Student retention in minority immersion education: What can we learn from parental decisions?

Despite the popularity of immersion/bilingual programs across the globe, student retention from kindergarten to the last year of high school has been a preoccupying issue for decades. There is a dearth of research exploring the challenges faced by parents, who are the primary decision-makers when it comes to enrolment and withdrawal. Thus, we lack a critical understanding to address the issue of student retention in immersion programmes. This article reports on two large-scale online survey studies, one conducted in the Canadian French Immersion (FI) context and the other in the Irish Immersion (IM) context. Both studies explored parental decision-making processes in relation to enrolment and withdrawal. Findings revealed common challenges, such as the need for greater support for students with special education needs. Parental motivation and understanding of the L2 acquisition process were also found to be critical when it comes to resilience to continue in the programme.