The administrator or politician who cannot recognize
the importance
of foreign language learning will be among the first to call for
the elimination of a French program. Therefore, those who would call
themselves advocates for French language and culture programs must
first be foreign-language advocates.
Anyone who has tried to save a French program in distress, knows
instinctively that there is a difference between promotion and
advocacy. Promotion seems to speak universal truths about the value of
language learning itself, or even the value of knowing a particular
language and its cultures. Designed to increase visibility or
desirability of that language and culture, it can be used to attract
new learners, or to motivate those who are already learners. Promotion
works best if there is national base of shared materials and
information to be used on the local level by competent enthusiastic
teachers. Of course these efforts can be enhanced by local data and
materials. You promote like you advertise, because the world should
know.
Language advocacy, on the other hand, generally treats identified
specific and diverse problems associated with one or a set of language
and culture programs in defined geographic locations. Within that
context it seeks to influence public policy and resource allocation
decisions of specific political, economic, and social systems and
institutions. It generally occurs as a reaction to a program cut or
plans to cut a program, and you do it because you have to.
The reasons for an advocacy call often seem local, stemming from the
diversity inherent among American school districts. Here is why some
French programs are cut: revolving door position in a school district,
really poor teaching, French teacher fired for inappropriate
activities, another language being substituted for French, reduction to
Spanish, all foreign languages suffering at the same time, the way in
which a particular district faces a state budget deficit, local tax
support down, dwindling and unsustainable district enrollment, the
politics of a dominant school board, PTO or booster club member, no
practical need for French identified for that region, and pure,
unadulterated agoraphobia.
One of the chief difficulties with advocacy is that since our need for
it appears to arise largely from local situations, there is reluctance
to develop centralized strategies, and many efforts, both successful
and unsuccessful, have been built literally from scratch. However,
along with local causes are often less obvious general ones. These
include both ignorance of and misinterpretation of facts, like a world
population of "native-speaking" Hispanics numerically superior to that
native speakers of French, our current rash of jingoistic French
bashing, with its racist overtones, our ignorance of the roles played
by French speakers in US history, ignorance of the importance of French
in the operation of international non-government organizations, the
linguistic and cultural dynamics of globalized business (not just
import-export, but component and process chaining, foreign-direct
investment, etc.).
The AATF has a very good "Commission for the Promotion of French". When
it was established in 1997, its main objective was "to help teachers
recruit students by producing various documents such as flyers, guides,
teaching ideas, and letters to convince students, parents, and
administrators of the value of French." Many of the materials developed
by the Task Force and the Commission are available through the AATF
Materials Center. Regular dissemination of these materials by
enthusiastic teachers will reduce the need for advocacy.
But wait, there's more. The Commission sponsors a regular feature in
the National Bulletin entitled "Promotion in Motion." With a click on
the "Promotion in Motion" section, I discovered Barbara Ransford's
article, "Advocacy Lessons Learned" from a 2001 issue of the the AATF
National Bulletin, and I began to learn of the AATF's concern for
advocacy.
Since the loss of a French program often has a complex web of both
local and non-local causes, since these may stem from community
diversity reflected in all American educational programs and reactions
to them, since they may also grow from the prejudice, ignorance and
misinformation to which we are universally susceptible, it makes sense
to create central resources on the national and state levels, and to
implement a strategic framework that will work on the local level. In
this way advocates will not reinvent the wheel, and there will exist
the kind of systems redundancy that will allow for multiple arguments
to aim at a variety of key individuals and groups.
Here are some suggestions on how to set this up, gathering pertinent
information about a particular district and state. My caveat is that
while it will be impossible to gather complete information in all the
categories at one time, additional information may fall into place
during stages of the advocacy process.
Local Level
Profiling School Districts where French programs are in
trouble:
Identify and study troubled districts.
Find web sites for schools and the school board if possible.
Are school board meeting or PTO schedules available on line?
Are school board meeting or PTO minutes available on line?
Is a district school system report card available on line?
Find out if French is being cut to introduce another language.
Identify official reasons for cutting French programs.
Is this a partial cut (number of classes or levels) or complete cut?
Identify language dept. chair, language supervisor, general curriculum
supervisor.
Identify state supervisor of foreign languages.
Find out if teachers are members of AATF or other language teaching
organizations.
Identify AATF members closest to the troubled district.
Identify graduates who have benefited from the program (especially
high-profile ones).
Identify students who really like the program.
Identify pro-French segments of PTO/PTA, faculty, and student body.
Identify guidance counselors, and find out how they stand on this issue.
Identify local and regional media (newspaper, radio, TV, web), with
contact people.
identify the local mayor.
Identify local or regional allies (in businesses, political positions,
colleges).
Identify language department & school of education in nearby
colleges.
Identify any other educational organization for international education.
Identify nearest French, or Canadian consulate.
Identify nearest Alliance Française.
Identify and collate state-specific advocacy facts.
Identify French classes in strong districts willing to write letters
supporting French in troubled districts.
Identify French-owned companies, French goods importers and exporters
to francophone companies in the region.
Identify regional companies with branches in francophone countries (Is
there someone who would come to speak or write a letter?).
Identify local native speakers willing to speak or write letters.
Identify exciting francophone cultural events in the regions of
troubled districts.
Identify other extra-curricular opportunities for students in troubled
districts.
What is the percentage of kids who go on to college from high school?
What is the district's financial status (any visible budget woes)?
What is the district's status with respect to "No Child Left Behind"?
State Level
State profiling
State Board of Education web site.
State Department of Education web site.
State Curriculum Specialist in charge.
State Teacher qualifications.
State teacher quality enhancement programs.
State Language Curriculum.
State Language Standards.
State legislature education committees on Foreign Languages.
State exit proficiency expectations or exams.
State High-School Graduation Requirements.
State Public College entrance expectations or requirements.
State School District Report Cards on line.
State Economic Development Department.
State Foreign Language Teaching Association.
State Senators and Representatives (contact information).
Does the above have an advocacy committee or program?
Identify AATF chapters in the state.
Identify nearest Alliance Française chapters in the state.
Are any state accredited online or dual credit French courses being
offered?
In which districts of the French and Canadian Consulates is the state
located (locate their web sites)?
What are the state's practices of district evaluation for "No Child
Left Behind"?
An extremely important part of working at the state level is a web site
making a comprehensive case for the benefits of knowing French within
that state. In order to serve its several purposes it should have the
kind of redundancy that would support several different arguments.
Ideally, such a site might have information about any French language
media either native to the state trans-border (for radio and
television). The following resources may help state advocacy webmasters
in this area:
It would be appropriate also to include information about frequent
French or francophone cultural events (film, music festivals, famous
art collections), demographic information about the state's
francophone, cajun or French creole population, organizational support
for French language or francophone cultures in the state (AATF and
Alliance Française chapters, appropriate consulate offices, your
state foreign language association) French or francophone moments in
state history. For the important bottom-line issue of the
French-speaking world in the state economy (import-export data,
information on component and process chaining, foreign-direct
investment, francophone tourists, etc.). In some cases, it might be
impressive to include information about famous state residents who
speak French. Finally, there should be a link to a national advocacy
site.
State-Specific Sites for French Advocacy
We have AATF Advocacy Fact Packs for the states above and for Alabama,
Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi,
Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, US Virgin
Islands, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. If your state is not on
this list or one the list of state web sites and you have some advocacy
needs, please contact us.
Each state's page will be different in a variety of ways. For example,
I did not have the celeb idea you see on the Tennessee page until I had
done the New York page. Of course, as we progress AATF members will
come up with new and better categories of information. Not every
category will be relevant to targeted groups or individuals, but the
categories exist because the information from each might be used in
constructing an effective argument aimed at a particular group or key
individual. Redundancy is the operative word here. The virtue of a
plainly programmed and accessible web resource is its universal
availability, and its potential for flexible service. Local advocates
can create their own district-specific documents by selecting from the
state page and adding their own local information. In our war against
weak budgets, ignorance and agoraphobia, a web site like this is a
weapon of mass instruction. Here are tutorials for two simple ways of
making an informational web site using materials most people have or
can get for free:
State and Chapter Coordinators
All AATF chapters will have their own advocacy coordinators, and this
is what we would like them to do or "coordinate":
1. Work with other chapter members or with other chapters (in
multi-chapter states) to make available state-specific advocacy
materials on a web page.
2. Organize information pertinent to the status of French in their
chapters. This might include some of the answers to queries in the
district and state profile lists from
3. Maintain a name and address list of influential people in the
chapter (state supervisors, state and national representatives and
senators, allies in business, state foreign language association
contacts, etc.).
4. Identify members and interested allies who are willing to travel and
speak,
those who are willing to phone and those willing to write letters.
5. Create, or be ready to create correspondence templates for letter
writing campaigns.
6. Put the call out that you are interested in any sign that a French
program will be cut, scaled back, replaced by something else, or that
someone is struggling to introduce a French program in a district where
there is none.
7. If possible, map out where chapter members are geographically, so
you can call on those near trouble spots.
8. Share ideas, success and failure stories with other chapters.
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