Bill 23 (PL23), amending in particular the law on public education, was adopted last Thursday, December 6 by the government, despite repeated warnings from the Quebec scientific community – and also from union and various organizations including the Commission for Access to Information. Expressing itself through open letters, publications and study days, the scientific community in educational sciences has mobilized to denounce the potential consequences of PL23 on school and university environments.
As members of the board of directors of the Quebec section of the International Association for Research in French Didactics, we subsequently held a study day with our members on November 24 where serious concerns were expressed. faced with the corollary effects of PL23 on the teaching of French in Quebec schools.
Two dimensions are of particular concern to our members: the decline in the quality and duration of teacher training and the impacts of a reductive vision of research and intervention in the French classroom, known as “based on evidence.” », institutionalized through the creation of the National Institute of Excellence in Education (INEÉ).
First, the bill ratifies the creation of 30-credit programs leading to a temporary teaching certificate (rather than the 120 credits of current baccalaureate degrees). In the majority of these program projects reduced to a quarter, the place reserved for French teaching is reduced to three credits. How could a three-credit course adequately prepare a future secondary school French teacher to teach reading, writing, speaking, grammar and literature? How can this one-year program prepare a primary school teacher to teach French, but also mathematics, the social universe, science and technology and citizenship education?
When we know that teaching is carried out from three poles (student, teacher, knowledge), members are concerned about the knowledge and teaching practices that will be transposed into the classroom. Even though a priority of the Minister of Education consists of tackling the quality of the language and success in French at school, we find it difficult to see how a person who lacks so many courses on teaching French could help achieve this objective.
Knowing that in-depth mastery of the French language takes time and that French teaching courses contribute directly to this, we are concerned about the impact of a hasty truncation of training on oral and communication skills. writes teachers who will follow such abbreviated training courses.
Then, concerns about the creation of the INEÉ were expressed by the members of our association. Indeed, it seems that the excellence advocated by this institute is one-dimensional, in the sense that it relies on the results of research resulting from meta-analyses and randomized controlled trials. The evidence-based approach (or evidence-based research) is inspired by experimental medicine and its relevance for the field of education is limited.
As we can read in a publication by the Debout pour l’école collective in 2022: “healing is not educating, teaching is not treating”. Each student is different, which is increasingly true with the growing proportion of bi-plurilingual students and students diagnosed with a learning or developmental disability, it is important to train teachers who can rely on a rich repertoire of teaching strategies in order to take into account the specificities of the various students and to adapt to your class.
Although effective for the teaching of certain knowledge or in certain contexts, these practices based on so-called evidence apply little to the teaching of grammar, writing or literature in the Quebec context, for example . Given the mode of governance giving broad powers to the Minister of Education and the INEÉ, certain teaching methods could be favored to the detriment of others which are nevertheless put forward by numerous research in didactics of the French and based on varied research methodologies adapted to specific contexts.
In addition to reinforcing paradigms that favor quantified performance rather than real student learning, this stranglehold on the professional autonomy of teachers to opt for an imposed teaching strategy contributes to devaluing the teaching profession, to “deprofessionalizing” these people who are currently on the streets, on strike, to defend working conditions that are already under attack.
The questions raised are only some of those that concern our members.
To what extent will teachers grasp results that are completely decontextualized and not anchored in their reality? What place will we give to the expertise of teachers, educational advisors and researchers? What is the future of participatory research which is committed to sharing knowledge between practitioners and researchers? The diversity of research in French teaching, as in educational sciences in general, is threatened.
We invite the population — parents, students, extended families, all stakeholders in communities and Quebec society — to think about this issue and to mobilize against a leveling down of training conditions for teachers and research. in teaching French.
*Also signed this letter: Stéphanie Laurence, University of Sherbrooke; Mélissa Dumouchel, University of Sherbrooke; Katrine Roussel, University of Quebec in Montreal; Suzanne Richard, University of Sherbrooke, UdeM, UQAM; Karine Pouliot, University of Montreal; Anick Sirard, University of Sherbrooke and CSS des Samares; Catherine Maynard, Laval University; Julie Babin, University of Sherbrooke; Joël Thibeault, University of Ottawa; Marie-Christine Paret, University of Montreal; Claudine Sauvageau, University of Montreal; Marion Sauvaire, University of Toulouse II and Laval University; Eleonora Acerra, University of Quebec in Montreal; Marie-Hélène Forget, University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières; Christian Dumais, University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières; Dominic Anctil, University of Montreal; Rachel DeRoy-Ringuette, University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières; Ophélie Tremblay, University of Quebec in Montreal; Fednel Alexandre, University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue; Fouzia Sahrane, University of Quebec in Montreal and CSS Montreal; Annie Charron, University of Quebec in Montreal; Carole Fisher, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi; Marie Dupin de Saint-André, University of Montreal; Isabelle Montésinos-Gelet, University of Montreal; Nicolas Guichon, University of Quebec in Montreal; Catherine Gosselin-Lavoie, University of Montreal; Judith Émery-Bruneau, University of Quebec in Outaouais; Françoise Armand, University of Montreal; Kathleen Sénéchal, University of Quebec in Montreal; François Vincent, University of Quebec in Outaouais; Jean-François Boutin, University of Quebec (Lévis/UQAR); Nathalie Lacelle, University of Quebec in Montreal; Sébastien Ouellet, University of Quebec at Rimouski; Noémia Ruberto, University of Quebec in Outaouais; Judith Beaulieu, University of Quebec in Outaouais; Elodie Cardinal, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi; Emmanuelle Soucy, University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières; Carole Fleuret, University of Ottawa; Myriam Villeneuve-Lapointe, University of Sherbrooke; Marie-Neige Senécal, University of Quebec in Montreal; Marie-Pier Godin, University of Quebec in Montreal; Claude Quevillon Lacasse, University of Ottawa; Martine Peters, University of Quebec in Outaouais; Joannie Pleau, University of Quebec at Rimouski (Lévis); Jessy Marin, University of Quebec at Rimouski; Catherine Turcotte, University of Quebec in Montreal; Virginie Martel, University of Quebec at Rimouski (Lévis).