Editorial

Since 1972, the Comparative and International Education Journal/Éducation comparée et internationale (CIE/ÉCI) has welcomed Canadian comparative studies, particularly on Indigenous Peoples, as well as comparative research on various educational contexts and topics, accepting manuscripts in both French and English. As editor of the French portion, I would like to address in this editorial space the challenges associated with bilingual publications, and highlight some areas of research that the journal would be happy to support through the publication of articles in French.

At the last conference, the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada/la Société canadienne d’éducation comparée et internationale (CIESC/SCÉCI) organized a panel for graduate students to present their work in the field of comparative and international education. We had hoped the panel would be bilingual, with some students presenting their work in French. Unfortunately, we did not receive any submissions. And we think this reflects the challenge we have been facing all along in making the journal a fully bilingual space, rather than a publishing space where two solitudes could cohabit, with Anglophone readers possibly only reading articles in English, and Francophone readers possibly only reading articles in French. Are Francophone authors more interested in publishing in a Quebec or French/European journal that will ensure them a wider Francophone readership? We’d love to hear from you, so please share your experience with us!

Our vision for this journal is to see the emergence of a bilingual space that would enable readers to benefit from the views of both Francophone and Anglophone academia on common, collective, complementary issues: issues of equity/diversity/inclusion, decolonization, anti-racist education, and issues related to international mobility, to name but a few. The Anglophone and Francophone academic circles are porous, with researchers who, of course, navigate between both spaces. But these academic circles developed around different disciplinary boundaries, different academic cultures, with some concepts and leading authors moving around with different degrees between the two, or at different rates, with different resonances, and sometimes with the complex challenges of translating concepts from one language to another. I can refer here to the work of Dervin (2012), and in particular to the book Les impostures interculturelles (Intercultural Impostures), which already posed, more than 10 years ago, the difficulty of such a concept as intercultural, to travel from one country to another, from one context to another, from one author to another and of course from one language to another. This is also the observation that emerged from the international work “La circulation internationale des idées en didactique des langues,” where the authors, in particular Zarate and Liddicoat (2009), spoke of “veritable geological fault lines” or “chasms of meaning” (p. 192), when it comes to communicating between researchers of different nationalities and languages.

In the context of my position, I have the opportunity to read the articles we publish in both French and English, and I think the journal could play a bridging role in this respect. There are a few areas of research in particular that I have identified where we would undoubtedly benefit from more emulation between the Anglophone and Francophone academic worlds. The first is the decolonization of education, education for reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and the Indigenization of education systems. There are more and more publications in this field, by both Indigenous and allied authors, but there are only a handful of authors publishing in French on the subject across Canada, from East to West. Of course, it is the rich literature from Anglophone Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Scandinavia that will best provide food for thought, and this literature is mainly in English. However, there are also specific issues that benefit from being addressed in French, from a Francophone perspective: What is the role of Francophone educational communities and policies in the decolonization process of Francophone education systems? What specific educational initiatives in Francophone schools around the world, in Canada and elsewhere, are enabling us to innovate and move forward on these issues? How can we talk about them in French, in connection with existing Francophone research? Wouldn't we benefit from more dialogue here?

With this in mind, we are delighted to offer our readers two articles in French in this final issue of 2023—one written by Campeau and Ottawa, and the other by Côté, Francombe, Odegard, and Toptchiian. And while we are on the subject of decolonization, it is worth noting that a multitude of countries formerly colonized by France and Francophone Belgium are increasingly recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including their right to education. In 2011, the Republic of Congo became the first African country to adopt a specific law on the promotion and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Over the last 10 years or so, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Burundi—to name but a few Francophone African countries—have recognized their Indigenous Peoples in their constitutions. We would like to hear what researchers in these countries have to say about the decolonization of their education systems, in an academic arena that has been, also strongly influenced by the European academic system, and from which some researchers are seeking to emancipate themselves.

The interests of a bilingual journal such as CIE/ÉCI—that has taken on the mission to make the voices of the South, the epistemologies of the South, heard—could precisely be the springboard we need to affirm the Francophone authors from the Global South, in echoing Anglophone authors from the South that we have already published, on the fringe of European or France-centric academic publishing spaces. Decolonization, Indigenization, reconciliation, as well as anti-racist education with concepts like, for example, “Whiteness” or “White privilege,” which do not circulate much in French academia, are all subjects on which we could use more publications, in synergy with Anglophone research rather than in a silo mentality, in isolation. We also see a lot of Anglophone research on this topic anchored in a critical posture, in a committed positionality, whereas this is less marked in Francophone academia. This is also a gap that would be interesting to discuss in our bilingual journal, when seen as a space for dialogue.

In the hope that these words will resonate with you, and in the hope as well that they will inspire you to publish on these subjects, particularly in French, we now move on to the articles themselves.

Campeau and Ottawa’s article addresses the issue of Indigenous representation in science education, pointing out that there is a lack of models that integrate Indigenous perspectives into the school science curriculum, all while respecting First Peoples pedagogical principles. The two authors contribute to filling this gap by presenting elements of Indigenous pedagogy that could help develop a culturally meaningful approach to science education.

The second contribution by Côté, Francombe, Odegard, and Toptchiian traces the experiences of three non-Indigenous student-learner-researchers in their learning from and with the land. Through their self-study methodology rooted in transformative inquiry, the three students share how learning from and with the land can offer a path towards reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

The third article, “Academic Language Development and Linguistic Discrimination: Perspectives from Internationally Educated Students,” by Page, explores student perspectives on themes of language development and discrimination in their time at university in Canada. Page employs Appreciative Inquiry, a research method that allows her participants to discuss some of the positive experiences they have had, while also supporting them enough that they felt comfortable describing some of the linguistic discrimination they faced in their studies. The result is a piece that illustrates the complexity of supporting language development without discriminating against language learners, and while resisting the colonial language hierarchies that can suffuse academic discourses in Canadian postsecondary institutions.

Still on the topic of student perspectives, El Masri and Khan share their research on domestic students’ perception of study abroad programs at an Ontarian college in the article “Study Abroad at an Ontario College: Towards More Accessible and Inclusive Programming.” They offer an overview of study abroad policy in Ontario, and then draw on a survey of students to identify their perception of study abroad programs. They found that students wanted to participate in study abroad programs, but felt there were a significant number of barriers preventing them from seriously considering a study abroad experience. The authors argue that understanding these student perceptions can help generate a new approach to study abroad, coordinated across the national, provincial, and institutional level, that could encourage students to overcome the perceived barriers and engage with study abroad opportunities.

Emerging Scholarship

This issue marks the first appearance of a new subsection within the research papers collection in CIE/ÉCI. As part of the journal’s commitment to cutting-edge research and mentoring early career scholars, CIE/ÉCI and CIESC/SCÉCI came together to create a “lightning round” of presentations by early career scholars at the annual CIESC/SCÉCI conference. The session featured graduate student research indicating new directions for research in our field. Participants were invited to submit their papers to CIE/ÉCI for peer review. We present three papers in this inaugural feature. The Emerging Scholarship section will repeat in future fall issues of the journal, and early career scholars are encouraged to consider their work for the annual lightning round at the CIESC/SCÉCI conference in preparation for submission to the journal.

Pham’s article, “Environmental Education in Vietnam: A Critical Discourse Analysis,” examines environmental education policies in Vietnam and finds that environmental education is limited by the ideological priorities of Vietnam’s ruling class, showing the importance of examining the local context when examining policies.

Jiang also calls for more consideration of context, specifically in understanding how international students interact with career services on postsecondary campuses in the article “A Critical Analysis of International Students’ Experiences in Using Career Services by Adopting Neo-Racism Theory.” Building on research that shows international students engaging less with career centres than domestic students, Jiang theorizes why this might be, challenging the traditional perception that international students simply lack knowledge of the career services that are available. He argues that this lack of knowledge may actually reflect the influence of neo-racism on campuses, and especially in student services.

Finally, Selvarajah in her article, “Resistance Through Connections, Communities, and Friendships: Interrelational Possibilities of Educational Curriculum Design,” examines the role of settlement-based educational programs in community building among mature Tamil-Canadian immigrant women. Selvarajah finds that despite Canada’s reputation for supporting new arrivals, the women interviewed still feel isolated within mainstream Canadian community. Settlement-based education, which is supposed to help them overcome these feelings, may contribute to their feelings of isolation, especially as it features a curriculum that does not account for the experiences or expertise of these women.

As a group, the pieces representing the work of three emerging scholars, signal exciting new directions in research.