Article In:
Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education: Online-First Articles

Student retention in minority immersion education

What can we learn from parental decisions?

 | University of Alberta
 | Dublin City University
 | University of Alberta
Despite the popularity of immersion/bilingual programs across the globe, student retention from kindergarten to the last year of high school has been a preoccupying issue for decades. There is a dearth of research exploring the challenges faced by parents, who are the primary decision-makers when it comes to enrolment and withdrawal. Thus, we lack a critical understanding to address the issue of student retention in immersion programmes. This article reports on two large-scale online survey studies, one conducted in the Canadian French Immersion (FI) context and the other in the Irish Immersion (IM) context. Both studies explored parental decision-making processes in relation to enrolment and withdrawal. Findings revealed common challenges, such as the need for greater support for students with special education needs. Parental motivation and understanding of the L2 acquisition process were also found to be critical when it comes to resilience to continue in the programme.
Keywords: immersion, attrition, retention, special education needs, parents’, expériences
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1What we already know about attrition in immersion contexts
    • 2.2Why a focus on parental decision is key when exploring attrition in immersion contexts
    • 2.3How our study proposes to respond to the current lack of understanding
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Canadian and Irish study
      • 3.1.1The pan-Canadian study
      • 3.1.2The Irish study
  • 4.Results/findings
    • 4.1Why do parents enrol in an immersion programme?
      • 4.1.1Why? Results from the Canadian study
      • 4.1.2Why? Results from the Irish study
    • 4.2When do parents decide to withdraw their children from the immersion programs?
      • 4.2.1When? Results from the Canadian study
      • 4.2.2When? Results from the Irish study
    • 4.3Why do parents decide to withdraw their children?
      • 4.3.1Why? Results from the Canadian study
      • 4.3.2Why? Results from the Irish study
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Parental motivation
    • 5.2Lack of support for children with special education needs
    • 5.3L2 acquisition
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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