Canada’s Official Languages: Policy Versus Work Practice in the Federal Public Service
()
About this ebook
Canada’s official languages legislation fundamentally altered the composition and operational considerations of federal institutions. With legislative change, Canada’s public service has achieved the equitable representation of its two official languages groups, provided services to the public in both official languages, and has codified rights for public servants to work in their official language of choice. On paper, the regime is robust. In practice, there is a persistent divergence between policy and practice, as English dominates as the regular language of work in the federal public service.
Through an historical institutionalist lens based on extensive archival research and semi-structured interviews, Gaspard shows that the implementation of official languages policy in the federal public service from 1967–2013 could not challenge the predominance of English as the operating language of the federal public service.
The analysis of the roles of actors, ideas and institutions that influenced the policy implementation process show that a lack of structural change, inadequate managerial engagement, and a false sense that both official languages are equally ingrained in the public service explain the persistence of English as the dominant language of work.
This book is published in English.
-
La politique sur les langues officielles du Canada a transformé la composition et les considérations opérationnelles des institutions fédérales. Grâce aux modifications législatives, la fonction publique du Canada a réussi à mettre en place une représentation équitable de ses deux groupes de langues officielles, assure la prestation de services au public dans les deux langues officielles, et a procédé à la codification des droits des fonctionnaires de travailler dans la langue officielle de leur choix. En théorie, le régime est robuste. En pratique, il existe un fossé entre politique et pratique, l’anglais s’étant établi comme langue dominante de travail dans la fonction publique fédérale.
En adoptant une approche historique à cette question institutionnelle et au moyen de recherches archivistiques et d’entrevues mi-structurées, Gaspard fait valoir que de 1967 à 2013, la mise en oeuvre du programme de langues officielles à la fonction publique fédérale n’a pu influer sur la trajectoire de l’anglais comme langue prépondérante de travail.
L’analyse des rôles des intervenants et des institutions qui ont façonné le processus met en lumière le fait que l’absence de changements structurels, l’engagement insuffisant des gestionnaires, de même que la perception erronée que les langues officielles sont toutes deux bien ancrées dans la fonction publique se conjuguent pour expliquer la persistance de l’anglais comme principale langue de travail.
Ce livre est publié en anglais.
Helaina Gaspard
Helaina Gaspard, PhD, is Director, Governance and Institutions at the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa.
Related to Canada’s Official Languages
Related ebooks
Language Policy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Language of Localization Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCanadian Perspectives on Community Development Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPR: Fifty Years in the Field Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDevelopment in Unity Volume 3: Compendium of Works of Daasebre Professor (Emeritus) Oti Boateng Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScientific Writing in a Second Language Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJustin Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCanada–US Relations: Sovereignty or Shared Institutions? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCommunication Skills in English: Suggested Reading for the Media, Schools and Colleges Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDefending a Contested Ideal: Merit and the Public Service Commission, 1908–2008 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Portland Edge: Challenges And Successes In Growing Communities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsModern Diplomacy in Practice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFramework and Tools for Environmental Management in Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSyria, Press Framing, and the Responsibility to Protect Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCommunicating Across Cultures: A Coursebook on Interpreting and Translating in Public Services and Institutions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLanguage Attitudes and Minority Rights: The Case of Catalan in France Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProfessionalizing Second Language Writing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDesigning Multilingual Experiences in Technical Communication Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBridging Scales and Knowledge Systems: Concepts and Applications in Ecosystem Assessment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLanguage and Society (Transcript) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Labored: The State(ment) and Future of Work in Composition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPolitics of Second Language Writing, The: In Search of the Promised Land Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGraduate Studies in Second Language Writing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLinguistic Semiotics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Linguistics For You
The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5500 Beautiful Words You Should Know Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Kind of Creatures Are We? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essential Chomsky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So to Speak: 11,000 Expressions That'll Knock Your Socks Off Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Metaphors We Live By Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dictionary of Word Origins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Language: Chomsky's Classic Works: Language and Responsibility and Reflections on Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: American English Idiomatic Expressions & Phrases Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Origin of Names, Words and Everything in Between: Volume II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsmade in america: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need: A One-Stop Source for Every Writing Assignment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, Vol. 1 Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Watch Your Tongue: What Our Everyday Sayings and Idioms Figuratively Mean Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular & the New Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origin of Names, Words and Everything in Between Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Tyranny of Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Psychology and Manipulation: Psychology, Relationships and Self-Improvement, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art of Styling Sentences Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inspired Baby Names from Around the World: 6,000 International Names and the Meaning Behind Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America's Lingua Franca Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rhetoric: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Canada’s Official Languages
0 ratings0 reviews