Preserving heritage languages in Ottawa: A model of partnership between public programs and community-based groups

April 6, 2025

An interview with Constantine Ioannou, Executive Director at the International Languages Educators' Association of Ontario (ILEA Ontario) and key advocate for heritage language education in Canada. The Ontario model of “International Languages” education is admired within Canada – and within Ontario, Ottawa has emerged as the leading example. Discover how the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) uses funding to pay heritage language teachers, while at the same time collaborating with community-based language groups as essential partners.

In Ontario, the public school system is responsible for organizing and funding heritage language education: Ontario’s “International Languages Programs” (ILPs) include the teaching of over 70 languages across the province! The Ontario model of the International Languages Program (ILP) is admired within Canada – and within Ontario, Ottawa has emerged as the leading example. Key to the success appears to be that, although ILPs are publicly funded, they are developed in close collaboration with community-based language groups — grassroots cultural or linguistic organizations that have often been active for decades. How does this work?

To find out, we spoke with Constantine Ioannou, a prominent figure in Ottawa's educational system. Constantine currently serves as the Program Director for the Ottawa International Projects and Exchanges at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) and Executive Director at the International Languages Educators' Association of Ontario (ILEA Ontario). He was previously the Education Officer for the OCDSB ILP and is currently the Curriculum Lead on weekends. How has he navigated the requirements of the public school system while at the same time encouraging involvement from community-based language groups? Constantine was kind to share with us some wisdom he gained through decades of experience with language education and advocacy.

What is your background?

I have a multilingual background myself, as my first language is Greek – though English is my dominant language. I started out working as a teacher of German and Spanish and later taught English as a Second Language. I became involved with giving workshops about things I was doing in my classes, becoming a Curriculum Lead. I eventually became certified to be a school principal. My last function within the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) was “International Languages Education Officer.”

How did you get involved in promoting and protecting multilingualism?

I attended a Greek language program growing up. I remember what it was like attending the Greek program. They said, “Don’t touch anything! We don’t want to get kicked out of the school building!” I don’t want kids to feel like I did.

This topic of International Languages is dear to my heart. There are so many benefits for everyone involved, these programs have to be promoted! They foster a sense of pride and identity among students regarding their heritage, and the students gain valuable language skills that enhance their future opportunities These programs promote inclusivity and multiculturalism within schools and the broader community -- and of course the language community benefits from the preservation and celebration of its diverse cultural heritage.

To better understand how heritage language education functions in Ottawa, Ontario, it helps to know a few things about the province’s education system:

Fast Facts: Canadian geography and education system

• Canada is comprised of 10 provinces and 3 territories.

• Education is organized entirely by the provinces and territories, with a limited influence by the federal government

• Ontario is Canada's most populous province, with almost 40% of Canada's population.

• In Ontario are two key cities: Ottawa (the nation's capital) and Toronto (the nation's most populous city and Ontario’s capital).

• There are 76 publicly funded school boards in Ontario, which are categorized as either English or French and as either secular or “separate” (Catholic).

• Approximately two million children are enrolled in Ontario schools.

• One of the largest public school boards in Ontario is the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB), which is an English-language, secular school district. 

Ontario’s Timeline

1977 - The Heritage Languages Program was introduced in 1977, enabling school boards to offer non-official languages as part of their Continuing Education Departments.

1989 - Legislation governing the offering of heritage language programs in elementary schools was enacted (Policy/Program Memorandum No. 131, “PPM 131”).

1991 - First Ministry of Education Resource Guide on Heritage Languages was developed

1993 - "Heritage Language" became "International Languages."

2013 - New resource guide asks all schools to support, recognize, and provide International Languages Education.

Acronyms

OCDSB - Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

ILP – International Languages Program (run by public school board)

ILEA Ontario - International Languages Educators' Association of Ontario

Help us understand how heritage language education is set up in Ontario. How did it come to be a public responsibility?

Since 1989 there is an official directive from the Ontario Ministry of Education that makes heritage language education possible via publicly funded International Languages Programs (ILPs). Thanks to this mandate, right now in the entire province of Ontario, outside of the regular school day, there are approximately 70 languages offered to over 165,000 primary students and 50,000 secondary students in over 50 school boards – taught by teachers hired directly by the school district. 

Before there was the mandate, it was possible for a school board to get funding to run the programs if they wanted to. But now, school boards must offer the ILP if there is sufficient interest: a minimum of 23 students. Once there are 23 interested students, the school board cannot refuse. It should be noted that most school districts offer programs with less students especially if it is the only class of a particular language within its region.  

Participation in the program is not mandatory, for instance, if a child speaks German at home they may choose not to follow the German lessons. But when newcomer families go to the welcome center, we always make sure to let parents know the importance of the first language and to encourage continued study and use of the first language. 

Are the lessons only available for heritage language learners?

No. We previously used the term “Heritage Language” but we switched to using the term “International Languages” because classes were available to all students, regardless of their language background or the school board they attend, and prior knowledge of the language is optional. The teachers use differentiated teaching strategies to support learners, to make sure that both beginners and more advanced speakers can benefit from the program.

What sets the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) apart from other school boards in Ontario?

The OCDSB in Ottawa provides one of the best ILPs in Canada. In Ottawa, we have had a long history of having passionate language teaching specialists coordinating the program and have had a supportive school district that recognized the importance of the program.  Over the years local educators worked within provincial guidelines set by the Ministry of Education. The province of Ontario in fact went through a great renaissance in education when the liberal government of the first 20 years of our century enhanced spending and brought in many initiatives for learners and educators. Further awareness of the ILP developed in school systems. 

All ILP teachers are paid by the public school board. Since they are hired on a contract or part-time basis, they are employees — but they often do not have the same training pathways or support systems as regular full-time teachers. So, in Ottawa, the school board offers “in-service” training after hiring them, to support and upgrade their skills. We used to have funding for it, but now the teachers pay for it — and if they complete it, their salary goes up. Also, in Ottawa, the ILP grant money goes to the language program itself, whereas there might be other school boards that decide that some of the grant money be used to cover care staff that keeps the building open and functioning during the weekend.

It also helps that in Ontario, the public school board has active community-based language groups who are equal partners in the ILP. The community-based language groups have their own registered organizations — many have existed even before the current school boards were created! The Greek School in Ottawa, for example, was founded in the 1940s.

Can you explain the collaboration in Ottawa between the public school board and the community-based language groups?

In Ontario, public school boards are expected to involve language community representatives in the delivery of ILPs in a “consultancy approach.” A representative from the language group is involved with all aspects of the ILP. Ottawa (OCDSB) is able to provide high-quality instruction because of this successful collaboration with community-based language groups. The final decision about all things, including hiring, is up to the school board. School district leadership regularly meets with all community representatives just as a school would meet regularly with a school council.

There a several main issues that the language groups help with:

CURRICULUM: One challenge we face is finding resources that are culturally relevant and engaging; we work closely with community representatives to develop and source appropriate materials. They help with essential cultural insights making sure that the lessons are culturally relevant and effective.

FINDING TEACHERS: When I see that a language program doesn’t have an active community behind it, I wish it would. It is becoming more challenging to find people available to teach. The communities are able to find people who can apply to teach who we would not otherwise find.

VISIBILITY & ENDORSEMENT: One of the challenges is ensuring sufficient enrollment to sustain classes for less commonly spoken languages. Visibility of the program is required for it to work well. To address this, we actively engage with community groups to raise awareness about the benefits of heritage language education and encourage participation.

What did heritage language education look like before there was the public mandate?

Before the public mandate, we saw community-based language groups operating in isolation. Language teachers worked within their language group, but they didn’t have communication with other language teachers. Also, it was only the members of the community that spoke the language that were the predominant users of the educational program. The community-based language groups were making decisions in absence of public school board leadership. They had to charge parents, and most of their money was going towards funding to pay for a lesson location to rent.

What we see now with the integration of the two systems is that the community groups have less stress because they know that they are part of the school system. There are more alliances, more system-wide awareness about language teaching and learning. Now there are students with a variety of backgrounds and a bigger variety of reasons for wanting to access the program.

How does it work in practice to integrate the publicly funded lessons with the community-based offer?

From the Ministry of Education there are 2.5 hours offered under the school board ILP, and there are things we can do and things we cannot do (e.g., religion). If parents want special events or activities, it is possible, but is considered program enrichment and not obligatory for ILP students.

What we do as the school board is explain to the parents of Chinese-speaking children, for instance, “We work with our friends at the Ottawan-Chinese Language Association and we encourage you to communicate with them on how to enhance our public program.” Parents have ideas about what they would like to see offered.

To give an example, the Greek ILP under the school board is 2.5 hours. If the families of the students in the Greek ILP would also like to see an offer of cultural dance and music, then the community-based language group organizes that for an extra hour after. For this extra hour of enrichment, parents pay and it is run by the community. 

Another example is the Arabic programs, whose community leaders must explain to parents that there is no religion in the ILP under the school board. They can “educate about a faith,” but they cannot “instruct in a faith.” If the community-based language group wants to provide religious studies, it is possible. A lot of the language groups rent the facility where the kids already are, just for the additional hour (at a good rate).

It is very important not to appear judgmental or critical of the initiatives of the language communities. We must try to speak positively and support them.

How is the ILP perceived by other staff within the public school system?

There used to be a lot more push back . . . I hated Mondays! Teachers calling me to complain that there was a foreign script written on their board, instead of asking if any of the children could read it. It was frustrating, but it showed me just how much work there still is to do. We have had to push a lot to prevent valuable time being spent addressing the territorial issues that the Monday-Friday teachers would worry about. I don’t tolerate any of this talk that “I don’t want my school used on a Saturday.” No more territorial stuff! We have to move on.

It is because of these negative attitudes that we give education about language awareness and “inclusiveness” training to the whole school system, all the staff. We help them understand that academic research shows that multilingual children who are supported in the home language have higher school success rates. We make sure that all the staff knows that, and not only the English as a Second Language teachers, that they need to talk to the parents about the first language. We’ve been training Canadian teachers how to deal with linguistically diverse students, like, how a vocabulary list or word wall can be “good for all, essential for some.”

Can you elaborate on what the “inclusiveness” training looks like?

I have had non-ILP teachers visit the ILP lessons on Saturdays as part of their assignments. Some of them said that it was very humbling. They see children who are otherwise shy as very vibrant in the other setting — and the children were really surprised to see their Monday-Friday teacher there!

We have made an “inclusiveness checklist” available to them and we carry out inclusiveness audits. I have to ask the school staff, “Where is the evidence on the walls that Arabic is taking place here on Saturday?” If there is an ILP on a Saturday at a school building, then they must have a bulletin board in the hallway showcasing the program. I pushed to get a filing cabinet in every one of the classrooms so that the Saturday school teachers had their stuff in there. As I said, we simply decided that we are not going to be wasting time with territorial issues.

If your readers are interested in this topic, I direct them to the work of Elizabeth Coelho, an “inclusiveness guru” who was at the Toronto school board as a lead for English language learners and then went on to do phenomenal work in this field at the ministry.

How does the OCDSB measure the success if its ILPs?

We look at student enrollment numbers, retention rates, and feedback from students, parents, and community partners. We also assess language proficiency development through evaluations. We use this data for continuous improvement. We also have our own report card for the program sent to the child’s weekday school to be put in their files so that their weekend study is recognized.

That said, we know that the programs are not only successful due to the OCDSB policies, but also due to supplemental support and advocacy work of the International Languages Educators' Association of Ontario (ILEA Ontario) ILEA, which I currently lead. 

What is the role of ILEA?

ILEA has a lot of heart! It is a language educator's association that spans all of Ontario. It does not only include the development of additional/international languages, but also includes the maintenance of home/heritage languages. It started out as a group of representatives from all of the school boards in Ontario that run ILPs. Now members include school boards, embassies/consulates, cultural and linguistic organizations, university faculties, and student exchange bodies.

ILEA is a group that comes together to share. It’s an important piece of the bigger picture here in Ottawa. We have invested in creating materials, and we have done a lot for assessment planning, task based teaching and intercultural understanding in the classroom.  ILEA serves as a kind of key, neutral advocate. We have helped school boards that are trying to get started with the ILP. We have also helped address concerns in areas such as program registration and delivery, staff hiring and development. 

The way OCDSB preserves heritage languages in Ottawa appears to be an excellent model!

It’s true that we have found a balance that works well — but perhaps sometimes too well! My problem now is that I don’t want the community-based language groups to become complacent. I tell them that we can be pretty happy with how things are, but, “We still need you. You are the voice if we want funding increased.” And there are still some minor things that we struggle with, that we need to work together to solve. We don’t want the language groups to forget how fortunate we are. This form of education does not function without continuous advocacy.

Links

International Languages Elementary (ILE) Program Resource Guide (2012)

This interview was re-posted on the FOHLC Blog.