Living and Aging as a Minority Linguistic Group in Québec: Building Research Capacity Related to Quebec's English Speaking Seniors

Celine Cooper (PhD Candidate), QCGN

Dr. Lorraine O’Donnell (PhD), QUESCREN

Dr. Joanne Pocock (PhD), QCGN Researcher

September 11, 2013

2

3

Presentation Outline

• Project Overview

• English speaking seniors as a minority linguistic population in Quebec

• Participatory Action Research in building an evidence base and research capacity related to English Speaking seniors

4

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Building Research Capacity Related to Quebec’s English-speaking Seniors is a ground-breaking research project being coordinated by the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) in partnership with the Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN).  

Funding support for this project is granted by the provincial government - Soutien aux initiatives visant le respect des aînés (SIRA).

5

PROJECT TIMELINE:

Year one (2012-2013) – Planning and organization

Year two (2013-2014) – Training of senior researchers and multi-sited data collection

Year three (2014-2015) – Research dissemination and sharing, workshopping

6

WHY A RESEARCH PROJECT THAT FOCUSES ON QUEBEC’S ENGLISH-SPEAKING SENIORS?

Currently, the province-wide evidence base or statistical portrait that focuses specifically on the needs and priorities of English-speaking seniors in Quebec is piecemeal

Quebec`s English speaking seniors have needs, challenges and priorities that are unique within the larger senior population

7

QUEBEC’S ENGLISH-SPEAKING SENIORS

The English-speaking communities of Quebec form a minority language population within Quebec and an Official Language Minority Community (OLMC) within Canada.

Quebec`s English speaking seniors, even as a subgroup of their language minority, are numerically large (larger than the population of one of Canada’s provinces, Prince Edward Island) and spread out across a large provincial territory (three times the size of France).

8

Quebec`s English speaking communities meet the criteria used to define a minority group :

9

As a group they are numerically smaller than the rest of the population of the province

They do not occupy a dominant position (Floch & Pocock,2008)

They have a language and culture distinct from the larger population

The members of the group have the will to preserve its specificity (CROP/Missisquoi Institute, 2000)

They are citizens of the provincial territory where they reside

They have a long-term presence as a group in the territory where they reside

By the numbers - some highlights from the 2011 census findings:

Using the First Official Language Spoken (FOLS) definition, there are over 1,058,250 English speaking individuals living in Quebec. 268,696 are 55 years of age or over.

This senior group represents 25.4% of Quebec`s minority language group. In some regions the senior group represents a much higher proportion. (37.7% in the Estrie region and 36.5% in the Gaspesie-Iles-de-la-Madeleine regions)

At the provincial level, the proportion of English speakers is higher than Francophones in the 85+ age cohort suggesting that they tend to be living longer.

10

Project designed to capture our diversity as a minority linguistic group.

- Regional diversity

-Ethno- cultural composition

-Membership in a visible minority group

-The aspects of gender, generation and socio-economic status will also be considered in the design of data collection tools and analysis

11

MIXED METHOD DATA COLLECTION

The QCGN/QUESCREN project uses a multi-sited approach to data collection and research training of seniors

- Literature review

- Statistical profile

- Survey

- Key informant interviews

12

METHODOLOGY

Participatory Action Research (PAR)

As a methodological framework, PAR seeks to involve the individuals or community to whom the research applies in the research process from the initial design of the project through data gathering and analysis to final conclusions and actions arising out of the research (Blair and Minkler, 2009).

Steering Committee

Training of senior researchers: survey component

13

EXAMPLES OF Participatory Action Research (PAR)

STEERING COMMITTEE

-Representatives of seniors from multiple regions (Gaspe; Quebec City; Montreal; Laurentians, etc.) and different ethno-cultural communities

-Selection of research priorities; developing and reviewing the project logic model and evaluation methods; reviewing research project design; piloting and offering feedback on the survey

-Identifying senior researchers

-Communicating this project within their communities and organizations.

SENIOR RESEARCHERS

-Identified by Steering Committee and QCGN member groups

-Engagement of 10 seniors (55+) from the 8 regions of Quebec where survey component of data collection carried out.

-Role: conducting surveys among seniors (minimum 50 per region)

-Training involved exploring and discovering project together, review of the survey, developing region-specific strategies.

-Journaling

-Developing/fostering leadership in regions

14

Research priorities for the project:

• Language barriers in communicating with, and accessing the information by, public institutions and agencies

• Social support networks and living conditions in the communities in which English speaking seniors reside

• Best practices and models for creating ``an effective voice`` for English speaking seniors going into the future

15

Challenges and insights to date:

CHALLENGES:

-Geographical dispersion of English-speaking seniors in QC

-Regional particularities – diverse needs, priorities & capacities

-PAR – a rich but time consuming methodology

-Impatience with research (perception that it isn’t “action”)

INSIGHTS:

-Strong leadership capacity and local knowledge of senior researchers

-Networking

-Learning

16

THANK YOU!