Dlamini, NombusoLofthouse, Tessa Marie2024-11-072024-11-072024-06-262024-11-07https://hdl.handle.net/10315/42448This study examines the discursive underpinnings of the 2013/2014 Ontario French as a Second Language (FSL) curriculum and associated documents. The primary aim of the study was to understand the orientation of the curriculum text to culture through the lens of an anti-racist and anti-colonial critical framework. This study employed critical discourse analysis that balanced structural and poststructural approaches to analysis to examine the sociopolitical and historical contexts of the documents, the material construction of discourses, and the ordering of discourses. The key findings of the study include the tendency of the FSL documents to perpetuate myths that glorify Canadian nationalism, reinforce established racial hierarchies that treat Indigenous nations as inferior to Francophones, encourage cultural generalizations and tokenism, and sanitize the violence of settler-colonialism. These findings suggest the importance for educators to engage with critical stances like culturally sustaining pedagogies to critique and question dominant power structures in FSL programming.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Multicultural educationForeign language instructionEducation policyElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2024-11-07French as a Second Language (FSL)Ontario curriculumOntario French as a Second Langauge (FSL) curriculumAnti-racist educationAnti-colonial frameworkCritical applied linguisticsApplied linguisticsCanadian nationalismLanguage education policyEquity in language educationCurriculum developmentCultural competenceCritical discourse analysisCross-cultural communicationCultural responsivenessMulticultural educationSecond language acquisition (SLA)Intercultural educationTranscultural educationMultilingual educationLanguage policy and planningCritical interculturalismCritical multiculturalismCulturally sustaining pedagogiesIntercultural communicationIntercultural communicative competence (ICC)Intercultural competenceIntercultural understandingIntercultural awarenessCommon European Framework of Reference (CEFR)Core FrenchFrench immersion