Rights Respecting Schools (RRS) Programme Is Certainly the Most Complete Programme
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0431/Pirozzi - © UNICEF/NYHQ2007 CHILDREN’S RIGHTS EDUCATION 0431/Pirozzi - IN CANADA © UNICEF/NYHQ2007 A Particular Look at the Quebec School System 0431/Pirozzi - © UNICEF/NYHQ2007 Every child. Every opportunity. No exceptions. Maryse Potvin Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Researcher, Centre d’études ethniques des universités montréalaises (CEETUM) And Josie-Anne Benny Student, Master in Education Université du Québec à Montréal Université du Québec à Montréal For UNICEF-Canada March 1st 2013 Copyright © 2013, UQAM, Maryse Potvin and Josie-Anne Benny 2 | Children’s Rights Education in Canada : A Particular Look at the Quebec School System TABLE OF CONTENT TABLE OF CONTENT......................................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 4 1. International and National Contexts of Children's Rights Education ............................................. 7 1.1 The Importance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ............................................... 7 1.2 Canada's and Quebec's obligations under the Convention .............................................................................. 8 1.3 Children's rights education in Quebec laws, policies and programmes ......................................................... 11 1.3.1 Official pre-school and elementary programme ......................................................................................... 12 1.3.2 Official secondary programme ..................................................................................................................... 14 1.4 The Framework for teacher professional competencies ................................................................................ 15 2. Approaches to children's rights education ................................................................................. 18 2.1 Theoretical and pedagogical trends integrating human rights education ...................................................... 18 2.1.1 MULTICULTURAL OR INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION……………………………………………………………..………………….……………….18 2.1.2 CRITICAL, TRANSFORMATIVE, ANTI-OPPRESSION, POST-COLONIAL AND ANTI-RACIST APPROACHES ......................... 19 2.1.3 DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND CHILDREN'S RIGHTS EDUCATION .................................................. 20 2.1.4. INCLUSIVE AND EQUITABLE EDUCATION ..................................................................................................................... 22 2.2 Other children's rights education practices in Quebec schools ...................................................................... 24 2.3 Stake-holder perceptions of practice and resistance in Montreal schools ..................................................... 29 3. Conclusion and recommendations ............................................................................................. 32 3.1 A few observations .......................................................................................................................................... 32 3.2 RECOMMENDATION………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………….....32 3.3 Challenges to the Implementation of a rights-based and inclusive approach ................................................ 37 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………………………….............40 3 | Children’s Rights Education in Canada : A Particular Look at the Quebec School System 4 | Children’s Rights Education in Canada : A Particular Look at the Quebec School System INTRODUCTION Through their triple mandate – the transfer of knowledge, socialization of shared values, and professional qualification - schools play a central role in meeting the diverse needs and rights of the child. However, school systems in highly pluralistic and democratic societies face considerable challenges when they attempt to realize human rights, inclusion, equity and equal opportunity while adapting to social, ethnocultural, linguistic and religious diversity (Garcia, 2002; Banks, 2008 ; Inglis, 2008; OECD, 2006; Mc Andrew et al., 2008; Ontario, 2009). Training teachers and other stakeholders is particularly demanding (Banks et al., 2005; Gay, 2010; Potvin, 2013). A rights-based approach, and specifically human rights education, requires a holistic understanding of the meaning and scope of human rights, as well as of the systemic implications of applying human rights at all levels of the educational system, including the legal framework, institutional policies, educational projects, codes of conduct in schools, curriculum, class management, pedagogical activities, student government, and community life. Human rights education in general, and children's rights education in particular, aims to help meet the considerable challenges of “living together” or community life1, citizenship, equality, democracy, diversity and inclusion. For this reason, human rights education is often integral to many other approaches or models (in theory and practice) developed over more than thirty years in the field of education under various labels such as citizenship education, democratic education, multicultural or intercultural education, anti-discriminatory education, inclusive education, and global and peace education. Despite their sometimes divergent premises and goals, these approaches aim not only to develop the knowledge, behaviour and know-how (or skills) about human rights and active citizenship of educators and students, but also to provide strategies for changing structures and practices in schools to make rights effective and encourage an inclusive school culture (ibid. ; OISE, 2012 ; Potvin and McAndrew, 2010). As we will see in this report, these approaches make children's rights, their needs and the development of their "capabilities" (Sen, 2000; Nussbaum, 2012) for equal opportunity (Potvin, 2011, 2013) more or less central. In some approaches, children's rights are integrated without distinction into general human rights, while other approaches put greater emphasis on meeting children's needs rather than on the effectiveness of their rights. However, these distinctions, especially between a needs based approach and a rights based approach, are important. An unfulfilled need generates dissatisfaction, whereas a right that is not respected (or not effective) is a violation, and reparations can be legally and legitimately demanded. A rights-based approach, and particularly one based on the rights of children, recognizes the existence of rights and responsibilities (and not just needs) and can strengthen the ability of rights- holders and duty bearers (students, adults, governments, members of public, para-public and semi- public institutions) to respect, protect and guarantee human rights through interventions and resources. Human rights education – meaning and scope, violations, assertion, responsibilities of rights-holders – should be central to all public institutions, especially schools. 1 For the purposes of this document, the French term le vivre-ensemble is translated as community life, which refers to harmonious social relations within a community. 5 | Children’s Rights Education in Canada : A Particular Look at the Quebec School System Written on the request of UNICEF Canada, this report draws on government and academic literature in the field to provide an overview of children's rights education in Canada and more particularly in Quebec schools. The aim is to integrate this report on Quebec into a pan-Canadian project in partnership with PREVNET (Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence)2. This report presents what is said and done in Quebec schools about the rights of children to be informed of and know their rights. The term "children's rights education" or CRE refers to explicitly teaching children their rights and responsibilities, so that they become autonomous in the exercise of their rights. It focuses solely on Articles 29.1 (sub- sections b and d) and 42 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. This report does not attempt to assess the extent to which Canada and its provinces respect the entire Convention; exposing, for example, violations of children's rights in different sectors of Quebec society (health, food, housing, education, etc.). (See Canada's report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2008.) Many public institutions, such as the Commission on Human Rights and Youth Rights (Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, CDPDJ) and several ministries (including the Ministry of Education) in Quebec have a broad mandate to measure, by diverse indicators, the ability of all children - without discrimination of any kind (Article 2 of the Convention) – to develop fully, access education and healthcare, grow in an appropriate environment and actively participate in society. There are a great number of laws and programmes addressing the various articles of the Convention, whether on fundamental rights, economic, social and cultural rights – education, health, poverty, etc – and it would be unrealistic in this report to pretend to assess whether or not these various laws respect the rights of children in Quebec. On the other hand, we do highlight, particularly in Chapter 2, the ways in which some rights of children (for example, the right to participate in decision-making,