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Language Policy and Education in Canada

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Language Policy and Political Issues in Education

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

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Abstract

Canada is a settler nation with tremendous linguistic and cultural diversity, as reflected in its Indigenous peoples, in the groups descended from the French and the English, and in the many groups that have immigrated to Canada since it gained independence from Britain in 1867. This diversity is also reflected in the histories and current trajectories of the country’s language and education policies. As we shall see, education policies and practices are closely tied not only to the creation of an official language policy in 1969, which legitimized Canada’s two colonial languages, French and English, but also to government policies that repressed Indigenous languages and those related to official language training and immigrant “heritage” languages. Tracing the trajectories of these policies through the early twenty-first century brings into focus various developments in language politics, policy, and education that have arisen locally, regionally, and nationally and that have been shaped by and are shaping a dynamic linguistic landscape across the country.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel by Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada

    Donna Patrick

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  1. Donna Patrick
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Correspondence to Donna Patrick .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Teresa L. McCarty

  2. Faculty of Education and Social Work, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Stephen May

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Patrick, D. (2017). Language Policy and Education in Canada. In: McCarty, T., May, S. (eds) Language Policy and Political Issues in Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02344-1_30

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