Principles of Bilingual Education in the 1920s: The Imperial Education Conferences and French-English Schooling in Alberta

Abstract

French Immersion and Francophone education in Alberta are both examples of publicly funded French-English bilingual education since the 1970s and 1980s. To better understand French Immersion in Alberta today, as a well as the basis of calls to recognize it as rights-based education, it is important to understand how bilingual education evolved during the early years in this province. In this historical research dissertation, bilingual education and policy formation in Alberta are examined in the context of the burgeoning provincial society, within a British dominion, at a time when English liberalism was beginning to recognize national minorities and the Empire was transforming into the Commonwealth. This case study is based on document analysis of reports from the Imperial Education Conferences, especially that of 1923, which promoted bilingual education. The conceptual framework is informed by principles of interpretive historical sociology, drawing upon Kymlicka's (1995/2000) liberal theoretical argument of national minority rights based on equality. Bilingual education was presented as a parental right at the Imperial Education Conference in 1911, 1923, and 1927. Through these conferences, new perspectives concerning bilingualism were diffused throughout the Commonwealth and managed, with assistance, to take root in Alberta. Given the notable experience of Wales and South Africa with bilingual education, and the slow but steady reconstruction of bilingual education in Alberta, Kymlicka's arguments for group differentiated rights within a liberal policy further clarifies the claim for French Immersion to be recognized as a type of rights-based education in Alberta.