city that was more stable, more Anglophone, more prosperous. They were living in Montreal by choice. Some had even ignored opportunities to leave. (p. 47; trans. from French by author)

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Similar findings emerged in the present study. Even though only Sally and Christine were born and raised in Quebec, several of the teachers who were not from Quebec originally had friends and family members who had grown up in Quebec. About living in a francophone majority society, Sally said: Well, I fully accept that this is a French society and that the engine, the history, the community life, politics, the political scene, the institutions, all those, all those things are centred in French, they live and they exist in French.

Some, such as Sally’s friend Keith and his wife, Julie, thought that it had been an exciting time to be living in Quebec. Keith explained: It was very intense, those years. And we were all involved, but also Quebec was very intense at that time, and the changes that you saw … the Québécois taking their space, the francophones taking much more place, and demanding a response from us, that … made you think about … where you stood [as an anglophone].

Others have stayed because of their work. This is true of Sarah’s husband, Joe, whose anglophone identity does not seem to have prevented him from attending French majority-language schools for most of his life or from participating actively in the French public sphere. I cannot really leave, even if I wanted to because I am a lawyer, I am a member of the Quebec bar, so I am not really interested in doing bar school again in Ontario. I do not have the time for that, and I like Montreal, and I like Quebec, so I do not want to leave. I like it here.

A few of the participants voted “yes” in the first referendum on sovereignty-association, in 1980. Sally, James, Peter, Julie, and Keith were among them. As explained by Julie: Certainly, I mean, we were, I can just speak for myself, but Keith and I, we were in favour of independence at a certain point and voted “yes,” I mean it was turbulent, exciting, the possibilities of where Quebec could go, was really exciting, at least for some of us, but heartbreaking as well because at the same time people left.

Sally had insights into why some anglophones had left Quebec. She talked about the challenge of being an anglophone in Quebec.

132  Negotiating Identities I chose to stay here, but people who left, I understand because this is such a high energy place to live, high maintenance place to live. You have to be conscious all the time, and it is not easy for somebody who is born into an English community to choose to be part of a respectful minority. It is not. I mean, we live in a world where English dominates in so many ways, and to choose to be part of a minority, it is interesting and probably not totally intuitive choice, you know. It is easier to live in a community where everything is spoken in your own language and you can understand people on the street, and, you have agreed about the language you are going to use to communicate publicly, and it requires a lot more energy to be in a situation where it is different. Now, to me, it is much more interesting, right, and there is a lot of reward for it, but not everybody I think shares that perception.

The second referendum, in 1995, was not as well received by the participants. Some, like Sally and James, said they voted “no.” A few were really concerned about the outcome of the referendum and its implications for their future, as were their family members. Shelley was one of these individuals; at the time, she lived in a francophone environment. She mentioned that her former husband’s family, who are francophone, had supported the referendum; she talked about how her husband reacted negatively to the defeat. My husband at the time was very disappointed because it was very close, we thought if it was that close it could be a realistic thing, that Quebec needed that or whatever, but yeah, it was a hot button issue in my life, for sure.

Peter voted “yes” in the second referendum, in 1995. As he explains: That was during my Quebec period, and I actually voted yes in that referendum. I felt that Quebec was not well treated in the federation of Canada and that if people really wanted this, I could live with it. I was hoping I would be able to live with it here.

Anglophones who stayed in Quebec understood that, in order to function at all levels of Quebec society, knowledge of French was necessary. De la Sablonnière and Taylor (2006) write that learning French was an individual strategy for anglophones in Quebec and bilingualism among anglophones had increased significantly since the adoption of specific language-planning policies, from 36.7% in 1971 to 67.2% in 2001 (Oakes & Warren, 2009). In 2006, the rate of bilingualism among anglophones had risen to 69.8% (Standing Senate Research Committee on Official Languages, 2011). Bill 101 guaranteed that French would be the

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language in use in such strategic areas as justice, public administration, business, workplace, and education (Corbeil, 2007, p. 235). For example, since its adoption, all immigrant children must attend a French majority-language school. Only children who receive official permission from the government may attend an anglophone school.1 Other factors have also contributed to the rise of bilingualism among anglophones in Quebec, such as exogamous marriages, where one parent is anglophone and the other francophone. Exogamous marriages have increased over time, and the presence of both English and French no doubt contributes to the increase of French in language practices. This phenomenon also exists among francophones living in English Canada (Leduc, 2011; Gérin-Lajoie, 2012). Difficulty accessing resources and services in the minority language is another important factor. Anglophones who live outside of Montreal have less choice about staying unilingual because resources and services are available mainly in French. The balance of power has shifted, and the two linguistic groups now occupy different positions in the political arena; francophones exert more control and anglophones feel increasingly like a minority group (Radice, 2000). Anglophones have raised concerns about the viability of their institutions, which are important vehicles for the transmission and preservation of minority language and culture. Linguistic minority groups that are able to maintain their own institutions are more likely to preserve their language and culture (Breton, 1968). Anglophones in Quebec are afraid not so much of losing their language (de la Sablonnière & Taylor, 2006; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011) but of losing their institutional structures. As stated in the Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages (2011), their situation is different from that of the francophone minority living outside of Quebec: The English-speaking minority [in Quebec] does not face the challenge of ensuring the survival of its language. Rather, its challenge lies in ensuring the community’s survival and supporting its vitality in all regions of Quebec. (p. 2)

Bourhis and Foucher (2012) came to the same conclusion in stating that Bill 101 contributed to the erosion of the “demographic vitality of the English-speaking communities of Quebec” (p. 23). The threat of the English language disappearing from Quebec was not voiced by either

1 Education will be extensively discussed in chapter 7.

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the study participants living in Montreal or those living in regions. Similar findings were revealed in previous work, where English was seen as a powerful international language that would always be around, even if French was the official language of use in the Quebec public sphere (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). For this reason, francophones in Quebec have introduced strong guidelines for language practices in the public sphere. Looking back, Bill 101 is probably the legislation that has had the biggest impact on the Quebec population (Corbeil, 2007). Minority Status and Minoritization in Quebec Minority groups are often defined as groups of people who (a) are numerically inferior to the rest of the population, (b) share values distinct from those of the dominant society, and (c) explicitly or not, demonstrate solidarity regarding the preservation of their culture, language, religion, and traditions. This definition reflects the narrow, essentialist perspective, presenting “minority” as something that can be defined simply by its appearance (Vandyke, 1994). Furthermore, the notion of “shared values distinct from those of the dominant society” is seen as a permanent state. It assumes that people who are born into a set of values will hold on to those values for as long as they live and that those values are fixed in time. Something is missing from this definition: It does not address the issue of power. The Complex Notion of Minority in Quebec Relations of power exist between majority and minority groups. Relations of power also exist within groups because they are not homogeneous (Anthias, 2012; Easthope, 2009). For example, francophones living in Quebec have a different reality from that of francophones living in English Canada. The same can be said of anglophones living in Quebec and outside of Quebec or anglophones in Montreal and anglophones living in Quebec regions. Castles and Davidson (2000) explain that ethnic minorities may be seen as (a) having been marginalized by dominant groups on the basis of socially constructed markers such as race, origins, language, and culture, which ultimately exclude them from the majority, and (b) having some degree of collective consciousness or feeling of community based on a belief that the minority shares a language, traditions, religion, history, and experiences (p. 63). The first part of this definition is understood to conceptualize minority groups as others, excluding them from mainstream society through mechanisms of

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marginalization. The second part refers to the self as well as to the collective identity and/or the sense of belonging that individuals might develop in regards to the group. The anglophone minority in Quebec has always fit the numerical criterion. However, this group derives its status from much more than its physical size as a percentage of the total population of Quebec. According to McAndrew (2013), In Canada and Quebec, the francophone community can be simultaneously a minority and a majority, politically and geographically, depending upon the chosen frame of reference. But even in Quebec, no consensus exists as to its majority status linguistically and geographically. (p. 7)

In the last sentence, McAndrew is referring to the debate over who holds the power in Quebec society. Since the adoption of Bill 101, the balance of power has shifted towards the francophone majority; however, that shift may be incomplete, based on the fact that the anglophone minority “still exercises a certain power of attraction over immigrant groups and enjoys a small economic advantage” (McAndrew, 2013, p. 7). For this reason, it is appropriate to say that Quebec’s two major linguistic groups are still in the process of becoming either a majority or a minority. This notion of becoming accurately describes the situation in Quebec. It recognizes the political, economic, and linguistic evolution of the two groups and the dynamism of both discourses over the past 50 years. It captures the ongoing struggles and debates between majority and minority in the province. Based on the way in which Quebec has evolved historically, politically, and economically, it makes sense to see anglophones as a linguistic minority that still has some power and to see francophones as a fragile majority (McAndrew, 2013). However, it is also important to recognize that, since the 1970s, anglophones have lost more ground than they have gained. During the course of the study, most of the participants recognized that, as anglophones in Quebec, they are part of a linguistic minority. Serafina felt this sentiment even more so when she worked in a Frenchspeaking environment, such as the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports, where all interactions were conducted in French. In the first year of the study, she said: Now when I am working at the ministry I feel considerably like a minority right now, I am the minority. I am the only anglophone on the team, so it

136  Negotiating Identities really, it is huge, but there is no doubt that I feel like [a] minority … I felt like a minority when we were in the big meetings and it was all in French and it was really difficult to try to follow.

For Sally’s husband, James, even though he has lived in Quebec all his life, he recognizes that he is different from the francophones. His challenges with the French language might also contribute to the way he sees himself in his interactions with francophones. I certainly feel that I am part of a minority by any definition that you would like to use, I mean, even numerically, being an Anglo Quebecer, I am in a minority.

In Sarah’s case, her description of how she lives on a day-to-day basis reveals that she recognizes that she lives in a social context where there exists another reality beyond her own. In spite of being conscious of these two worlds, Sarah says that she does not feel like a minority because most of the time she is able to access services and resources in English. Living in the Montreal area gives her this privilege, which is not the case in all areas of the province. I do not notice it, because like Madeleine [her friend] was saying, every service is possible, every service that I would want access to is there. I have never felt like I could not get everything I needed. I feel like I live in a French environment, but I do not live that reality very often. I have said it before, I feel like we are living in a little bubble here.

Others participants denied the existence of an anglophone minority altogether. Rosa Nin, Sarah’s daughter, pointed out that languages are not an issue for her. She crosses linguistic borders all the time and it is a natural thing for her to do, abilities that she credits to her age as well as the fact that her friends are in similar situations. No, because when I go out, where I go, let’s say for coffee, or where I go to buy a book, or where I go to shop or where I go to a bar, it is always, no, no, not always, sorry, 80% of the time it is in English. And maybe it is because I am 19 and the people my age are more and more bilingual, but I would never even consider myself a minority. Maybe it is because I live in Montreal.

One of Christine’s friends, Angela, did not feel part of a minority growing up in Montreal. She grew up within the Italian community, where Italian and English were the dominant languages; however, now that she

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lives outside of Montreal she no longer feels part of the majority when it comes to her social interactions. I lived in such an Italian neighbourhood. I think everybody on my street spoke in Italian, that I never felt out of place. It is so weird. And the elementary, the high school, I mean, I had teachers, if we could not understand English, because I went to, it was an English school, if I could not understand English, my teachers were Italian. So they spoke to me in that, you know? That is all I could remember growing up, so I did not feel I was a minority. It was really when I moved up north.

Serafina’s children, Gina and David, held opposite views. Though this disparity could be considered unusual from a majority point of view, it is not when one looks at the reality of linguistic minority settings. Siblings sometimes use different languages to communicate, and thus their sense of belonging is not the same because of the various social environments in which they evolve. gina :

It just feels, I feel like a minority, like I cannot, like you cannot get your point across and everyone is just, you know, moving past you and doing their thing and … you cannot say well this is what I am feeling, you cannot make that connection or make those bonds, you are just, you know, isolated. david : I do not feel like there was any discrimination against me or any kind of, maybe not discrimination, just even not trying to be able to get my point across. I do not have any incidents in where I felt that way.

Even for some participants who lived outside of Montreal, in conditions where it can be more challenging to live in the minority language, they reported that they did not feel that they belonged to a minority, especially in their school settings: [friend of Diane]: I would say no, I am not a minority. Even living here, I am a minority in Quebec City, but I am a majority within my country. So, I consider myself a majority, and being in the anglophone community and teaching in the anglophone school, I am a majority there. So, are there points in my life when I am a minority? Yes, but I think that they are more majority than minority. allison [friend of Diane]: Exact same thing, even like, in Quebec City, yes I consider myself a minority because I consider myself anglophone, but when I am at school I am surrounded by anglophones all the time and when I am at home it is bilingual, and I am part of Canada. debbie

The participants reveal a very complex relationship between the minority and the majority in Quebec. To this I would add that the differences

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between anglophones in Montreal and those in the rest of the province are worth taking into consideration. This was evident from the discussion on the notion of community in the previous chapter. The participants’ discourses denied the existence of a homogeneous anglophone community in Quebec and even in Montreal (Woodward, 2002; Anthias, 2012). I will return to these differences later in this chapter. For now, based on what the participants had to say, the question to be raised is whether feeling like a minority automatically implies feeling minoritized as a linguistic minority group and, if so, how this translates into their lived experiences. When social practices are examined through a critical lens, it is generally agreed that linguistic majority groups find themselves in a position of power over linguistic minority groups. This situation results in relationships between the groups that are under tension – what Magnan (in press) refers to as rapports sous tension. Looking specifically at the issue of language, we find that minority languages wield little power because of their ranking in the hierarchy of languages and their risk of becoming minoritized (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011; Mukherjee et al., 2006). Minoritized groups find it challenging to live in their own language and culture on a daily basis because of a lack of infrastructure. As a result, they cede power to the majority group, and the minority language and culture become devalued (Knight, 2008). The Minoritization Process The minoritization of anglophones in Quebec is complex. Each linguistic group is both a majority and a minority. Anglophones are a minority in Quebec, but they are part of the English-Canadian majority. Francophones are a majority in Quebec but a minority in English Canada. Within Quebec itself, we find differences between Montreal and the regions. All of these observations indicate that there is more to minoritization than numbers. Most importantly, these observations reveal that in order to make sense of the lives of members of the linguistic minority group, their voices must be heard. The results of this study indicate that, although the vast majority of the participants recognize that anglophones are a linguistic minority in Quebec, they do not think that they are oppressed in any way, nor do they feel minoritized. Serafina’s friends Frances and Dolores both acknowledge that, numerically speaking, they are part of the minority group; however, neither feels like a member of a minority in her daily life.

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They explain that English-speakers are part of a global community that extends far beyond the province and that English is not in danger of disappearing any time soon. Sarah’s daughter Rosa Nin explained that she does not think of herself as a minority because, in her opinion, being a minority means being oppressed and she is not oppressed. She explained that being able to speak French helps her to avoid being seen as a stereotypical unilingual anglophone; she added that most of her friends are bilingual and that they adapt to any situation. Sally’s husband, James, had this to say: I am a minority, an oppressed minority? No, I just explained how I lived here in English for 67 years, so obviously there is not a whole lot of oppression going on. Mind you, they have been good economic times. When economic times change, maybe that would change too, but it has not been my experience.

Sally’s friend Julie agreed with James. She went even further, saying that the francophone majority has limited access to resources too. I do not feel oppressed. No, but I know, intellectually, I know otherwise that I am a member of a linguistic minority. I think, too, that you have to remember too, and this is what a lot of our francophone colleagues and friends have said for years, that because of the sea of English, as I mentioned before, I mean, for example books and that kind of thing, I mean, we can get many more books than a lot, like, when I was working in special education and trying to get equal resources in both languages, it is not possible, it is not possible, even though we live in Quebec [where French material should be easy to get]. So yes we are [a minority], but really, we are sometimes not.

In contrast to these testimonials from anglophones living in the Montreal area, Mario, a friend of Jacques, who lives in Trois-Rivières, had this to say: The way they [francophones] look at you. We are different, we are different. They say, you know, we can write all you want, we are different, if you speak English in Trois-Rivières, you’re different. And like Gary was saying, we got bullied when we were kids. We are different.

Mario’s response to the question about oppression again raises the issue of geographical location. The location of anglophone minority communities affects their relationship with the francophone community that shares the same geographical space (Anthias, 2012).

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Early in the study, a dichotomy emerged from the participants’ discourses that I refer to as “Montreal vs. the regions.” Being part of a linguistic minority meant something different depending on whether the participant lived in Montreal or in another part of the province. During the discussion on the notion of minority, a few of the participants said it was harder to live as an anglophone up north. This comment came from Christine and her two friends, who had all grown up in Montreal. Here is what Carly had to say: I would say yes, [feeling as a minority] in Quebec, living up north because I find it a little bit isolating in terms of having English resources. Even though technically there are laws and rules in place that you can have services in either language, it is not how it is, that is not the reality.

Angela pointed out that there are just a few anglophones in her community and that, like Carly, she feels isolated. When you are in Montreal, it is not odd to hear people speaking French and hear people speaking English. When you are up north and you hear someone speaking English, you want to go meet them. You turn around, you must know them, or you make eye contact. When I was looking for an apartment in St. Jerome, the woman was English, like we exchanged phone numbers, we are still friends now. We actually were like “I cannot believe you are English, there is an English person here.” And we have bonded instantly.

Participants living closer to Montreal agree that there is a difference between the city and the regions and that this difference works to their advantage. Montreal has a larger English-language infrastructure, with more resources and services. Montreal was once a major anglophone city (Levine, 1997) with a strong infrastructure that has endured (English-language hospitals, a greater number of English-language schools and postsecondary institutions, access to English-language resources and services) even though it might not be as powerful as in the past. Participants living in Montreal, like Sarah’s friend Carole, recognized the benefits of living in Montreal. I think that there has to be a distinction made between the anglophone population within Montreal and outside of Montreal. That has to be made really clear because I am sure as anglophones living in Montreal, we are extremely, extremely well served. We are a very well served community in terms of education. Because, as it was mentioned, I do not think the French side gets a lot more resources [in education] than what the English community gets, and,

Politics of Language  141  well again, it is a bit different when you are talking about grants, but we have access to the best medical services.

Carly’s comment about the lack of services in the minority language in her small community is similar to comments made by francophones living in English Canada. In both cases, members of the linguistic minority constantly cross linguistic borders in search of resources and services. Differences are also found in the area of schooling, where teachers notice a stronger influence of the French majority language on their students in regions outside of Montreal compared to schools closer to Montreal. The Inclusion-Exclusion Divide Throughout the study, the participants reported feeling as though they were not full members of Quebec society. This “inclusion-exclusion divide” was observed in previous work (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). Pilote et al. (2011) refer to an “identity boundary” when describing Quebec City youth enrolled in English minority-language schools. These schools became an identity marker that the majority group used to exclude them (p. 13). In other words, going to English minority schools sends the message, to a certain extent, that “you are not one of us.” The underrepresentation of anglophones in Quebec civic citizenship activities was noted in the 2011 Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages: “Just like any other minority group, English-speaking communities in Quebec want to participate in the policies and decisions that have an impact on their development” (p. 13). Being excluded means that members of the minority group are labelled as “others” by the mainstream society (Kumashiro, 2000). In spite of this, exclusion, or “othering,” does not necessarily lead to a profound sense of minoritization, as one might expect while listening to the participants’ comments. Participants did not voice any concern around developing social interactions on a one-on-one basis. Some have close francophone friends; this situation was true of Sally’s stepson, Thomas, and Christine’s husband, Bill. However, both mentioned that they never discuss Quebec politics; this topic of conversation is taboo. They do their best to avoid confrontational situations and, from their point of view, Quebec politics sets the stage for confrontation and controversy. Sally’s husband, James, reported that he did not feel like a full citizen in part because his French skills are weak.

142  Negotiating Identities I definitely do not feel that I am an insider, but that is at a societal level. When I walk out on the street and meet my neighbours here and hurt their ears with our conversation, you know we get along and they are kind to me. We are friendly, we have common interests. I know that with some of them, in the back of their mind, are saying he is a maudit Anglais [damned anglo] but there are prejudices wherever you go. You know, so yes, I feel a part of a minority … I am never going to be mayor of the locality where I live or even a Canadian member of the House of Commons because I cannot represent my constituents [because of my lack of skills in French].

His wife, Sally, feels like an outsider too, but she sees it as a positive. There is a tension, but it is a productive tension. I think as an outsider you see corruption, you see folly, you see pride, you see the stakes, and you can look at it and say, “There it is,” and it is visible because you are an outsider and you see the process with a bit of difference. You go somewhere where English is dominant and maybe you miss some of those things. I think the perspective of the outsider is unique and special, not always easy. And I think it is internalized in me at this point.

There are times when participants feel the divide more acutely, for example, when anglophones speak to each other in English and get looks of disapproval from francophones. This was raised by participants living in a francophone environment, such as Jacques and Mario as well as Christine and her friends. Interestingly, such examples were not provided by participants living closer to Montreal, with one exception: Sarah’s children Jamal and Rosa Nin reported feeling excluded when they attended French majority-language schools when they were younger. For her part, Shelley’s story reflects the profound sense of exclusion that she felt when she began her career teaching English as a second language in a French majority-language high school north of Montreal. I felt here I was, this person who had studied French so earnestly to get into the French milieu, and I never was quite making it. Anyone with a French last name was going to pass over me. So I did all of that and, still, I was not quite in. It was like, “Okay, you speak French? Big deal, so do we.” It was not something that was appreciated or validated … So then I started toying with the idea of switching to the English school board.

Most of the participants reported that they were bilingual and able to interact in French in public. This scenario was even true for James and

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Sarah, who acknowledged that speaking French was a challenge. The goal of Bill 101 was to make Quebec a French-speaking province in every sphere. It would follow that knowledge of French is the most important inclusion factor. And yet, if this is so, why do bilingual anglophones feel excluded? For Sally’s friend Peter, it has to do with the fact that anglophones are taught standard French, which clashes with the vernacular French in daily use. Sometimes it [French] was taught as the Parisian quality French, and if you went into a garage and said “vérifiez mes pneus,” and the guy would say “tu veux checker tes tires?” And using that type of French immediately marked you because you were either an arrogant francophone or an anglophone trying to pass, and they did not like either one of those. And French teachers would tell you, or the smart ones would say, we will teach you the correct way to speak, and you can pick up the other on your own. Well, if you did not have that passport of entry, which was the capacity to speak some French, you never really got into picking up the other. If you were lucky you played on the street with French kids and you picked up the “joual,” you picked up the, you know, the French of the people, [that] normal people spoke. You were very fortunate. And going to English school, followed by English university, followed by teaching in an English school, your capacity to pick up that French was minimal.

Jones (2000) refers to this type of exclusion as an “in-group” code; the majority group is reluctant to share its language with others, even when they are able to speak it. Cracking the in-group code and speaking the vernacular language may not be possible for many anglophones, and it could be one of the reasons for the inclusion-exclusion divide. Gina, Serafina’s daughter, views this divide in relation to knowledge of French in the labour market; she thinks anglophones do not have a fair shot at employment because of language barriers. In a conversation with her brother, David, she argued: Well, what about in two years when you graduate and, you know, you have all these business applicants that are going to all these companies, and you are going to have to conduct a business interview in French? You know how hard it was for daddy to find a job, because his French skills were lacking and you are both on the same level for speaking French; you are not going to be able to work in Quebec if you do not improve your French significantly.

The question that Gina raises about employment is a valid one, especially for those who do not have a good command of French. With the exception of the children of Serafina, Sally, and Jacques, all of the participants’

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children have received instruction in French, either in French immersion in an English minority-language school (Sarah’s children) or in a French majority-language school (Shelley’s and Christine’s children). Throughout this chapter, the numerous points of analysis have demonstrated how language use is not neutral (Bourdieu, 2001); instead, it is a powerful tool for those who control it, even if that control might be limited to a specific geographical area like the province of Quebec. Bill 22 and Bill 101 have redefined Quebec society and the political configuration of linguistic relations between anglophones and francophones. In the following chapter, the domain of schooling will be investigated as an area where language legislations have had a significant impact on anglophones in Quebec.

7  T  eaching in English Minority-Language Schools in Quebec

Schools, as institutional sites of formal education, play an essential role in the linguistic and cultural reproduction of social groups in societies. This is even more true for linguistic minorities. In the specific case of the two official linguistic minorities in Canada, the school is a vital institution. For anglophones in Quebec, especially for those living in areas of the province where they represent a small minority and where living in English is difficult to accomplish, the school often becomes a linguistic “community.” Expectations are high in regards to the reproduction of the minority language and culture and in regards, also, to a sense of belonging to the group. The school reality may be different in the Montreal area, where the reproduction of the language and the use of English in daily life can represent less of a challenge. The English minority-language schools are expected to ensure that their high school graduates acquire excellent skills in French so they can compete in the labour market (Advisory Board on English Education, 2013). How do teachers working in these schools make sense of their work in linguistic minority settings? How do they see their role as professionals working with a linguistic minority school population? How does the fact that they are typically members of a minority group themselves come into play in the way they see their role as teachers? How do those identities interact in practice? The personal and professional identities of the teachers who participated in this study intertwine the ways they define themselves as members of a linguistic minority group and as educators. This finding reinforces researchers’ claim that teachers’ personal and professional identities are not separable (Beck & Kosnik, 2014; Huberman, 1989; Hagger & McIntyre, 2006). In closely examining their discourses on their role as teachers in a linguistic minority setting, we will learn about their general

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philosophies of teaching as well as their views on the role of English minority-language schools in Quebec. Although the present chapter is mostly about the stories of these anglophone minority-language schoolteachers in Quebec, I do make a brief comparison in the last part of the chapter with the discourses of teachers working in French minority-language schools in Ontario, drawing on the findings presented in this book and on the findings from a study that I conducted a few years ago (Gérin-Lajoie, 2007). The purpose of this comparison is to examine whether or not teachers working with official-language-minority students in two different social and linguistic contexts conceptualize their role with their students in similar ways. To compare the two official linguistic minorities in Canada and their educational systems from a sociological perspective constitutes an emerging field of research. We will discover that the official discourse about the role of the school in those linguistic minority settings is understood differently and that, furthermore, stakeholders’ expectations vary not only between but also within provinces. Why discuss the issue of teachers in French minority-language schools in a book dedicated to teachers working in English minority-language schools in Quebec? It is an opportunity to look at the school experiences of those two very different groups, especially at the ways that the schools’ stakeholders envision the role of these schools in their respective linguistic minority communities. It is also an opportunity to avoid overgeneralizing about the phenomenon of official-language-minority education from a single case. Even though this comparison is brief, it provides an opportunity to initiate a comparative reflection on the educational reality of the two officiallanguage minorities in Canada, a perspective that is essentially missing from the research and policy literature. We are in the presence of different discourses as well as different social and educational practices within the schools in those two provinces. Far from being homogeneous, these minority communities face different challenges, which are not always reflected in the official discourse and even in the popular discourse. Both studies have shown such diversity. However, teachers, as major educational actors, contribute to the academic and social development of their students as well as to the construction of their linguistic and cultural identity. The Concept of Teachers’ Professional Identity In recent years, there have been several contributions to the field of teachers’ professional identity (Beck & Kosnik, 2014; Gohier, 2007;

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Lantheaume, 2007; Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Gérin-Lajoie, 2010; Kirk & Wall, 2010). Olsen (2008) states that: Recent educational research reminds us that teaching is not merely a cognitive or technical procedure but a complex, personal, social, often elusive, set of embedded processes and practices that concern the whole person. (p. 5)

Research on teaching and teacher education claims that teachers’ professional identities are deeply rooted in their personal histories and emphasizes the interaction between the teacher as a person and as a professional (Beck & Kosnik, 2014; Duff & Uchida, 1997; DarlingHammond & Snyder, 2000; Clandinin & Connelly, 1996; Huberman, 1989). As explained by Daniel (2007), “No teacher enters the classroom without a historical grounding that has informed his or her particular ideological base and particular worldview” (p. 40). In other words, when it comes to teaching, it is virtually impossible to dissociate the “personal” identity from the “professional” identity. However, this is not an easy field to explore. As asserted by Olsen (2008), “teacher’s identity is hard to articulate, easily misunderstood, and open to interpretation” (p. 4). In spite of this, it is important to look at teachers’ professional identity when attempting to make sense of practices in schools, where teachers are actors on centre stage. Beauchamp and Thomas (2009) use the term shaping when discussing the role of the self and external forces in identity construction. Olsen (2008) refers to Bourdieu’s view (1991) and explains that it “treats individuals as mostly shaped or constructed via cultural markers and social positionings” (p. 4). Personal identity emphasizes the internal and external forces involved in the making of the individual. This perspective acknowledges that what is transmitted in the family or at school or in society in general is also socially constructed and never neutral (Hall, 2006; Woodward, 2002). Identity is negotiated and renegotiated through the lived experiences of individuals at all stages of life and is always evolving (Camp, 2013). My understanding of teachers’ professional identity follows this line of reasoning; it should be understood as shifting and fluid, just like personal identity (MacLure, 2003). Through the teachers’ discourses, I examine the connection between the teachers’ personal identities and their professional identities and the influence of these identities on their philosophy of teaching and work practices. Their life stories help to explain how they make sense of

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teaching in their own personal and professional life trajectory. I look at how this translates into the opinions that the teachers have of themselves. When it comes to identity, “personal” and “professional” are enmeshed. In the present analysis, they will appear to have been separated, but this is for the sake of clarity. Teaching in English Minority-Language Schools As depicted previously, the teachers and their family members and friends positioned themselves differently when describing their identity. Some claimed an anglophone identity; others claimed a bilingual or trilingual identity. Some live mostly in English, with little need to cross back and forth across linguistic borders; others live as much in English as in French in both public and private. One, Émilie, lives in French most of the time outside of school. All of these teachers have one thing in common: They all teach in English minority-language schools in Quebec. In the context of linguistic minority education, teachers are sometimes viewed not only as agents of knowledge transmission (or knowledge construction) and as agents of socialization but also as producers of identity. When students already have some prior knowledge of the minority language, the school is responsible for ensuring that this language will be upheld through education, and teachers are formally positioned as agents of linguistic and cultural reproduction. In some cases where students do not have a working knowledge of the minority language, teachers are not merely reproducing a language (and a culture) but producing it in its entirety (Gérin-Lajoie, 2010, 2012). To what extent is linguistic and cultural reproduction understood and considered to be a part of teachers’ work in schools that serve linguistic minority communities? What place does it occupy, if any, in their teaching? For example, will a teacher who is deeply engaged in his or her own linguistic minority community be more likely to try to instil in students some awareness of the importance of becoming actively engaged in the minority community? Personal identity can become an “activist” identity or a political identity with the potential to manifest itself through school practices. In the following section, I examine the teachers’ discourses on the notion of professional identity and their conceptions of teaching in order to shed light on the way the teachers from this study make sense of their profession and their work with students in Quebec’s English minority-language schools.

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Teachers’ Professional Identities and Conceptions of Teaching Echoing the statement made by Olsen (2008) earlier in this section that professional identity is easily misunderstood, there is no universal understanding of the notion of professional identity. In my conversations with the teachers, it was necessary for me to rephrase the question on several occasions. This notion was still obscure for some of the participants. For others, teaching meant being a good teacher.1 Even though the exact term professional identity was not always used, the results from the eight participants provide a wealth of information about their teaching practices, philosophies of teaching, and what it takes to be a good teacher. Serafina was clear that teaching is at the core of her identity; she does not differentiate between the personal and the professional. I think that teachers, because it becomes so much a part of our lives if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, I mean it defines who you are. I am a teacher … A teacher, this is who I am. I do not even know how to separate, and maybe … is that a good thing or a bad thing? I do not know, but can I separate Serafina the person from the teacher? I do not think I can. I do not because I bring my teaching home with me, I bring my students home with me. I cannot deny that for sure my teaching career has formed and given me my identity.

In the same conversation, Serafina compared teaching to a vocation. Serafina’s discourse clearly reveals an emotional intensity concerning her investment in the profession. The metaphor of vocation indicates the depth of Serafina’s commitment to the profession of teaching. Kirk and Wall (2010) describe it as “emotional labor,” suggesting that “deep personal and emotional investment characterizes the teaching profession” (p. 631). In commenting on what it takes to be a good teacher, Sally said, [To be a good teacher is] to facilitate learning, but that is kind of a hollow answer … in Quebec in my subject [English,] there are not a lot of guidelines about what you actually do in the classroom, although more and more with the learning evaluations, but I would say that the responsibility of the teacher is to

1 It may be necessary for researchers working in the field to revisit the notion of professional identity at a conceptual level in order to translate it in such a way that teachers can recognize and discuss professional identity more easily within their own reality and from their own vantage point.

150  Negotiating Identities provide a program, and that means often to design a program too … So you have to know your subject, you have to … recognize the needs of the kids, and you have to provide materials which are meant to inspire students to learn. I think it is important that order is maintained, because kids learn in that kind of environment, but there also has to be, it has to be a stimulating environment so it cannot be overly disciplined because I think that, that inhibits learning.

Sally admitted that it is not easy to be an accomplished teacher and that, sometimes, a good teacher does not know how everything comes together. Her discourse on teaching and its challenges was consistent throughout the conversations that we had about her life as a teacher. Sarah describes her role as a teacher as being a learning facilitator who provides students with basic information on a topic and lets them experiment, a strategy that she calls “experiential learning.” When asked if she would describe herself as a traditional teacher, Sarah did not provide a direct response but instead chose to speak about her school. I think our school is traditional, I think other schools are not quite so traditional. I think science is supposed to be hands on, it is supposed to be lab oriented, it is supposed to be discovery learning. It is not always. For me, that is what traditional is. I think a lot of teachers have just fallen back to the chalk and talk, and that chalk and talk is just straight PowerPoints all day, it is still the same thing. They think they are doing new technology, OK, they are using new technology to do it an old way, so I do not do a lot of that, but I think most good teachers do not do a lot of that, and too many teachers do a lot of that.

Sarah’s views on traditional teaching are insightful. She draws a parallel between “chalk and talk” and technological tools such as PowerPoint presentations, saying that they are, in fact, the same old traditional pedagogical methods. As a teacher, Sarah is always trying to find new ways to make science enjoyable for all students. Shelley chose to talk about teaching and professional identity while addressing teaching as a profession. She complained that there is a contradiction in the school system around the role of the teacher; the dominant discourse states that teachers are professionals, yet on a daily basis, that professionalism is not recognized in the way that teachers are treated. I mean you have been to university, you have got a degree or two, you have decided to become a teacher: it is a profession. It is not always treated as one, but it is a profession like nursing is a profession. I do not have time to

Teaching in English Minority-Language Schools  151  be digging around, I want to do things, I want to be that professional and I want my teaching to be that profession in that sense, but I have to go find the money, or you are always on committees, you attend a lot of meetings, trying to improve conditions and teaching and finding ways to, how do I say that? Just get your teaching off the page and getting it into action, but it is all very time consuming.

Comments such as Shelley’s prompted Hopson (2013) to assert that “the journey of teachers towards being recognized as professionals has not been smooth or easy” (p. 27). For Jacques, teaching is about helping students succeed. More importantly, it is about teaching them to try, even when they face challenges. He considers himself to be a traditional teacher – “talk and chalk” as he called it. Jacques also added that his classroom experiences have changed his approach to teaching over the years. When you start off [your career,] you plan your course to the minute. At 9:05 I am going to be doing this, at 9:10 they are going to be doing that. Every minute is planned. And nowadays, after 19 years [of teaching,] I rarely plan anything at home at night. I come in, I look at what we have to do, okay we start. Sometimes we go off on a tangent, it can be very interesting. We are supposed to be talking about Pythagorean Theorem, and we are talking about the planet Uranus, or Pluto, or something else. Other times, chalk and talk, short and sweet, 15-minute lesson, okay here is the work, you go and do it.

Christine felt that the main role of the teacher was to instil in students a love of learning. I think … it helps when you find out what the children really love, and design your curriculum accordingly, if you can do that. It is very different [for me] because now I am in such a lucky position where I have a huge classroom, I have small groups, I can set up this huge room.

In regards to her first year of teaching in Quebec City, Diane shared that it was difficult, especially having to teach a large group of students, some of whom were very challenging to work with. Nevertheless, she is confident in her ability as a teacher. Despite her challenges, she never thought of herself as being incapable of achieving her teaching goals. I am very confident in my ability and I am really confident, I have a really strong belief in my sort of teaching philosophy, and not how things should be done, but what is the intent of the way things are done, like I think that things

152  Negotiating Identities should be done in terms of the student, what is best for the student. That is what should always be your top priority. I have very strong beliefs in how to behave professionally, and I do not have all that much patience for people who do not behave professionally or people that do not put their students first and only think about themselves.

Émilie explained that her professional identity comes through in her teaching of mathematics, a subject that she loves and was trained to teach. I love mathematics and my role as a teacher is to motivate the students to come to like it. I want them to understand what we can do with mathematics, that it is often easy and that we use mathematics everywhere. [Trans. from French by author.]

I felt that it was important to present the views of all eight teachers on teaching and professional identity so as to present the wide range of perspectives. The discourses of these eight teachers differ in terms of how they view teaching in addition to their roles as educators. Some of the teachers think about teaching holistically, where they define themselves first and foremost as teachers. Others describe teaching in terms of the duties that it entails. It would be interesting to see if any external factors contributed to these conceptions of teaching, such as level of grades taught, type of degree (a one-year professional degree after a bachelor degree in a specialized field, a degree from a concurrent program, a graduate degree, etc.), the professional culture of the school, or the level of collaboration among colleagues at the school. It is also worth mentioning that the vast majority of participants expressed a genuine concern for the wellbeing of their students.2 These teachers evolve in particular social and school environments. How do these environments shape their work? How different is it from the work of teachers in French minority-language schools in Ontario? Context matters: “Teachers must implicate themselves in their teaching and understand the ways they are intimately connected to the environment in which they work” (Daniel, 2007, p. 41, as cited in Hopson, 2013).

2 I will not expand on these two notions here, so that I can devote more time and space in the next section to teaching in linguistic minority settings.

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The Teacher’s Role in Linguistic Minority Schools in Quebec and Ontario In this section, the role of the school in linguistic minority settings in Quebec and Ontario is discussed. I present the reality of French minoritylanguage schools in Ontario, which offers an interesting comparison to English minority-language schools in Quebec. For this, I have drawn on an ethnographic study that I conducted in two French minority-language schools in Ontario over a period of three years (Gérin-Lajoie, 2007).3 This study took place in two French minority-language school boards, one in the Toronto area and the other in eastern Ontario. Two schools from each of these school boards participated in the study. The same research question was used as in the present study, within a similar theoretical framework based on a critical examination of the teachers’ roles and professional identities. The methodology was also similar to that employed in the present study. The same survey was administered, and the results were used mainly for participant selection purposes; a small number of teachers (10) were selected to continue as participants for the ethnographic component of the study and nine of the 10 completed the project. I opted for an ethnographic research approach for the main inquiry to examine the teachers’ lived experiences, applying three techniques: observation in the classroom, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. The results used in the present comparative analysis are mostly drawn from the interviews conducted with the Ontario participants. The general topics discussed in these interviews were the same as in the study with the Quebec teachers, but with less depth than if I had used the life history approach. I begin the discussion by presenting a brief comparison between key answers from the Ontario and Quebec surveys on teachers’ language practices. This brief overview first introduces the reality of teachers in the linguistic minority setting of Ontario and secondly compares the two living contexts of Ontario and Quebec. Reviewing the comparative results shows that the majority of the participants who teach in Quebec were born in Quebec, while in Ontario, close to 50% of the participants from School Board A and more than a third from School Board B were also born in Quebec. In addition, in

3 The study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada between 2001 and 2004.

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Ontario, 12% of participants were born outside of Canada. Similar percentages are observed in Quebec (13.5%) (Table 27). In terms of their identity, less than 50% of respondents in either jurisdiction perceived themselves as having a unilingual minority identity (French in Ontario and English in Quebec; Table 28). Teachers who claimed a bilingual or trilingual identity were asked to indicate their dominant language, their second language, and, if applicable, their third language. Most indicated that the minority language was their dominant language. The percentage was higher in Ontario than in Quebec (Table 29). Data on the language that the participants spoke with their parents shows that a clear majority in both Ontario school boards always spoke French, the minority language, with their mother. Similar results apply to a majority of participants from both associations in Quebec, who indicated that they always spoke English, i.e., the minority language, with their mother (Table 30). Comparable percentages were found for the participants in both provinces regarding speaking the minority language with their father. More than two-thirds of participants in Ontario responded that they never spoke English with their father (Table 31). In addition, most indicated that they always spoke the minority language of their respective province with their siblings, although in Quebec the responses were more varied. The fact that half of the Ontario respondents were originally from Quebec and grew up in a French-language majority context is likely relevant to their reports of the dominance of French in that phase of their family life (Table 32). According to the comparative survey results, many participants had a spouse or partner who did not have the same linguistic background; however, the patterns of language use with the spouse or partner were not the same in the two provinces. Speaking in the minority language with the partner was more frequently reported in Ontario than in Quebec. For example, among the Ontario School Board B participants, 71.8% indicated that they always spoke French with their partner. Among the Quebec teachers this ranged from 23.1% to 59% (Table 33). In the case of teachers with children, roughly 78% of Ontario participants reported that they always spoke to them in French. In Quebec, the distribution was different: 43.1% of the participants always spoke to their children in English. There is a substantial difference between the two provinces in this regard (Table 34). Finally, most participants in Ontario indicated that they always spoke the French minority language in the home as a family. In Quebec, the responses to this question were not as uniform. The majority of participants from Quebec Association A indicated that

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they always spoke the English minority language in the home, while the findings for Quebec Association B are more diverse (Table 35). Results from both surveys indicate that there are differences between the provinces and differences between geographically distinct groups within the provinces: 1. Where the teachers’ perception of their identity is concerned, a higher percentage of teachers in Ontario claimed a minority identity compared to participants in Quebec. Nevertheless, individuals claiming a minority identity still represent less than the majority in both provinces. Teachers claiming a bilingual identity are well-represented in the results. 2. Where the teachers’ language practices growing up in their homes are concerned, the use of the minority language is significant in each province; however, frequency of use differs. Percentages are much higher in Ontario compared to Quebec. The percentage of participants from Quebec Association A who use the minority language is much higher than in Association B and is therefore closer to the results in Ontario. Regarding the language that the participants spoke with their partner (when applicable), minority language use drops significantly in Quebec. Now that we are more familiar with some of the teachers’ language practices in both provincial settings as reported in the surveys, which reached a broad sample of teachers, it is time to look at the teachers’ discourses on their work in minority-language schools. In the next sections, qualitative results from the smaller sample of teachers obtained in both studies are examined. Ontario Teachers’ Discourses on Their Work Approximately 500,000 francophones live in Ontario; they represent about 5% of the population of that province. Provided they meet certain criteria, parents have the legal right to enrol their children in a French minority-language school. Ontario has 12 French minority-­ language school boards, and the total number of French minority-language schools in the province is close to 500. Francophones who live in minority communities outside of Quebec rely heavily on their schools for the transmission of the French language and culture. Since its inception, school has always played a major role in the francophone communities in Ontario (Welch, 1988). In previous decades, two other institutions were central to the transmission of the French language and culture: the Catholic

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Church and the family. The former has lost much of its power over the last 50 years. Times have also changed where the family is concerned. Families are less able to transmit the minority language and culture for a variety of reasons. In many cases, the language spoken by family members is English. High rates of francophone-anglophone unions have contributed to this trend. In most cases, the francophone partner is bilingual and English becomes the language of communication. Even among francophone families, siblings often speak the majority language with one another. An increasing student population from francophone immigrant families coming from outside Canada (e.g., Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean) forms part of the French minority-language schools now (Gérin-Lajoie, 2012). With this more diverse school population, the Ontario Ministry of Education judged that it was strategically necessary to develop and implement a language-planning policy to ensure the mandate of the school would remain strong and doable. A first version of the policy was circulated in schools as early as 1994 but was never fully implemented; it took 10 years before an official policy was implemented (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). The 2004 policy specifically addresses the maintenance of the French language and culture. The mandate of French-language schools is to ensure that students receive a good education in all subjects and disciplines. French-language schools have also the mandate to protect, enhance, and transmit the French language and culture. French is the school language of instruction and communication, and it animates the social and cultural life of the school community. (p. 5) [emphasis added]

In terms of the findings from the Ontario study, the first point is that the French minority-language education discourse alerts us to the evolving nature of the school population, the presence of a significant and growing number of students who are not fluent in French, and the threat that this poses for the future of the French minority language and culture in Ontario (Gérin-Lajoie, 2003, 2010, 2012). This alarmist discourse has created a state of fear about the use of English in the minority-language schools; in some cases, measures that could be likened to quasi “policing” students have been employed to try to ensure that only French is being spoken at school outside as well as inside the classroom. When it comes to reinforcing the use of the French minority language, the school staff act as agents of linguistic regulation, rewarding

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or punishing the students for their use of languages at school. In the Ontario context, the English majority language is perceived as a threat, and its intrusion into French minority-language schools must be controlled since the school is viewed as virtually the only public space where the minority language is spoken. The last point to make, and one that is particularly relevant to understanding teachers’ sense of professional identity, is that, in spite of the schools’ clearly articulated mandate to reproduce the French minority language and culture, most teachers do not see themselves as agents of linguistic and cultural reproduction. This finding was unexpected. Since the school is officially responsible to act as an agent of reproduction and teachers work most closely with the students, one might imagine that this mandate of linguistic and cultural reproduction would be understood and carried out as a central purpose and focus of work done by school staff. And yet, for the most part, the teachers involved in the study described themselves as agents of knowledge transmission. Here are some illustrative comments from two Ontario French minority-language schoolteachers: We are basically getting them from Point A to Point B [in their school subjects]. We are basically trying to give them tools for success later on. – Rebecca, Ottawa region, music and English teacher I see myself more like … how would I put it … more like a person who’s there to show my students, to show them numbers, show them the letters of the alphabet, different things in the curriculum. – Sophie, Toronto region, kindergarten teacher

This discourse is surprising when we consider that some of the participants stated that they were very committed to the development of the francophone community in their region and the promotion of the French language and culture. These interview results indicate that the teachers’ personal identities and sense of belonging do not appear to deeply influence their work as teachers, which is still largely the transmission of knowledge to their students. Teachers in the participating schools were aware that they had to inspire their students to speak French. However, their discourses did not reflect the importance of using French in strategic places such as in the public sphere. Nor did it reflect the importance of making students aware of their language rights or the importance of developing a sense of belonging to the francophone community in Ontario. One conclusion was that teachers in the Ontario study did not grasp the political role that the French minority-language schools could play. They did not

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see their role as helping students to understand the importance of developing a francophone identity and sense of belonging. Quebec Teachers’ Discourses on Their Work Let us now turn our attention back to the Quebec participants and their understanding of the role of the English minority-language school and their own role as teachers in this system. As mentioned earlier, the formal mandate of the English minority schools in Quebec does not include the preservation of the English minority language and culture. In fact, the dominant discourse insists that students be given the best possible French language skills in order to prepare them for the Quebec labour market. Sally described the mandate of the school: To educate the children of the English-speaking community, I mean to give them broad education that prepares those children to live in Quebec, and enables them to live elsewhere in the world if that is what they choose to do. They have to prepare kids to speak French, I mean, that is so important. Schools are supposed to give kids a sense of morality, and cultural identity? I do not know. Basically, schools should teach kids to read, write, know about, do mathematics, to know about the world, to prepare kids to become citizens.

This notion of equipping students with adequate French skills is heard from numerous education stakeholders, such as school administrators, principals, teachers, and parents. In my previous study on youth and identity in the Montreal area, a school board representative explained that the mandate of the school was not to protect the anglophone culture but rather to prepare skilled individuals for the workforce with adequate French (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011; Pilote et al., 2011). This attitude is also present in the discourses of some of the teachers, such as Shelley. I know that in our school, because we are an English school where we have English students whose parents mostly speak English, and we have students who are francophone whose one parent or grandparent is English, we have a strong desire to give them as much French as possible, so that they can have all of their choices open to them.

Teachers revealed that they had never thought of their school as having a role in the reproduction of the minority language and culture. Teachers do not see teaching in an English minority-language school

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as being different from teaching in a majority school. As explained by Sarah, I do not think it would be different from my role if I were in a French school or an English school anywhere else. It is the same, meeting the needs of the students as well as we can, teaching them as well as we can, preparing them for the next level as well [as] we can. And I imagine that is pretty much the same everywhere.

Another interesting result is that there seems to be a lack of concern about the use of French in the English minority-language schools in Quebec, especially in the Montreal area (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). What about anglophones who live in regions where they form a small minority? Do they have concerns about the influence of French on the school? Here is what Jacques had to say: We are losing our biggest, well our only feeder school, the elementary English school just down the street from our school. We are losing all of our clientele because the parents are sending the kids to support study programs, language study programs, whatever programs that are out there. We are trying to get a hold of that clientele and how are we going to do it? The principal is offering French mother tongue as a second language if you want. We’re supposed to be a primarily English speaking school. The French is taking over more and more and more.

As a result of the high number of students with a francophone background in Quebec’s English minority-language schools, the French language and culture have a strong impact on life in the school, especially in the regions outside of Montreal. Students speak French regularly in school and are rarely reminded that they are expected to use English at all times. Diane – who grew up as a francophone in Ontario and taught for a short period of time in one such school – raised the issue of the use of French in her current school. She mentioned that, initially, she was surprised that the issue of language use was never raised by her principal or her colleagues. Not only do students speak to each other in French, teachers do as well. There is no message about that at all, which, again, in Ontario, when I was teaching in the French school, it was the opposite. If my principal had overheard us speaking English to one another in the staffroom, repeatedly, he probably would have said something, you know. And here, the administrator would speak in French, you know, and there is no, no.

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Émilie talked about being francophone and working in an anglophone school. I realize that it is just a limit that we have as francophones, not to be able to bring the culture, or that we make little mistakes sometimes, but, like I said, I think because I know, in math, I feel strong, and I know I like it so much, that compensates for the fact that I am not super strong in English, but at least I can bring all the math background and all the activities, and the computer activities. That is my strength more than English.

It appears that teachers do not consider English to be a minority language, much less a threatened minority language, even when they live in an area where francophones represent a large majority. The situation of these teachers is quite different from that of francophones in Ontario, who mostly feel minoritized by the anglophone majority. As we have seen in the teachers’ stories and in the subsequent analysis, this process of minoritization is less prevalent in Quebec. This is consistent with the findings of my previous work in the Montreal area (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). In the regions, contrary to the situation in the Montreal area, there are a large number of students who live in French; even so, the fear or threat of losing the English minority language is absent from the teachers’ discourses. The mandate of the school differs between these two official linguistic minorities. In one case, the mandate is about survival. In the other, it is about developing the students’ majority-language skills so they can participate fully in Quebec society. The power and the attraction of the English language in today’s globalized world explains why it remains strong, even in Quebec’s English minority communities (de la Sablonnière & Taylor, 2006; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011), compared to the French language in Ontario, where it is seen as a folkloric language for use in the private sphere while English represents prestige and power (Gérin-Lajoie, 2003, 2008). To conclude, I would like to review the results that emerged from the comparison of Canada’s two official linguistic minorities. In Ontario, the Ministry of Education is very explicit in its document pertaining to the role of French minority-language schools in Ontario and the moral responsibility of the school to maintain the French minority language and culture. The Ontario government has developed a language-­planning policy to combat the high level of assimilation at the province’s French minority-language schools. Ontario’s French minoritylanguage schools officially recognize only French and prohibit the use

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of English in school. The linguistic and cultural duality in which many students live – some students have three active languages and cultures – is ignored in the dominant discourse of the Ontario Ministry of Education, and it is absent from school practices. In many communities, the school is the only local public institution where the francophone community can interact as a unified group. The Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports, on the other hand, does not mention in its policy discourse the moral responsibility of the English minority-language schools to maintain the English minority language and minority culture. Schools are not viewed as agents of linguistic regulation as they are in Ontario (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). This issue is not part of the teachers’ discourses, and, for the most part, it does not seem to be an issue for discussion or action on the part of school staff. As expressed by most of the teachers, there exists instead the need to provide students with excellent skills in French. The working experience of teachers in Ontario and teachers in Quebec is notably different; they do not see school language practices in the same way. Echoing the dominant discourse, the teachers in Ontario talked about the “threat” of the English language in the school; however, they did not see themselves as agents of linguistic and cultural reproduction, in spite of the fact that this role is ascribed to them in provincial and school board education policies. The teachers in Quebec did not see the presence and influence of the French language as a threat, despite its status as the majority language both socially and politically in the province; this position can be attributed to the status of English as a language of power throughout the world. Shelley explained the lack of threat in losing the English language: No, I would have to say no. I would have to say we don’t feel like we’re going to lose our language, I don’t think that anyone really truly feels that way, that their language would be lost.

The English language was not perceived as a minority language in Quebec by the participants, contrary to the perception of the French language in Ontario. Consequently, language practices in school are not as strictly regulated as they are in Ontario.

8  Concluding Remarks

In this book, several issues have been examined, including the teachers’ personal identities and professional identities, their conceptions of teaching, and the politics of language. These findings have also been briefly compared to the situation of teachers working in French minority-language schools in Ontario. Most importantly, the teachers’ life stories, which were at the very heart of the study, gave them a voice that provided the substance of my analysis. In this final chapter I want to focus on what I consider to be the most intriguing results. My research question was designed to provide a better understanding of how personal and professional identities come together in the process of living in a linguistic minority setting and working as a teacher in a linguistic minority school. Through the discourses of the teachers in addition to those of their family members and friends, I tried to deconstruct “the multiple weaves, threads and meshes constitutive of identity” (MacLure, 2003, p. 127, as cited in Kirk & Wall, 2010, p. 640). Given the complexity of the issues studied, the goal of my qualitative study was not to make generalizations about the anglophone context in Quebec but rather to explore and give voice to the range of first-hand experiences and perspectives of these eight participants. I will, however, discuss some implications of their life stories for the organization of English minority-language education in Quebec and how it differs from French minority-­language education in Ontario. Lastly, I look at the research journey itself, reflecting first on my own journey as a researcher and then listening to the teachers as they reflect on their own journeys throughout this three-year study.

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Key Findings First, the way in which the teachers describe their rapport to identity and language emphasizes just how important it is to avoid looking at this process from a rigid, definitive, and essentialist perspective. Serafina, for example, never defined herself as an Italian until she was made aware of this identity by others after moving to Montreal. The places where she has lived played an instrumental role in the way Serafina perceives her identity (Easthope, 2009; Torkington, 2012). Diane had to renegotiate her identity when she moved to Quebec City for work and was made aware of the fact that she was “not really Francophone” because her accent was not recognized as legitimate (Bourdieu, 2001). Other teachers, such as Émilie and Shelley, defined their identity on the basis of language and the ability to speak English and French. Christine has lived in both English and French her entire life; she defines herself as having a bilingual identity but feels more francophone than anglophone. Sally and Sarah identify as anglophones, yet they were born in different provinces. While born into a francophone family in Quebec, Jacques claimed a bilingual identity and was strongly influenced by his upbringing in the United States (Easthope, 2009). Most of these teachers continuously negotiate and renegotiate their identities. As stated by Rutherford (1990), “identity then is never a static location, it contains traces of its past, and what it is to become. It is a provisional fullstop in the place of differences and the narrative of our own lives” (p. 24). What these observations tell us is that, when it comes to defining one’s identity, how one positions oneself varies. Hall (2006) talks about shifting identities: Everywhere … identities are emerging that are not fixed, but poised, in transition, between different positions; that draw on different cultural traditions at the same time; and that are the product of those complicated crossovers and cultural mixes that are increasingly common in a globalized world. (p. 265)

The cultural mixes that Hall refers to contribute to the emergence of new anglophone communities across Quebec. The teachers are constantly crossing back and forth across linguistic and cultural borders, especially those who do not live in Montreal. Participants live in both worlds simultaneously (Gérin-Lajoie, 2012). In some circles, however, the label “les Anglais” still prevails, and they continue to be viewed as a homogeneous group with money and power.

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De la Sablonnière and Taylor (2006) explain that, “Even though the Québécois Francophones have a strong collective identity, the fact that they still feel threatened cannot be ignored” (p, 254, trans. from French by author). Francophones in Quebec still constitute a “fragile majority” – a majority still in the process of becoming a majority (McAndrew, 2013). Tensions persist between the two linguistic groups. For example, none of the interviewees wanted to be referred to as Québécois for two main reasons. First, they think that the word has political connotations and is associated with the desire to separate from the rest of Canada. Second, they believe that francophones do not always accept anglophones as members of their group, even anglophones who are bilingual (GérinLajoie, 2011). This simultaneous process of self-exclusion and exclusion by the majority group reinforces the notion of othering. This is the inclusion-exclusion divide, wherein the minority group makes efforts to be included, for example, by learning to speak the majority language, but still fails to be recognized by the majority group as a valuable asset. On the other hand, there were participants who acknowledged that they were members of a linguistic minority but did not necessarily feel minoritized, nor did they feel like victims. They have chosen to live in Quebec and they want to find their place, but they do not feel powerless, unlike the majority of francophones who live outside Quebec and who are minoritized and invisible in the public sphere. Both groups are recognized as official linguistic minorities in Canada, and one would expect their status to be similar, yet minoritization is apparent in one case and not in the other. Does this discrepancy suggest that the historical circumstances that once favoured anglophones in Quebec still have an impact on this linguistic minority group? And if they do, does this apply throughout Quebec or just in Montreal, where a large anglophone business community once existed (Levine, 1997)? It is evident that a dichotomy exists between anglophones living in Montreal and those in the surrounding regions. A closer look at these realities would help to disentangle the complex relations of power that distinguish these various groups within the minority language communities. In the future, it would also be worth examining in more depth the discourses of francophones on this issue, as well as the discourses of a larger number of anglophones in the province. Having a bigger sample of anglophones would allow for more representation of different age groups and could provide some insight about whether the younger generation of francophones is more inclusive in its perception of anglophones than the preceding generation, who lived through the major social changes

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in Quebec. Moreover, the same study could be conducted with allophones to compare the discourses between groups. The second key finding concerns the Quebec anglophone teachers’ discourses about their work. They do not see the school as the saviour and preserver of minority language and culture, a result similar to that found in previous work (Gérin-Lajoie, 2010, 2011). However, the discourses of teachers living in remote regions of Quebec is more nuanced on this point. They recognize that many of their students live in a francophone environment and that the school must provide them with some sense of anglophone traditions, such as celebrating Thanksgiving or going to a St. Patrick’s Day parade. This folkloric aspect of culture is very similar to the limited conception of culture found in Ontario’s French minoritylanguage schools (Gérin-Lajoie, 2008, 2010). It strikes me as very similar to the “food and festivals” concept of addressing multicultural diversity in the classroom (Harper, 1997; Knight, 2008; May & Sleeter, 2010). The vast majority of the teachers acknowledged that they had never thought of the school as having a special role within the linguistic community. The reason that this topic was largely unfamiliar to them may be due to the fact that, unlike Ontario’s French minority-language schools, Quebec’s English minority schools do not have an official policy mandate to preserve the minority language and culture. With English-­ language media all around them, anglophones in Quebec, even those in regions outside of Montreal, have greater access to the English-language public sphere than francophones in Ontario, who are surrounded by English wherever they turn. The fear or threat of losing the minority language and culture was not part of the teachers’ discourses, except perhaps in the case of Jacques, who was concerned about declining enrolment at his school; he pointed out that you could hear students as well as teachers speaking French in Quebec’s English minority-language schools. The significant presence of francophone teachers in English minority-language schools in Quebec has been noted in prior work (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011); they teach not only French but other subjects too. As witnessed in a previous study, outside of the classroom, the language practices of teachers are often mixed. This situation is rare in Ontario’s French minority-language schools, where teachers – except for the English teacher – are usually francophones. Given that the French minority-language school is often the only French-speaking milieu for its students, its structure is organized in a way to protect the minority language as much as possible from any further influence from the majority language. Further research would

166  Negotiating Identities

be useful in examining if this same argument could be made about English minority-language schools located further away from Montreal. This question was presented as an issue in the present study, and it is an important topic to pursue. Anglophones in Quebec may not express concern about the disappearance of their language, but they are concerned about the disappearance of their institutions (Quebec Advisory Board on English Education, 2013; de la Sablonnière & Taylor, 2006). Chambers (2000) deplored the fact that relations between anglophones and francophones remain so tense, especially when so many anglophones are bilingual. In fact, Quebec’s English minority-language schools and the teachers who took part in this study emphasize the importance of ensuring that students develop excellent French-language skills so they can compete in Quebec’s labour market and stay in the province. This objective is recognized as an important area in which to focus future research. Having completed several studies on the situation of the French minoritylanguage schools in Ontario, this was a striking result for me in my prior work on English minority-language schools in Quebec (Gérin-Lajoie, 2011), and I feel the same with the results of the present study. These recent findings stress the significant role played by language politics in the context of English minority-language schools, this time from the perspective of the anglophone minority. Whereas in Ontario the teachers and schools are expected to defend the minority language assimilation by the majority language, the teachers and schools in Quebec see themselves as having a responsibility to prepare students with the linguistic skills to function in the French majority language and culture – and its economy. As discussed in the previous chapter, professional identity is a concept that can be interpreted in different ways. It can also be “misunderstood,” as noted by Olsen (2008). When asked about their professional identities, most participants described the qualities of a good teacher and/or their philosophy of teaching. Through their discourses, the participants conveyed different conceptions of teaching, from the traditional approach using chalk and a blackboard to a more hands-on form of inquiry. The teachers shared that their students are at the centre of their concerns; each of them wants to help students in the best way that they can. Contrary to what one might expect, talk about language acquisition was geared towards French and not the English minority language. Again, this is the opposite of what is usually found in French minority-language schools outside of Quebec. Comparative results reveal

Concluding Remarks  167 

two situations that are quite different in terms of the mandate of the school and the formal and informal rules associated with the use of the majority language. However, in both cases the primary sense of professional identity centred on their pedagogical knowledge and skills, not on a social development mission linked to minority language development and preservation. Upon reading these teachers’ stories, what is the most significant revelation about English minority-language education in Quebec? First, they work in an educational milieu that presents challenges that differ from those experienced by teachers in French majority-language schools in Quebec. Working with an increasing linguistic diversity among students, working to help students acquire excellent skills in both English and French, and having limited access to resources and services in the minority language for professional development and for special needs students are some of the challenges the study participants face. The first issue mentioned above, the linguistic diversity among the school population, has already been acknowledged by educational stakeholders and researchers (ABEE, 2013; Lamarre, 2012; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). For example, in areas outside of Montreal, the presence of francophone students in the classroom is very high (up to 69% in one of the school boards where three of the teachers from the study work). In the Montreal area, 40% of the students in one school board have a mother tongue other than English or French (ABEE, 2013, p. 20). How can the educational system be adapted to this social reality? Interestingly, this situation is not all that dissimilar from the situation faced by French minority-language schoolteachers in Ontario, who typically have to address the weak French-language fluency of many of Ontario’s francophone students in addition to the multicultural diversity of francophone students from recent immigrant families. The second point mentioned by the participants, that of the importance of training students to become fully bilingual, is part of the discourse of educational stakeholders, from advocacy groups to school board directors, teachers, and parents (ABEE, 2013; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). Not only are high levels of bilingualism important to enter the labour market, they are essential if the school graduates want to become active citizens in Quebec. A third issue concerns the challenge for teachers, and especially those working outside of Montreal, of accessing resources and, more importantly, professional services for students in need. ABEE (2013) explains that there exists a general shortage of professionals but that “the problem is

168  Negotiating Identities

compounded by the French proficiency requirement for all members of professional orders.” (p. 9). This issue is more acute outside of the Montreal area. As a result, students and teachers have to use French in some instances, raising equity issues between linguistic groups. The Advisory Board on English Education (2010, 2013) cites additional challenges, such as the effect of the size of school board territories and its financial implications with a budget equal to the one in French majority-language boards, where territories are much smaller and where the costs associated with meeting attendance and professional services are low because everything is within a short distance. Declining enrolments have also been a concern for educational leaders in Quebec. The linguistic laws have had a serious impact on the school population in English minority-language schools. In addition, some students who have the legal right to attend a minority school choose to go to French majority-language schools (ABBE, 2013). A final issue worth mentioning is the role of the English minoritylanguage school in the transmission of the minority culture. As we have seen in the results that were presented, this is not something that teachers have reflected on in their work. Should it be the responsibility of the minority-language school to transmit the culture? If so, what culture should be transmitted? As mentioned previously, the English minority school system in Quebec does not have an official responsibility to transmit or reproduce the minority culture. Consequently, school boards and schools do not take this mandate into consideration in their educational vision. This perspective may reflect the broader concern and emphasis of successive Quebec governments over the past 50 years on the sustainability of the dominance of French as the majority language. However, the 1992 Chambers Report raised the importance of transmitting the culture. The ABEE (2010, 2013) has taken the same position as in the Chambers Report and insists on the role of the school to contribute to the maintenance of the English culture and the growth of the minority community. But what cultural values should be transmitted? This question brings us back to the issue of diversity among the school population. As stated by ABEE (2010), “since 1999, the cultural heritage of the English-speaking community has become harder to define as the community has evolved. There is no longer a single Anglo community” (p. 5). Recent research has come to the same conclusion (Jedwab, 2008; Gérin-Lajoie, 2011). This is the social context in which communities live and which defines the values they share. Language and culture are not synonymous. Individuals might speak English but

Concluding Remarks  169 

might carry Italian values or francophone values, depending on where they think they belong. Not only do students in English minority-language schools share different cultural pasts, but the teachers do too. As noted previously, francophone teachers constitute a fair share of school personnel in the English minority-language schools in Quebec. They come to work carrying their own values and historical baggage, which are not necessarily similar to those of their anglophone colleagues. How can they transmit values that they do not know or particularly share? Is it absolutely necessary to give this mandate to the school in a globalized world dominated by the power of the English language? We are coming back once again to the notion of power. The question about the role of the English minority-language school in the maintenance of the minority language and culture in Quebec is, without any doubt, worth pursuing. The findings of this three-year study have opened the door, hopefully, on some of these issues by illustrating the lives of teachers working in educational linguistic minority settings and by giving them an opportunity to share their personal and professional experiences about living as anglophones in Quebec and teaching in its minority-language educational system. The Research Journey Every study has its share of unpredictability, even more so when a researcher decides to take a different methodological approach from her usual one. I have been an ethnographer for my entire life as a researcher. Using the life history approach for the first time was quite exciting and challenging. It was important to me to hear directly from my participants about how social practices happened for them and how their experiences were lived. Although I have always developed good relationships with study participants in the past, I had to ensure especially that these teachers would trust me, welcome me into their world like an old friend, and commit to a long research journey. Another issue was the fact that, even though I was coming from a wellknown anglophone university in Canada, I was still a francophone from Quebec who wanted to hear about their experiences as anglophones. Furthermore, I was a francophone who, like some of the participants, witnessed the election of the Parti Québécois and the first referendum. Fifty years ago, we might have considered each other enemies. I wondered if they would share their lives with someone who knew nothing

170  Negotiating Identities

about the lived reality of being an anglophone in Quebec. I was aware that I was an outsider. If I had been an anglophone from Quebec, or from elsewhere in Canada, would they have shared their stories in the same ways? I will never know, nor will I ever know if, as participants in a study, people try to please the researcher by giving the “right” answers. I like to think that the vast majority of research participants act in good faith and whatever they reveal represents what they think at that moment in time. This is the sense I got from my eight teachers, the members of their families, and their friends. Their interests and responses to my request to become participants were reassuring. Early in the study, I became aware that the focus of my research was shifting from the “teacher” to the “person,” although teaching was still very much a part of their discourses. The teachers and their family members and friends shared remarkable stories, all from different points of view. The teachers took their role as participants very seriously, and this resulted in a level of reflection on their lives that is not always found in research. The life history approach was the most appropriate approach in the context of my study because I wanted to hear their voices and try as much as possible to let them tell their own stories from differing dimensions and contexts of their lives with a minimum of interference from me. This process proved to be challenging on a number of levels. The amount of information gathered was phenomenal. There were pages and pages of transcripts to analyse, and it soon became clear that I could not use it all. I did not want to simply describe the teachers’ stories; I wanted their voices to be heard. I wanted to construct each narrative in a way that was faithful to their story. I wanted to steer clear of over-interpretation, recognizing, however, that I “filtered” these stories to a certain extent in my own analysis. This new experience was very worthwhile to me as a researcher, despite the challenge of a demanding methodology. It was important for me to get feedback from the teachers at the end of the empirical study. I asked each of them what it had been like to be a participant. All were very positive; they appreciated the opportunity to reflect on their lives as teachers as well as on their lives in general. They enjoyed discussing identity issues with their friends. Some told me that the study had given them a rare opportunity to talk about important issues such as identity, being an anglophone in Quebec, and their sense of belonging. Now that the journey has come to an end, I think it would be most fitting to let Sally, Sarah, Christine, Serafina, Shelley, Jacques, Émilie, and Diane have the last word.

Concluding Remarks  171  sally :

I enjoyed it … It was fun. No, it was a lot of fun, as I said it made things conscious, that might not have been conscious. It helped me to think things through. Which I think was important. And I am very curious to see what is going to come of it, what you are going to write. I am very curious to see what other colleagues have said about these things, and I wish there was more opportunity for us to reflect on these things as a group. You know, when I asked my friends [to do the group interview] and every single one said “Yes!” because they wanted to talk about these things. But it is so nice to have somebody listen. Nobody listen[s], everybody complain[s] mostly or do[es] not think about it. sarah : I think one thing I have realized is how isolated we are. You have asked questions that, you know, put out the fact that we’re a minority in my foreground, whereas normally I just do not notice it, I do not really care, because we are living in a little anglophone bubble. So I think I have been more aware of that since then. We really are isolated and we are orphans. We do not belong to a community, like the English community is not cohesive. And I have realized that too. christine : I have enjoyed it. You have made me think of things that I have never really questioned. I am very curious to see what other English teachers have answered at your questions, just to compare … and I think that having been brought up sort of half English and half French and always having been so close to my French side and, also, loving that side so much, that my answers might be different from someone that is 100% anglophone. serafina : It has been really interesting I think in terms of … making me think about things that I thought I had thought about … my identity as an anglophone here in Quebec, my identity as an Italian here in Quebec, my identity as a teacher in a francophone milieu. I guess it just helped me to give voice to things that I had probably been thinking about, or things that I had not brought up to the surface, that maybe are down there. It certainly let me give voice to, helping me to understand my teaching philosophy, how it is impacted by my own identity or where I come from. And does it make a difference? I always knew that it makes a difference, that I always felt that who you are really makes a difference in the kind of teacher that you are. shelley : Well, you know, the last time I said it feels like therapy, because you get to talk about yourself. You are interested in me … And sometimes I feel like it clarifies things, sometimes I realize just how often I felt that certain way, like I really feel like I am talking about myself. It has been an eye opening experience to have this opportunity to talk about myself so much. And just to sort of re-examine my journey and all of that. jacques : I like the change, I like the change. You talk to somebody outside the loop, you are a professor, you are in education, but it is not like talking to my sister who is a teacher. I mean, as soon as you want to change something, it is not good, it is not going to work. So when you step outside that loop and

172  Negotiating Identities somebody asks you questions like you are doing, you say wow, I do reach one or two kids, maybe, out of 30 that I teach or 50 that I teach. And over the 20 years, I have gotten … thank you letters, so it is not all negative. When you get somebody who is from the outside and says, “What are you doing?” “Well I am doing this and I am doing this.” And does it work? Well sometimes it does! It makes you feel a little bit better, which is nice. émilie : I really enjoyed it because it made me think about things I would not have. Even with my friends tonight [during the group interview,] I heard things I have never heard, we never discussed. It was very interesting for me to listen to them, and I think for them too to listen to themselves, because I know Eva very well, we talk a lot, so I know about her reality, but I know my two other friends, they did not, but they know that she is my friend and we meet sometimes, but we never talk about things, like, that are more personal, or more essential things. I think that opens your mind to the rest of the people around you and maybe being more attentive. And all the other questions too that you asked the other years, and I was thinking about that, I can remember the first time we met. diane : I think what I want to say to you is just how much I feel I have grown and I feel that our interviews last year helped me grow, and I have thought a lot about it in the past year, and it has really helped me find my place. It is great. It helped me find myself. Yeah, it helped me find where I fit here, but where I fit elsewhere too. I mean in Ontario, okay, I was a FrancoOntarian. And that fit me then, but it does not fit me anymore because I am not there, and maybe if I was there, that would be me, but life brought me away from that. And when I was in Switzerland, I liked saying I was FrenchCanadian because they do not know the difference, so I would just tell them I am French-Canadian …, now that I am here it was really hard to, because the francophone community did not accept me, and I did not want to say I am anglophone because I am not. But now I say I have a bilingual identity. I feel like it really, it really suits me, it fits me, and it feels good.

Appendix: Survey on Teachers’ Language Practices and Career Paths

The tables below summarize the participants’ responses to the 35 questions in the survey that formed the basis for this study. There were 271 participants from Association A and 55 from Association B. However, not all survey participants responded to every question. The percentages presented below include only those individuals who responded to each particular question. Table 1. Teachers’ Place of Birth Association A N Quebec Ontario New Brunswick Rest of Canada Rest of the world

195 19 0 17 38 Total 269

Association B

%

N

72.5 7.1 0.0 6.3 14.1 100.0

34 9 2 3 7 55

% 61.8 16.4 3.6 5.5 12.7 100.0

Table 2.  Teachers’ Perceived Identity

Anglophone Francophone Bilingual Trilingual

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

38.3 15.2 26.8 19.7 100.0

18 4 27 4 53

103 41 72 53 Total 269

% 34.0 7.5 50.9 7.5 100.0

174 Appendix Table 3. Languages Used by Teachers Claiming a Bilingual or Trilingual Identity Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

English 40 French 32 Other 2 Total 74

54.1 43.2 2.7 100.0

15 13 0 28

53.6 46.4 0.0 100.0

English 32 French 38 Other 2 Total 72

44.4 52.8 2.8 100.0

13 14 0 27

48.1 51.9 0.0 100.0

English 30 French 5 Other 16 Total 51

58.8 9.8 31.4 100.0

2 0 2 4

50.0 0.0 50.0 100.0

2nd Language

English French Other Total

17 24 10 51

33.0 47.0 20.0 100.0

2 2 0 4

50.0 50.0 0.0 100.0

3rd Language

English 4 French 18 Other 29 Total 51

7.8 35.3 56.9 100.0

2 0 2 4

50.0 0.0 50.0 100.0

Bilingual 1st Language identity

2nd Language

Trilingual 1st Language identity

Table 4. Marital and Parental Status

Single w/o children Single w/ children Married w/ children Married w/o children Other

Association A

Association B

N

 %

N

 %

18.6 8.5 53.5 9.7 9.7 100.0

6 3 26 6 9 50

12.0 6.0 52.0 12.0 18.0 100.0

48 22 138 25 25 Total 258

Appendix 175  Table 5. Mother’s Place of Birth

Bas St. Laurent National Capital Region (Quebec City) Laurentians Lanaudière Montreal Eastern Townships Laval Gaspésie Mauricie Outaouais Abitibi-Témiscamingue Saguenay–Lac Saint-Jean Monterégie Chaudière-Appalaches Côte Nord Centre de Quebec Nord de Quebec Ontario New Brunswick Rest of Canada Other English-speaking countries Other French-speaking countries Rest of the world

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

0.8 2.4 4.0 1.6 30.7 1.2 0.4 0.8 1.6 0.4 1.2 1.6 0.8 0.0 0.4 0.4 0.4 6.0 0.8 6.0 8.0 1.2 29.5 100.0

0 11 0 0 4 2 0 2 2 0 0 3 2 1 1 0 0 4 2 5 7 0 5 51

0.0 21.6 0.0 0.0 7.8 3.9 0.0 3.9 3.9 0.0 0.0 5.9 3.9 2.0 2.0 0.0 0.0 7.8 3.9 9.8 13.7 0.0 9.8 100.0

2 6 10 4 77 3 1 2 4 1 3 4 2 0 1 1 1 15 2 15 20 3 74 Total 251

Table 6. Mother’s First Language

English French Italian Greek Other

Association A

Association B

N

 N

99 79 33 13 28 Total 252

% 39.3 31.3 13.1 5.2 11.1 100.0

21 25 2 0 3 51

% 41.2 49.0 3.9 0.0 5.9 100.0

176 Appendix Table 7. Language(s) Used with Mother Association A

Association B

Total

N

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

122 19 23 38 3 Total 205

59.5 9.3 11.2 18.5 1.5 100.0

23 4 4 8 2 41

56.1 9.8 9.8 19.5 4.9 100.0

145 23 27 46 5 246

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

72 6 23 57 4 Total 162

44.4 3.7 14.2 35.2 2.5 100.0

16 6 5 4 1 32

50.0 18.8 15.6 12.5 3.1 100.0

88 12 28 61 5 194

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

37 10 22 29 38 Total 136

27.2 7.4 16.2 21.3 27.9 100.0

1 2 2 6 15 26

3.8 7.7 7.7 23.1 57.7 100.0

38 12 24 35 53 162

Table 8. Father’s Place of Birth

Bas St. Laurent National Capital Region (Quebec City) Laurentians Lanaudière Montreal Eastern Townships Laval Gaspésie Mauricie Outaouais Abitibi-Témiscamingue Saguenay–Lac Saint-Jean Monterégie Chaudière-Appalaches Côte Nord Centre de Quebec Nord de Quebec Ontario New Brunswick Rest of Canada Other English-speaking countries Other French-speaking countries Rest of the world

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

1.6 3.6 1.2 2.0 29.3 0.4 1.2 0.8 1.2 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.0 1.6 8.4 6.8 1.6 30.1 100.0

2 7 0 1 7 1 0 3 1 0 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 8 2 2 6 0 4 48

4.2 14.6 0.0 2.1 14.6 2.1 0.0 6.3 2.1 0.0 2.1 4.2 0.0 2.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 16.7 4.2 4.2 12.5 0.0 8.3 100.0

4 9 3 5 73 1 3 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 15 4 21 17 4 75 Total 249

Appendix 177  Table 9. Father’s First Language

English French Italian Greek Other

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

37.1 33.1 13.5 5.2 11.2 100.0

23 22 3 0 3 51

45.1 43.1 5.9 0.0 5.9 100.0

93 83 34 13 28 Total 251

Table 10. Language(s) Used with Father Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

117 27 23 35 5 Total 207

56.5 13.0 11.1 16.9 2.4 100.0

21 3 8 6 3 41

51.2 7.3 19.5 14.6 7.3 100.0

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

63 10 24 54 6 Total 157

40.1 6.4 15.3 34.4 3.8 100.0

17 4 4 5 3 33

51.5 12.1 12.1 15.2 9.1 100.0

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

29 14 20 34 35 Total 132

22.0 10.6 15.2 25.8 26.5 100.0

3 0 1 8 14 26

11.5 0.0 3.8 30.8 53.8 100.0

178 Appendix Table 11. Language(s) Used with Siblings Association A

Association B

Total

N

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

144 26 11 22 18 Total 221

65.2 11.8 5.0 10.0 8.1 100.0

23 6 7 5 2 43

53.5 14.0 16.3 11.6 4.7 100.0

167 32 18 27 20 264

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

57 14 20 53 17 Total 161

35.4 8.7 12.4 32.9 10.6 100.0

15 5 4 7 3 34

44.1 14.7 11.8 20.6 8.8 100.0

72 19 24 60 20 195

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

5 9 21 37 46 Total 118

4.2 7.6 17.8 31.4 39.0 100.0

1 1 4 8 11 25

4.0 4.0 16.0 32.0 44.0 100.0

6 10 25 45 57 143

Table 12. Language(s) Used with Partner Association A

Association B

Total

N

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

118 39 20 23 30 Total 230

51.3 17.0 8.7 10.0 13.0 100.0

9 13 16 1 4 43

20.9 30.2 37.2 2.3 9.3 100.0

127 52 36 24 34 273

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

54 30 35 50 27 Total 196

27.6 15.3 17.9 25.5 13.8 100.0

15 10 8 4 3 40

37.5 25.0 20.0 10.0 7.5 100.0

69 40 43 54 30 236

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

5 5 19 60 66 Total 155

3.2 3.2 12.3 38.7 42.6 100.0

0 1 1 14 13 29

0.0 3.4 3.4 48.3 44.8 100.0

5 6 20 74 79 184

Appendix 179  Table 13. Language(s) Used with Children at Home Association A

Association B

Total

N

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

87 43 25 9 71 Total 235

37.0 18.3 10.6 3.8 30.2 100.0

10 12 8 0 15 45

22.2 26.7 17.8 0.0 33.3 100.0

97 55 33 9 86 280

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

39 28 51 28 59 Total 205

19.0 13.7 24.9 13.7 28.8 100.0

6 10 4 4 15 39

15.4 25.6 10.3 10.3 38.5 100.0

45 38 55 32 74 244

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

8 5 24 52 78 Total 167

4.8 3.0 14.4 31.1 46.7 100.0

1 1 0 8 23 33

3.0 3.0 0.0 24.2 69.7 100.0

9 6 24 60 101 200

Table 14. Language(s) Used When Teacher’s Family Is Together Association A

Association B

Total

N

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

124 43 26 21 17 Total 231

53.7 18.6 11.3 9.1 7.4 100.0

9 14 8 5 6 42

21.4 33.3 19.0 11.9 14.3 100.0

133 57 34 26 23 273

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

54 33 49 47 17 Total 200

27.0 16.5 24.5 23.5 8.5 100.0

12 11 10 3 5 41

29.3 26.8 24.4 7.3 12.2 100.0

66 44 59 50 22 241

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

7 8 27 67 53 Total 162

4.3 4.9 16.7 41.4 32.7 100.0

0 2 1 12 14 29

0.0 6.9 3.4 41.4 48.3 100.0

7 10 28 79 67 191

180 Appendix Table 15. Resources Available in English Outside of School Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

Books

Yes No Don’t know

237 13 1 Total 251

94.4 5.2 0.4 100.0

42 6 1 49

85.7 12.2 2.0 100.0

Magazines

Yes No Don’t know

243 8 1 Total 252

96.4 3.2 0.4 100.0

44 3 2 49

89.8 6.1 4.1 100.0

Newspapers

Yes No Don’t know

242 9 0 Total 251

96.4 3.6 0.0 100.0

37 9 3 49

75.5 18.4 6.1 100.0

Videotapes

Yes No Don’t know

252 1 1 Total 254

99.2 0.4 0.4 100.0

49 1 0 50

98.0 2.0 0.0 100.0

TV stations

Yes No Don’t know

251 1 1 Total 253

99.2 0.4 0.4 100.0

50 0 0 50

100.0 0.0 0.0 100.0

Radio stations

Yes No Don’t know

249 1 3 Total 253

98.4 0.4 1.2 100.0

43 5 1 49

87.8 10.2 2.0 100.0

Theatre

Yes No Don’t know

206 32 9 Total 247

83.4 13.0 3.6 100.0

19 26 3 48

39.6 54.2 6.3 100.0

Movies

Yes No Don’t know

236 13 1 Total 250

94.4 5.2 0.4 100.0

30 19 1 50

60.0 38.0 2.0 100.0

Computer programs

Yes No Don’t know

240 2 9 Total 251

95.6 0.8 3.6 100.0

46 3 1 50

92.0 6.0 2.0 100.0

Appendix 181  Table 16. Resources Available in English in the Home While Growing Up Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

Books

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

232 19 0 1 Total 252

92.1 7.5 0.0 0.4 100.0

42 4 0 0 46

91.3 8.7 0.0 0.0 100.0

Magazines

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

223 22 0 1 Total 246

90.7 8.9 0.0 0.4 100.0

42 3 1 0 46

91.3 6.5 2.2 0.0 100.0

Newspapers

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

197 44 1 3 Total 245

80.4 18.0 0.4 1.2 100.0

24 19 0 0 43

55.8 44.2 0.0 0.0 100.0

Dictionaries

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

243 8 0 1 Total 252

96.4 3.2 0.0 0.4 100.0

46 1 0 0 47

97.9 2.1 0.0 0.0 100.0

Encyclopedias

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

193 39 3 9 Total 244

79.1 16.0 1.2 3.7 100.0

35 11 0 0 46

76.1 23.9 0.0 0.0 100.0

CDs

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

173 17 0 51 Total 241

71.8 7.1 0.0 21.2 100.0

39 3 0 4 46

84.8 6.5 0.0 8.7 100.0

Computer programs

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

161 23 0 55 Total 239

67.4 9.6 0.0 23.0 100.0

35 4 0 7 46

76.1 8.7 0.0 15.2 100.0

182 Appendix Table 17. Language(s) of Resources While Growing Up Books

Association A N

Association B

Total

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

158 41 33 11 0 Total 243

65.0 16.9 13.6 4.5 0.0 100.0

32 8 4 1 0 45

71.1 17.8 8.9 2.2 0.0 100.0

190 49 37 12 0 288

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

50 28 65 56 0 Total 199

25.1 14.1 32.7 28.1 0.0 100.0

4 5 16 9 0 34

11.8 14.7 47.1 26.5 0.0 100.0

54 33 81 65 0 233

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

5 9 25 73 43 Total 155

3.2 5.8 16.1 47.1 27.7 100.0

0 0 1 16 11 28

0.0 0.0 3.6 57.1 39.3 100.0

5 9 26 89 54 183

Magazines

Association A N

Association B

Total

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

154 53 30 8 0 Total 245

62.9 21.6 12.2 3.3 0.0 100.0

25 15 4 0 1 45

55.6 33.3 8.9 0.0 2.2 100.0

179 68 34 8 1 290

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

41 39 74 49 1 Total 204

20.1 19.1 36.3 24.0 0.5 100.0

5 7 20 5 1 38

13.2 18.4 52.6 13.2 2.6 100.0

46 46 94 54 2 242

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

4 5 22 79 40 Total 150

2.7 3.3 14.7 52.7 26.7 100.0

0 0 1 15 11 27

0.0 0.0 3.7 55.6 40.7 100.0

4 5 23 94 51 177 (continued)

Appendix 183  Table 17. Language(s) of Resources While Growing Up (continued) Newspapers

Association A N

Association B

Total

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

144 38 29 22 3 Total 236

61.0 16.1 12.3 9.3 1.3 100.0

21 7 6 9 1 44

47.7 15.9 13.6 20.5 2.3 100.0

165 45 35 31 4 280

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

58 38 73 36 5 Total 210

27.6 18.1 34.8 17.1 2.4 100.0

12 5 20 4 0 41

29.3 12.2 48.8 9.8 0.0 100.0

70 43 93 40 5 251

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

5 4 25 73 46 Total 153

3.3 2.6 16.3 47.7 30.1 100.0

0 0 1 16 10 27

0.0 0.0 3.7 59.3 37.0 100.0

5 4 26 89 56 180

Radio

Association A N

Association B

Total

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

158 56 23 6 1 Total 244

64.8 23.0 9.4 2.5 0.4 100.0

16 12 9 4 0 41

39.0 29.3 22.0 9.8 0.0 100.0

174 68 32 10 1 285

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

37 47 72 45 2 Total 203

18.2 23.2 35.5 22.2 1.0 100.0

9 18 9 3 0 39

23.1 46.2 23.1 7.7 0.0 100.0

46 65 81 48 2 242

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

5 7 26 71 45 Total 154

3.2 4.5 16.9 46.1 29.2 100.0

0 0 2 13 12 27

0.0 0.0 7.4 48.1 44.4 100.0

5 7 28 84 57 181 (continued)

184 Appendix Table 17. Language(s) of Resources While Growing Up (continued) Music

Association A N

Association B

Total

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

168 68 11 0 0 Total 247

68.0 27.5 4.5 0.0 0.0 100.0

27 16 2 0 0 45

60.0 35.6 4.4 0.0 0.0 100.0

195 84 13 0 0 292

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

28 40 92 41 1 Total 202

13.9 19.8 45.5 20.3 0.5 100.0

2 11 14 11 0 38

5.3 28.9 36.8 28.9 0.0 100.0

30 51 106 52 1 240

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

13 26 50 45 32 Total 166

7.8 15.7 30.1 27.1 19.3 100.0

0 1 6 10 10 27

0.0 3.7 22.2 37.0 37.0 100.0

13 27 56 55 42 193

Television

Association A N

Association B

Total

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

155 70 20 0 1 Total 246

63.0 28.5 8.1 0.0 0.4 100.0

26 16 4 0 0 46

56.5 34.8 8.7 0.0 0.0 100.0

181 86 24 0 1 292

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

31 47 96 36 2 Total 212

14.6 22.2 45.3 17.0 0.9 100.0

2 10 21 5 0 38

5.3 26.3 55.3 13.2 0.0 100.0

33 57 117 41 2 250

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

6 5 34 64 41 Total 150

4.0 3.3 22.7 42.7 27.3 100.0

0 1 1 14 9 25

0.0 4.0 4.0 56.0 36.0 100.0

6 6 35 78 50 175

Appendix 185  Table 18. Resources Currently Available in the Home Association A N

Association B

Total

%

N

%

N

Books

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

231 11 0 2 Total 244

94.7 4.5 0.0 1.0 100.0

46 0 0 0 46

100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0

277 11 0 2 290

Magazines

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

228 10 0 3 Total 241

94.6 4.1 0.0 1.2 100.0

44 2 0 0 46

95.7 4.3 0.0 0.0 100.0

272 12 0 3 287

Newspapers Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

182 43 0 13 Total 238

76.5 18.1 0.0 5.5 100.0

25 18 0 2 45

55.6 40.0 0.0 4.4 100.0

207 61 0 15 283

Dictionaries Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

238 3 0 3 Total 244

97.5 1.2 0.0 1.2 100.0

44 0 0 2 46

95.7 0.0 0.0 4.3 100.0

282 3 0 5 290

Encyclopedias

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

159 42 1 32 Total 234

67.9 17.9 0.4 13.7 100.0

34 10 0 2 46

73.9 21.7 0.0 4.3 100.0

193 52 1 34 280

CDs

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

239 1 0 3 Total 243

98.4 0.4 0.0 1.2 100.0

45 0 0 1 46

97.8 0.0 0.0 2.2 100.0

284 1 0 4 289

Computer programs

Yes No Don’t know Not applicable

236 2 1 6 Total 245

96.3 0.8 0.4 2.4 100.0

44 0 0 1 45

97.8 0.0 0.0 2.2 100.0

280 2 1 7 290

186 Appendix Table 19. Resources Used at Home – by Language Books

Association A N

%

Association B N

%

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

158 43 23 8 4 Total 236

66.9 18.2 9.7 3.4 1.7 100.0

32 11 2 0 0 45

71.1 24.4 4.4 0.0 0.0 100.0

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

31 40 61 60 3 Total 195

15.9 20.5 31.3 30.8 1.5 100.0

3 6 18 8 0 35

8.6 17.1 51.4 22.9 0.0 100.0

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

5 2 26 81 37 Total 151

3.3 1.3 17.2 53.6 24.5 100.0

0 0 1 17 11 29

0.0 0.0 3.4 58.6 37.9 100.0

Magazines

Association A

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

Other

Association B

N

%

N

%

Total

140 62 22 6 5 235

59.6 26.4 9.4 2.6 2.1 100.0

23 16 6 0 0 45

51.1 35.6 13.3 0.0 0.0 100.0

Total

29 50 77 44 2 202

14.4 24.8 38.1 21.8 1.0 100.0

4 12 17 6 1 40

10.0 30.0 42.5 15.0 2.5 100.0

Total

3 1 25 82 37 148

2.0 0.7 16.9 55.4 25.0 100.0

0 0 2 16 11 29

0.0 0.0 6.9 55.2 37.9 100.0

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

(continued)

Appendix 187  Table 19. Resources Used at Home – by Language (continued) Newspapers

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

127 28 40 22 10 Total 227

55.9 12.3 17.6 9.7 4.4 100.0

14 11 10 7 2 44

31.8 25.0 22.7 15.9 4.5 100.0

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

44 41 77 30 7 Total 199

22.1 20.6 38.7 15.1 3.5 100.0

12 10 13 3 3 41

29.3 24.4 31.7 7.3 7.3 100.0

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

3 3 25 76 43 Total 150

2.0 2.0 16.7 50.7 28.7 100.0

0 0 2 16 13 31

0.0 0.0 6.5 51.6 41.9 100.0

Radio

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

146 62 19 4 3 Total 234

62.4 26.5 8.1 1.7 1.3 100.0

10 15 11 4 1 41

24.4 36.6 26.8 9.8 2.4 100.0

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

31 44 83 36 2 Total 196

15.8 22.4 42.3 18.4 1.0 100.0

8 18 12 2 2 42

19.0 42.9 28.6 4.8 4.8 100.0

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

2 7 24 70 44 Total 147

1.4 4.8 16.3 47.6 29.9 100.0

0 0 2 16 12 30

0.0 0.0 6.7 53.3 40.0 100.0 (continued)

188 Appendix Table 19. Resources Used at Home – by Language (continued) Music

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

149 73 10 0 4 Total 236

63.1 30.9 4.2 0.0 1.7 100.0

22 22 1 0 0 45

48.9 48.9 2.2 0.0 0.0 100.0

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

24 42 88 39 2 Total 195

12.3 21.5 45.1 20.0 1.0 100.0

4 9 19 6 1 39

10.3 23.1 48.7 15.4 2.6 100.0

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

7 23 48 46 31 Total 155

4.5 14.8 31.0 29.7 20.0 100.0

0 2 3 13 11 29

0.0 6.9 10.3 44.8 37.9 100.0

Television

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

145 71 12 1 6 Total 235

61.7 30.2 5.1 0.4 2.6 100.0

24 19 2 0 0 45

53.3 42.2 4.4 0.0 0.0 100.0

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

28 45 96 31 4 Total 204

13.7 22.1 47.1 15.2 2.0 100.0

3 11 21 4 1 40

7.5 27.5 52.5 10.0 2.5 100.0

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

1 4 36 70 37 Total 148

0.7 2.7 24.3 47.3 25.0 100.0

0 0 2 16 11 29

0.0 0.0 6.9 55.2 37.9 100.0

Appendix 189  Table 20. Language(s) Used with Students In the classrooms English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

Other

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

Total

151 28 34 10 3 226

66.8 12.4 15.0 4.4 1.3 100.0

41 4 0 0 0 45

91.1 8.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0

Total

58 25 68 42 7 200

29.0 12.5 34.0 21.0 3.5 100.0

1 1 14 17 1 34

2.9 2.9 41.2 50.0 2.9 100.0

Total

0 0 3 98 41 142

0.0 0.0 2.1 69.0 28.9 100.0

0 0 2 14 12 28

0.0 0.0 7.1 50.0 42.9 100.0

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

In the school hallways English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

Other

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

Total

148 46 28 8 1 231

64.1 19.9 12.1 3.5 0.4 100.0

41 4 0 0 0 45

91.1 8.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0

Total

42 35 76 39 7 199

21.1 17.6 38.2 19.6 3.5 100.0

2 1 8 19 2 32

6.3 3.1 25.0 59.4 6.3 100.0

Total

0 0 7 93 42 142

0.0 0.0 4.9 65.5 29.6 100.0

0 0 0 16 12 28

0.0 0.0 0.0 57.1 42.9 100.0

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

190 Appendix Table 21. Language(s) Used with School Staff In the teachers’ lounge, with colleagues

Association A

Association B

Total

N

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

136 91 10 0 0 Total 237

57.4 38.4 4.2 0.0 0.0 100.0

26 19 0 0 0 45

57.8 42.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0

162 110 10 0 0 282

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

24 76 109 8 2 Total 219

11.0 34.7 49.8 3.7 0.9 100.0

1 6 24 6 0 37

2.7 16.2 64.9 16.2 0.0 100.0

25 82 133 14 2 256

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

0 1 18 85 39 Total 143

0.0 0.7 12.6 59.4 27.3 100.0

0 0 2 14 11 27

0.0 0.0 7.4 51.9 40.7 100.0

0 1 20 99 50 170

With members of the administration (principal, vice-principal)

Association A

Association B

Total

N

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

180 42 6 6 0 Total 234

76.9 17.9 2.6 2.6 0.0 100.0

42 2 0 0 0 44

95.5 4.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0

222 44 6 6 0 278

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

16 35 39 85 5 Total 180

8.9 19.4 21.7 47.2 2.8 100.0

2 1 6 21 2 32

6.3 3.1 18.8 65.6 6.3 100.0

18 36 45 106 7 212

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

0 0 0 100 44 Total 144

0.0 0.0 0.0 69.4 30.6 100.0

0 0 0 17 12 29

0.0 0.0 0.0 58.6 41.4 100.0

0 0 0 117 56 173

Appendix 191  Table 22. Language(s) Used with School Support Staff Association A

Association B

Total

N

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

148 63 17 4 0 Total 232

63.8 27.2 7.3 1.7 0.0 100.0

23 14 5 2 0 44

52.3 31.8 11.4 4.5 0.0 100.0

171 77 22 6 0 276

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

23 56 89 32 4 Total 204

11.3 27.5 43.6 15.7 2.0 100.0

4 8 14 10 2 38

10.5 21.1 36.8 26.3 5.3 100.0

27 64 103 42 6 242

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

0 1 3 96 43 Total 143

0.0 0.7 2.1 67.1 30.1 100.0

0 0 0 15 11 26

0.0 0.0 0.0 57.7 42.3 100.0

0 1 3 111 54 169

Table 23. Language(s) Used with Students During Extra-curricular Activities Association A

Association B

Total

N

%

N

%

N

English

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

146 46 19 6 14 Total 231

63.2 19.9 8.2 2.6 6.1 100.0

37 5 0 0 3 45

82.2 11.1 0.0 0.0 6.7 100.0

183 51 19 6 17 276

French

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

29 40 61 47 16 Total 193

15.0 20.7 31.6 24.4 8.3 100.0

0 3 10 14 5 32

0.0 9.4 31.3 43.8 15.6 100.0

29 43 71 61 21 225

Other

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable

0 0 3 92 50 Total 145

0.0 0.0 2.1 63.4 34.5 100.0

0 0 0 14 14 28

0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 50.0 100.0

0 0 3 106 64 173

192 Appendix Table 24. Teachers’ Years of Teaching Experience Association A N 0–5 6–10 11–20 21–30 31+

44 49 69 34 23 Total 219

Association B

%

N

20.0 22.0 32.0 16.0 10.0 100.0%

13 8 14 4 1 40

% 33.0 20.0 35.0 10.0 2.0 100.0%

Table 25. Number of Schools Taught at Throughout Career

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

10.6 18.8 17.9 19.3 11.0 8.7 6.0 2.3 1.0 4.6 100.0

9 8 10 3 1 3 2 0 0 4 40

22.5 20.0 25.0 7.5 2.5 7.5 5.0 0.0 0.0 10.0 100.0

23 41 39 42 24 19 13 5 2 10 Total 218

Table 26. Is there a difference between teaching in an English minority-language school in Quebec and in an English majority-language school elsewhere in Canada?

Yes No Don’t know

Association A

Association B

N

%

N

%

48.6% 9.3% 42.1% 100.0%

24 4 11 39

61.5% 10.3% 28.2% 100.0%

104 20 90 Total 214

Appendix 193  Table 27. Quebec and Ontario Teachers’ Place of Birth Ontario

Quebec

School Board A School Board B N Ontario 51 Quebec 73 New Brunswick 3 Rest of Canada 1 Outside of Canada 27 Total 155

Association A

Association B

%

N

%

N

%

N

%

32.9 47.1 1.9 0.6 17.4 100.0

107 69 3 4 12 195

54.9 35.4 1.5 2.1 6.2 100.0

19 195 0 17 38 269

7.1 72.5 0.0 6.3 14.1 100.0

9 34 2 3 7 55

16.4 61.8 3.6 5.5 12.7 100.0

Table 28. Quebec and Ontario Teachers’ Perceived Identity Ontario School Board A N Minority Majority Bilingual Trilingual

68 6 57 24 Total 155

Quebec

School Board B

Association A

Association B

%

N

%

N

%

N

%

43.9 3.9 36.8 15.5 100.0

91 0 91 12 194

46.9 0 46.9 6.2 100.0

103 41 72 53 269

38.3 15.2 26.8 19.7 100.0

18 4 27 4 53

34.0 7.5 50.9 7.5 100.0

Table 29.  Languages of Bilingual and Trilingual Teachers in Quebec and Ontario Ontario School Board A N

Quebec School Board B

Association A Association B

%

N

%

N

%

N

%

Dominant English 11 Language French 65 Other 9 Total 85

12.9 76.5 10.6 100.0

5 95 2 102

4.9 93.1 2.0 100.0

70 37 18 125

56.0 29.6 14.4 100.0

17 13 2 32

53.1 40.6 6.3 100.0

Second English 61 Language French 20 Other 3 Total 84

72.6 23.8 3.6 100.0

92 6 3 101

91.1 5.9 3.0 100.0

49 63 12 124

39.5 50.8 9.7 100.0

15 16 0 31

48.4 51.6 0 100.0

Third English 12 Language French 0 Other 11 Total 23

52.2 0.0 47.8 100.0

1 1 10 12

8.3 8.3 83.4 100.0

4 18 29 51

7.8 35.3 56.9 100.0

0 2 2 4

50.0 0.0 50.0 100.0

194 Appendix Table 30. Language(s) Used with Mother (Quebec and Ontario) Ontario School Board A N

Quebec School Board B

Association A

Association B N

 %

N

 %

N

 %

Minority Always 123 Often 9 Sometimes 8 Never 8 Total 148

82.9 6.2 5.5 5.5 100.0

174 7 6 2 189

91.9 3.8 3.2 1.1 100.0

122 19 23 38 202

60.4 23 9.4 4 11.4 4 18.8 8 100.0 39

59.0 10.3 10.3 20.5 100.0

Majority Always Often Sometimes Never Total

11 5 13 70 99

11.3 5.2 13.4 70.1 100.0

6 8 20 80 114

5.5 7.3 17.3 70.0 100.0

72 6 23 57 158

45.6 16 3.8 6 14.6 5 36.1 4 100.0 31

51.6 19.4 16.1 12.9 100.0

Other

14 2 1 56 73

19.7 2.8 1.4 76.1 100.0

4 3 3 87 97

4.3 3.2 3.2 89.2 100.0

37 10 22 29 98

37.8 1 10.2 2 22.4 2 29.6 6 100.0 11

9.1 18.2 18.2 54.5 100.0

Always Often Sometimes Never Total

 %

Table 31. Language(s) Used with Father (Quebec and Ontario) Ontario School Board A N

Quebec School Board B

Association A

Association B

 %

N

%

N

%

N

%

Minority Always 118 Often 5 Sometimes 6 Never 12 Total 141

83.7 3.5 4.3 8.5 100.0

168 9 3 4 184

91.3 4.9 1.6 2.2 100.0

117 27 23 35 202

57.9 13.4 11.4 17.3 100.0

21 3 8 6 38

55.3 7.9 21.1 15.8 100.0

Majority Always Often Sometimes Never Total

16 4 12 60 92

17.4 4.3 13.0 65.2 100.0

9 5 20 78 112

8.0 4.5 17.9 69.6 100.0

63 10 24 54 151

41.7 6.6 15.9 35.8 100.0

17 4 4 5 30

56.7 13.3 13.3 16.7 100.0

Other

11 4 2 51 68

16.2 5.9 2.9 75.0 100.0

5 2 0 88 95

5.3 2.1 0.0 92.6 100.0

29 14 20 34 97

29.9 14.4 20.6 35.1 100.0

3 0 1 8 12

25.0 0.0 8.3 66.7 100.0

Always Often Sometimes Never Total

Appendix 195  Table 32. Language(s) Used with Siblings (Quebec and Ontario) Ontario School Board A N

Quebec School Board B

Association A

Association B

%

N

%

N

%

N

%

Minority Always 113 Often 10 Sometimes 16 Never 6 Total 145

77.9 6.6 11.0 4.4 100.0

166 17 5 2 190

87.4 8.8 2.7 1.1 100.0

144 26 11 22 203

70.9 12.8 5.4 10.8 100.0

23 6 7 5 41

56.1 14.6 17.1 12.2 100.0

Majority Always Often Sometimes Never Total

18 10 14 55 97

18.2 10.2 14.8 56.8 100.0

6 11 29 71 117

5.5 9.2 24.8 60.6 100.0

57 14 20 53 144

39.6 9.7 13.9 36.8 100.0

15 5 4 7 31

48.4 16.1 12.9 22.6 100.0

Other

8 7 1 58 74

10.8 9.2 1.5 78.5 100.0

3 2 1 90 96

3.4 2.3 1.1 93.2 100.0

5 9 21 37 72

6.9 12.5 29.2 51.4 100.0

1 1 4 8 14

7.1 7.1 28.6 57.1 100.0

Always Often Sometimes Never Total

Table 33. Language(s) Used with Spouse/Partner (Quebec and Ontario) Ontario School Board A N

%

Quebec

School Board B N

%

Association A Association B N

%

N

%

Minority Always 65 Often 30 Sometimes 15 Never 10 Total 120

54.2 125 25.0 27 12.5 17 8.3 5 100.0 174

71.8 118 15.5 39 9.8 20 2.9 23 100.0 200

59.0 19.5 10.0 11.5 100.0

9 13 16 1 39

23.1 33.3 41.0 2.6 100.0

Majority Always Often Sometimes Never Total

24 15 32 23 94

25.5 16 16.0 20 34.0 47 24.5 48 100.0 131

12.2 54 15.3 30 35.9 35 36.6 50 100.0 169

32.0 17.8 20.7 29.6 100.0

15 10 8 4 37

40.5 27.0 21.6 10.8 100.0

Other

4 6 4 41 – 55

7.3 10.9 7.3 74.5 – 100.0

1.1 5 2.2 5 4.4 19 92.3 60 – 66 100.0 155

3.2 3.2 12.3 38.7 42.6 100.0

0 1 1 14 – 16

0.0 6.3 6.3 87.5 – 100.0

Always Often Sometimes Never Not applicable Total

1 2 4 84 – 91

196 Appendix Table 34. Language(s) Used with Children (Quebec and Ontario) Ontario School Board A N

Quebec School Board B

Association A

Association B

%

N

%

N

%

N

%

Minority Always 59 Often 17 Sometimes 9 Never 0 Total 85

69.4 20.0 10.6 0.0 100.0

110 11 4 1 126

87.3 8.7 3.2 0.8 100.0

87 43 25 9 164

53.0 26.2 15.2 5.5 100.0

10 12 8 0 30

33.3 40.0 26.7 0.0 100.0

Majority Always Often Sometimes Never Total

9 10 15 20 54

16.7 18.5 27.8 37.0 100.0

0 6 26 48 80

0.0 7.5 32.5 60.0 100.0

39 28 51 28 146

26.7 19.2 34.9 19.2 100.0

6 10 4 4 24

25.0 41.7 16.7 16.7 100.0

Always 1 Often 4 Sometimes 8 Never 20 Total 33

3.0 12.1 24.2 60.6 100.0

1 2 5 57 65

1.5 3.1 7.7 87.7 100.0

8 5 24 52 89

9.0 5.6 27.0 58.4 100.0

1 1 0 8 10

10.0 10.0 0.0 80.0 100.0

Other

Table 35. Language(s) Used with Family (Quebec and Ontario) Ontario School Board A N

Quebec School Board B

Association A

Association B

%

N

%

N

%

N

%

Minority Always 68 Often 24 Sometimes 23 Never 3 Total 118

57.6 20.3 19.5 2.5 100.0

128 33 9 1 171

74.9 19.3 5.3 0.6 100.0

124 43 26 21 214

57.9 20.1 12.1 9.8 100.0

9 14 8 5 36

25.0 38.9 22.2 13.9 100.0

Majority Always Often Sometimes Never Total

20 18 25 24 87

23.0 20.7 28.7 27.6 100.0

7 16 43 53 119

5.9 13.4 36.1 44.5 100.0

54 33 49 47 183

29.5 18.0 26.8 25.7 100.0

12 11 10 3 36

33.3 30.6 27.8 8.3 100.0

Other

3 7 5 34 49

6.1 14.3 10.2 69.4 100.0

0 2 4 80 86

0.0 2.3 4.7 93.0 100.0

7 8 27 67 109

6.4 7.3 24.8 61.5 100.0

0 2 1 12 15

0.0 13.3 6.7 80.0 100.0

Always Often Sometimes Never Total

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Index

Advisory Board on English Education (ABEE), 33, 167, 168 allophone identity, 67, 120, 120n2, 165. See also Italian language and heritage anglophone identity: bilingualism and belonging, 121; as citizens of Quebec, 115–16, 141; cultural traditions, 52, 118–19, 124, 165; defining collective identity, 120; of survey participants, 12, 37–9, 55–8, 74, 114–15, 122–3, 163. See also identity and identity discourses; life histories (Quebec English minority-language teachers); individual participants’ names anglophones in Quebec: choosing to stay, 130–4; community viability, 133–4; declining school enrolment, 33–5, 159, 165, 168; distinctive English of, 125; employment disadvantage, 143–4; exodus of, 130; historical context, 25–9, 47–8, 127–8, 129–30; majority or minority identity (see minority politics/identity); minority sense of community,

46, 121, 122–5, 140–1, 171; not homogenous, 87, 117–18, 122–5, 163; Quebec City community, 37, 87, 88–9, 107, 117, 133–4; by region, 28; statistics, 3, 27–8. See also language, political force of; Quebec society Anthias, F., 113, 122 Beauchamp, C., 147 Beauharnois, 37–8 belonging: about/general, 119–20; community, 122–5, 140–1, 145 (see also community, linguistic minority); dimensions of belonging (Breton), 121; the other/othering, 77, 113, 115–16, 124–6, 134, 141, 164 (see also power relationships); social construct, 120–1. See also identity and identity discourses Bertaux, D., 20 bilingualism and bilingual identities (includes trilingualism): employment, 143–4, 167; experience of study participants, 15–16, 47–8, 51–2, 75–6, 85–6,

206 Index 88, 96–7, 116–17, 171, 172; families fostering, 51, 60–1, 64, 83–4, 102, 106, 116; geography, language, and culture, 60–1, 91–2, 103–5, 116, 118–19, 143; language-planning policies and, 132–3; Ontario and Quebec teachers compared, 155; sense of belonging, 121, 171, 172; statistics of surveys, 12–13, 114–15, 154. See also life histories (Quebec English minority-language teachers) Bill 14, 32–3 Bill 22, La Loi sur la langue officielle (Québec), 30, 130 Bill 63, La Loi pour promouvoir la langue française au Québec, 30, 129–30 Bill 101. See Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) Bill 104, 32 Bill 115, 32 binaries of difference, 3, 112, 121 birthplace and first language, 13. See also languages of home/family Boberg, C., 26, 125 Bourassa, Robert, 25, 129, 130 Bourdieu, P., 128, 147 Bourhis, R., 133 Breton, R., 119–20, 121, 122 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 4–5, 30–1, 31n2 Canadian identity, 41–2, 51, 60, 70, 86–7, 94–5, 97, 118–19. See also identity and identity discourses Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities (CIRLM), 4n1

career paths of surveyed English minority-language teachers, 18–19; individual teachers, 42–6, 52–5, 61–4, 71–3, 79–82, 89–92, 98–101, 107–10. See also life histories (Quebec English minoritylanguage teachers) Castles, S., 9, 134 CEGEP (Collèges d’enseignement général et professionnel): about/ general, 33n4; anglophone, 32–3, 42, 50, 59, 61; francophone, 47–8, 51, 84, 85, 93 Chambers Report (1992), 34, 166, 168 Charter of the French Language (Bill 101): amendment of, 30–1; bilingualism among anglophones, 132–3; certificate of eligibility, 5, 31–2, 93; impact of, 25–6, 64, 76, 128, 130, 132–4; study participant’s opinions, 40, 64 Chibougamau, 94 Chicoutimi, 37, 51 Christine (and family): about/ general, 46; anglophone community, 123; bilingual, with exogamous family, 46–8, 163, 171; career path, 52–5; commentary on study, 171; education of own children, 51–2, 143–4; identity/ belonging, 48–50, 116, 163, 171; inclusion-exclusion divide, 141, 142; languages, 46–9, 50–2; teaching philosophy/identity, 55, 151 Christine’s friends: inclusionexclusion divide, 142; minority/ majority identity, 136–7, 140 collective identity, 120. See also identity and identity discourses

Index 207  community, linguistic minority: anglophone minority sense of, 46, 121, 122–5, 140–1, 171; English minority-language education, 100, 145, 168–9; geographical context, 123–4; Quebec City anglophone, 37, 87, 88–9, 107, 117, 133–4; religious separate schools and, 123 Concordia University, 85, 90 Corbeil, J.C., 29 Corbeil, J.P. (et al.), 27–8, 28n1 Cornwall, 101–2, 107 culture/society. See Quebec society Daniel, B.J., 152 Davidson, A., 9, 134 de Beauvoir, Simone, 120 de la Sablonnière, R., 25, 132, 164 demographic and linguistic profiles (studies): Ontario French minority-language teachers, 153–4; Quebec minoritylanguage teachers, 12–16, 154. See also English minority-language teachers’ study (Quebec); French minority-language teachers’ study (Ontario); life histories (Quebec English minority-language teachers) Diane (and family): about/general, 101; bilingual, francophone family, Ontario, 101, 159, 163; career path, 107–10; commentary on study, 172; identity/belonging, 103–5, 116–17, 121, 163, 172; languages, 101, 105–6; teaching philosophy/identity, 108–9, 110, 151–2, 159, 165 Diane’s friends: anglophone community, 124–5; identity/

belonging, 117; minority/majority identity, 137 diaspora, 114 Direction de la production en langue anglaise, 34 Direction des politiques et des projets, 34 discourse and language, 128–9. See also language, political force of Dovey, K., 118 Easthope, H., 116, 118 education as institution for socialization. See English minoritylanguage education; French minority-­language education Émilie (and family): about/ general, 83; career path, 89–92; commentary on study, 172; education of own children, 88, 143–4; francophone, Quebec, 83, 163; identity/belonging, 85–7, 115, 116, 148, 160, 163; languages, 83–4, 87–9; teaching philosophy/ identity, 91–2, 152, 160 employment: anglophone disadvantage, 143–4; English minority-language education, 145, 166, 167 English minority-language education: community/small groups, 100; complexity of experience, 111; diversity of school population, 167, 168–9; English and French compared, 5–6, 64; enrolment, 33–5, 62, 64, 159, 165, 168; in francophone context/culture, 91–2, 98, 100–1, 141, 148, 165, 169 (see also philosophies of education); French, teaching

208 Index of/influence of, 145, 158–60, 166, 167; historical context in Quebec, 29–33, 38; identity boundary, 141; parents’ English facility, 54, 59, 72, 91–2; permission to attend, 31–2, 93, 133 (see also Charter of the French Language [Bill 101]); role/mandate (transmission of culture), 5, 45–6, 63–4, 73, 81–2, 92, 101, 107, 109, 158–61, 165–6, 168–9; school board territories, 168; study participants, elementary school teaching, 54–5, 72, 73, 80–1, 91–2; study participants, high school teaching, 43–4, 61–3, 90, 91–2, 100–1, 108–9. See also English minority-language teachers’ study (Quebec) English minority-language resources: bilingualism and, 133; French and English resources compared, 106–7, 141; lack of support materials/services, 110, 140–1, 167–8; for special needs, 139; survey statistics of, 16; urban/rural access to, 49, 58–9, 140–1 English minority-language teachers’ study (Quebec): about/general, 11–12; Associations A and B compared, 10–22, 35, 110–11, 114–15 (see also minority-language teaching, Quebec and Ontario compared); career paths, 18–19; demographic and linguistic profiles, 12–16; linguistic practices at work, 17; minority-language resources, 16; negotiating identity, 115. See also appendix, pages 173–96; French minority-language teachers’ study (Ontario);

life histories (Quebec English minority-language teachers); methodology essentialist/non-essentialist identity, 113–14, 119–20, 121, 163. See also identity and identity discourses ethnographic studies, 7, 10, 153, 169 exclusion-inclusion divide. See ­Quebec society exogamous marriages: bilingualism and, 46–8, 60, 133, 163, 171 Foucher, P., 133 fragile majority of francophones, 4, 26–7, 135, 164 Franco-Ontarian identity, 104–6, 116, 172. See also identity and identity discourses Franco-Ontarian student federation, 102 francophone identity: bilingualism and belonging, 121; geography and, 103–5, 116; languageplanning policies, 24–5; outside Quebec, 3, 121, 155–6; survey statistics, 12, 114–15. See also identity and identity discourses French-Canadian identity, 86, 105, 116–17, 172. See also identity and identity discourses French immersion: attending school in, 102; teaching, 74, 80, 102; university level, 74, 75–6 French majority-language education: anglophone identity and, 131, 142; bilingual identity and, 42; experience teaching in, 79–80, 81; francophone identity and, 78 French minority-language education: about/general, 155–6; anglophone

Index 209  context influence, 100; diversity of school population, 167; English majority language as threat, 156–7, 159–60; political agenda of, 107, 109; research on, 5; role compared to English minority-language education, 153–5, 165–6; role in culture/language transmission, 155–6, 159–61, 165–6; teachers’ philosophy/professional identity, 157 French minority-language resources (Ontario), 102, 105–7 French minority-language teachers’ study (Ontario): about/general, 10, 11, 11n6; demographic and linguistic profiles, 153–4; linguistic identity and practices, 154–5; teachers’ discourses on their work, 155–8. See also appendix, pages 192–6 Gaspé region: community, 123 geographical context: community, 123–4; identity and, 116, 117–18; minority/majority identity, 139–40; Ontario and Quebec teachers compared, 154–5; of study, 35, 40, 115 Gérin-Lajoie, Diane, 146, 153, 165; mouvance, 8 Glick Schiller, N., 3, 112 globalization and English language, 22, 128–9, 160, 169; world citizen, 87. See also language, political force of Gramsci, A., 128 Greek heritage: outside Montreal, 62; trilingual teachers, 12–13 Halifax, Nova Scotia, 74–5, 77, 116, 124–5

Hall, S., 113, 114, 117, 120, 163 heterogeneity among linguistic groups, 3. See also English minority-language teachers’ study (Quebec); French minoritylanguage teachers’ study (Ontario) Hopson, R.L., 151 identity and identity discourses: about/general, 6–8, 8–10, 21–2, 111; bilingualism and, 51–2, 75–6, 85–6; collective identity, 120; evolving, fluid (mouvance), 8, 22, 52, 95, 114, 117–19, 121, 147, 163; family heritage (see languages of home/family); francophone outsider, 104–5; geographic (see geographical context); inclusionexclusion divide (see under Quebec society); language facility and, 51, 54–5, 75–6; language-planning policies (see language-planning policies); majority or minority identity (see minority politics/ identity); negotiating identity, 115–19; as perceived by others, 67; professional (see philosophies of education); shaping/identity construction, 147; of siblings, 42, 51–2, 60–1, 70–1, 78–9, 93, 117, 137, 154, 156; subjects model, 113; world citizen, 87. See also allophone identity; anglophone identity; Canadian identity; essentialist/ non-essentialist identity; FrancoOntarian identity; francophone identity; French-Canadian identity; minority politics/identity; Québécois identity; rapport to identity and language

210 Index immigrants and immigration: anglophones treated as immigrants, 51; francophone identity and, 156; historical context in Quebec, 29; languageplanning policies, 24, 27–8, 133; minority/majority identity, 136–7 inclusion-exclusion divide. See under Quebec society Italian language and heritage: experience of, 65–6, 69, 117; geography and, 116; identity, 67–70, 117, 163, 171; language of instruction and, 30; minority/ majority identity, 136–7; in Quebec neighbourhood, 72; trilingual teachers, 12–13 Jacques (and family): about/general, 92; bilingual, U.S., English Canada, Quebec, 93, 163; career path, 98–101; commentary on study, 171–2; education of own children, 97–8, 117, 143–4; identity/ belonging, 94–6, 116–17, 119, 163; inclusion-exclusion divide, 142; languages, 92–3, 96–8, 117; teaching philosophy/identity, 99, 151, 159 Jacques’ friends: identity/belonging, 118–19; inclusion-exclusion divide, 142; minority/majority identity, 139 Jedwab, J., 27 Jones, B.M., 143 Juteau, D., 9, 120, 127 Kirk, J., 149 knowledge transmission. See philosophies of education

Lamarre, P., 34, 120, 121 language, political force of: agent of regulation, 111; cultural reproduction in education, 10, 20–3, 109, 145, 148, 157–8, 161; dynamism of, 41; historical context, 25–7, 29–30, 47–8, 127–8, 129–30; inclusion-exclusion divide (see under Quebec society); language and culture as distinct, 92–5, 116–17, 143, 168–9; life history findings, 22, 23; majority or minority identity (see under minority politics/ identity); negotiating identity, 117–18; Ontario minoritylanguage teachers, 157–8; Québécois identity, 96–7, 118, 164; relationship with world, 128–9, 160, 169; role of minority-language education, 109–10, 160–1, 165; standard versus vernacular French, 143; between two languages, 47–8. See also language-planning policies; power relationships language and discourse, 128–9 language-planning policies: historical context, 25–9, 30–3, 127–8, 129–30; impact of, 24–9, 127–8; in Ontario, 156, 160–1; Ontario and Quebec minority-language education in, 160–1; teachers’ experiences with, 10. See also language, political force of languages of home/family: birthplace and first language, 13; discussion in exogamous families, 60; Ontario and Quebec teachers compared, 154–5; resisting family heritage, 65–6, 68; role in culture/

Index 211  language transmission, 156; of study participants (see individual names); survey statistics, 14–16, 18–19. See also identity and identity discourses Laurendeau-Dunton Commission, 29 Laurentians, 50, 73, 75, 77–8, 79–80, 123 legislation: official linguistic minorities, 4, 129–30; Quiet Revolution and, 25–7, 127. See also language-planning policies; individual legislations Lesage, Jean, 129 Levine, M., 127–8 life histories (Quebec English minoritylanguage teachers): about/general, 19–22, 19n1; identity, complex notion of, 21–2; relationship with research/researcher, 169–72. See also English minority-language teachers’ study (Quebec); individual participants’ names linguistic minority community. See community, linguistic minority MacLure, M., 162 Magnan, M.O., 120, 121, 138 majority-language education. See French majority-language ­education Manitoba, 63–4; Winnipeg, 55–7 Mann, R., 127 Martel, M., 24, 128 McAndrew, M., 26–7, 135 McGill University, 52–3, 59, 61, 72, 102–3 media. See English minority-language resources; French minority-­ language resources

methodology: geographical context of studies, 35, 153; life history approach, 19–22, 19n1, 169–72 (see also life histories [Quebec English minority-language teachers]); qualitative research, 4, 5–6, 19–22, 153, 162; research and researcher’s history, 6–8, 169–72; study objectives, 9–10; surveys (see English minority-language teachers’ study [Quebec]; French minority-language teachers’ study [Ontario]) Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports, Quebec, 68–9, 72, 91, 110, 135, 161 minority-language education. See English minority-language education; French immersion; French minority-language education minority-language resources. See ­English minority-language resources; French minority-­ language resources minority-language teaching, Quebec and Ontario compared: diversity of school population, 167; majority context influence on, 100; Ontario teachers’ discourses, 155–8; philosophy differences, 109; Quebec teachers’ discourses, 158–61; role of schools compared, 146, 153–5, 159–61; study focus, 10, 22–3. See also English minority-language teachers’ study (Quebec); French minoritylanguage teachers’ study (Ontario) minority politics/identity: definitions, 9, 61, 127, 134 (see also power relationships); fragile

212 Index majority of francophones, 4, 26–7, 88–9, 135, 164; inclusion-exclusion divide (see under Quebec society); majority or minority identity, 28–9, 42, 49–50, 58–9, 61, 68–9, 70–1, 77, 88–9, 110, 125–6, 134–41; minoritization, 122, 138–41, 160, 164; Ontario and Quebec education compared, 160–1; politics of identity/position, 114; as social construct, 9, 120–1, 147. See also anglophones in Quebec; community, linguistic minority; identity and identity discourses mobility and identity, 119 Montreal: access to minoritylanguage resources, 49, 58–9, 88–9; anglophone exodus, 130; anglophone roots, 37; compared to rest of Quebec, 38, 88–9, 138, 140, 159, 164; geographic identity, 118; minority-language resources, 58–9, 136, 167–8; minority/majority identity, 138–41; multiethnicity of, 44, 49–50, 115, 123, 124 mouvance, 8. See also identity and identity discourses Munro, P., 20 national identity, 10, 120; anglophone exodus and, 130. See also identity and identity discourses; language-planning policies National Union, 30 Official Languages Act (1969), 4 official linguistic minorities, 4, 129–30; calculating language minorities/majorities, 27–8

Olsen, B., 147, 149, 166 Ontario: language-planning policies, 156, 160–1. See also Franco-Ontarian identity; French minority-language teachers’ study (Ontario); minority-language teaching, Quebec and Ontario compared Pâquet, M., 24, 128 Parti Québécois, 25–6, 32–3, 40, 129–30, 169 Pettinicchio, D., 129, 130 philosophies of education: about/general, 145–6; cultural reproduction, 91–2, 98, 100–1, 116, 141, 148; in French minoritylanguage education, 157, 159–60, 166–7; knowledge transmission, 22, 46, 157; personal/professional identity of teachers, 146–8, 149–52, 157, 166–7 (see also under individual names) Pilote, A., 24, 141 politics: as taboo subject, 42, 141. See also language, political force of; legislation power relationships: in act of othering (see under belonging); in definitions of minority, 9, 61, 127, 134; global dominance of English, 169; language in, 128–30; minoritization, 122, 138–41; minority-language education compared, 160–1; Quebec’s linguistic duality, 29, 38–40, 49–50, 83–4, 88–9. See also language, political force of private school system (Quebec), 32, 32n3

Index 213  professional identity of teachers. See philosophies of education public/private linguistic identity, 116, 117 Quebec: anglophone roots, 37; anglophone traditions, 52, 118–19, 124, 165; geographic identity, 118; study in historical context, 25–7. See also anglophones in Quebec; minority-language teaching, Quebec and Ontario compared Quebec Advisory Board on English Education (ABEE), 33, 167, 168 Quebec Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). See Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) Quebec City: anglophone community, 37, 87, 88–9, 107, 117, 133–4; francophone outsiders, 103–5, 116, 121, 163; identity boundary, 141 Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA), 33 Québécois identity, 24, 25, 70, 86, 96–7, 104, 118, 125, 127, 164. See also identity and identity discourses Quebec society: inclusion-exclusion divide, 22, 39–41, 60–1, 67, 76–7, 86–7, 128, 141–4; Québécois identity (see Québécois identity); rural/urban experience, 58–9, 75–6, 164–5; social and linguistic changes, 24, 25, 113, 127; stratification of, 38. See also language, political force of Quiet Revolution, 24, 25, 127. See also Quebec society Radice, M., 130 rapports sous tension (Magnan), 138

rapport to identity and language, 5, 5n1, 7, 29, 39, 60, 117, 119, 163. See also identity and identity discourses referendums on Quebec separatism, 102–3, 131–2, 169 religion: denominational rivalry, 38; role in culture/language transmission, 155–6; separate schools and community, 123 residential centre for young offenders, 53–4 resources. See English minority-­ language resources; French minority-language resources Rivière-du-Loup, 87 Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, 29 Rutherford, J., 163 Saguenay, 106 Sally (and family): about/general, 36–7; anglophone community, 124; anglophone Quebecer, 37–9, 163; career path, 42–6; commentary on study, 171; education of own children, 42, 143–4; identity/ belonging, 39–41, 115–16; inclusion-exclusion divide, 141–2; language politics/dynamics, 131–2; languages, 37, 41–2; minority/ majority identity, 136, 139; teaching philosophy/identity, 44–5, 149–50, 158 Sally’s friends: anglophone community, 122–3; identity/ belonging, 117–18; language politics/dynamics, 131, 132; minority/majority identity, 139

214 Index Sarah (and family): about/ general, 55–6; anglophone, St. Boniface, 55–8, 163; anglophone community, 123, 124; career path, 61–4; commentary on study, 171; education of own children, 60–1, 143–4; identity/belonging, 58–9, 115–16, 171; inclusion-exclusion divide, 142–3; language, 55–6, 59–61; minority/majority identity, 136, 139; teaching philosophy/ identity, 63–4, 150, 159 Sarah’s friends: Montreal compared to regions, 140–1 Serafina (and family): about/ general, 65; career path, 71–3; commentary on study, 171; education of own children, 70, 143–4; identity/belonging, 67–9, 115, 116, 163, 171; inclusionexclusion divide, 143; languages, 65, 69, 117; minority/majority identity, 135–6, 137; teaching philosophy/identity, 72–3, 149; trilingual, English, French, Italian, 65, 67, 163 Serafina’s friends: anglophone community, 124–5; minority/ majority identity, 138–9 Shelley (and family): about/ general, 73; anglophone, Acadian roots, 74, 163; career path, 79–82; commentary on study, 171; education of own children, 77–9, 143–4; identity/belonging, 75–7, 116–17, 163; inclusion-exclusion divide, 142; language politics/ dynamics, 132; languages, 74, 77–9, 117; teaching philosophy/identity, 81, 150–1, 158, 161

Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages, 34, 133, 141 statistics: anglophone bilingualism, 132–3; anglophones by region, 28; anglophones inside Quebec, 3, 27–8; children of immigrants, 29–30; demographic and linguistic profiles, 12–15; francophones outside Quebec, 3; identity (survey), 114–15. See also appendix, pages 173–96 St. Boniface, Winnipeg, 55–7 St-Jean-Baptiste tradition, 52 St. Leonard crisis, 30 St. Vital, Winnipeg, 55–6 surveys. See English minority-language teachers’ study (Quebec); French minority-language teachers’ study (Ontario); and appendix, pages 173–96 Taylor, D., 25, 132, 164 teachers. See English minority-­ language teachers’ study (­Quebec); French minority-­ language teachers’ study (Ontario); life histories (Quebec English minority-language teachers); individual participants’ names teachers’ unions: union delegate work, 43–4; union representatives, 98–9 teaching English as a second language, 44, 53 Thanksgiving (anglophone traditions), 52, 118–19, 124, 165 Thomas, L., 147 Torkington, K., 114 trilingual identities. See bilingualism and bilingual identities (includes trilingualism)

Index 215  Trois-Rivières, 92–4, 96, 98, 100–1, 118, 139 United States: cultural identity, 92–5, 116–17; cultural influence, 55, 83–4, 119; loss of French, 38

Université de Montréal, 93–4 Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), 60 Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 94 Wall, C., 149