Towards linguistic resilience

Originally from Baie Sainte-Marie, Nova Scotia, Nathalie Comeau obtained her teaching certificate in 1995 after studying at l'Université Sainte-Anne in Church Point, NS. She became a French first language teacher at the secondary level, and after six years, a school closure led her to an unexpected detour to the elementary classroom for almost 18 years. From there, she completed two degrees (FML and differentiation) and a Master's degree in teaching French as a first language in a minority setting. In 2018, she returned to teaching French at the secondary level, and is on her way to completing a career goal of 35 years in the classroom, having taught every grade level from K-12. Born to a Quebec father and an Acadian mother, Nathalie Comeau draws on the richness of these two linguistic backgrounds to help her Acadian students build their language resilience. 

An allochthonous person, researcher and activist for equity and inclusion in French-language schools, Phyllis Dalley, PhD, is the founding director of the group Chantiers d'actions et de Recherches pour des Ffrancophonies (CARFfI), a collaboration whose raison d’être is inclusion through recognition, reparation and reconciliation.

Gabrielle Samson, originally from the Isle Madame region, has been involved in the development of the Acadian regions since a very young age. Through her early involvement with the Richmond Youth Centre and the Jeux de l'Acadie, she has had the opportunity to work with people from all corners of Acadia to improve the situation in the regions. As a result of these experiences, Gabrielle has developed a strong sense of belonging to the Canadian Francophonie, especially Acadia. She became a teacher in 2012 and has been working with young people to develop their sense of belonging by working on identity building in her daily teaching. She is currently teaching in the Northwest Territories with experiences also coming from CSAP, Nova Scotia.