From “La Plume de Ma Tante” to “Parlez-Vous Français?” The Making of French Language Policy in British Columbia, 1945-1982

Abstract

The following historical discussion chronicles the story of this success from 1945, when language instruction was first modernized, to passage of the Constitution Act in 1982 that enshrined minority language educational rights(4).This discussion illustrates how a province that had "not quite relinquished its old aspiration to be an Empire," (Ormsby, 1958, p. 494) in fact a province “more English than the English” (Reksten, 1986) in many of its social affectations, came to embrace educational bilingualism in its public schools. Using government records, published reports, personal papers, as well as various secondary sources, this analysis will examine how disparate social, educational, and political forces coalesced to convince provincial authorities?never known for their ultramontanist sentiments?to advocate French language study in symbolic support for a federalist view of Canada then deemed to be at risk. 

Beyond its value as an educational narrative, the reconstruction of French language policy in British Columbia should be of particular interest to educational administrators and policymakers because it illustrates how governments actually develop social and educational policies, how social environments act on institutions, and how the agenda for public education is sometimes transformed in places far from schools and even farther from the offices of those who govern and administer them.