Jean-Pierre Proulx Larry Prochner Jean-Philippe Warren Amy von Heyking Paul W. Bennett Paul Axelrod Jean-Philippe Croteau Michael Welton Erica Neeganagwedgin Theodore Michael Christou Aïcha Benimmas Garfield Gini-Newman PERSPECTIVES ON THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN CANADA Spring 2014 SPRING 2014 Ten challenges schools in Quebec are facing Shaping minds as soon as possible: 5 ten years after the parent report 44 Two centuries of preschool in Canada Jean-Pierre Proulx Larry Prochner When history becomes a battlefield. Children’s Perspectives on the Past: An analysis of history exams in Quebec Possibilities and Challenges 11 (1970–2012) 49 Amy von Heyking Jean-Philippe Warren Consolidation, bureaucracy and the public schools: Are canadian universities sustainable The formation of the modern bureaucratic education in the years ahead? 16 State, 1920 to 1993 54 Paul Axelrod Paul W. Bennett History of education in french-speaking Ontario: New France through the learning lens a historiographic review 23 58 Michael Welton Jean-Philippe Croteau “They can’t take our ancestors out of us”: A brief The pedagogy of peace: Education historical account of Canada’s residential school and the exigencies of life 31 system, incarceration, institutionalized policies and 63 Theodore Michael Christou legislations against Indigenous peoples Erica Neeganagwedgin How do school principals in francophone minority In search of the thinking classroom settings perceive the factors shaping the relationship Garfield Gini-Newman 37 between schools and immigrant families? 69 Aïcha Benimmas Canadian Issues is published by Thèmes canadiens est publié par Canada History Fund Fonds pour l’histoire du Canada PRÉSIDENT / PRESIDENT Jocelyn Letourneau, Université Laval Canadian Issues / Thèmes canadiens is a quarterly publication of the Associa- PRÉSIDENTE SORTANTE / OUTGOING PRESIDENT tion for Canadian Studies (ACS). 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Bang Marketing : 514 849-2264 • 1 888 942-BANG [email protected] PUBLICITÉ / ADVERTISING : @CanadianStudies [email protected] 514 925-3096 ADRESSE AEC / ACS ADDRESS 1822, rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal (QC) H3H 1E4 514 925-3096 / [email protected] TEN CHALLENGES SCHOOLS IN QUEBEC ARE FACING TEN YEARS AFTER THE PARENT REPORT JEAN-PIERRE PROULX holds a Ph.D. in theology from Université de Montréal (1980). He was a journalist at Le Devoir from 1968 to 1974 and from 1981 to 1991, specializing in issues relating to religion and education. He was a professor within the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Université de Montreal from 1991 to 2009. He has had a particular interest towards the study of educational institutions in Quebec. He has also chaired the Groupe de travail sur la place de la religion à l’école (1999) and the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation du Québec from 2002 to 2006. He has been retired since 2009. The creation of the Ministry of Education in 1954 was the founding event of Quebec’s modern education system. Its fundamental structures remain the same today. However, this system has not ceased to evolve. The system still faces important challenges, some of which are related to the changes our society has undergone over the last fifty years, some of which are due to its dysfunctions. The following article points to ten specific challenges that concern elementary and secondary education and outlines an equal amount of difficulties, some of which are very complex, that will have to be overcome. Even more challenges could easily be identified at the other levels of instruction, but these ten challenges are substantial enough given that the ABSTRACT situations which they concern relate in most instances to difficulties that are found at the structural level. Indeed, these difficulties have their origin in value systems, institutions, practices, and even in interests, all of which have been replicated over time. Nevertheless these problems have to be tackled because of the stakes involved, or in other words because of what is “at stake” here. The first two challenges we discuss here are of a pedagogical or psychopedagogical nature. The following three concern the organisation of educational services. The other two, the teaching staff. The last three, the organisational structures. LEARNING TO READ, AN ABSOLUTE PRIORITY We are well-aware of the problem of teenagers dropping out of high school. This problem is one that has been long in the making. Indeed, dropping out of high school is linked, to a significant extent, to learning difficulties that appear as early as the first year of a child’s academic life. The main difficulty faced by children is learning to read. Yet an individual’s abilities in that respect condition more or less their future: their ability or inability to read can predict their future success or failure. Not knowing how to read impedes all other forms of learning. It is a personal and social handicap that reverberates well beyond Canadian Issues - Spring 2014 5 Jean-Pierre Proulx the classroom: 16% of French Canadians show a very low will mostly profit women. The latter could obviously have literacy level and 34% know barely what is necessary to get reasons enough to rejoice in such a reversal. But is it really by. The stakes here are at once personal, cultural, financial an ideal worth attaining? The most desirable outcome and even political (given that civic participation is linked would be that everyone, regardless of their gender and their to a good understanding of social phenomena.) chosen schooling path, could be academically successful. In this respect, Quebec still has a long way to go.4 Detecting reading difficulties early on is hence crucial and remedial instruction measures are thus needed. Unfortunately, not enough services are offered VALUING VOCATIONAL TRAINING OF YOUTH in this respect. Given the major stakes linked to reading A particular phenomenon has occurred in the difficulties, all concerned stakeholders in the education 1980s: