A Critical Review of Language Teacher Preparation and Induction in Canada: Polishing a Poisoned Apple?

• In Event: In the Intersection of Language, Culture, Pedagogy, and Teacher Preparation

Abstract

In Canada, there is an urgent need to improve second language (L2) teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention, fuelled by a decades-long teacher shortage and calls to address the marginalized status of L2 education. This paper draws on a national study of L2 teacher education, examining how teachers experience the process from program admission to their first five years in the field. Website scans, surveys, and focus groups with over 250 new L2 teachers, school district personnel, and faculty members provide insights into ways in which teacher preparation and induction reproduces the very marginalization it sets out to address. Analysis of qualitative data highlight ways in which ideologies and institutional practices collide unproductively to maintain rather than remedy these poisons.

Authors

• Cameron Smith, University of Ottawa
  Presenting Author

• Stephanie Arnott, University of Ottawa
  Presenting Author

• Amanda Battistuzzi, University of Ottawa
  Presenting Author

• Mimi Masson, University of Sherbrooke
  Presenting Author