The Use of Digital Tools in French as a Second Language Teacher Education in Ontario

This article discusses a 2021 survey of French as a second language (FSL) teacher candidates (TCs) in faculties of education in Ontario whose practice teaching experiences were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, pivoting them into remote FSL teaching and learning. The survey, which formed a component of a larger mixed method SSHRC-funded research project, was designed to capture the varied practice-teaching experiences of FSL teacher candidates in order to ascertain symmetries and asymmetries in their preferred digital practices, devices, and tools for both social communication and French language teaching and learning. Survey respondents from different teacher education programs in universities across Ontario provided a picture of scattered and fragmented approaches to FSL digital pedagogies and hinted at a persistent reliance on traditional FSL pedagogies in the classroom. Digital preferences for teaching and learning tended to be anchored in common educational tools and platforms that reaffirmed teacher-centred approaches to FSL rather than more innovative, learner-centred, and agentive language teaching and learning. The survey results raise an important question: Has FSL teacher education adequately moved with the communicative changes wrought by wider socio-technical transformations and related pedagogical innovations?

Speculative pedagogies: Envisioning change in teacher education

This article reports on a project that asked pre-service teachers to use science fictional and speculative storytelling to imagine the future of education. I explore the importance of making space for narrativizing and imagining educational and societal change with pre-service teachers, who are forming their pedagogical identities and perspectives, within the context of the current COVID-19 global pandemic. Various narrative approaches to future educational and pedagogical possibility are examined through thematic analysis of pre-service teachers’ future-based stories. This article signals the importance of using speculative storytelling to dismantle singular notions of what education might look like and the role that education might play in a changing society, particularly in the context of citizen-ship, community, and collective responsibility. © 2021 Intellect Ltd Article. English language.