Dans le contexte québécois, la protection et la promotion du français orientent les politiques linguistiques scolaires (Loi 101, Loi 14, PL 94). La mise en œuvre de ces politiques repose toutefois largement sur les enseignants, véritables médiateurs entre prescriptions institutionnelles et réalités locales (Hornberger et Johnson, 2007). Cette communication, issue d’une recherche doctorale en cours, porte sur les idéologies linguistiques d’enseignants d’une école secondaire en Mauricie et leur rôle dans la mise en œuvre des politiques linguistiques en classe. Ancrée dans le champ de la politique et de la planification linguistiques (Cooper, 1989; Johnson, 2013) et dans une approche critique des rapports de pouvoir liés à la langue (Shohamy, 2006; Tollefson, 1991), elle présentera une analyse préliminaire des pratiques pédagogiques documentées par une étude ethnographique.

Cooper, R. L. (1989). Language planning and social change. Cambridge University Press.

Hornberger, N. H. et Johnson, D. C. (2007). Slicing the Onion Ethnographically: Layers and Spaces in Multilingual Language Education Policy and Practice. TESOL Quarterly, 41(3), 509–532.

Johnson, D. C. (2013). language policy. Palgrave Macmillan.

Shohamy, E. G. (2006). Language policy : hidden agendas and new approaches. Routledge.

Tollefson, J. W. (1991). Planning Language, Planning Inequality: Language Policy in the Community. Longman.

French-language schools in Ontario must both preserve a threatened minority language and foster inclusion among increasingly diverse learners. Historically, policies in this context targeted largely francophone or bilingual populations within francophone communities. Today’s classrooms, however, include plurilingual students whose repertoires extend beyond monolingual frameworks, challenging traditional assumptions about language and learning (Cummins, 2007; García & Li Wei, 2014). Policies meant to protect linguistic vitality often reinforce monolingual practices that conflict with these realities, creating tensions between policy and pedagogy. This presentation examines how the Politique d’aménagement linguistique (PAL, 2004) constructs such tensions by promoting French-only practices that restrict teachers’ flexibility and limit students’ linguistic agency. Drawing on Heller’s (2010) analysis of minority language schooling, it highlights how these dynamics shape perceptions of French as the language of institutional authority rather than lived identity. The presentation invites reflection on how preservation efforts might adapt toward more inclusive, plurilingual approaches.

Cummins, J. (2007). Rethinking Monolingual Instructional Strategies in Multilingual Classrooms. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10.

García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. Palgrave Macmillan.

Heller, M. (2010). Linguistic minorities and modernity (2nd ed.). Continuum.

I explore how the Steps to English Proficiency (STEP) policy (2015) shapes the education of multilingual learners from refugee backgrounds with interrupted schooling. STEP was created for accountability through assessment and tracking of Ontario’s English Language Learners; however, STEP mires educators in monolingual and deficit-based thinking (Bale et al., 2023). Using interpretive policy analysis (Yanow, 2007), I examine STEP’s appropriation by educators, academic experts, and school boards. Through thematic analysis of interviews, and content analysis of school board websites and a school board ethics rejection letter, we see STEP is perceived as both useful and problematic, but kept from scrutiny by school boards. I also find that STEP could be recreated into a plurilingual medium, embedding plurilingual pedagogy and assessment into classrooms.

Bale, J., Rajendram, S., Brubacher, K., Nii Owee, M. A., Burton, J., Wong, W., Zhang, Y., Larson, E. J., Gagné, A., & Kerekes, J. (2023). Centering multilingual learners and countering raciolinguistic ideologies in teacher education: Principles, policies and practices (pp. 137–162). Multilingual Matters.

Yanow, D. (2007). Qualitative-interpretive methods in policy research. In F. Fischer and G. J. Miller (Eds.). Handbook of public policy analysis: Theory, politics, and methods, (pp. 405–415). Taylor & Francis.