Toronto, October 2, 2003
The Great Seduction: A Strategy to Promote French-Language Education
Speaking notes for the 56th Conference of the Association canadienne
d'éducation de langue française
Dr. Dyane Adam - Commissioner of Official Languages
Check against delivery
Hello everyone,
I would like to speak to you directly today, without any prepared formula, without artifice, like friends who can confide in each other. I do not want to rehash things you already know and repeat all the usual clichés. You all work in French-language education and know very well the challenges that lie ahead.
Introduction
The road leading to full governance of our schools has been long and arduous. You know this better than anyone else because you experienced it yourselves. We are now at a crossroads. French-language schools are a reality but our objective now is to fill the classrooms. We are all seeking ways to foster the full vitality of French-language education in our communities. We also know that this objective will mean recruiting all rights holders so that all Francophones may benefit from these schools.
I would like to share a few thoughts with you and suggest a strategy for collective mobilization that I will call the great seduction.
Have you heard of the recent hit film, “La Grande Séduction” – The Great Seduction? This comedy is about an isolated community of less than 200 that depends on government assistance for its survival and that cleverly vies to convince a doctor to settle there. I am asking you to put everything you have into a great seduction campaign, a marketing strategy to promote French-language education.
The Great Seduction: a campaign to market French-language schools
Before we embark on this campaign of seduction, let us take a look in the mirror in order to understand the special position of French-language schools.
In English-language schools, primary education stresses the three R's: reading, writing and arithmetic. As Francophones, we must rise to the challenge of two more R's: recruitment and retention. This distinction clearly illustrates the difference between the approaches to education of our two language communities. We have not fully captured our market: we have to reach out, draw them in and keep them in our schools.
Our Francophone communities, especially minority ones, must be able to draw from as large a pool of students as possible while continuing to serve the community. You are probably familiar with the statistics, including those presented in our 2002 study entitled Rights, Schools and Communities in Minority Contexts1. Just over half of students entitled to receive an education in French attend French-language schools. The challenge for us is therefore to increase student enrolment. The federal government is also aiming to increase that proportion to 80 percent by 2013. The winners in society are the ones who aim high!
But who are these rights holders? Our 2002 study showed that over half (52.5%) of target school enrolment consists of the children of exogamous couples. This trend has been increasing since 19712. These children of exogamous couples, who have just one Francophone parent, represent an opportunity rather than a threat to the vitality of French-language schools. Similarly, immigration is a significant source of students for our French-language schools. We are calling upon the government to increase Francophone immigration. Did you know that Canada welcomes close to 20,0003 new Francophones or bilingual persons every year? It is now up to us to attract these immigrants and make them part of our communities and schools.
Let's go back to our great campaign of seduction. We have identified the pool we wish to draw on, but who is the target audience we must influence? It is young people and their parents who make the decisions about their education. The more informed parents are about the benefits of a French-language education, the more likely they will be to recognize the merits of your schools. Let us therefore outline a marketing strategy to reach them and attract as many students as possible who are entitled to an education in French. How can we promote and sell the benefits of French-language schools to our target audience?
The right messenger: young people
To begin, an effective campaign must be delivered by the right messenger. Marketing studies show that the messenger is as important as the message. For our purposes, I believe young people are the best ones to convey our message. They are in fact the primary beneficiaries of our campaign and those who are in the best position to speak to parents about the success of French-language schools. Encouraging them to speak up will also help us to meet their expectations.
Young people often voice specific concerns. They want to know how French-language school will better equip them for life. How will learning French open new cultural and professional horizons for them? We should let the students who went through our school system sell French-language schools to their friends and their parents, whether they are Francophiles or immigrants. By setting our sights on young people, we can also reach parents who are hesitant about French-language education, so that they ultimately choose your schools at their children's persistent urging.
Act like winners: reframing the message
We have identified our target audience and our messenger. What about the message? A good marketing campaign conveys a captivating and seductive message based on the schools' winning qualities. If we want parents to enrol their children in French-language schools, we must present just such a winning argument to them. In a campaign of seduction, our message must be so attractive that it is impossible to resist. What is our selling point? An open and modern school, rooted in a vibrant and dynamic community.
In drafting our message, we must pay close attention to our choice of words, turns of phrase and their implications. We have the unfortunate habit of describing Francophone communities as “minority communities.” The term “minority” puts many people off. We must examine our use of language to see if it causes our target audience to be apprehensive, the very audience we want to seduce. What young person nowadays wants to hear that she is part of a minority when she hopes to explore the world? Through the Internet, young people know that the world is at their fingertips. They want to identify with more than one group. How can we convince them that French-language schools give them access to the world and to dialogue with the full diversity of Canadian society? What Francophone immigrant who has given up everything to start over in Canada wants to settle his family in a “minority” group?
Such is the power of words: to seduce people, we must begin with a winning and positive message. Through a careful choice of words, we can change public perceptions, because it is ultimately a product's package that attracts the public's attention.
As a psychologist, I taught people to “reframe” the perceptions they have of themselves, of others or of a situation. By adopting a new way of looking at things, people can even see the same reality in a different light. I invite you to “reframe” the messages conveyed about French-language schools and Francophone communities, and to present them in a more engaging and flattering light.
Perhaps we might even consider dropping expressions that send a contradictory message to parents. Especially those who are still reluctant to send their children to French-language schools precisely because they do not want their children to live on the fringes of society. There are also parents who have an inaccurate and negative perception of the teaching of English in French-language schools. We should also think about sending them messages which convey that the best way to become bilingual is to enrol in a French-language school.
We can draw on research that shows that it is better to be educated in one's first language in order to become bilingual4. That is why there are more children at French-language schools who have a working knowledge of both official languages. Did you know that bilingual people in Canada earn an average of 10 percent more5 than unilingual Anglophones? Let us call upon young people, our messengers, who have done all their schooling in the French-language school system. Over and above speeches and studies, they are living proof of the success of French-language schools.
The product: consolidating your resources
The messenger is convincing; the message is positive and forceful; we must also offer a product that lives up to the hopes awakened by the great seduction. We want to deliver the goods: an irresistible, first-rate product. Seduction is not deception; it is a way to raise awareness of and sell a quality product. In contrast to the film, our strategy must reflect the reality of the product we have to offer. And we can do this.
We need more than a positive message to make French-language schools grow. We also have specific needs in terms of human, educational and material resources.
A young person who leaves a French-language school to attend an English-language school may cite the lack of equipment or athletic or extracurricular activities. A nice gym, a chance to play on a football or hockey team, and organized trips are undeniably attractive. We were all young once, after all. It is difficult for a French-language school to offer a full range of services if its enrolment is too low. But there are new ways to attack this problem.
A successful marketing strategy requires an analysis of the competition. Your competitors, you would say, are English-language schools. But perhaps there is also competition among your schools? Perhaps you could make the educational services you offer complement each other. As a French-language school board, for instance, you could agree to focus on specific fields such as sports, culture or an international component. You could as a group provide a whole range of services while maintaining a common core in each school and developing different specialties for each school. As a group, you must seek to offer an array of resources and services enabling you to compete with English-language schools. The model of specialized schools is a good example to bear in mind.
Speaking with a single voice
Successful campaigns also need mobilization and leadership. As McLuhan said, the medium is the message. In our case, the medium is “mobilization.” By mobilizing forces, you will be in a position to compete with English-language schools.
In the movie La Grande Séduction, beyond all the clever schemes the villagers devise, their real seductive power comes from their determination, pride, courage and mobilization for a common cause, the common cause that becomes the focus of all their efforts.
The entire community should be engaged in the great campaign of seduction. It is a collective decision, a joint exercise to offer a better product together. If our campaign is not ongoing and supported by the community, nothing or very little will be achieved.
We have schools. We have the bricks and mortar. Now we must mobilize the entire community to work continuously to fill these schools. We will not have succeeded until we run out of space. All social and economic stakeholders could take up the message promoting the French-language school system, including business people, who could argue that French-language schools produce the best bilingual employees.
There are always a few people who carry the message for the entire community; they are the leaders. That is only normal. The key is that they must have faith and must be determined. If they are not convinced by your campaign, they should back out, because the great seduction will not succeed with half-hearted efforts.
We must be convinced and convincing. We must get the message out and repeat it often. Action is the means to make the campaign really take off; repeating the message will sustain its vitality and direction.
Some people will ask how we can involve everyone in this endeavour without succumbing to the clichés about the survival of the French language and culture. You can tell them that having strong schools is like having strong lungs. Schools are the lungs of the community, the neighbourhood. A strong school is the sign of a strong community.
When the parents of Saint Sauveur, New Brunswick, fought against the closing of their school a few years ago, they knew that an empty school is the death knell for a community.
Ultimately it is up to us to channel the local forces that are mobilized throughout the country to provide national scope. We must continue to share ideas in forums such as this one, work together more and develop initiatives to help all Francophone communities. This will be our joint and determined plan of seduction.
We are in a market and the competition is stiff. Parents have a vast array of choices before them and want to choose the best product for their children to give them every opportunity in life. We must tell people what we have to offer and make it the best product possible.
Conclusion
We have everything we need to set our campaign in motion: a pool of potential students (rights holders and immigrants); our target audience (parents and their children); our messengers (young people); winning messages and vibrant schools. Now we must roll up our sleeves and set to work on the great seduction.
I am sure that every one of you – teachers, educators, parents and community members – will be able to take innovative and concrete measures. Little steps, such as simply talking to those around you, can be the seeds of great accomplishments, of a great seduction. The key is to put your ideas into motion, bearing your objectives in mind and, like myself, remaining confident of your ultimate success.
For any of you who would like to discuss these matters further, I invite you to attend a workshop to be offered tomorrow afternoon by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages in connection with this conference.
Thank you.
Notes
1 http://www.ocol-clo.gc.ca/html/lr_dl_2001_02_e.php
2 Government of Canada. (2003) The Next Act: New Momentum for Canada's Linguistic Duality. Ottawa: Privy Council Office, p. 20.
3 Jedwab, Jack. (2002) "Immigration and the Vitality of Canada's Official Language Communities." McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. This figure is based on average immigration figures from 1996 to 2000.
4 Landry, Rodrigue, and Serge Rousselle. (2003) Éducation et droits collectifs. Au-delà de l'article 23 de la Charte. Moncton : Éditions de la Francophonie. Labrie, Normand and Sylvie A. Lamoureux (eds.). (2003) L'éducation de langue française en Ontario : enjeux et processus sociaux. Sudbury : Prise de parole.
5 Jedwab, Jack. (2003) "It Pays to be Bilingual in Canada: Though Not Everywhere." Association for Canadian Studies.
