I am the French Specialization Coordinator at UBC where I have also been working as a teacher educator in French and Indigenous Education for the past six years, while still involved in the French immersion classroom with the Vancouver School Board. More recently collaborated in piloting the design and the delivery of a mandated course to all UBC Elementary teacher candidates : “Introduction to Teaching, Learning and Reclaiming Languages.” Last year, upon request from UBC’s Associate Dean of Indigenous Education, I also adapted to French and delivered a new course in the French online MEd in Modern Languages program at UBC entitled “Traditions orales et récits autochtones en éducation” seeking to explore means to center orality in the French language classroom.
I am currently pursuing my doctoral studies in Social Justice Education & Francophonies, Education and Diversity at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. I am passionate about seeking ways to create a more inclusive and practical approach in the decolonizing of French language teaching and French teacher education. My research interests include looking at decolonization from a relational standpoint (S. Pasternak) where the focus is placed on relationship building between Indigenous-Settler to explore means to better inform implications for language teaching education. At this time, concepts of solidarity and resistance (M. Cannon) in addition to the notion of ‘Ethical Space for Dialogue” (Ermine, 2007) are at the center of my emerging work that intersects with that of Multilingual Approaches to language teaching (Prasad, Lory)