Parent/Guardian Follow-up Questionnaire

Willingness to participate in online follow-up research activities (an online interview and/or an online focus group)

Before proceeding, please take the time to review the following information regarding the second phase of the study. Although most of the information in this section has already been shared in the introduction of the 1st questionnaire you just filled out, we provide them again as a reminder as well as to underscore some of the differences when it comes to the nature of your participation in this specific phase of the study.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE STUDY & CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE (read carefully before responding to the questionnaire)

Study Title & protocol number

"Exploring attrition rates and parents' perceptions of French Immersion programs in Alberta: What the numbers tell us and what drives parental decision-making about enrollment and withdrawal?" (Pro00098875)

Study Background

This project is the result of a collaboration between various parties (i.e., University of Alberta faculty members, Canadian Parents for French, and other important stakeholders such as members of various local school divisions) directly concerned with the improvement of French Immersion schools/programs (French Immersion, henceforth). It aims to fill a gap in our knowledge concerning what motivates parental decisions to withdraw their child/ren from French Immersion. Parents are key stakeholders in the decision-making process and yet little is known when it comes to their experience, perceptions, and overall motivations.

Purpose

This study is specifically designed to respond to the gap in our knowledge by surveying parents of children enrolled in French Immersion who have thought about or already have decided to withdraw their children from French Immersion. The main purpose is to gather valuable information regarding what influenced their decisions from the time they enrolled their child/ren in French Immersion to the time they started thinking about or already decided to remove them from French Immersion.

Study Procedures

Your participation in this 2nd phase of the study will allow researchers to gather more detailed descriptions of your experience as a parent. Your participation will involve agreeing to participate in either a follow-up interview, a focus group or both. The follow-up interview will focus on your experience as a parent having (or having had) children in French Immersion and ask you to elaborate on the reasons that led you to think about withdrawing your child/ren from the program. The focus group session will bring together a group of parents having had similar experiences to discuss their decision to withdraw or the reasons that led them to consider withdrawing their children from French Immersion. The follow-up interview as well as the focus group session will last 45 minutes.

Benefits

Your participation in this study will help us gain valuable knowledge to improve French Immersion in Canada. In order to improve the quality of French Immersion and, thus, improve retention rates within these programs, it is essential that we better understand what key factors influence the parental decision making process particularly when it comes to the removal of their child/ren from French Immersion before grade 12. Specifically, your participation in this study will allow us to gain valuable knowledge that will likely help improve the quality of French Immersion by allowing us to identify critical areas to focus on and practical interventions to implement to support families with children enrolled in French Immersion in Canada.

Risk

While there are many positive aspects to your contribution, it is possible that you will not get direct benefits from participating in the research. We do not know of any risks involved in participating in this study.

Voluntary Participation

Your participation is completely voluntary. Please, note that during the interview or focus group sessions you do not have to answer questions if you do not want to. You will be free to stop at any point, or not to take part at all, without consequence. You can opt out of the research at any time without penalty and without any need to inform the researchers if you do not wish to in which case all data collected (if any) linked to your participation will not be used in the study. If you participate in the activities, but later decide that you do not want the data to be used anymore, you can request that some or all data linked to your participation be discarded no later than two weeks after having participated in the research activity.

Confidentiality & Anonymity

The information collected in this research is not of a confidential nature. We will mainly ask you questions about your experience, perception, and motivation as a parent of a child enrolled in French Immersion who is thinking about removing him/her from that program or has already done so. The information will be used for academic purposes (i.e., in academic works, publications, and presentations). It will enable us to better understand the experience of families with children currently enrolled or once enrolled in immersion schools/programs which, in turn, will help us identify critical areas to focus on for improving the way French Immersion responds to the specific needs of involved families. The transcripts from the audio-recoded follow-up interviews and/or focus group sessions will be stored on protected UofA Google servers, downloaded on the investigators' password-protected computers and saved on an encrypted hard drive. Hard copies, if any, will be kept in a locked filing cabinet located in the office of one of the investigators. Only the research team will have access to the data, which will be securely stored for 5 years after the study is over, and then destroyed. All records with your names and emails will also be destroyed within a three months period after the end of the 2nd phase of the research study.

Further Information

If you have any further questions regarding this study, please do not hesitate to contact the Research Principal Investigator, Dr. Laurent Cammarata, at cammarata@ualberta.ca (780-246-3996).

The plan of this study has been reviewed by a Research Ethics Board at the University of Alberta which is independent of the researchers. If you have questions about your rights or how research should be conducted, you can call the board office at (780) 492-2615.

Link to questionnaire