This text is part of the special notebook The 100 years of Guy Rocher
The work of Guy Rocher is among those which have most marked the societal history of the province and the sociologist’s legacy leaves no one indifferent, both on the side of thinkers and on the side of teachers.
“What will remain for us of Guy Rocher is obviously the inspiration, the vision and the commitment,” says Bernard Tremblay, president and CEO of the Fédération des cégeps. The inspiration of being a fighter to undertake social reforms that live up to his convictions, a vision of education that has marked reforms across the province since the Quiet Revolution and the commitment that led him to participate in discussions leading to historic societal changes.
“From Guy Rocher, what will remain are the CEGEPs, the University of Quebec network, the education system… It’s a fascinating legacy,” says philosopher and essayist Normand Baillargeon. The columnist at Duty recalls that the sociologist was part of the Parent commission, which constitutes a major turning point in the history of the education system and modernization in Quebec. Of course, Guy Rocher will also remain his Introduction to general sociologyused in Quebec and internationally, as a reference guide in this discipline, he adds.
His thoughts on the place of education in society
If Normand Baillargeon believes that the province has been ripe for reflection on education for almost ten years, he often suggests calling it either “the Parent 2.0 commission” or “the Guy Rocher 2.0 commission”. For the columnist, there is no doubt that the sociologist allowed Quebecers to think in depth about the place of education in the society of the time, but also contemporary.
“In the field of education, he is certainly one of the founding thinkers. When we think about the reforms he was part of, he always wanted to ensure that education was democratized and that working class children had access to higher education, but also and above all that girls had access to a time when this was not the case,” recalls François Rocher, professor emeritus at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa and nephew of the sociologist.
It is also because Guy Rocher firmly believed in a knowledge society and participated in the democratization of higher education that he helped the emergence of an intellectual class made up of teachers in Quebec society, believes Bernard Tremblay. “The two great values that emerge from Guy Rocher’s thinking are democratization and accessibility. He was keen to tackle social inequalities by fighting against elitism in education,” he says. According to him, it is still a message that must be repeated today, “that 90% of Quebecers can go to higher education and [que] it’s up to teachers to support them.”
His commitment to public space
If Guy Rocher was involved in all the founding debates of developments in Quebec society, more recently he was involved in those concerning secularism and French. A Guy-Rocher secularism prize aimed at highlighting the exceptional contribution of a person or organization in favor of secularism in Quebec was also created in his honor. François Rocher, for his part, recalls that his uncle was always very socially engaged. “There is always a back and forth between the social and his university life and this ability to reflect on one in the light of the other,” he emphasizes. This is the reason why Guy Rocher was able to take part in all the debates that marked the social history of Quebec. According to him, his works reflect contemporary issues of his time and evolve with it. “One example among others is that he was one of the first intellectuals to show the flaws in the way we thought about multiculturalism in Canada in the early 1970s,” he notes.
It is also because Guy Rocher understood the way public administration works that he was able to have so much influence in the sociology of law, according to him. “It is not only social science students who were marked by his teachings, but also jurists who discovered, through his sociology of law courses, the overlap between the rule and the norm and the fact that it becomes something admitted and accepted,” he explains.
His rigor and listening skills
Normand Baillargeon remembers that as a philosophy student in the 1970s at the University of Montreal, the sociologist’s reputation was already well established. “Among the students, it circulated a lot, the fact that Guy Rocher cares about undergraduate students. He gave introductory courses,” he explains, emphasizing that it was not common for an intellectual of this caliber to be so keen to pass on his knowledge to younger students. “All his life, he achieved this feat of being both an intellectual and an academic engaged in public life. No one has ever accused him of betraying one or other of his functions, he has always managed to maintain an unassailable stature and his seriousness has never been called into question,” summarizes Mr. Baillargeon, who thinks that it This is what has allowed the sociologist to acquire, over the years, credibility and legitimacy in the public space.
“His way of explaining sometimes complex things without simplifying them, but clarifying them, is his strength. Guy presents a way of thinking in a very respectful way, he does not impose, he exposes and does it with an extraordinary ability to listen,” explains François Rocher. It is precisely this ability not to attack, but to think together that has made it possible to move Quebec forward and create in-depth changes, according to him. The work of Guy Rocher has also had a decisive influence in the choice of several college students to pursue their university studies in sociology.
Rigor and accuracy are also two words that come to mind for Normand Baillargeon when he thinks of the legacy that Guy Rocher brought to Quebec. On a more personal note, the columnist of Duty also has a particular emotion when he speaks of the one he describes as a “hero” in his practice. “Guy Rocher wrote the preface to one of my books, and I was very touched. I believe that if Aristotle had written this preface, I would not have been more touched,” he concludes.
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