Mireille Falardeau et Michel Loranger Le choix de stratégies ... - CSSE

Mireille Falardeau et Michel Loranger
Le choix de stratégies d’apprentissage dans différents contextes scolaires par
l’élève du primaire et du secondaire
Martine Chomienne
Le changement de rôle d’un enseignant dans un environnement technologique
riche
André-Jacques Deschênes, Céline Bourdages, Louise Lebel et Bernard
Michaud
Quelques principes pour concevoir et évaluer des activités d’apprentissage en
formation à distance
Guy Fréchet
Précarité de l’emploi et scolarisation moyenne au Canada
Stuart Richmond
Art, Imagination, and Teaching: Researching the High School Classroom
Yvonne Tabin & Peter Coleman
From the Dollhouse to the Schoolhouse: The Changing Experience of Women
Principals in British Columbia, 1980 to 1990
Rebecca Priegert Coulter & Margaret McNay
Exploring Men’s Experiences as Elementary School Teachers
Allen T. Pearson & Patricia T. Rooke
Gender Studies and Teacher Education: A Proposal
James R. Covert
Creating a Professional Standard of Moral Conduct for Canadian Teachers:
A Work in Progress

Contents /
Table de matières
vii A Note of Thanks / Un mot de remerciements
Articles
Mireille Falardeau et 307 Le choix de stratégies d’apprentissage dans
Michel Loranger différents contextes scolaires par l’élève du
primaire et du secondaire
Martine Chomienne 323 Le changement de rôle d’un enseignant dans un
environnement technologique riche
André-Jacques Deschênes, 335 Quelques principes pour concevoir et évaluer des
Céline Bourdages, activités d’apprentissage en formation à distance
Louise Lebel et
Bernard Michaud
Guy Fréchet 349 Précarité de l’emploi et scolarisation moyenne
au Canada
Stuart Richmond 366 Art, Imagination, and Teaching:
Researching the High School Classroom
Yvonne Tabin & 381 From the Dollhouse to the Schoolhouse:
Peter Coleman The Changing Experience of Women Principals
in British Columbia, 1980 to 1990
Rebecca Priegert Coulter & 398 Exploring Men’s Experiences as Elementary School
Margaret McNay Teachers
Allen T. Pearson & 414 Gender Studies and Teacher Education:
Patricia T. Rooke A Proposal
James R. Covert 429 Creating a Professional Standard of Moral Conduct
for Canadian Teachers: A Work in Progress

Discussion Notes / Débat
Benjamin Levin, 446 A Reply to “The Revival of School Administration:
J. Anthony Riffel, & Alasdair MacIntyre in the Aftermath of
Jonathan Young the Common School
Mark Holmes 452 Who Should Control Educational Policy —
Experts or the Public? A Response to
Levin, Riffel, and Young
Book Reviews / Recensions
Susanne Fontaine 455 La profession enseignante au Québec: enjeux et
devis des années 1990 sous le direction de Claude
Lessard, Madeleine Perron et Pierre W. Bélanger
Réal Larose 457 Autour de l’idée de science par Marie Larochelle et
Jacques Désautels
Lucien Morin 459 La philosophie et les enfants par Marie-France
Daniel
Gilles Bibeau 461 La formation du jugement: peut-on apprendre le
jugement? sous le direction de Michael Schleifer
Ursula A. Kelly 463 Teaching Against the Grain: Texts for a Pedagogy
of Possibility, by Roger I. Simon
Heather Hemming 467 Interwoven Conversations: Learning and Teaching
through Critical Reflections, by Judith Newman
Ian Winchester 470 Understanding Skills, by Robin Barrow
Murray Ross 473 Autonomy and Education, by Eamonn Callan
476 Index to volume / Index du volume

A Note of Thanks
Listed below are the persons who reviewed manuscripts for the CJE from 1992
August to 1993 July. The editors thank these reviewers for performing their
important function in the publication of our journal.
Un mot de remerciements
On trouvera ci-dessous la liste des noms des arbitres des manuscrits proposés à
la RCE, du mois d’août 1992 au mois de juillet 1993. Les rédacteurs expriment
leurs remerciements à ces arbitres pour leur précieuse et indispensable collaboration
à la publication de notre revue.
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Amegan, S.
Anderson, J.
Angenot, P.
Bailin, S.
Barman, J.
Barnabé, C.
Baudoux, C.
Beattie, M.
Bégin, L.
Blaikie, F.
Bordeleau, L.-G.
Briskin, L.
Brunel, M.-L.
Brunet, J.-P.
Chevrier, J.
Cochrane, D.
Coleman, P.
Collinge, J
Coombs, J. R
Corbishley, A.
Coulter, R.
Courtney, R.
Crespo, M.
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Leach, M.
Leithwood, K. A.
Levin, M.
Lewis, M.
Lussier, D.
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McClaren, A.
McKinnon, A.
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Morin, J.
Morval, M.
Munby, H.
Musella, D.
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Osborne, K.
Pallascio, R.
Paquette, J.
Pearse, H.
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Riffel, J. A.
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Shapiro, B.
Simon, R.
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Smith, S.
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Tardif, J.
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Weber, S.
Welton, M.
Werner, W.
Wilson, M.
Wilson, R.J.
Woodhouse, H.
Wright, R.
Yewchuk, C.
Young, B.

Le choix de stratégies d’apprentissage dans
différents contextes scolaires par l’élève
du primaire et du secondaire
Mireille Falardeau
Michel Loranger
université laval
L’objectif principal de cette étude consiste à identifier les stratégies qui sont considérées
efficaces par les élèves du primaire et du secondaire pour réussir en classe, et ce, dans
sept contextes de leur activité scolaire. L’échantillon se compose de 64 sujets, soit 16 de
3e année, 16 de 6e année, 16 de 2e secondaire et 16 de 5e secondaire. Sept contextes sont
présentés aux sujets (ex: manque de compréhension en classe et préparation d’un examen)
et la grille de Zimmerman et Martinez-Pons (1986) est utilisée pour inventorier les
stratégies mentionnées. Des différences sont observées selon le contexte présenté à
l’élève. Les résultats démontrent aussi que les sujets plus vieux présentent des stratégies
différentes de celles des plus jeunes. Trois conclusions ressortent des analyses: (1) des
différences apparaissent entre les groupes d’âge dans le choix des stratégies considérées
importantes, allant vers une auto-régulation accrue de l’élève en vieillissant, (2) le
contexte scolaire apparaît comme une variable importante dans le choix de stratégies et
(3) les stratégies mentionnées pointent l’importance des relations sociales dans l’atteinte
des objectifs de réussite scolaire.
Primary and secondary pupils choose learning strategies likely to help them succeed in
school. Our 64 subjects — 16 in each of Grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 — chose their strategies
in seven contexts (for instance, in the context of not having understood something in
class, yet facing an examination). Using Zimmerman’s and Martinez-Pons’s (1986)
framework to make an inventory of strategies, we found that strategies differed by
context, and that older pupils did not choose the same strategies as younger pupils. We
conclude that children choose strategies differently, depending on their age group, and
more self-reliantly with age. Further, educational context affects their choices of strategy.
Choices of strategy show how social relations affect pupils’ academic success.
Dans le domaine de la psychologie comme dans celui de l’éducation, plusieurs
théories tentent de définir et d’expliquer les variables qui influencent l’apprentissage
et déterminent le rendement scolaire. Historiquement, les variables étudiées
concernaient surtout le type d’environnement physique et social, les conditions
de la tâche et les techniques éducatives de l’enseignant qui pouvaient maximiser
l’apprentissage et le rendement scolaire. Seules les habiletés intellectuelles de
l’élève à réaliser certaines tâches en relation avec le domaine scolaire étaient
considérées.
307 REVUE CANADIENNE DE L’ÉDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

308 MIREILLE FALARDEAU ET MICHEL LORANGER
Cependant, les travaux portant sur les variables mesurées par les épreuves
d’intelligence (la mémoire par exemple) n’ont pas permis d’expliquer à eux seuls
le rendement scolaire de l’élève. Pour que l’élève réussisse bien, les auteurs ont
observé qu’il devait être actif et adopter un comportement stratégique et tactique
face aux tâches qui lui sont présentées. C’est ainsi que sont apparus les travaux
sur les stratégies d’apprentissage.
STRATÉGIES D’APPRENTISSAGE
Les stratégies d’apprentissage sont définies par Pressley, Goodchild, Fleet,
Zajchowski et Evans (1989) de la façon suivante: “Strategies are processes (or
sequences of processes) that, when matched to the requirements of tasks, facilitate
performance” (p. 303). Plusieurs travaux ont porté sur les stratégies
d’apprentissage et concernent des aspects aussi variés que la catégorisation des
stratégies d’apprentissage (voir Snowman, 1986), la vérification de l’efficacité
des stratégies et l’entraînement à des stratégies spécifiques, comme par exemple
la prise de notes (voir Wade & Trathen, 1989), des techniques spécifiques de
mémorisation (voir Pressley, Levin, & Delaney, 1982) et le résumé (voir Thomas
& Rohwer, 1986). La plupart des travaux mentionnés ont permis de prouver l’efficacité
de ces stratégies.
Cependant, bien que l’élève soit capable d’utiliser les stratégies, il semble peu
le faire (Pressley & Harris, 1990) et aussi avoir de la difficulté à diriger son
propre comportement d’apprentissage, ce qui est du domaine de la métacognition.
MÉTACOGNITION
Le terme métacognition vient de Flavell, qui le définit ainsi: “Metacognition is
the segment of stored knowledge that has to do with people as cognitive creatures
and with their diverse cognitive tasks, goals and actions” (Flavell, 1979, p.
906). De façon générale, deux composantes de la métacognition sont distinguées
dans la littérature: (a) les connaissances concernant les processus cognitifs et (b)
le contrôle sur ceux-ci, nommé aussi auto-régulation.
Connaissances métacognitives
Flavell (1979) définit les connaissances métacognitives ainsi: “Metacognitive
knowledge consists primarily of knowledge or beliefs about what factors or
variables act and interact in what ways to affect the course and outcome of cognitive
enterprises” (p. 907). Il s’agit d’un système de connaissances, dans lequel
les connaissances à propos de soi, des tâches rencontrées et des stratégies sont
interreliées pour une meilleure compréhension.
Comme tous les autres types de connaissances, la connaissance métacognitive
est constituée de trois volets (Flavell, 1985). Une partie de ces connaissances est

LE CHOIX DE STRATÉGIES D’APPRENTISSAGE 309
déclarative (elle indique ce que sont les choses, le “quoi”), une autre partie est
procédurale (elle concerne le “comment” faire les choses) et une autre conditionnelle
(elle indique le “pourquoi”).
Cette connaissance augmente à mesure que l’enfant acquiert de l’expérience
dans le domaine métacognitif. Ainsi, concernant le développement de la métacognition,
Garner (1987) précise que la connaissance métacognitive est relativement
stable. Les enfants acquièrent probablement cette connaissance en prenant conscience
des régularités dans leurs conduites cognitives avec le temps. Les principaux
travaux concernant les connaissances métacognitives ont porté sur la
mémoire (Flavell et Wellman, 1977) l’attention (Myers & Paris, 1978), la compréhension
(Markman, 1979), l’étude (Paris et Myers, 1981) et la lecture (Cross
& Paris, 1988). Des recherches sur les connaissances métacognitives portent sur
leur développement. D’autres études portant sur les changements métacognitifs
selon l’âge (voir Markman, 1979) montrent que les enfants plus jeunes (préscolaire,
1ère et 2e année) possèdent moins d’informations à propos d’eux-mêmes,
des tâches qu’ils rencontrent et des stratégies qu’ils emploient que les plus vieux
(particulièrement en 5e et 6e année). Il faut noter cependant que ces études ne
se rapportent qu’à des jeunes du primaire.
S’ajoute à ces travaux l’étude de Zimmerman et Martinez-Pons (1986). Ces
chercheurs ont questionné des adolescents entre 14 et 16 ans quant aux stratégies
qu’ils pouvaient utiliser dans six contextes scolaires différents (en classe, en
élève à la maison, en effectuant des travaux d’écriture, en effectuant des travaux
de mathématique, en se préparant à un examen, et en se motivant à étudier). Ils
y proposent une grille de stratégies considérées importantes par des élèves pour
bien réussir. Une étude plus récente de ces mêmes auteurs (Zimmerman &
Martinez-Pons, 1990) démontre que les élèves plus jeunes n’utilisent pas les
mêmes stratégies que les plus vieux dans l’ensemble des situations qui leur sont
présentées.
Contrôle métacognitif ou auto-régulation
Deuxième composante de la métacognition, le contrôle métacognitif ou autorégulation
implique l’orchestration de stratégies en cours d’apprentissage selon
l’objectif poursuivi (Shuell, 1986). Ce contrôle inclut par exemple l’évaluation,
la révision et la planification, etc.
Plusieurs chercheurs dans de domaine, dont Zimmerman (1989), s’inscrivent
dans la lignée de travaux de Bandura (1977) sur l’auto-efficacité (“self-efficacy”)
et relient les aspects motivationnel, métacognitif et comportemental impliqués.
Ainsi, pour Zimmerman (1989), il yaunlien constant entre l’activité de l’élève,
les feed-back qu’il reçoit, la motivation engendrée par ces feed-back et son comportement
ultérieur en situation d’apprentissage.
Pour Zimmerman (1989), l’élève efficace dans le contrôle de son apprentissage
est celui qui approche la tâche avec confiance, possède plein de ressources,

310 MIREILLE FALARDEAU ET MICHEL LORANGER
recherche l’information quand c’est nécessaire et franchit les étapes pour arriver
à ses fins. Quand il rencontre une difficulté, il trouve une façon de la régler avec
succès. De plus, il voit ses acquisitions comme un processus contrôlable et il
accepte beaucoup de responsabilités en vue d’un meilleur rendement. Enfin, il
utilise systématiquement des stratégies d’auto-régulation.
Tous ces travaux portant sur la métacognition, qu’ils s’attardent plus aux
connaissances métacognitives ou à la régulation, permettent de conclure à l’importance
de considérer l’élève comme étant actif dans son propre processus d’apprentissage.
Cependant, une des facettes qui n’a pas encore été explorée, et qui est considérée
comme des plus importantes par Zimmerman lui-même (1989), suppose
que l’élève qui contrôle bien son propre comportement d’apprentissage adoptera
des comportements qui seront ajustés en fonction du contexte auquel il fait face.
Or, les travaux effectués jusqu’à maintenant ne tiennent pas compte des connaissances
qu’ont les élèves des contextes spécifiques de leur activité scolaire, bien
qu’il s’agisse d’un élément crucial. L’objectif de la présente étude consiste donc
à vérifier la connaissance qu’ont les enfants de leurs propres stratégies d’apprentissage
ou d’étude, de ce qu’ils croient être efficace pour bien réussir en classe,
mais dans des contextes spécifiques de l’activité scolaire. Ainsi, à l’instar des
travaux de Zimmerman et Martinez-Pons (1988), une liste des stratégies utilisées
par les élèves sera dressée, mais une attention particulière sera portée aux
différents contextes scolaires auxquels l’élève est confronté dans son activité
quotidienne. Les questions posées à l’élève (au total sept) le placeront devant six
contextes spécifiques et un contexte plus global. Ces contextes, inspirés des
travaux de Zimmerman et Martinez-Pons (1988), sont les suivants: manque de
compréhension en classe, manque de compréhension à la maison, seconde rédaction
d’un devoir, préparation d’un examen à la maison, manque de motivation
et échec répété. Le contexte plus global est celui du manque de réussite en
classe.
Les différences entre quatre niveaux d’âge (3e année du primaire, 6e année du
primaire, 2e secondaire et 5e secondaire) seront évaluées pour chacun des contextes.
Nous nous attendons à obtenir des différences entre les groupes à l’étude.
De plus, nous entrevoyons un choix particulier de stratégies selon le contexte
présenté à l’élève.
MÉTHODE
Sujets
L’échantillon se compose de 64 sujets appartenant à quatre groupes d’âge, soit
16 sujets provenant de 3e année du primaire (µ=9 ans, 2 mois), 16 sujets de la
6e année du primaire (µ=12 ans, 1 mois), 16 de la 2e secondaire (µ=14 ans, 6
mois) et 16 de la 5e secondaire (µ=16 ans, 11 mois). La moitié des sujets est de

LE CHOIX DE STRATÉGIES D’APPRENTISSAGE 311
sexe féminin et l’autre moitié de sexe masculin. Les autres variables tels le
rendement scolaire et le statut socio-économique sont réparties aléatoirement. Les
élèves du primaire fréquentent l’école La Source de Loretteville et les élèves du
secondaire la polyvalente de Loretteville.
Procédure
Une entrevue individuelle d’environ 20 minutes a été effectuée avec chacun des
sujets. La même expérimentatrice a rencontré tous les sujets, dans le même local
pour ce qui est des élèves du secondaire et le même local pour ceux du primaire.
L’entretien a été enregistré sur magnétophone. Le même ordre des questions a
été suivi pour chaque sujet.
TABLEAU 1
Questions de l’entrevue
1. Bobby (ou Jojo) est en classe et le professeur explique un devoir au tableau; il dit à
toute la classe que le devoir doit être remis le lendemain matin. Mais Bobby (ou
Jojo) se rend compte qu’il n’a pas bien compris les explications. Il ne sait plus quoi
faire. Qu’est-ce que tu ferais à sa place?
2. Maintenant, Bobby (ou Jojo) arrive chez lui et il commence son devoir. Tout à coup
il ne comprend plus. Qu’est-ce qu’il devrait faire selon toi?
3. Bobby (ou Jojo) arrive en classe le lendemain et il remet son devoir au professeur.
Après l’avoir corrigé, le professeur lui remet son devoir et il lui dit qu’il y a beaucoup
d’erreurs dedans. Il demande alors à Bobby de revoir comme il faut son travail
et de le lui remettre demain matin. Qu’est-ce que Bobby devrait faire selon toi pour
que son travail soit le meilleur possible?
4. Bon, maintenant nous sommes à la fin de la journée de classe (primaire) ou de la
période (secondaire) et le professeur annonce à toute la classe qu’il y aura un examen
demain (ou un contrôle) sur ce qu’il vient d’enseigner. Bobby (ou Jojo) devra donc
se préparer le mieux possible à cet examen. Mais il ne sait pas comment faire.
Qu’est-ce que tu lui conseilles de faire?
5. Pierre (ou Marie) est un élève très gentil, mais qui a beaucoup de difficulté à l’école.
Il (elle) te demande ce qu’il (elle) devrait faire pour devenir meilleur(e). Qu’est-ce
que tu lui dis?
6. Ti-Bob (ou Lili) est un élève qui aime beaucoup les mathématiques et qui n’aime pas
du tout le français. Mais demain, il a deux examens, un en français, l’autre en mathématique.
Penses-tu qu’il étudiera plus le français ou les mathématiques? Pourquoi?
As-tu des méthodes particulières pour étudier quand tu aimes moins une matière?
7. Jacques (ou Cathy) a eu trois examens cette semaine et il les a tous échoués (coulés).
Il ne sait plus quoi faire. Qu’est-ce que tu lui dirais?

312 MIREILLE FALARDEAU ET MICHEL LORANGER
La tâche est présentée de la facçon suivante: Je vais te présenter des élèves
de (année de l’élève) année qui ont de la difficulté à l’école. Je vais te demander
de me dire qu’est-ce que tu ferais, toi, si tu étais placé dans la même situation
que ces élèves. Tu me dis tout ce que tu ferais dans ces situations. Il n’y a pas
de bonne ou de mauvaise réponse, ce qui m’intéresse c’est ce que tu penses et
comment tu agirais à leur place. Est-ce que tu as bien compris?” Les sept questions
sont présentées dans le tableau 1.
L’entrevue s’est déroulée de façon très interactive, de manière à maximiser les
verbalisations de l’élève. Ainsi, l’expérimentatrice requestionnait le sujet après
qu’il eut fourni une réponse pour vérifier s’il avait bien verbalisé tout ce qu’il
connaissait de la situation présentée. Des phrases du genre: “Vois-tu autre chose
qui pourrait être fait?” ou “Replace-toi bien dans la situation et imagine ce que
tu ferais” ont donc été utilisées au cours de l’entrevue.
Cotation
Chaque entrevue a d’abord été transcrite de façon verbatim. Deux correcteurs se
sont ensuite partagé l’analyse des protocoles selon une grille de cotation des
stratégies s’inspirant de celle de Zimmerman et Martinez-Pons (1986). Ces stratégies
sont l’auto-évaluation, l’organisation du matériel d’étude, la planification,
la recherche d’information, l’écoute (et prise de notes), la structure de l’environnement,
l’auto-renforcement, la répétition/mémorisation, la demande d’aide
auprès des pairs, des adultes et de l’enseignant, la révision de notes, de manuels
et d’examens et une catégorie nommée “autre.”
La validité de cette grille a été démontrée en corrélant les résultats obtenus au
rendement scolaire de l’élève (93%) et à une évaluation de ces mêmes élèves par
les enseignants (90%) (Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1988). Nous avons procédé
à des modifications à la grille originale en 15 catégories pour tenir compte des
résultats concernant les stratégies d’apprentissage (Jones & Hall, 1983; Kirby,
1984; Snowman, 1986). Les modifications apportées sont les suivantes: la catégorie
5 a été divisée en deux catégories soit la prise de notes et l’écoute; la
catégorie 11 a été séparée en demande d’aide aux parents et demande d’aide à
d’autres adultes; la catégorie 15 a aussi été subdivisée pour permettre une analyse
plus détaillée de cette catégorie, soit en 15a (correspond à des réflexions sans but
et imprécises, ex: “je m’assois et je réfléchis fort jusqu’à temps que je trouve la
réponse”) et 15b (comportements initiés par d’autres personnes, ex: “ma mère
m’oblige alors à aller étudier dans ma chambre”). La grille de cotation finale
incluait donc 18 catégories de stratégies.
Le système d’attribution des scores était le suivant: un point (1) était alloué
aux stratégies qui étaient nommées dans chacun des contextes. Une stratégie ne
pouvait donc obtenir que 7 points maximum (1 point par contexte X 7 contextes).
Dix protocoles (soit environ 10% du total des protocoles) ont ensuite été
sélectionnés au hasard, dans le but d’établir un indice de fidélité (calculé ainsi:

LE CHOIX DE STRATÉGIES D’APPRENTISSAGE 313
nombre d’accords/nombre total d’observations X 100). L’indice d’accord interjuges
ainsi obtenu est de 85%.
RÉSULTATS
Analyses descriptives
Le traitement statistique a été effectué à l’aide du progiciel SAS. Le tableau 2
présente les résultats issus des analyses descriptives.
Ces analyses permettent de constater la faible représentativité de certaines
variables, comme c’est le cas pour l’auto-évaluation, l’organisation du matériel
d’étude, la prise de notes, la structure de l’environnement, l’auto-renforcement
et la révision d’examens. Afin d’augmenter le niveau de représentativité des
variables et aussi pour permettre des analyses de type MANOVA, un regroupement
des variables en catégories plus générales a été effectué. Dix catégories ont
ainsi été créées.
Une première catégorie regroupe les stratégies d’auto-évaluation et d’autorenforcement,
qui réfèrent à des comportements plus reliés à l’individu lui-même,
à de l’“auto-management.” La catégorie 2 relie la stratégie d’organisation à la
stratégie plus générale de répétition et mémorisation, puisque utilisée par les
sujets dans un tel but. Les catégories 3 et 4 demeurent inchangées. Les stratégies
5a et 5b, qui avaient été séparées lors de la cotation, sont fusionnées parce que
les deux sont des comportements d’écoute (allant d’une forme plus passive à une
forme plus active) et constituent la catégorie 5. Il en est de même pour les
catégories 11a et 11b, qui avaient été séparées et qui ont été regroupées en la
catégorie 8, parce que ne présentant pas une information si différente en soi. Les
catégories 6 et 7 réfèrent respectivement à la demande d’aide aux pairs et à la
demande d’aide à l’enseignant. La catégorie 9 se nomme maintenant révision de
documents et inclut la révision d’examens, la révision de notes et la révision de
manuels. Enfin, la catégorie 10 regroupe les deux stratégies 15a et 15b.
La stratégie de structure de l’environnement a été abandonnée parce qu’elle
était peu représentée et qu’il a été impossible de l’associer avec une autre
stratégie sans diluer de l’information. Ce nouveau regroupement des variables
dépendantes servira à effectuer toutes les autres analyses.
Différences selon le niveau quant à l’utilisation de chaque stratégie dans l’ensemble
des contextes
Les données ont été soumises à une analyse de variance de type MANOVA afin
de vérifier les variables qui permettaient de discriminer entre les quatre groupes
d’âge. Les postulats de l’analyse de variance ont d’abord été vérifiés. Les données
n’ont pas été transformées puisque comme le souligne Kirk (1982), les n
égaux assurent la robustesse du test F.

TABLEAU 2
Moyennes et écarts-types des stratégies d’étude
selon le niveau pour l’ensemble des contextes scolaires
3e année 6e année 2e sec. 5e sec. Total
moy. é-t moy. é-t moy. é-t moy. é-t moy. é-t mn.*
Auto-évaluation 0,19 0,40 0,38 0,72 0,44 0,73 1,06 0,93 0,52 0,78 33
Organisation 0,06 0,25 0,19 0,40 0,63 0,81 0,81 0,98 0,42 0,73 27
Planification 1,44 1,03 1,50 1,10 1,38 1,20 1,44 1,09 1,44 1,08 92
Out. scol. 0,75 0,93 0,38 0,72 0,81 0,75 0,94 0,68 0,72 0,79 46
Prise de notes 0,00 0,00 0,13 0,34 1,06 0,77 1,06 0,93 0,56 0,79 36
Écoute 1,44 0,73 1,19 0,66 1,31 0,79 1,38 0,50 1,33 0,67 85
Environnement 0,25 0,45 0,31 0,60 0,56 0,73 0,63 0,62 0,44 0,61 28
Auto-renf. 0,06 0,25 0,44 0,51 0,31 0,48 0,56 0,51 0,34 0,48 22
Mémorisation 1,38 1,09 1,44 0,81 1,06 0,57 0,81 0,66 1,17 0,83 75
Pairs 2,06 1,53 2,63 1,09 2,63 0,89 3,06 1,00 2,59 1,18 166
Enseignant 1,88 0,89 2,75 1,18 2,50 1,21 2,81 0,91 2,48 1,10 159
Parent 3,44 1,21 3,56 1,26 1,56 1,03 1,00 0,63 2,39 1,54 153
Adultes 1,00 1,03 1,13 0,81 1,19 0,83 0,88 1,20 2,48 1,10 67
Rév. notes 0,00 0,00 0,13 0,34 1,31 1,25 1,13 1,15 0,64 1,03 41
Rév. man. 0,69 0,48 0,56 0,51 1,31 1,08 1,13 0,72 0,92 0,78 59
Rév. exam. 0,19 0,40 0,63 0,72 0,50 0,63 0,38 0,50 0,42 0,59 27
Réfl. impréc. 1,06 1,29 0,56 0,81 0,50 0,73 0,50 0,82 0,66 0,95 42
Comp. autr. 1,25 1,39 0,50 0,73 0,19 0,40 0,56 0,73 0,63 0,95 40
*Mentions.

TABLEAU 3
Comparaison entre les groupes d’âge pour l’ensemble des dix stratégies
3e année 6e année 2e sec. 5e sec.
moy. é-t moy. é-t moy. é-t moy. é-t F
1. auto-contrôle 0,25 0,45 0,81 0,91 0,75 1,00 1,63 1,26 5,74*
2. organis.&mémoris. 1,44 1,09 1,63 0,81 1,69 0,95 1,63 1,26 0,17
3. planification 1,44 1,03 1,50 1,10 1,38 1,20 1,44 1,09 0,03
4. outils scolaires 0,75 0,93 0,38 0,72 0,81 0,75 0,94 0,68 1,56
5. prise notes+écoute 1,44 0,73 1,31 0,79 2,38 1,26 2,44 1,09 5,81*
6. aide (pairs) 2,06 1,53 2,63 1,09 2,63 0,89 3,06 1,00 2,03
7. aide (enseignant) 1,88 0,89 2,75 1,18 2,50 1,21 2,81 0,91 2,62
8. aide (autres) 4,44 1,53 4,69 1,62 2,75 1,48 1,88 1,67 11,37**
9. révision docum. 0,88 0,72 1,31 1,01 3,13 1,89 2,63 1,31 10,58**
10. autre 2,31 1,70 1,06 1,29 0,69 0,79 1,06 1,12 5,00
*p

316 MIREILLE FALARDEAU ET MICHEL LORANGER
L’analyse a été effectuée selon un modèle à quatre groupes. Les variables
dépendantes sont les dix stratégies. Le résultat indique une différence significative
entre les groupes pour l’ensemble des variables dépendantes (F [3, 60]=4,04,
p

LE CHOIX DE STRATÉGIES D’APPRENTISSAGE 317
TABLEAU 4
Fréquences de mentions des stratégies selon l’âge et le contexte
stratégies/
situat.-niveaux 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1. compréhension (classe)
3e année 2 3 3
6e année 3 3 3
2e sec. 1 2 3 1
5e sec. 1 3 3 1 1
2. compréhension (maison)
3e année 2 1 3
6e année 3 1 3
2e sec. 3 3
5e sec. 1 3 1 3 1
3. recommencer un devoir
3e année 1 1 3 1
6e année 3 3
2e sec. 2 1 1 2
5e sec. 2 2 2 1
4. préparation d’examen
3e année 3 1 1 3 2 2
6e année 3 1 3 2
2e sec. 3 1 2 3
5e sec. 3 3 3
5. réussite scolaire
3e année 1 3 1 1
6e année 1 1 3 1 2 1 1
2e sec. 2 3 1 1 1
5e sec. 1 2 3 1 1
6. motivation
3e année 1 2
6e année 1 1 1
2e sec. 1
5e sec. 2 1
7. échec répété
3e année 1 1 1
6e année 1 1 1 1 1 1
2e sec. 1 2 3
5e sec. 1 1 1 2 1
1: nommé par 25%–49% des sujets
2: nommé par 50%–74% des sujets
3: nommé par 75% et plus des sujets

318 MIREILLE FALARDEAU ET MICHEL LORANGER
La révision de documents est une stratégie qui apparaît comme plus pertinente
à partir du secondaire.
Lorsque le manque de compréhension d’un devoir survient à la maison, les
élèves cherchent encore ici à obtenir des informations provenant des gens qui les
entourent. Les personnes pouvant être rejointes à la maison, comme les parents,
les autres adultes et les pairs deviennent plus importantes que l’enseignant. Ce
n’est qu’en 5e secondaire qu’apparaît la stratégie d’utilisation d’outils scolaires
(dictionnaire, grammaire, calculatrice, etc). Il existe une présence plus grande de
la catégorie des autres conduites, surtout en ce qui concerne la réflexion. On
retrouve alors des phrases du genre: “je vais réfléchir fort jusqu’à temps que je
trouve la réponse.”
Pour ce qui est du troisième contexte, c’est-à-dire lorsque l’élève se voit dans
l’obligation de recommencer un devoir mal fait, les stratégies de demande d’aide
sont encore très importantes, mais d’autres stratégies sont envisagées par des
proportions plus grandes de sujets. C’est le cas de l’utilisation d’outils scolaires,
de l’auto-contrôle et de la réflexion.
La situation de préparation d’examens ou d’étude à la maison est une situation
pour laquelle un grand nombre de stratégies est envisagé. La stratégie la plus
importante pour tous les groupes d’âge est celle de la répétition/mémorisation/
organisation, suivie de la révision de documents et ensuite de la planification de
l’étude. Des différences entre les groupes d’âge apparaissent aussi dans ce contexte.
Les plus jeunes considèrent l’aide apportée par les parents comme un point
crucial et même qu’ils se soumettent à leurs exigences (comportements initiés par
autrui). La demande d’aide aux pairs est plus caractéristique des élèves de 3e
année. Pour les groupes du secondaire, ce sont d’autres stratégies qui sont envisagées,
comme la prise de notes et l’écoute.
Pour réussir en classe, la grande majorité des sujets considèrent qu’il faut
d’abord être à l’écoute, et ce de façon active et/ou passive. La planification est
aussi très importante, et ce dans des proportions plus grandes pour les plus vieux.
Une autre catégorie qui apparaît chez les plus vieux est l’auto-contrôle. Les
stratégies de demande d’aide sont importantes dans cette situation, mais des différences
sont observables d’un groupe d’âge à l’autre. Enfin, seul le groupe de
6e année s’attarde sur l’importance de la répétition/mémorisation/organisation.
En ce qui concerne la situation où le sujet doit se motiver, les stratégies
mentionnées ne sont qu’au nombre de trois et encore ici, des différences
apparaissent entre les plus jeunes et les plus vieux. Ainsi, la planification est
jugée pertinente surtout au primaire, l’auto-contrôle par tous les groupes sauf
celui de 3e année. On retrouve alors des phrases du genre: “lorsque j’ai fini
d’étudier, je me permets de. ...”Lacatégorie des autres conduites est mentionnée
en plus grand nombre pour les groupes de 3e année et de 5e secondaire, et
plus particulièrement l’obligation de faire les choses (comportement initié par
autrui).
Lorsqu’une situation d’échec répété est présentée à l’élève, la demande d’aide
à l’enseignant est fortement privilégiée. Plusieurs autres stratégies sont envisa-

LE CHOIX DE STRATÉGIES D’APPRENTISSAGE 319
gées, mais elles ne représentent qu’une faible proportion de sujets par groupe,
comme l’écoute/prise de notes pour les sujets de 3e année, 2e secondaire et 5e,
la planification par les trois groupes plus vieux, l’auto-évaluation par les sujets
de 6e année et 5e secondaire, la demande d’aide aux autres adultes par les jeunes
du primaire et les autres conduites pour les 3e année. On remarque aussi que la
révision de documents est considérée comme très importante par le groupe de 2e
secondaire qui vient en tête de tous les autres groupes sur ce sujet.
DISCUSSION
L’objectif de la présente étude consistait à vérifier quelles stratégies sont considérées
efficaces par les élèves du primaire et du secondaire, et ce dans sept
contextes de l’activité scolaire de l’élève. Nous anticipions des différences entre
quatre groupes d’âge et nous entrevoyions un choix de stratégies différent dépendemment
du contexte présenté à l’élève.
Tout d’abord, il faut mentionner que les résultats sont directement influencés
par le regroupement des variables tel qu’effectué dans l’analyse des résultats. Un
autre regroupement aurait pu favoriser d’autres observations. Quoiqu’il en soit,
les différences obtenues reflètent somme toute assez bien les résultats constatés
habituellement dans ce type d’étude, et rejoignent ainsi ceux trouvés par Zimmerman
et Martinez-Pons (1986, 1988, 1990).
Concernant les résultats comme tel, trois conclusions principales ressortent de
leur analyse: (1) des différences apparaissent entre les groupes d’âge dans le
choix des stratégies considérées importantes, allant vers une auto-régulation
accrue de l’élève en vieillissant, (2) le contexte scolaire apparaît comme une
variable importante dans le choix de stratégies et (3) les stratégies mentionnées
pointent l’importance des relations sociales dans l’atteinte des objectifs de
réussite scolaire.
Changements avec l’âge et auto-régulation accrue
Les travaux effectués dans le domaine de la métacognition laissaient présager une
sélection différente de stratégies selon l’âge de l’élève (Garner, 1987; Kreutzer,
Leonard, & Flavell, 1975; Markam, 1979). Ainsi, les résultats permettent d’observer
une utilisation accrue par les élèves plus vieux de stratégies plus expertes
comme la prise de notes et l’auto-évaluation, qui consiste en une réévaluation sa
propre façon de fonctionner. Ces résultats corroborent ceux de Zimmerman et
Martinez-Pons (1986, 1988, 1990). Une constatation qui peut sembler contradictoire
est la forte mention de la catégorie autre par les élèves de 5e secondaire.
À prime abord, il pourrait être conclu qu’à mesure que la compétence des collègues
de classe augmente, l’élève s’appuie plus sur eux. Si on se réfère aux
raisons invoquées par les élèves eux-mêmes, ceux-ci mentionnent qu’ils n’ont pas
le choix d’effectuer les tâches qui sont présentées, ce qu’ils relient à la volonté
d’obtenir un diplôme futur.

320 MIREILLE FALARDEAU ET MICHEL LORANGER
Nous pouvons donc conclure que les élèves plus vieux présentent une plus
grande variété de stratégies et que celles-ci s’avèrent être des stratégies plus
expertes, plus efficaces, comme par exemple l’auto-évaluation. La verbalisation
de ces stratégies implique forcément une meilleure connaissance de celles-ci et
de leurs applications. Mais il ne faut pas conclure trop tôt à l’absence de connaissances
par les élèves de 3e année de stratégies plus expertes comme la prise
de notes. Plusieurs sujets de ce niveau ont mentionné dans certaines situations
qu’il pourrait être possible d’écrire un mot ou de souligner dans le livre, sans
élaborer davantage. Ces observations permettent d’envisager une intervention plus
précoce concernant certaines stratégies plus expertes. Ainsi, des élèves aussi
jeunes que ceux de 3e année sont tout à fait capables de discuter de leurs
comportements cognitifs et rien n’empêcherait de les entraîner à des stratégies
plus expertes pourvu que le langage et les exemples soient adaptés à leur niveau.
Influence du contexte scolaire
Bien que les résultats concernant le contexte scolaire ne soient que descriptifs,
il apparaît que cette variable influence le choix de stratégies, et ce pour tous les
groupes d’âge. En effet, certains contextes génèrent une plus grande variété de
stratégies alors que d’autres n’en présentent que très peu. Les situations
préparation à un examen, réussite scolaire et échec répété génèrent plusieurs
stratégies alors que pour un manque de compréhension, recommencer un devoir
ou se motiver, moins de stratégies sont envisagées. Soit qu’il s’agit de situations
mieux connues par l’élève ou soit que les situations avec moins de stratégies en
nécessitent moins. Ainsi, Pressley, Borkowski et O’Sullivan (1984) mentionnent
que les situations difficiles ou nouvelles devraient entraîner un choix de stratégies
différent. Ainsi, les situations pour lesquelles les demandes d’aide sont les plus
privilégiées s’avèrent être des situations où l’élève rencontre un problème,
c’est-à-dire de situations qui échappent à son contrôle et pour lesquelles il doit
s’appuyer sur la compétence des autres.
Ces résultats démontrent que les élèves possèdent des connaissances très
précises de la situation “école” qui sont multivariées et interreliées. Des études
subséquentes pourraient porter sur un questionnement plus approfondi de la conception
qu’ont les élèves de l’apprentissage et des façons d’apprendre, conclusion
d’ailleurs apportée par Paris et Newman (1990).
Importance des relations sociales
Le fait de savoir que l’enfant privilégie de s’adresser à d’autres personnes dans
plusieurs contextes est fort important. Comme il pouvait être anticipé, des différences
sont aussi observées entre les groupes d’âge pour ce qui est du choix des
personnes sollicitées pour une demande d’aide. Ainsi, l’importance des parents
va en décroissant à mesure que l’élève vieillit. Il peut en être conclu que l’adole-

LE CHOIX DE STRATÉGIES D’APPRENTISSAGE 321
scent prend plus de distances par rapport à ses parents et demande l’aide d’autres
personnes devant des difficultés. Cependant, la compétence des pairs augmente
aussi selon le contenu. Les parents ne s’avèrent plus les seuls compétents et les
pairs sont sollicités dans des proportions plus importantes.
Les élèves de tout âge considèrent donc que les relations sociales constituent
un moyen fort efficace de fonctionner dans plusieurs contextes scolaires. Il serait
dès lors très important que les intervenants aident les élèves à définir et à utiliser
leur réseau de support social. De plus, les personnes sollicitées par l’enfant lors
d’un manque de compréhension ou lors de la solution d’un problème scolaire
n’ont pas toujours la compétence et la formation pour l’aider adéquatement. La
formation des parents et des pairs à un tutorat plus efficace pour l’enfant devient
alors une priorité pour le milieu scolaire.
CONCLUSION
Il est vrai que les résultats qui ressortent de cette étude ne concernent que des
verbalisations, qu’il s’agit de connaissances qu’a l’élève et que rien n’assure,
comme le mentionne Brown et Campione (1981), que c’est ce qu’il fait réellement
lorsque la situation se présente. Cependant, elle tend à démontrer que
l’élève prend une part active dans son apprentissage, qu’il a développé plusieurs
stratégies qu’il considère efficaces selon le contexte dans lequel il se retrouve.
Le milieu scolaire devrait accorder une plus grande place à l’aspect métacognitif,
c’est-à-dire à la prise en charge par l’élève de ses propres comportements
cognitifs, soit par discussion de groupe ou par un entraînement direct. Ces interventions
devraient favoriser par la suite une meilleure intégration des apprentissages
et acquis scolaires, tout en démontrant à l’élève qu’il a du contrôle sur
ce qui lui arrive en classe, ce qui susceptible d’augmenter sa motivation.
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Le changement de rôle d’un enseignant
dans un environnement technologique riche
Martine Chomienne
télé-université
Pendant l’année scolaire 1989–1990, l’étude du comportement d’un enseignant de sixième
année, alors qu’il était placé avec ses élèves dans un environnement technologique riche,
a conduit à la description chronologique de son évolution en quatre phases de transformation
et trois périodes de transition. Au fur et à mesure du déroulement de l’expérience,
les chercheurs ont pu étudier, principalement par le biais de l’observation, la transformation
de son mode d’enseignement. Ils ont identifié quatre phases (effervescence, dérobade,
intégration et repli) entrecoupées de périodes de transition. En tenant compte du contexte
de recherche dans lequel s’est effectuée cette transformation, l’auteure élabore un modèle
général du changement de rôle d’un enseignant placé dans un environnement pédagogique
informatisé. Il s’agit d’un outil destiné à analyser l’appropriation pédagogique individuelle
de la micro-informatique par les enseignants du Québec.
This study considered the changing behaviour of a Grade 6 teacher whose 1989/90 class
had been given a technologically rich environment. The class went through four transformative
phases and three transitions. Relying mainly on direct observation, researchers
found that the teacher’s methods of instruction went from effervescence, to hesitancy, to
integration, and to retreat — with intervening transitions. Considering that these events
occurred during a research project, the author constructs a general model of change for
the role of the teacher in a computerized environment. This model shows how teachers
appropriate computing for their own purposes.
L’adaptation au changement est peut-être “l’art” le plus fréquemment exercé par
les enseignants d’aujourd’hui. Au Québec, depuis la réforme Parent du milieu des
années 60, les enseignants font continuellement face à des changements de
programmes, de méthodes pédagogiques, de clientèles, de conditions de travail,
etc. (Centrale de l'Enseignement du Québec, 1988). En 1983, le ministère de
l’Éducation du Québec mettait en oeuvre un plan quinquennal d’implantation de
la micro-informatique dans les écoles. Il s’agissait alors d’une innovation
technologique sans précédent, dont l’impact sur l’apprentissage et l’enseignement
était encore mal défini. On prédisait que son introduction dans le milieu scolaire
allait entraîner de nombreux changements, notamment une modification en
profondeur du rôle des enseignants.
OBJECTIF DE LA RECHERCHE
La présente recherche s’inscrit au sein du courant des études sur l’implantation
de l’ordinateur en milieu scolaire. Son but est de caractériser le changement de
323 REVUE CANADIENNE DE L’ÉDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

324 MARTINE CHOMIENNE
rôle de l’enseignant qui intègre l’ordinateur à son enseignement. Plus précisément,
nous cherchons à discerner des phases dans les changements que l’enseignant
effectue.
PROBLÉMATIQUE DE LA RECHERCHE
L’implantation des ordinateurs
L’introduction des ordinateurs dans le milieu scolaire a été largement étudiée
depuis le début des années 80. En témoignent les nombreux résultats de recherche
qui ont été regroupés ces dernières années dans des méta-analyses (Becker,
1987; Krendl et Lieberman, 1988; Roblyer, Castine et King, 1988; Willis et
Willis, 1989) pour tracer un portrait des effets de l’utilisation en classe de
l’ordinateur.
Ce portrait identifie de nombreuses variables, tant internes (motivation des
élèves, profil d’apprentissage, etc.) qu’externes (contexte technologique, attributs
des logiciels utilisés, etc.), qui agissent dans un environnement pédagogique
informatisé (EPI). Cependant, une variable retient de plus en plus l’attention:
l’enseignant, dont les idées, les pratiques pédagogiques et les besoins doivent être
pris en considération dans toute tentative d’introduction des nouvelles technologies
(Aust, Allen et Bichelmeyer, 1989; Cuban, 1986; Richardson, Anders, Tidwell
et Lloyd, 1991).
En effet, l’ordinateur exige de l’enseignant bien davantage que le simple ajout
d’un nouvel élément à ses pratiques pédagogiques. Il lui demande un changement
qui remet en cause ses croyances, ses connaissances, ses attitudes et ses conceptions
pédagogiques (Fullan, 1985; Richardson, 1990; Wood, Cobb et Yackel,
1991). L’enseignant est amené à se questionner (Olson, 1988) sur une pratique
qu’il exerce avec un certain succès, depuis, bien souvent, plus de vingt ans. Il
doit organiser son enseignement d’une manière nouvelle, concevoir son rôle
différemment et aider ses élèves à s’adapter à de nouvelles approches d’enseignement.
Chaque enseignant qui opte pour l’innovation passe par différents niveaux
d’utilisation (Hall, Loucks, Rutherford et Newlove, 1975) ou encore par différents
stades d’intérêt (Hall et Hord, 1987). Dwyer, Ringstaff, Sandholtz et Apple
Computer inc. (1990), dans le projet Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT),
ont identifié une série d’étapes dans l’utilisation en classe des ordinateurs:
l’entrée, l’adoption, l’adaptation, et l’appropriation-invention. Rappelons que les
environnements créés par le projet ACOT étaient riches (plusieurs Macintosh par
classe) et que les titulaires de ces classes n’avaient pas d’expérience préalable
avec les ordinateurs. La première étape, l’entrée, correspond au premier contact
de l’enseignant avec un environnement informatisé. L’enseignant se trouve confronté
à des problèmes techniques ainsi qu’à des problèmes de discipline et de
gestion de ressources. Il surmonte ces difficultés lors de la deuxième étape, celle

LE CHANGEMENT DE RÔLE D’UN ENSEIGNANT 325
de l’adoption, alors qu’il utilise la technologie comme support à ses méthodes
traditionnelles d’enseignement; ce faisant, il a recours essentiellement à des
tutoriels et à des exerciseurs. L’étape d’adaptation est caractérisée par la
fréquence d’utilisation des ordinateurs par les élèves et par l’importance du
nombre de productions informatisées qu’ils réalisent. L’enseignant recherche des
stratégies nouvelles pour enseigner et pour évaluer les productions. Enfin, lors
de l’appropriation-invention, il utilise naturellement la technologie comme un
outil lui permettant d’accomplir son travail. Pour cela, il modifie véritablement
ses pratiques et ses conceptions pédagogiques pour exploiter à fond les possibilités
de l’ordinateur. C’est à cette dernière étape que nous nous sommes intéressée,
car elle correspond au stade où en sont plusieurs enseignants québécois déjà bien
engagés dans la voie de l’intégration des ordinateurs dans leur enseignement.
Les pratiques et les conceptions pédagogiques des enseignants
Parmi les grilles d’analyse du comportement des enseignants en classe, nous
avons retenu la classification des interventions pédagogiques de l’enseignant de
De Landsheere (1981). Selon cet auteur, l’enseignant effectue trois catégories
d’actions: (1) il fait des présentations magistrales plus ou moins “interactives”
(lorsqu’il pose des questions et fait participer les élèves); (2) il supervise le
travail pratique que les élèves réalisent individuellement ou en équipe (il passe
dans les rangées pour vérifier, donner des conseils, des explications, etc.); et (3)
il fait des démonstrations à de petits groupes, les autres élèves travaillant alors
à leur pupitre.
À l’occasion de ces actions, l’enseignant intervient verbalement. Actions et
interventions verbales ont quatre types de fonctions: (1) des fonctions d’organisation,
par lesquelles le maître régle la participation des élèves aux activités,
organise leurs mouvements dans la classe, indique l’ordre et la succession des
tâches et le passage d’une activité à une autre; (2) des fonctions d’imposition, par
lesquelles il présente des informations (des faits et des procédures), impose des
activités, des problèmes et des méthodes de résolution; (3) des fonctions d’éducation,
reliées au développement personnel affectif et psychologique des élèves, par
lesquelles il stimule l’autonomie des élèves, demande une recherche personnelle,
structure la pensée de l’élève, apporte une aide sur demande, individualise
l’enseignement, favorisant ainsi le développement de la personnalité de l’enfant;
et (4) des fonctions d’évaluation et de rétroaction, par lesquelles il informe
l’enfant de ses performances, renforce son comportement ou, au contraire, vise
à modifier un comportement; ces dernières fonctions comprennent également les
corrections des travaux faits quotidiennement à la maison.
Les actions et les interventions de l’enseignant traduisent des modes d’enseignement
que Lesne (1977) a regroupés en trois catégories. Nous en avons retenu
deux qui correspondent également à la classification dichotomique de Kleine

326 MARTINE CHOMIENNE
(1982); il s’agit du mode d’enseignement de type transmissif opposé au mode
d’enseignement de type permissif. Ces modes n’existent pas à l’état pur dans la
pratique, mais ils permettent de déceler des tendances dans la relation de l’enseignant
au savoir et au pouvoir. Ainsi, un enseignant qui fait preuve d’un mode de
travail de type transmissif transmet surtout des connaissances et des méthodes
d’organisation des connaissances. Il exerce son pouvoir par l’autorité, il délègue
peu. Il fait beaucoup de présentations magistrales et utilise la répétition et
l’enseignement programmé comme moyen de faire acquérir des connaissances.
À l’inverse un enseignant qui agit selon un mode de type incitatif considère
l’élève comme principal responsable de son apprentissage; il l’aide dans son processus
d’appropriation des connaissances. Il fait preuve d’une pédagogie opposée
aux conceptions du savoir et du pouvoir des méthodes dites traditionnelles. Il est
non directif, sollicite les idées de ses élèves et les clarifie au besoin. Il favorise
la coopération entre les individus et met l’accent sur les apprentissages de
groupe. Il privilégie le travail en équipe qu’il supervise et guide dans la réalisation
de projets par les élèves.
MÉTHODOLOGIE
Pour étudier le changement de rôle d’un enseignant dans un environnement technologique
riche, nous avons réalisé une étude de cas.
Le contexte de l’étude
Nous avons choisi un milieu de classe naturel: une classe de sixième année
comptant 29 élèves dans une école primaire située en milieu défavorisé. Nous
avons créé un environnement technologique riche en installant six ordinateurs
Macintosh reliés en réseau à l’aide du logiciel TOPS. Dès le démarrage du projet
les élèves avaient à leur disposition un éventail des logiciels-outils que nous
avions choisis pour deux raisons. D’une part, parce que les logiciels de cette
catégorie semblent présenter un intérêt pour le développement d’habiletés intellectuelles
complexes (Mandinach et Linn, 1986); et d’autre part, parce que
l’enseignant retenu en était au stade d’appropriation-invention de l’ordinateur. En
effet, depuis quatre ans, il disposait en permanence dans sa classe d’un ordinateur
Macintosh; cela lui avait permis de passer par les étapes 1, 2 et 3 décrites par
Dwyer et al. (1990); il était à l’aise pour installer lui-même les nouveaux logiciels
et brancher les périphériques selon leurs spécifications techniques. Il utilisait
l’ordinateur pour ses besoins de gestion de classe (rédaction de notes de cours,
statistiques sur les notes de ses élèves, etc.). Les logiciels à l’usage des élèves
étaient essentiellement des tutoriels et des exerciseurs.
Lors de l’installation des ordinateurs, nous avons modifié la disposition traditionnelle
des pupitres pour les regrouper en six îlots, chacun étant proche d’un
poste de travail ordinateur.

LE CHANGEMENT DE RÔLE D’UN ENSEIGNANT 327
Par ailleurs, comme nous ne disposions, pour des raisons logistiques et financières,
que d’une courte année scolaire, 1 nous avons décidé après quelques
semaines et à la demande de l’enseignant d’intervenir sur le plan pédagogique.
C’est ainsi que nous avons mis à sa disposition le didacticien membre de
l’équipe de recherche. Il suggérait à l’enseignant un mode de travail par projets,
l’aidait hebdomadairement à faire sa planification de classe et à préparer le matériel
pédagogique nécessaire.
Les caractéristiques pédagogiques de départ de l’enseignant font aussi partie
du contexte de l’étude; comme nous voulions étudier leur évolution dans l’environnement
pédagogique informatisé, nous les avons évaluées avant la création de
cet environnement.
Nous avons observé l’enseignant pendant un après-midi avant le début du projet.
Il utilisait un mode de type transmissif (Lesne, 1977), plutôt direct et fermé
(Kleine, 1982). Il faisait surtout des présentations magistrales suivies de supervision
de travaux individuels. Pendant les présentations, il posait fréquemment
des questions, favorisant ainsi la participation des élèves; ces questions cependant
étaient souvent ponctuelles et il n’y avait pas de véritable discussion entre les
élèves et l’enseignant.
Plusieurs auteurs (Kleine, 1982; Medley, 1982) reconnaissent que ce mode de
travail est efficace, notamment auprès d’enfants de niveau socio-économique
faible comme c’était le cas de ceux qui participaient au projet; cependant, ce
mode correspond peu aux caractéristiques pédagogiques facilitatrices de l’intégration
des ordinateurs, telles que les ont décrites Taurisson (1983), et Berthelot,
Savard, Chomienne et Baby (1986). En effet, les enseignants qui intègrent facilement
l’ordinateur à leur pédagogie ont un mode d’enseignement ouvert, de type
incitatif dans lequel ils donnent à l’apprenant la responsabilité de sa formation.
Ils mettent l’accent sur le développement personnel de l’enfant plutôt que sur
l’acquisition du savoir. Ils favorisent chez les élèves le travail par projet, en
atelier et en équipe. Ces pratiques, pourtant, sont peu répandues dans le milieu
scolaire primaire québécois et les enseignants présentant un tel profil sont rares
(Conseil supérieur de l'éducation, 1987).
Ainsi, l’enseignant que nous avions sélectionné ressemblait à la plupart des
enseignants du Québec quant à son mode d’enseignement. Par conséquent, l’observation
de son comportement et l’étude du changement de rôle qu’il devait
effectuer lors de l’étape d’appropriation-invention de l’ordinateur devenaient un
sujet des plus intéressants.
La collecte et l’analyse des données
Une partie importante des données vient des observations. Celles-ci ont eu lieu
du début décembre à la mi-mai, à raison de sept périodes 2 en moyenne par
semaine. Trois observatrices se relayaient dans la classe ou s’y trouvaient
ensemble pour une même période d’observation, de façon à trianguler plus tard

328 MARTINE CHOMIENNE
les données. Elles prenaient des notes manuscrites sur le comportement et les
interventions de l’enseignant, ainsi que sur les actions des élèves à l’ordinateur.
D’autres données se sont ajoutées à celles issues de l’observation. L’enseignant
s’est prêté à deux entrevues en profondeur (l’une antérieure, l’autre postérieure
au projet); il a participé à 20 séances de débriffage (debriefing) qui ont eu lieu
chaque vendredi avec l’équipe de recherche. Nous avons aussi examiné le matériel
développé par l’enseignant lorsqu’il planifiait les activités dans l’EPI. Les
données proviennent donc de plusieurs sources et ont été recueillies à l’aide de
plusieurs instruments. Elles ont toutes été transcrites et codées dans une base de
données relationnelle informatisée. Pour cela, rapidement après leur collecte, elles
étaient découpées en segments de sens appelés des scripts (Vogel, 1988) et
comportant une action à laquelle était attachée une date. Chaque script recevait
un (quelquefois plusieurs) code(s) élaboré(s) à partir de la classification des
interventions pédagogiques de De Landsheere (1981) et des modes et styles
d’enseignement de Lesne (1977) et de Kleine (1982). Des sous-codes ont été
créés par la suite selon la méthode de Strauss et Corbin (1991), par les trois
observatrices en commun. Ils permettaient de qualifier davantage les actions. Le
codage était fait individuellement par chaque observatrice sur les données qu’elle
recueillait et validé ensuite par une des autres observatrices. Selon la catégorie
à laquelle ils appartenaient, les codes et les scripts correspondants pouvaient être
reliés entre eux dans la structure de la base de données. Ceci permettait de
retrouver par la suite, en interrogeant la base, des événements associés venant de
sources différentes.
Les analyses ont été faites en questionnant la base sur plusieurs dimensions
et en retraçant l’évolution chronologique des événements. Par exemple, en
recherchant les interventions verbales de l’enseignant auprès des élèves aux
ordinateurs, on peut voir qu’au début du projet, elles sont fréquentes, spontanées
ou à la demande des élèves; elles sont techniques et consistent à dicter des procédures
précises de cheminement dans un logiciel lors d’activités de français.
PRÉSENTATION ET DISCUSSION DES RÉSULTATS: L’ÉVOLUTION DE L’ENSEIGNANT
ET DE SA PRATIQUE
Dans l’évolution de l’enseignant, nous avons observé des phases entrecoupées de
transitions. Une phase est une période de temps variable caractérisée par une
certaine unité dans le comportement de l’enseignant. Elle se termine lorsque ce
dernier, rencontrant des contradictions majeures avec ses pratiques habituelles,
change de comportement. Généralement, la rupture n’est pas brutale; elle est
annoncée par une période de transition qui assure le passage d’une phase à la
suivante; ainsi, nous avons identifié quatre phases chronologiques: phase 1,
effervescence, phase 2, dérobade, phase 3, intégration et phase 4, repli. Trois
périodes de transition ont assuré le passage d’une phase à l’autre: transition 1:
déstabilisation, transition 2, recherche de soutien, transition 3, surcharge.

LE CHANGEMENT DE RÔLE D’UN ENSEIGNANT 329
Les résultats sont présentés dans le tableau 1. On notera que les descriptions
de la transition 3 et de la phase 4 sont hypothétiques. Elles ont été extrapolées
à partir de la phase 3 qui laissait présager que l’enseignant s’acheminait vers un
succès dans l’appropriation pédagogique de l’EPI. Nous pensons que ce sont les
exigences de l’étude qui l’ont empêché 3 de poursuivre le changement qu’il avait
largement amorcé en phase 3. Nous commentons maintenant chacune des phases.
Phase 1: Effervescence
Cette phase a duré trois semaines, pendant lesquelles l’enseignant a fait réaliser
à l’ordinateur la plupart des activités de toutes les matières scolaires.
Pendant cette phase, l’enseignant fait confiance à son expérience de plus de
20 ans dans l’enseignement et de quatre ans avec les ordinateurs. Il fait des
présentations magistrales suivies de périodes de travail individuel des enfants.
C’est pendant les périodes de travail individuel, qu’il “assigne” certains élèves
aux ordinateurs. La plupart du temps, ils ont pour tâche de retranscrire un texte
composé à la main auparavant. L’enseignant intervient surtout auprès des élèves
à l’ordinateur; il leur impose des procédures strictes et répond à leurs demandes
qui portent essentiellement sur le mode d’emploi des logiciels. Il contrôle le
niveau de bruit dans sa classe en imposant un mode de travail individuel.
Par ailleurs, pour donner à chacun la chance de travailler à l’ordinateur, et
aussi par manque de planification des activités, il interrompt fréquemment le
travail des élèves. L’ensemble de son enseignement est morcelé et beaucoup de
temps est employé à des explications organisationnelles; malgré ses 20 ans d’expérience
il se comporte alors en enseignant novice (Leinhardt et Greeno, 1986).
Le temps alloué aux activités est rarement précisé aux élèves; ainsi, ces
derniers se sentent-ils souvent interrompus en plein travail, et tout travail
commencé n’est pas systématiquement repris lors d’une session ultérieure à
l’ordinateur. C’est pourquoi, cette période est caractérisée par de nombreuses
productions amorcées par les élèves à la demande de l’enseignant, qui n’ont
jamais été ni terminées ni évaluées, car l’enseignant se sent dépassé par des
problèmes d’organisation; il est déstabilisé (Dwyer et al., 1991). Peu avant les
vacances de Noël, lors d’une séance de compte-rendu hebdomadaire, il informe
l’équipe de recherche qu’il souhaite revenir à des activités plus traditionnelles le
matin, pour se mettre à jour dans le programme officiel, et réserver l’après-midi
à des activités permettant aux élèves plus d’exploration à l’ordinateur.
Phase 2: Dérobade
Cette phase a duré quatre semaines, pendant lesquelles seulement le tiers des
activités observées a été réalisé à l’ordinateur.
Elle est caractérisée par la faible utilisation des ordinateurs. Les enfants ne
s’en servent qu’en fin de journée pour des activités marginales sans lien avec les

330 MARTINE CHOMIENNE
autres activités d’apprentissage. Cependant, quand ils travaillent à l’ordinateur,
ils sont en équipe et ils se répartissent davantage selon leur propre organisation.
L’enseignant continue à donner aux élèves aux ordinateurs des conseils essentiellement
d’ordre technique, mais son attention, lors des séances de travail mixtes
(enfants aux ordinateurs et enfants à leur pupitre), n’est plus exclusivement
réservée aux élèves aux ordinateurs. Ses interventions sont de nature pédagogique
ou technique. Comme dans la phase précédente, les élèves sont rarement mis au
courant du temps dont ils disposent pour faire une activité.
Bien vite, cette situation ne satisfait pas l’enseignant. Il se rend compte qu’il
n’intègre pas réellement l’ordinateur à son enseignement. Il se questionne sur son
mode d’enseignement et quémande de l’aide auprès des membres de l’équipe de
recherche. À leur suggestion, il accepte de travailler hebdomadairement à la
planification des activités de la classe avec un didacticien.
Phase 3: Intégration
Cette phase fut la plus longue (huit semaines). La plupart des activités observées
ont été réalisées à l’ordinateur (72 contre 18).
L’enseignant modifie la disposition physique de la classe; il sépare les îlots
qu’il avait regroupés dans la phase précédente; il déplace l’imprimante vers le
fond de la classe, derrière un paravent, pour la rendre moins bruyante et permettre
ainsi aux élèves de l’utiliser quand ils en sentent le besoin.
Il travaille une fois par semaine avec le didacticien à la planification des
activités de la semaine à venir. Il conçoit du matériel écrit ainsi que de petits
programmes informatiques. Lors de la première période de la semaine, il présente
l’ensemble des activités à réaliser et explique aux élèves comment cheminer dans
un environnement où six activités se déroulent simultanément sur des thèmes
différents. Les élèves sont plus autonomes, se répartissent le travail à l’intérieur
des équipes et décident entre eux qui va à l’ordinateur. Les ordinateurs sont
fréquemment utilisés et les enfants y travaillent souvent avec un partenaire.
Les activités réalisées à l’ordinateur mettent en jeu des habiletés d’expressioncommunication
et de résolution de problème; les enfants, par exemple, doivent
illustrer un thème par des dessins ou des slogans qu’ils composent à l’ordinateur.
La classe peut être bruyante; l’enseignant tolère un niveau de bruit qu’il juge
maintenant propice aux échanges des élèves entre eux.
L’enseignant délaisse donc les présentations magistrales et le travail individuel
des élèves. Il introduit des méthodes plus interactives favorisant la discussion ou
le travail de groupe. L’apprentissage coopératif, le tutorat (l’apprentissage par les
pairs) apparaissent alors essentiels (Van Deusen et Donham, 1986–1987), les
élèves se questionnant mutuellement ou discutant des hypothèses des autres.
La planification hebdomadaire, qui permet que plusieurs activités se déroulent
simultanément dans la classe, est une des transformations importantes du mode
de travail de l’enseignant lors de cette phase. C’est grâce à elle que les élèves

LE CHANGEMENT DE RÔLE D’UN ENSEIGNANT 331
peuvent travailler sur des projets de grande envergure, de façon autonome, tout
en étant correctement encadrés.
En somme, l’enseignant change son rôle, ses conceptions sur l’apprentissage
et ses pratiques pédagogiques. Il devient progressivement un guide de l’élève, un
planificateur, et un orienteur de l’apprentissage. Il centre ses interventions sur ses
élèves et leurs capacités à prendre en charge leurs apprentissages. C’est là un
rôle que le ministère de l’Éducation du Québec favorise depuis plus de dix ans
notamment dans les nouveaux programmes. L’adoption en semble cependant difficile,
et nous croyons qu’elle pourrait être réalisée lors de l’introduction d’un
EPI.
Mais ces changements se produisent lentement et progressivement. Ils exigent
beaucoup de l’enseignant qui a besoin de temps pour s’y adapter (Fullan, Miles
et Anderson, 1988).
Aussi, après quelques semaines de ce mode de fonctionnement, l’enseignant,
que nous avons un peu bousculé en raison des exigences de l’étude, se plaint de
la lourdeur des préparations hebdomadaires. La fin de l’année scolaire approche
et il demande qu’on le laisse seul préparer son enseignement. À sa demande
également, nous espaçons nos observations.
Phase 4: Repli
La phase qui commence alors se poursuivra jusqu’à la fin de l’année. Pendant
cette phase, environ la moitié des activités que nous avons observées ont été
réalisées à l’ordinateur.
L’enseignant fait seul une planification sommaire de son enseignement en une
seule activité qui généralement se déroule à l’ordinateur pour une partie des
élèves et aux pupitres pour les autres. En cette fin d’année scolaire, il fait davantage
travailler les matières qu’il juge n’avoir pas suffisamment traitées pendant
l’année. Il met l’accent sur les sciences et introduit pour cela de nouveaux
logiciels qui, tout en étant à orientation disciplinaire, sont cependant des logiciels
ouverts. 4 Les enfants sont autonomes à l’ordinateur et se dépannent mutuellement.
Lors de cette phase, l’enseignant semble moins audacieux; il conserve cependant
un mode d’enseignement et des méthodes de travail chez ses élèves qui prolongent
les changements amorcés dans la phase précédente. Ainsi on peut croire
qu’il se dirige vers une phase d’intégration réussie et qu’il y parviendra par une
période de transition que nous avons appelée une période de construction.
Phase 5: Succès
Peu à peu, l’enseignant prendra de l’expérience et de l’assurance dans la planification
des activités intégrant l’ordinateur; il érigera les bases d’une intégration

332 MARTINE CHOMIENNE
réussie dans laquelle il atteindra un niveau de confiance et de stabilité qui lui
feront rechercher d’autres applications plus novatrices.
Les élèves utiliseront alors fréquemment les ordinateurs pour des activités que
l’enseignant aura planifiées avec précision et qui auront été analysées en fonction
des objectifs des programmes d’enseignement. L’enseignant fera alors peu
d’interventions magistrales; il servira de ressource, de guide aux élèves qui le
consulteront à ce titre. Certains enfants auront développé une compétence au
sujet des logiciels et la mettront à la disposition de leurs pairs. Les élèves
travailleront en équipe et les projets seront réalisés dans une optique constructiviste,
l’enfant étant le propre responsable de ses apprentissages qu’il élabore en
réaménageant ses connaissances au fur et à mesure que d’autres s’ajoutent à
celles qu’il possède déjà (Papert,1984).
CONCLUSION: UN OUTIL D’ANALYSE DE L’APPROPRIATION PÉDAGOGIQUE DE
L’ORDINATEUR
L’introduction, à des fins de recherche appliquée, d’un environnement technologique
riche dans une classe traditionnelle de sixième année a entraîné chez
l’enseignant titulaire de la classe certains changements dans ses pratiques et ses
conceptions pédagogiques. Ces changements ont été présentés dans un tableau
résumant les phases par lesquelles est passé l’enseignant.
L’étude a été réalisée en tenant compte de plusieurs des recommandations des
recherches sur le changement de rôle d’un enseignant et notamment celles qui
touchent l’importance d’impliquer fortement l’enseignant dans la recherche. Elle
a permis d’élaborer un outil général d’analyse de l’évolution d’un enseignant
dans un EPI. À l’instar de la National Academy of Education (1991), il faut
cependant insister sur la nécessité de multiplier et d’approfondir de telles recherches.
Pour mieux connaître le processus de changement de rôle d’un enseignant,
il faut mener des études sur de longues périodes de temps et concernant de
grands échantillons de population. C’est alors qu’un outil d’analyse tel que celui
que nous avons élaboré se montrera utile en étant adapté et amélioré. Dans ces
conditions, il pourra devenir un outil d’évaluation du stade d’appropriation pédagogique
des ordinateurs par les enseignants.
NOTES
1
Si on considère le temps de préparation de l’environnement, la période de collecte de données
s’est étendue sur 6 mois seulement.
2
À l’école dont il est question, une période d’enseignement durait 60 minutes.
3
En effet, en plus du bilan hebdomadaire que nous faisions avec lui, nous avons demandé à l’enseignant
de préparer une communication sur son expérience en vue d’un congrès d’enseignants ayant
eu lieu en avril et de rédiger un article pour une revue provinciale d’enseignants utilisateurs de
l’ordinateur.
4
Il s’agit de logiciels de la série LOUPE de la firme Micro Untel.

LE CHANGEMENT DE RÔLE D’UN ENSEIGNANT 333
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Quelques principes pour concevoir et évaluer
des activités d’apprentissage
en formation à distance
André-Jacques Deschênes
Céline Bourdages
Louise Lebel
Bernard Michaud
télé-université
Lire pour apprendre est particulièrement important en formation à distance où l’imprimé
constitue le média privilégié pour transmettre les connaissances. Pour s’assurer que
l’apprentissage se produise, il faut se fier à la compétence des lecteurs, à la qualité des
textes ou à la qualité des activités qui accompagnent ces textes. Or, on a constaté que les
apprenants utilisent peu de stratégies de lecture ou de compréhension, que la majorité des
textes soumis aux apprenants sont de piètre qualité et que les activités proposées ne
favorisent pas un traitement en profondeur des informations. La mise en place d’activités
d’apprentissage de qualité apparaît comme une solution qui peut rémédier à ces difficultés.
Il importe alors de se donner des outils pour sélectionner, concevoir ou évaluer les
activités d’apprentissage que l’on veut suggérer aux apprenants. En nous appuyant sur les
travaux récents en psychologie cognitive, ceux en apprentissage en général et ceux portant
sur l’apprentissage auto-régulé (self-regulated learning), nous suggérons cinq principes
pour quider les concepteurs dans leur tâche de production d’activités d’apprentissage. Ces
principes sont les suivants: 1) les activités doivent permettre un engagement cognitif,
affectif et métacognitif des apprenants; 2) les activités doivent favoriser un apprentissage
“contextualisé”; 3) les activités de type cognitif doivent proposer un traitement en
profondeur des informations à acquérir; 4) les activités de type métacognitif doivent
proposer une démarche d’apprentissage autogérée; 5) les activités de type affectif doivent
tenir compte des connaissances et des expériences des apprenants.
Reading has particular importance in distance education, where print is especially
important. If readers are to learn “at a distance,” we must hope for their competence, or
depend on the quality of text or of its accompanying activities. Learners, however, deploy
few reading or comprehension strategies; most texts are dreadful; and most activities in
distance education do not lead to critical thinking. Using recent work in cognitive
psychology, on learning generally, and on self-regulated learning, we suggest five guiding
principles for appropriate learning activities: (1) activities should invite cognitive, metacognitive,
and affective engagement; (2) activities should favour contextualized learning;
(3) cognitive activities should lead to analytical treatment of information; (4) metacognitive
activities should have self-directed learning as means and ends; and (5) affective
activities should take into account learners’ knowledge and experience.
335 REVUE CANADIENNE DE L’ÉDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

336 DESCHÊNES, BOURDAGES, LEBEL ET MICHAUD
Nous nous intéressons aux activités d’apprentissage qui accompagnent les documents
écrits dans des cours conçus pour l’enseignement à distance. Cette
préoccupation vient du fait que certaines difficultés ont été observées dans le
déroulement de l’apprentissage à l’aide de textes. Les travaux que nous avons
réalisés antérieurement nous permettent maintenant d’énoncer quelques principes
pouvant résoudre certains aspects de ces difficultés. Ce texte décrit sommairement,
dans un premier temps, des difficultés associées à la compétence des
lecteurs, à la qualité des textes et à celle des activités d’apprentissage, et
présente, dans une deuxième partie, les principes que nous avons formulés pour
réaliser des activités d’apprentissage.
La formation à distance utilise de façon privilégiée l’écrit pour transmettre des
connaissances (Landry, 1985). L’apprentissage s’accomplit alors principalement
par la lecture ou par la réalisation d’activités qui accompagnent les textes. Pour
s’assurer que l’apprentissage prévu se produise, il faudrait pouvoir se fier à la
compétence des lecteurs, à la qualité des textes ou à la qualité des activités. Or,
plusieurs études nous démontrent qu’il est difficile de le faire.
1. La compétence des lecteurs
Plusieurs chercheurs ont démontré (ou affirment) que beaucoup de lecteurs,
même des adultes universitaires, possèdent peu ou utilisent peu de stratégies de
compréhension (Maria, 1990; Pressley et Ghatala, 1990; Wade, Trathen et
Schraw, 1990). Wade et ses collaborateurs constatent, par exemple, que seulement
six des 67 sujets universitaires de premier cycle qu’ils ont interviewés
peuvent être considérés comme des lecteurs stratégiques; près du tiers ne possèdent
qu’une seule stratégie de lecture (souligner ou enluminer) et tentent
toujours d’apprendre par coeur lorsqu’ils lisent. Par ailleurs, des travaux de Paris
et ses collaborateurs (Cross et Paris, 1988; Jacobs et Paris, 1987) et de Pressley
et ses collaborateurs (Pressley, Borkowski et Schneider, 1989; Schneider et
Pressley, 1989) insistent sur la nécessité d’être stratégique 1 pour apprendre de
façon efficace. Dans leurs travaux récents, ces derniers auteurs (Pressley et al.,
1989; Schneider et Pressley, 1989) décrivent une approche de lecture qui accorde
une place privilégiée à l’acquisition de stratégies d’étude et de compréhension.
Pour eux, un apprenant performant possède un vaste répertoire de stratégies de
mémoire, de compréhension et de résolution de problème. Il possède les connaissances
nécessaires à la sélection, à la mise en oeuvre et au réajustement de ses
stratégies en fonction des tâches et des buts poursuivis. Bien peu de lecteurs
seraient alors de bons apprenants.
2. La qualité des textes
Plusieurs auteurs croient que l’on ne peut se fier à la qualité des textes (Beck,
McKeown, Sinatra et Loxterman, 1991; Chambliss et Calfee, 1989; Graves et al.,

ACTIVITÉS D’APPRENTISSAGE EN FORMATION À DISTANCE 337
1991). Chambliss et Calfee écrivent à propos des volumes de sciences qu’ils sont
imprécis, mal organisés, sans intérêt, et qu’ils présentent des faits sans concepts
généraux qui leur donneraient un sens. Armbruster (1984) constate que souvent
les caractéristiques des textes soumis pour apprentissage ne tiennent pas compte
des connaissances que nous possédons sur la lecture et la compréhension. S’il est
possible de réécrire des textes à des fins d’apprentissage (Beck et al., 1991), il
ne s’agit pas, à notre avis, de la solution la meilleure, compte tenu du temps
qu’il faudrait pour le faire et du fait que l’on ne s’entend pas encore très bien sur
ce qui pourrait constituer un bon texte (Britton, van Dusen, Gulgoz et Glynn,
1989; Duffy et al., 1989; Graves et al., 1991). On peut croire aussi que des
lecteurs compétents pourront lire n’importe quel type de texte.
3. La qualité des activités
On peut aussi se poser des questions sur la qualité des exercices ou des travaux
suggérés pour soutenir l’apprentissage. En classe, par exemple, on observe habituellement
que les enseignants passent la majorité de leur temps d’enseignement
à poser des questions qui ne sont pas très variées et qui ne demandent pas un
traitement en profondeur de l’information (Giasson, 1990; Raphael et Gavelek,
1984). Souvent, les activités proposées portent sur des concepts périphériques,
négligent les idées importantes ou ne permettent pas la mise en oeuvre de processus
favorisant la créativité ou l’application des connaissances acquises (Brophy
et Alleman, 1991). Les questions insérées que l’on retrouve souvent dans les
manuels ou dans les cours conduisent à des résultats divergents et plusieurs ne
favorisent qu’un traitement en surface des informations (Andre, 1990; Landry,
1988). De plus, Pressley et Ghatala (1988 et 1990) ont souvent observé que
même de bons lecteurs adultes ont l’illusion de comprendre, en particulier
lorsqu’on leur demande de répondre à des questions portant sur les idées principales.
Enfin, dans les cours à distance, nous avons observé que 70% des items
de type cognitif ne servent qu’au repérage des informations (Deschênes,
Bourdages, Lebel et Michaud, 1990) et ne peuvent promouvoir un apprentissage
en profondeur tel que défini par des auteurs comme Brophy et Alleman (1991),
Kintsch (1990) et Mayer (1984).
En résumé, les faits sont troublants: d’une part, les étudiants connaissent ou
utilisent peu de stratégies de lecture ou de compréhension, d’autre part, la
majorité des textes soumis aux apprenants sont de piètre qualité, et enfin, les
activités proposées pour soutenir leur apprentissage ne semblent pas favoriser un
traitement en profondeur des informations.
Nous sommes donc à la recherche d’une solution qui permettrait de nous attaquer
de façon efficace à ces difficultés. La mise en place d’activités d’apprentissage
de meilleure qualité nous semble une solution rentable pour plusieurs
raisons. Du point de vue de la compétence des lecteurs, les activités, si elles sont
bien conçues, peuvent non seulement favoriser un apprentissage en profondeur,

338 DESCHÊNES, BOURDAGES, LEBEL ET MICHAUD
mais aussi permettre aux apprenants d’acquérir et de maîtriser de nouvelles stratégies
(Paris, Wasik et van der Westhuizen, 1988) et ainsi d’augmenter leur
compétence. Du côté des textes, même si ces exercices ne peuvent pallier
complètement les faiblesses des textes à lire (Brophy et Alleman, 1991), ils
peuvent sûrement faire en sorte que les apprenants profitent mieux de leurs
lectures. On peut, par exemple, à l’aide d’activités, les encourager à utiliser
davantage leurs connaissances pour combler les lacunes des textes, ce qu’ils ne
font pas spontanément (Schommer, 1990). On peut donc, en misant sur la qualité
des activités d’apprentissage, apporter des éléments de solution aux deux autres
problèmes identifiés.
Nous nous sommes donc donné comme objectif de mettre au point des instruments
qui faciliteraient la sélection, la conception ou l’évaluation d’activités
d’apprentissage. En nous basant sur les recherches récentes en psychologie cognitive,
en particulier celles portant sur la métacognition 2 et sur les stratégies de
lecture, nous avons énoncé cinq principes pouvant servir de base à ce travail. Ces
cinq principes sont les suivants:
1. les activités devraient permettre un engagement cognitif, affectif et métacognitif
des apprenants;
2. les activités devraient favoriser un apprentissage “contextualisé”;
3. les activités de type cognitif devraient proposer un traitement en profondeur
des informations à acquérir;
4. les activités de type affectif devraient tenir compte des connaissances et des
expériences des apprenants;
5. les activités de type métacognitif devraient proposer une démarche d’apprentissage
auto-gérée.
1. Les activités devraient permettre un engagement cognitif, affectif et métacognitif
des apprenants
Nous avons dégagé d’une recension des écrits (Landry, 1988) trois types de
fonctions associées aux activités d’apprentissage: affectif, cognitif et métacognitif
(Deschênes, Bourdages, Lebel et Michaud, 1988). Nous retrouvons ces trois
grandes catégories dans d’autres typologies de l’apprentissage (Deschênes,
Bourdages, Lebel et Michaud, 1989) et chez la majorité des chercheurs en
compréhension et en éducation (Garner, 1987; Iran-Nejad, 1990; Kintsch, 1990;
Zimmerman, 1990), ainsi que dans les travaux de Paris et ses collaborateurs et
Pressley et ses collaborateurs que nous avons mentionnés plus haut.
Il ne semble plus possible maintenant de décrire l’apprentissage sans y inclure
une dimension affective touchant habituellement la motivation, les intérêts et les
valeurs, les émotions et les sentiments, 3 une dimension cognitive qui renvoie aux
habiletés mentales nécessaires à la réalisation des tâches de lecture ou d’écriture,
et une dimension métacognitive incluant la gestion de la démarche d’apprentis-

ACTIVITÉS D’APPRENTISSAGE EN FORMATION À DISTANCE 339
sage (Deschênes, 1990a, 1990b, 1991a, 1991b). Ce dernier aspect pourrait être
plus important en enseignement à distance, compte tenu du fait que plusieurs
auteurs caractérisent cette forme d’apprentissage par l’autonomie laissée par le
système aux étudiants (Henri et Kaye, 1985; Hostler, 1986). Or la littérature
récente sur l’apprentissage autorégulé (self-regulated learning) considère que les
trois aspects (affectif, cognitif et métacognitif) sont indissociables de l’autorégulation
(Corno, 1989; Schunk, 1989; Zimmerman et Martinez-Pons, 1988).
Dans l’analyse de quatre cours à distance que nous avons complétée, nous
avons constaté que la majorité des items sont de type cognitif (67%). Il y a
environ 30% d’items de type métacognitif et seulement 3% d’items de type
affectif. Par ailleurs, deux des quatre cours ne proposent pas d’items de type
métacognitif, alors qu’un troisième ne suggère que des items de vérification de
connaissances pour ce type d’activité. Les concepteurs de cours semblent donc
peu connaître les activités de type métacognitif ou ne pas les utiliser et insérer
bien peu d’activités de type affectif.
2. Les activités devraient favoriser un apprentissage “contextualisé”
Plusieurs pratiques d’enseignement supposent que les connaissances puissent faire
abstraction des situations dans lesquelles elles sont apprises et utilisées. Au plan
cognitif, c’est prendre pour acquis que les connaissances sont emmagasinées en
mémoire à long terme sous forme de schéma 4 et récupérées lorsque nécessaire.
Cette façon de concevoir l’activation et la construction des connaissances est de
plus en plus contestée. En effet, de nombreux auteurs (Baudet et Denhière, 1989;
Bloom, 1990; Kintsch, 1988) rejettent le concept de schéma comme structure
stable de connaissances pour rendre compte de l’activité cognitive. Kintsch, par
exemple, écrit que le schéma est trop rigide pour s’adapter aux différents contextes
dans lesquels se retrouve l’individu pour comprendre un texte. Selon lui,
les concepts sont toujours interprétés en fonction de la situation dans laquelle ils
sont utilisés et selon le contexte.
De nouveaux modèles d’apprentissage qui rendent compte de cette conception
des connaissances commencent à apparaître. Ainsi, Brown, Collins et Duguid
(1989) considèrent que la connaissance est situationnelle, étant en partie un
produit de l’activité, du contexte et de la culture dans laquelle elle est développée
et utilisée. Pour explorer cette idée, ces auteurs suggèrent d’abandonner la
croyance suivant laquelle les connaissances sont des entités abstraites et de les
considérer comme un ensemble d’outils. De plus, il n’est pas possible, selon eux,
d’utiliser ces outils que sont les connaissances de façon appropriée sans comprendre
la culture dans laquelle elles sont utilisées. Apprendre, disent-ils, est un
processus continu, résultant de l’action en situation réelle. Ils contribuent à
définir une notion importante par rapport à l’apprentissage, soit celle l’activité
authentique et de sa relation avec la culture. Pour réaliser un apprentissage
“contextualisé” qui tienne compte de l’activité authentique et de la culture, ces

340 DESCHÊNES, BOURDAGES, LEBEL ET MICHAUD
auteurs proposent une méthode d’apprentissage qui s’appuie sur les principes du
compagnonnage. 5 Cette approche met en évidence la nature “contextuelle” (ou
situationnelle) de la connaissance. Elle soutient l’apprentissage en aidant l’apprenant
à acquérir, développer et utiliser des outils cognitifs par des pratiques
authentiques à travers l’action et l’interaction sociale. Schoenfeld (1987) utilise
cette approche dans l’enseignement de la résolution de problème en montrant aux
étudiants à penser le monde en termes mathématiques, i.e., à travers les yeux et
les outils des mathématiciens.
Lorsqu’il s’agit de la conception d’activités d’apprentissage pour la formation
à distance, cette approche suppose que l’on offre à l’apprenant la possibilité de
mieux tenir compte de l’environnement (culture, contexte, connaissances préalables)
dans lequel il se trouve. Une façon de le faire consiste à mettre en place
des exercices qui favorisent le transfert des connaissances (utiliser ou appliquer
les connaissances acquises dans une situation nouvelle par rapport à la situation
d’acquisition [Deschênes, 1991b]). Or, dans nos analyses de cours, nous avons
constaté que seulement 6% des activités de types cognitifs permettent le transfert
des connaissances (Deschênes, Bourdages, Lebel et Michaud, 1992). Une autre
méthode consisterait à donner à l’apprenant la possibilité de choisir ses activités
d’apprentissage ou ses contenus comme nous en discuterons plus loin pour les
activités de type métacognitif.
3. Les activités de type cognitif devraient proposer un traitement en profondeur
des informations à acquérir
Kintsch (1990) écrit que si l’on veut que les apprenants construisent des
représentations mentales cohérentes, appliquent les connaissances acquises à de
nouvelles situations (transfert), généralisent ces connaissances ou les intègrent à
leurs connaissances, il faut favoriser un traitement cognitif où les apprenants
imposent leurs propres structures à ce qu’ils étudient. Ce travail cognitif devrait
donner une représentation mentale qui soit davantage intégrée aux connaissances
existantes et ainsi, les rendre plus adaptables aux diverses situations.
Il est par ailleurs important de définir le type d’apprentissage que l’on vise
(Kintsch et Kintsch, 1991; Mayer, 1988); par exemple, si l’on veut que les
lecteurs stockent des connaissances en mémoire, ou puissent les reconnaître ou
les reproduire lorsqu’on le leur demande (selon un modèle behavioriste), des
activités simples peuvent être conçues: relectures, questions à réponses suggérées,
vrais ou faux, questions à réponses ouvertes textuelles implicites ou textuelles
explicites. Ce type d’apprentissage est de moins en moins acceptable, surtout
dans la perspective des modèles constructivistes (Bereiter, 1990; Brophy et Alleman,
1991; Deschênes, 1990b; Paris et Byrnes, 1989; Shuell, 1990), des modèles
d’apprentissage contextualisé (Anstey, 1988; Brown et al., 1989; Schoenfeld,
1987) et des modèles connexionistes (Bereiter, 1991; Kintsch, 1988). Ces modèles
privilégient des processus de construction des connaissances où celles-ci

ACTIVITÉS D’APPRENTISSAGE EN FORMATION À DISTANCE 341
sont continuellement restructurées, redéfinies ou modifiées selon les expériences,
l’environnement ou le contexte dans lequel elles sont activées. En ce sens, le
stockage traditionnel des connaissances par insertion dans la mémoire à long
terme résiste de moins en moins aux critiques répétées des cognitivistes.
Si l’on reprend les typologies des activités d’apprentissage que nous avons
ébauchées dans Deschênes et al. (1989), on peut penser que certains types d’activités
favorisent davantage un traitement en profondeur des informations. Celles
qui visent l’organisation des connaissances, comme les macrostratégies 6 de Van
Patten, Chao et Reigeluth (1986), celles que Weinstein définit comme les stratégies
d’élaboration et d’organisation ou celles qui favorisent la restructuration
d’un schéma ou la construction de nouveaux schémas.
Iran-Nejad, McKeachie et Berliner (1990) proposent une approche globale où
un apprentissage significatif se produit si l’information est traitée par des
processus d’élaboration, de mise en contexte, d’insertion dans la culture ou les
connaissances existantes. Les processus cognitifs sont alors soutenus par les
aspects affectif et métacognitif de l’apprentissage. Bereiter (1990) va dans ce
sens en proposant que l’on se donne, en apprentissage, des modèles de structures
mentales plus complets, qui incluent plusieurs types de connaissances (déclaratives,
procédurales) et de dimensions (buts, affects, modèles de problème). Il
s’agit en fait d’une conception plus large des modèles mentaux et des modèles
de situations (Kintsch, 1988) que l’on définit comme des représentations mentales
du monde servant à l’interprétation de la réalité.
Notre analyse de quatre cours conçus pour l’enseignement à distance montre
que 70% des items de type cognitif sont du repérage d’information et correspondent
donc à un type d’apprentissage par mémorisation (mot à mot, répétition, par
coeur) (Deschênes et al., 1990). Dans une autre analyse que nous avons faite
d’un cours (Deschênes et al., 1989), nous abons constaté que 11,3% des activités
répondaient au critères des macrostratégies, que 21,5% étaient de type élaboration
ou organisation et que 5,9% favorisaient la restructuration d’un schéma ou la
construction d’un nouveau schéma.
4. Les activités de type affectif devraient tenir compte des connaissances et des
expériences des apprenants
Le domaine affectif est un domaine complexe, qui apparaît souvent nébuleux à
qui veut concevoir des activités d’apprentissage (Martin, 1989). C’est le monde
des valeurs, des attitudes, des émotions, des sentiments; c’est le monde de la
compétence qu’on se reconnaît, de la motivation et de l’intérêt (Martin et Briggs,
1986, cité par Martin, 1989), dont le but ultime est l’auto-développement.
Le monde affectif de l’apprenant n’est pas sans avoir un effet sur l’acquisition
de nouvelles connaissances. Il risque d’être ébranlé dans ses valeurs, ses croyances
et sa culture, non seulement au plan des concepts, mais aussi au plan des
activités qu’on lui propose ou qu’on lui impose. Il est donc important, pour le

342 DESCHÊNES, BOURDAGES, LEBEL ET MICHAUD
concepteur d’activités d’apprentissage, de faire un lien entre le domaine affectif
et le domaine cognitif.
Sur le plan des concepts, les connaissances nouvelles qui entrent en conflit
avec les connaissances antérieures des sujets risquent d’être ignorées ou placées
dans une structure parallèle en attente d’intégration (Ballstaedt et Mandl, 1985).
En créant volontairement des conflits entre les croyances des sujets et les informations
nouvelles, on a pu constater des effets négatifs sur leurs performances
(Lipson, 1983). Il y a donc des domaines (santé mentale, politique, religion) où
il est possible que les apprenants aient des connaissances ou des croyances qui
puissent leur faire rejeter, de façon inconsciente, les nouvelles informations qu’on
leur présente (Deschênes, 1988b).
On retrouve le même phénomène pour ce qui est des activités d’apprentissage.
Quand les apprenants abordent une tâche d’apprentissage, ils évaluent leur
perception des exigences de la tâche par rapport à leurs besoins personnels de
compétence et de contrôle et à leurs structures personnelles d’estime de soi qu’ils
mettent en relation avec les jugements qu’ils portent sur leur compétence et leur
capacité de réussir cette tâche. Le résultat de ces processus d’évaluation, s’il est
positif, conduit à des états affectifs positifs (par exemple la confiance), à la
motivation à entreprendre la tâche d’apprentissage, et à la volonté de fournir
l’effort et la persistance voulus pour réussir la tâche. D’autre part, si le résultat
est négatif, des états affectifs négatifs (comme l’anxiété) en résulteront, et la
motivation de base sera d’essayer d’éviter la tâche d’apprentissage et l’investissement
de tout effort de persistance (Martin, 1989).
Le succès pourrait donc être le résultat d’auto-évaluations, d’états affectifs et
de motivation positifs; tout comme l’échec pourrait être le résultat d’auto-évaluations,
d’états affectifs et de motivation négatifs.
Il peut apparaître utopique à un concepteur d’activités d’apprentissage en
formation à distance de vouloir prendre en compte les états affectifs de chacun
des étudiants. La solution réside probablement dans quelques précautions:
— des balisages clairs de la démarche d’apprentissage (contenu, concepts, objectifs)
qui répondront au besoin d’être rassuré;
— des activités qui favorisent une prise de conscience par l’étudiant de l’influence
de ses états affectifs sur son apprentissage et lui permettent d’en tenir
compte;
— des activités qui permettent l’auto-évaluation de sa compétence et favorisent
l’auto-développement;
— des activités qui laissent place à l’énoncé de ses opinions, de ses valeurs ou
de ses croyances.
5. Les activités de type métacognitif devraient proposer une démarche d’apprentissage
auto-gérée
On définit habituellement la métacognition comme un ensemble de connaissances
et de stratégies permettant la gestion des tâches cognitives (Deschênes, 1990a,

ACTIVITÉS D’APPRENTISSAGE EN FORMATION À DISTANCE 343
1990b, 1991b, en préparation; Flavell, 1987; Pinard, 1987). La composante “connaissance
de la métacognition” comprend ce que l’apprenant sait de lui et des
autres comme apprenant, des tâches qu’il doit réaliser et des stratégies dont il
peut disposer. Quant à la dimension “gestion de la métacognition,” on y reconnaît
habituellement trois stratégies fondamentales: la planification des tâches
cognitives, leur régulation (ou monitoring) et leur évaluation.
En ayant pour objectif de permettre à l’étudiant de gérer son activité
d’apprentissage et d’acquérir les connaissances et les compétences ad hoc, on
pourrait mettre à sa disposition un choix d’activités d’apprentissage qui puissent
l’aider dans ce sens.
Compte tenu de la disparité des connaissances et des compétences des étudiants,
la possibilité de choisir parmi un certain nombre d’activités d’apprentissage
peut devenir pour eux un moyen efficace de se rendre compte de ce qu’ils
savent, d’utiliser adéquatement ces connaissances (Schoenfeld, 1987) et de développer
des façons d’apprendre qui correspondent à leurs capacités.
Vues sous cet angle, les activités d’apprentissage peuvent être considérées
comme une banque de ressources mises à la disposition des étudiants plutôt que
comme une route unique et obligatoire pour tous, tenant compte ainsi de l’état
de développement de leurs connaissances tant aux plans cognitif que métacognitif,
et de leurs stratégies.
Les activités peuvent ainsi permettre des choix à chacune des trois étapes de
la démarche d’apprentissage: planification, réalisation et évaluation. Ces choix
peuvent porter sur les objectifs du cours, sur son contenu, sur sa structure, de
même que sur l’interaction entre l’étudiant et d’autres personnes (Deschênes,
1991a).
Un moyen d’assurer une démarche métacognitive chez les apprenants consiste
à présenter les activités d’apprentissage en spécifiant la nature, les modalités de
réalisation, l’utilité et la valeur des différents exercices proposés. Ce sont, en
psychologie cognitive, les connaissances déclaratives, procédurales et “conditionnelles”
(Alexander, Schallert et Hare, 1991; Deschênes, en préparation; Paris et
al., 1988).
Les connaissances déclaratives sont celles qui renvoient aux faits et aux
phénomènes, alors que les procédurales constituent des “savoirs comment.”
Quant aux “connaissances conditionnelles,” on les retrouve dans les travaux de
Paris et ses collaborateurs et elles renvoient au savoir portant sur le pourquoi et
le quand utiliser les stratégies. Dans leurs travaux sur l’enseignement des stratégies,
Paris et ses collaborateurs observent qu’il est absolument fondamental de
fournir aux apprenants ces trois types de connaissances si on vise l’utilisation
spontanée, le maintien et le transfert des stratégies enseignées.
CONCLUSION
Alors qu’on accordait assez facilement beaucoup de mérite au questionnement,
on s’aperçoit maintenant qu’il s’agit, en fait, d’un moyen peu efficace pour

344 DESCHÊNES, BOURDAGES, LEBEL ET MICHAUD
apprendre et qu’il peut même nuire à la compréhension lors de la lecture
(Pressley et Ghatala, 1988, 1990; Pressley, Ghatala, Woloshyn et Pirie, 1990).
Ces travaux permettent également d’observer que certains types d’activités,
considérés efficaces dans les recherches, ne sont à peu près pas utilisées, comme
l’imagerie mentale par exemple (Schallert, Alexander et Goetz, 1988). Les
travaux de Kintsch démontrent que l’on peut modifier, chez les lecteurs, le
traitement cognitif d’un texte en faisant varier le type d’informations préalables
présentées avant la lecture. On peut donc penser faciliter l’acquisition de
connaissances à l’aide de textes et utilisant des activités pour en faciliter la
compréhension, des activités autres que le questionnement. La production de
résumés, de synthèses, d’analyses, de tableaux ou de cartes sémantiques sont des
exercices qui, parce qu’ils favorisent un traitement global des informations,
constituent des suggestions qui méritent d’être davantage utilisées et sur lesquels
devraient porter des recherches expérimentales.
Il faut accorder une attention particulière, à notre avis, au design, à la
sélection et à l’évaluation des activités d’apprentissage. Il faut étudier de façon
spéciale l’interaction entre les différentes dimensions affectives, cognitives et
métacognitives de l’apprentissage. On a constaté, par exemple, que la mise en
oeuvre de stratégies cognitives rend les apprenants plus confiants en leur
compétence à apprendre (Paris et Byrnes, 1989) et moins anxieux (Weinstein et
Underwood, 1985). Dans le même ordre d’idées, Novak (1990) a observé une
attitude plus positive des apprenants envers les approches utilisées et les contenus
présentés lorsqu’on favorisait un traitement en profondeur des informations. Plusieurs
auteurs (Deschênes, 1991a; McCombs, 1988) sont convaincus qu’il y a une
relation étroite entre l’aspect métacognitif de l’apprentissage et la dimension
affective.
On remet souvent la responsabilité du contrôle et de l’efficacité de l’apprentissage
entre les mains des enseignants; on suppose que les apprenants ne peuvent
que réagir positivement ou négativement à ce qu’on leur suggère. Il est important
de laisser de plus en plus cette responsabilité à l’individu en lui permettant
d’augmenter ses ressources (cognitives, métacognitives et affectives) de telle
sorte qu’il puisse sélectionner, structurer ou créer des activités d’apprentissage
où il sera le maître d’oeuvre de sa démarche.
NOTES
1
Tardif (1992) définit une stratégie “comme la planification et la coordination d’un ensemble
d’opérations en vue d’atteindre efficacement un objectif” (p. 23). Un apprenant stratégique choisit
donc des actions et se donne des moyens lui permettant d’atteindre ses objectifs d’apprentissage
de façon efficace. Ainsi, lors d’une activité de lecture, un lecteur stratégique choisit des moyens
et met en place des opérations lui permettant de diriger, faciliter et gérer sa lecture (Deschênes,
1991b). Il ne lit pas pour apprendre comme il lit pour s’informer ou se divertir.
2
Le concept de métacognition comprend un ensemble de phénomènes complexes associés à la
prise de conscience et au contrôle des processus cognitifs sous-jacents à la réalisation des tâches
cognitives (lire, comprendre, écrire, résoudre des problèmes, etc). Si, pendant sa lecture, l’appre-

ACTIVITÉS D’APPRENTISSAGE EN FORMATION À DISTANCE 345
nant s’aperçoit qu’il ne comprend pas bien ce qu’il lit et décide de reprendre sa lecture, il réalise
une activité de type métacognitif qui lui permet de contrôler son activité cognitive de lecture et,
en principe, d’améliorer sa compréhension. Le fait de relire, cependant, est une activité de type
cognitif qui lui permet d’atteindre le but fixé.
3
La littérature inclut dans l’“affectif” tous ces aspects. Lebel (1989) et McCombs et Marzano
(1990) distinguent la motivation des autres aspects que l’on peut classer sous le terme “affectif.”
4
Le schéma est “une structure globale plus ou moins abstraite ou générale (. . .) qui représente des
regroupements de connaissances rendant compte d’objets, de situations ou d’événements dans ce
qu’ils ont de typiques” (Deschênes, 1988a, 40–41).
5
Le compagnonnage correspond à une situation d’apprentissage où l’ouvrier apprend en situation
réelle avec un maître et en collaboration avec les autres compagnons.
6
Les macrostratégies visent l’organisation des connaissances; elle permettent “d’organiser une série
d’habiletés et de connaissances reliées entre elles dans un cours. Ainsi, une macrostratégies est
utilisée pour structurer un certain nombre d’idées différentes dans un cours” (Van Patten et al.,
1986, p. 438). Une microstratégie porte sur une idée, un concept, un principe ou une procédure.
Cette distinction, faite par ces auteurs, renvoie donc à des intervention favorisant un traitement
global (macro) ou local (micro) des informations.
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Précarité de l’emploi et scolarisation moyenne
au Canada 1
Guy Fréchet
université laval
Les personnes moyennement scolarisées, selon leur appartenance à deux des catégories
médianes de la scolarisation, sont apparues comme étant les plus affectées par la précarité
de l’emploi. Cette précarité est estimée ici par le rapprochement dans le temps des
transitions (ex.: emploi-chômage) sur le marché du travail. Tant pour le revenu moyen
que pour les avantages en emploi, de même que pour leur cheminement sur le marché du
travail, elles apparaissent comme étant défavorisées. Contrairement à l’idée généralement
reçue selon laquelle la scolarisation et la situation en emploi vont de pair, les personnes
moyennement scolarisées sont dans une situation moins enviable que ce que leur position
hiérarchique pourrait leur permettre d’espérer. Une tendance vers l’affaissement du centre
semble poindre à l’horizon et pourrait conduire à une forme de bipolarisation.
People with the least formal education are most likely to be affected by uncertainty of
employment, as judged by time between jobs, or by the length of other transitions in the
labour market. Low educational attainment has a negative effect on income, benefits, and
access to the labour market. Contrary to the general belief that schooling and working
conditions are linked, modestly schooled persons are in a less enviable situation than their
position in the social hierarchy might lead them to expect. The shrinking of the
educational “middle” may thus lead to social polarization.
PROBLÉMATIQUE
Dans un contexte marqué par la précarisation de l’emploi (Krahn, 1991; Shiray,
Gruyer et Pinton, 1988), des efforts ont été consentis pour inciter les individus
à s’assurer d’une meilleure employabilité. En regard de celle-ci, il est permis de
concevoir que la scolarisation apparaisse comme un des facteurs susceptible de
la favoriser (Gazier, 1990). Plus la personne est scolarisée, plus son employabilité
est présumée bonne et sa stabilité en emploi, tout aussi avantageuse. Le lien
entre la scolarisation et l’employabilité a par conséquent maintes fois été évoqué:
les politiques actuelles visant à favoriser l’employabilité des personnes, qui
misent essentiellement sur l’augmentation des qualifications des travailleurs, sont
là pour en témoigner. Sans nier que cela puisse être hautement légitime, il est
vraisemblable de croire qu’il existe un seuil au delà duquel toute augmentation
des qualifications des travailleurs, qui doit leur permettre d’anticiper une meilleure
situation en emploi et une plus forte stabilité, conduit à une telle amélioration
en vertu des contraintes du marché du travail.
349 REVUE CANADIENNE DE L’ÉDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

350 GUY FRÉCHET
À priori, il serait permis de postuler que la situation sur le marché du travail
reflète la hiérarchie de la scolarisation. Ceci conduirait à postuler la linéarité de
la relation entre la stabilité en emploi et la scolarisation. Il serait vraisemblable
alors que les personnes moins scolarisées soient plus sujettes à la précarité et que
plus on avance dans l’échelle de la scolarisation, plus la stabilité soit forte.
D’après une autre façon de voir, on pourrait poser que la rationalité économique
des acteurs et l’anticipation de la situation sur le marché du travail conduisent
les individus à prendre des risques de transiter en fonction de leur scolarisation.
Cela conduirait à postuler une relation inverse. Il serait vraisemblable ainsi que
les personnes plus scolarisées se permettent davantage de risquer des transitions
afin de dénicher un emploi plus conforme à leurs attentes; pour leur part, les
personnes moins scolarisées ne pourraient se permettre de risquer autant, ce qui
fait qu’elles vivraient une plus grande “stabilité”.
Or, nos analyses nous permettent d’affirmer que l’idée la plus généralement
reçue, postulant que la hiérarchie de la scolarisation se reflète dans celle de la
situation vécue sur le marché du travail, ne se vérifie pas empiriquement, pas
plus d’ailleurs que le modèle fondé sur le risque anticipé. Les données d’une
enquête longitudinale auprès de plus de 67 000 personnes au Canada en 1986 et
1987 se sont révélées d’une grande richesse pour nous aider à circonscrire ce
phénomène. Il s’agit des données de l’Enquête sur l’activité, 2 réalisée auprès
d’une même cohorte d’individus dans le but d’examiner leur situation en emploi
au cours des 104 semaines des années 1986 et 1987. Le sous-groupe des personnes
moyennement scolarisées correspond aux catégories médianes de la scolarisation.
Une analyse préalable des difficultés d’insertion en emploi a permis de
constater qu’elles sont susceptibles de connaître de plus fortes difficultés que
celles qui se situent aux extrêmes (Fréchet, 1993), ce qui semble à première vue
très paradoxal.
Dès lors se pose un ensemble de questions sur les caractéristiques spécifiques
des personnes moyennement scolarisées: quel est, par exemple, le comportement
particulier des seules personnes actives en fonction du sexe et surtout de l’âge,
ainsi que des autres caractéristiques de l’emploi? Quelle est la dynamique particulière
du cheminement des seules personnes moyennement scolarisées selon les
mêmes caractéristiques? Telles sont certaines des questions auxquelles nous voulons
nous attarder.
MÉTHODOLOGIE
Le degré de scolarité
Pour les fins de l’analyse, nous avons regroupé les degrés de scolarité en quatre
sous-groupes distincts. Le premier est constitué des personnes peu scolarisées et
est formé par des personnes ayant complété des études primaires. Le deuxième
est constitué de personnes ayant complété ou non leur cours secondaire (présenté

PRÉCARITÉ DE L’EMPLOI ET SCOLARISATION MOYENNE 351
sous l’appellation de moyennement scolarisées I) alors que le troisième est
constitué des personnes ayant quelques études post-secondaires (présenté sous
l’appellation de moyennement scolarisées II). Ces deux sous-groupes réunis
forment l’ensemble des personnes moyennement scolarisées. Finalement, le dernier
est constitué des personnes hautement scolarisées et compte dans ses rangs
des personnes ayant un certificat ou diplôme post-secondaire ou un grade universitaire.
Il s’agit au point de départ de la codification en cinq catégories de
Statistique Canada et si nous pouvons y déplorer certaines limites, relatives par
exemple à l’absence de distinction entre les “décrocheurs” par rapport aux autres
au secondaire (ce qui nous aurait permis de les apparenter aux personnes qui ne
complètent pas un diplôme post-secondaire), ces catégories s’avèrent toutefois
suffisamment valables pour tenter une analyse du cheminement des personnes
moyennement scolarisées II par rapport aux autres. Enfin, nous n’avons pas tenu
compte du type de formation reçue (ex.: formation générale par rapport à formation
professionnelle au CÉGEP), l’Enquête sur l’activité ayant codifié ces informations
par spécialisation, sans les présenter sous forme agrégée, ce qu’une
étude plus approfondie nous permettrait éventuellement d’examiner. 3
Le découpage utilisé n’est pas sans comporter certaines limites. En premier
lieu, les échelons de la scolarisation sont susceptibles de restructuration à travers
le temps. Si le sous-groupe des personnes peu scolarisées correspond encore à
celles qui n’ont complété que des études primaires, celles-ci se retrouvent dans
les classes d’âge plus élevées et le sous-groupe dans son ensemble, déjà le moins
nombreux, risque de diminuer encore avec le temps. 4 De plus, avec le phénomène
de l’inflation du diplôme, l’ensemble des personnes qui complètent leur
cours secondaire et qui composent l’essentiel des personnes moyennement scolarisées
n’accomplissent qu’un “minimum” de scolarisation pour l’obtention de
quelque emploi que ce soit. Elles pourraient par conséquent constituer un nouvel
ensemble de personnes peu scolarisées, avec celles qui n’ont que des études
primaires. Ce sous-groupe qui formerait plus de la moitié de l’ensemble serait
alors opposé aux personnes plus scolarisées. Il faut mentionner également que,
parmi les personnes qui possèdent une formation secondaire, plusieurs peuvent
avoir complété l’apprentissage d’un métier, conduisant directement au marché du
travail; celles-ci peuvent difficilement alors n’être considérées que comme étant
minimalement scolarisées et c’est la raison pour laquelle nous conservons la distinction
avec les personnes peu scolarisées. Parmi celles qui possèdent quelques
études post-secondaires se trouvent soit des décrocheurs, soit des personnes sans
formation particulière, soit encore des personnes dont la formation principale est
celle acquise au secondaire. D’où l’idée simplement que le découpage retenu
comporte une part d’arbitraire: il n’a pour but que d’illustrer avec plus de force
le positionnement relatif des personnes moyennement scolarisées II par rapport
aux autres.

352 GUY FRÉCHET
La situation en emploi et la précarité de l’emploi
Nous nous proposons ici d’observer la situation en emploi des personnes moyennement
scolarisées, avec l’examen de leur rémunération pour chaque année et
pour l’ensemble de la période et celui de la proportion de personnes bénéficiant
d’une forme de protection de l’emploi (appartenance à un syndicat ou emploi
régi par une convention collective) et d’un régime de pension. Nous analyserons
ensuite le cheminement des personnes moyennement scolarisées dans une perspective
longitudinale. Les données permettent d’estimer cette précarité par le
rapprochement dans le temps des transitions entre l’occupation et la nonoccupation
d’un emploi. Les transitions ne sont pas toutes liées à la précarité de
l’emploi et il suffit de songer à la mobilité professionnelle volontaire ou à
l’alternance entre les études et le travail, étant entendu que le caractère volontaire
ou involontaire de tels changements puisse être pris en compte. Ces changements
d’état, pour une bonne part, peuvent toutefois s’avérer de bons révélateurs de la
précarisation de l’emploi.
Les transitions comme révélateurs de la précarité de l’emploi
Divers types de transition sont susceptibles d’affecter le statut des individus au
sein de la population active. Une typologie sommaire permet de distinguer les
transitions parmi les divers statuts d’emploi (ex.: temps plein à temps partiel), les
transitions “occupation non-occupation” (ex.: emploi chômage) et enfin, les transitions
parmi les divers statuts des personnes non occupées (ex.: chômage ou
retrait de la population active). Seules les transitions connues par les personnes
déjà en emploi et qui le quittent et par les personnes sans emploi qui intègrent
ou réintègrent le marché du travail retiendront notre attention ici, sans distinction
du statut d’emploi (principal ou secondaire, temps plein ou temps partiel).
Une étude préalable sur les raisons de quitter un emploi dans la même
Enquête a permis d’isoler les facteurs individuels et les facteurs structurels dans
les événements d’abandon d’emploi. Plus de 66% des raisons de quitter sont de
nature structurelle (caractère saisonnier de l’emploi, etc.) et plus de 12% relèvent
des raisons individuelles objectives (maladie ou invalidité, etc.); il n’en reste
donc qu’un peu plus de 20% qui relèvent des raisons individuelles subjectives,
ou liées aux préférences individuelles. Parmi les principales raisons invoquées
dans ce bloc de 20%, celles qui mentionnent que l’individu “a trouvé un nouvel
emploi” (8,3%) et qu’il a changé en vertu des “conditions de travail” (5,3%), demeurent
plutôt équivoques quant à l’orientation volontaire ou involontaire de la
transition effectivement vécue. Elles furent néanmoins classées parmi les raisons
individuelles subjectives. Aussi, ce rapprochement dans le temps des transitions
en tant qu’indicateur de la précarité devrait fournir un aperçu relativement juste
pour la grande majorité des situations vécues.

PRÉCARITÉ DE L’EMPLOI ET SCOLARISATION MOYENNE 353
L’étude du cheminement sur le marché du travail
Dans le but d’étudier les cheminements sur le marché du travail, nous ferons
appel à l’analyse de survie (les “survivants” sont ceux qui ne connaîtront pas de
transition au cours de la période), en tant qu’une des étapes importantes de
l’analyse de l’histoire événementielle (“Event History Analysis”; Allison, 1984;
Blossfeld, Hamerle et Mayer, 1989; Hagenaars, 1990). Il s’agit d’une méthode
qui a été développée pour l’analyse du suivi de cheminements individuels à travers
le temps où les “événements,” susceptibles de jalonner les cheminements en
question et d’infléchir la situation future, peuvent être par exemple un mariage,
un divorce, etc.; il est alors possible de concevoir ce suivi dans les termes d’une
histoire événementielle. Dans le cas des données de l’Enquête sur l’activité, de
tels “événements” personnels n’ont pas été consignés dans une perspective longitudinale
— simplement en tant que variables de statut — mais il est permis de
considérer comme “événements” l’arrêt du travail après une période d’emploi,
ou tout autre indicateur d’une transition, et d’appliquer alors la méthode en vue
de la reconstitution des cheminements vécus. Par rapport aux méthodes transversales
classiques, la dynamique des cheminements peut être reconstituée à l’aide
de vecteurs d’activité et analysée dans l’optique du déroulement temporel. Des
outils tels que les tables de survie et les régressions de survie fournissent les
mesures requises en vue de l’interprétation du cheminement de chacun des sousgroupes.
5
La population étudiée
Compte tenu de nos objectifs, la population à l’étude est composée de tous les
répondants actifs de l’Enquête sur l’activité, soit plus de 12 millions de personnes
de 16 à 69 ans que les données pondérées permettent de représenter. 6
L’attention portera tout particulièrement sur le sous-groupe des personnes moyennement
scolarisées (catégories médianes de la scolarisation) et parmi celles-ci,
sur le sous-groupe de celles qui ont un post-secondaire non-complété, par rapport
aux personnes peu ou hautement scolarisées.
Les personnes moyennement scolarisées II représentent plus de 12% de l’ensemble.
Elles sont plus fortement représentées chez les jeunes, dans le secteur
tertiaire et dans les professions du secteur primaire. Dans le cas des plus jeunes,
il n’est guère surprenant de ne retrouver que très peu de personnes hautement
scolarisées, du seul fait que celles-ci n’ont pas encore, pour une bonne part,
complété ces cycles d’études. Quelques différences enfin apparaissent aux
extrêmes, c’est-à-dire entre les personnes peu scolarisées et les personnes hautement
scolarisées. Dans les cas du sexe, elles sont plutôt mineures, mais elles sont
plus marquées dans les cas des secteurs d’emploi, des secteurs professionnels et
de la taille de l’entreprise. 7

354 GUY FRÉCHET
ANALYSE DES RÉSULTATS
Un profil de la situation en emploi des personnes moyennement scolarisées
Le revenu tiré du travail et les avantages en emploi (protection syndicale et
régime de pension) constituent deux des aspects importants de la situation en
emploi. La relation linéaire présumée entre le revenu et le degré de scolarité est
une idée généralement reçue, dont l’observation se traduirait par une position
intermédiaire pour ces divers aspects de la situation en emploi. Or une situation
paradoxale touche les personnes moyennement scolarisées ayant entamé quelques
études post-secondaires sans les avoir complétées (moyennement scolarisées II);
leurs revenus sont très souvent inférieurs en moyenne à ceux des personnes qui
ont terminé ou non leurs études secondaires (moyennement scolarisées I). Ils sont
également inférieurs en moyenne à ceux qui n’ont terminé qu’un cours primaire
dans certaines catégories, notamment chez les jeunes de 20 à 24 ans, dans le
secteur professionnel tertiaire et quelle que soit la taille de l’entreprise en 1986,
mais surtout dans les petites et les très grandes entreprises en 1987. En ce qui
concerne la protection en emploi, la même situation doublement défavorisée
apparaît, quel que soit le sexe, chez les personnes de plus de 45 ans, dans les
secteurs secondaire et tertiaire, dans le secteur professionnel primaire et dans les
entreprises de plus de 20 employés. Pour ce qui est du régime de pension, il en
va de même chez les hommes ainsi que dans toutes les entreprises sauf dans
celles de taille moyenne supérieure (100 à 499 employés).
Les seuls cas observables où les personnes moyennement scolarisées II sont
avantagées par rapport aux personnes plus scolarisées se trouvent chez les plus
jeunes sur le plan salarial, en raison d’un artifice lié au découpage, et chez les
personnes qui oeuvrent dans les secteurs primaire et secondaire ainsi que dans
le secteur professionnel secondaire sur le plan de la protection syndicale. Cette
proportion plus élevée de personnes moyennement scolarisées II qui jouissent de
protection syndicale ne se traduit toutefois pas toujours par des revenus plus
élevés. En outre, leurs revenus moyens pour les années 1986 et 1987 sont moins
élevés que ceux des personnes moyennement scolarisées I dans le secteur primaire
et dans le secteur professionnel secondaire.
Le cheminement des personnes moyennement scolarisées en regard de la
précarité de l’emploi
La fréquence des transitions
Les données de l’Enquête sur l’activité permettent de suivre le cheminement
d’une cohorte pendant deux années entières. À l’aide de l’analyse de survie, il
est possible de voir comment se comportent dans le temps chacun des sousgroupes.
L’examen de la répartition du nombre de transitions selon la scolarité
révèle que 63,4% des personnes ne connaissent pas de transition, mais que, parmi

PRÉCARITÉ DE L’EMPLOI ET SCOLARISATION MOYENNE 355
les personnes moyennement scolarisées qui n’ont qu’un post-secondaire non
complété, cette proportion descend à 59,1%, soit un taux plus faible que pour les
personnes situées aux extrêmes (67,0% pour les personnes peu scolarisées et
67,4% pour les personnes hautement scolarisées). Ce sont également celles dont
la proportion d’occurrence de transitions multiples se situe tout juste au second
rang pour la première transition, mais au premier rang à partir de la seconde
transition et pour toutes les suivantes. 8 Que ces personnes se retrouvent dans une
situation moins enviable que les personnes plus fortement scolarisées est bien
compréhensible, mais pourquoi semblent-elles plus défavorisées que celles qui
sont moins scolarisées?
L’occurrence des transitions multiples ne caractérise pas que ce sous-groupe
en particulier, mais, contrairement à l’attente qui aurait permis de le situer entre
les personnes moins scolarisées et celles qui le sont davantage, ce sous-groupe
semble plus affecté que ceux situés aux extrêmes. Il est par conséquent paradoxal
de constater que la situation des personnes peu scolarisées est très semblable,
sous l’angle particulier de l’occurrence des transitions, à celle des personnes
hautement scolarisées.
La probabilité des transitions
En examinant cette fois la probabilité de connaître une transition à chaque mois,
il est possible d’estimer le risque de transiter pour une personne entrée dans
l’intervalle et qui n’a pas encore préalablement subi de transition. Par exemple,
la mesure peut indiquer la probabilité qu’une personne subisse une transition au
2e mois, au 6e mois, au 14e mois, etc., soit au fur et à mesure du déroulement
temporel. Ce taux (lambda) est calculé avec le nombre d’événements terminaux
dans un intervalle, divisé par le nombre moyen de survivants au milieu de l’intervalle.
La probabilité de changer d’état peut ainsi atteindre plus de 8,8% de l’ensemble
au cours du premier mois de septembre, avec des sommets importants en juin
et décembre, alors qu’elle atteint 10,3% des personnes moyennement scolarisées
II au cours du premier mois de septembre, également avec des sommets encore
plus importants que pour l’ensemble aux mêmes moments, sauf au sommet de
décembre de la première année. Le risque n’est pas toujours plus élevé; lorsqu’il
est plus élevé cependant, la différence apparaît plus marquée, notamment avec
ces écarts respectifs de 1,5% et de 2,5% en septembre de chacune des deux
années (Tableau 1). Aussi, les personnes du sous-groupe connaissent des probabilités
plus accentuées de subir une transition au moment des principaux sommets,
notamment en septembre de chacune des années. Le risque à ces moments
critiques est presque toujours plus élevé pour les personnes moyennement scolarisées
II, ce qui montre leur plus grande vulnérabilité relativement aux autres sousgroupes.

356 GUY FRÉCHET
TABLEAU 1
Nombre de transitions et probabilité des transitions de type “occupation non-occupation”
et vice-versa selon le mois, population active de 16 à 69 ans, Canada, 1986–1987
Mois
Nombre de
transitions
Ensemble Moyennement scolarisées II
Taux a
(%)
Nombre de
transitions
Taux a
(%) Écart (%)
1 397 728 2,3 50 300 2,0 –0,4
2 472 238 2,7 67 171 2,6 –0,1
3 679 990 4,0 85 500 3,3 –0,6
4 698 144 4,1 123 452 4,9 0,8
5 628 212 3,7 111 007 4,4 0,7
6 1 240 024 7,4 195 703 7,8 0,4
7 658 003 3,8 88 991 3,5 –0,4
8 764 133 4,5 116 810 4,6 0,1
9 1 466 576 8,8 254 950 10,3 1,5
10 736 234 4,3 91 221 3,6 –0,7
11 623 478 3,6 72 523 2,8 –0,8
12 1 241 032 7,4 152 805 6,1 –1,3
13 518 238 3,0 67 990 2,6 –0,4
14 451 553 2,6 64 044 2,5 –0,1
15 607 154 3,5 72 986 2,8 –0,7
16 567 458 3,3 103 200 4,0 0,7
17 539 299 3,1 105 772 4,1 1,0
18 964 219 5,7 150 306 5,9 0,3
19 632 480 3,7 79 059 3,1 –0,6
20 604 735 3,5 99 634 3,9 0,4
21 1 104 828 6,5 225 258 9,0 2,5
22 543 071 3,2 64 438 2,5 –0,7
23 611 772 3,6 71 169 2,8 –0,8
24 681 704 4,0 87 560 3,4 –0,6
Total 17 432 304 2 601 848
a La probabilité est calculée sur l’ensemble de la population active de 16 à 69 ans, soit 12 millions de personnes.
Il s’agit du taux d’exposition (“hazard rate”), indiquant le risque de transiter pour une personne entrée dans
l’intervalle et qui n’a pas encore préalablement subi de transition. Ce taux (lambda) est calculé avec le nombre
d’événements terminaux dans un intervalle, divisé par le nombre moyen de survivants au milieu de l’intervalle:
lambda i = 2q i
h i(1+p i)
où “q” est la proportion d’événements terminaux, “h” est la largeur de l’intervalle et “p” est la proportion de
survivants.
(Source: D’après les données de l’Enquête sur l’activité, 1986–1987; calculs de l’auteur)

PRÉCARITÉ DE L’EMPLOI ET SCOLARISATION MOYENNE 357
L’examen du premier intervalle inter-transitions
Une vision complémentaire est fournie avec l’examen des “survivants” (ou ceux
qui ne connaîtront pas de transition au cours de la période), tels qu’évalués à
partir des pourcentages cumulés de survivants en prenant la durée du premier
intervalle d’occupation ou de non-occupation comme variable dépendante. Or,
pourquoi se servir de la durée de l’intervalle? Conceptuellement, on comprendra
que le temps écoulé entre les transitions est lié au nombre de transitions et
partant, à la précarité. Plus les intervalles entre chacune des transitions seront
courts, plus le nombre de transitions sera élevé. L’intérêt de la mesure ne
consiste pas tant à connaître la durée moyenne de l’emploi ou du chômage qu’à
établir une base de calcul homogène, fondée sur le temps. La mesure permet ainsi
de constituer des tables de survie et d’effectuer les calculs de la régression de
survie, sur lesquels nous reviendrons.
Le cheminement de chacun des sous-groupes peut être analysé à l’aide des
tables de survie. Les informations de ces tables peuvent être interprétées à l’aide
du test “Lee-Desu,” 9 qui permet de comparer les sous-groupes entre eux. Pour
toutes les caractéristiques déjà examinées, le tableau 2 synthétise les résultats
détaillés, tels qu’obtenus à l’aide de ce test, en montrant le positionnement relatif
des personnes moyennement scolarisées II. 10 Les codes du tableau sont les suivants:
les signes négatifs indiquent qu’elles sont désavantagées par rapport à un
(-) ou deux (--) des sous-groupes qui précèdent (peu scolarisées et moyennement
scolarisées I); le signe positif indique qu’elles sont avantagées (+) par rapport au
sous-groupe qui suit (hautement scolarisées). L’absence de code signifie simplement
que leur positionnement est conforme aux attentes, c’est-à-dire qu’elles se
situent au rang reflétant la même hiérarchie que celle de la scolarisation. L’abondance
des cas où des situations moins enviables existent pour les personnes
moyennement scolarisées II relativement à leur cheminement sur le marché du
travail est particulièrement frappante (Tableau 2).
Le seul cas où la situation est conforme aux attentes concerne les personnes
de 35 à 44 ans, où l’expérience semble constituer un atout. Chez les personnes
de 45 à 54 ans, les personnes moyennement scolarisées II sont même avantagées
par rapport aux personnes plus scolarisées d’après le test et se situent conformément
aux attentes pour ce qui est de la durée médiane de l’intervalle précédant
la première transition. Chez les personnes de 55 à 64 ans, on est également
avantagé par rapport aux personnes plus scolarisées relativement à cette durée
médiane. L’expérience ici encore s’avère un atout particulier pour les personnes
de ces classes d’âge, au point de compenser pour la scolarisation acquise.
Quant au secteur d’emploi, il n’y a que le secteur primaire où les personnes
moyennement scolarisées II, tout en étant désavantagées par rapport aux sousgroupes
qui les précèdent, sont également avantagées par rapport aux personnes
plus scolarisées dans le cas de la durée médiane. Pour le reste, les divers secteurs
professionnels et la taille de l’entreprise montrent que, quels que soient ces

358 GUY FRÉCHET
TABLEAU 2
Positionnement relatif des personnes actives moyennement scolarisées II pour le score
moyen (test Lee-Desu) et la durée du premier intervalle en semaines (médiane), selon les
caractéristiques socio-démographiques et celles de l’emploi, Canada, 1986–1987
Score a
Médiane
Sexe
Homme -- --
Femme -- --
Ensemble
Age
-- --
b
16 à 19 ans --+ --+
20 à 24 ans -- --
25à34ans
35à44ans
- -
45 à 54 ans +
55à64ans
Secteur d’emploi
- +
Primaire -- --
Secondaire -- --
Tertiaire
Secteur professional
-- --
Primaire -- --
Secondaire -- --
Tertiare
Nombre d’employés
-- --
19 et moins -- --
20à99 -- --
100 à 499 -- --
500 et plus
Protection
-- --
c
Avec -- --
Sans
Régime de pension
-- --
Avec -- --
Sans -- --
a Scores moyens retenus pour les seules significations ≤0,05.
b Seule la classe d’âge de 65 à 69 ans ne fut pas retenue en raison du faible nombre de cas.
c Appartenant à un syndicat ou dont l’emploi est régi par une convention collective.
(Source: D’après les données de l’Enquête sur l’activité, 1986–1987; calculs de l’auteur)

PRÉCARITÉ DE L’EMPLOI ET SCOLARISATION MOYENNE 359
secteurs ou quelle que soit cette taille, la situation des personnes moyennement
scolarisées II est moins enviable que celle des autres sous-groupes.
Les personnes moyennement scolarisées II bénéficiant de protection en emploi
et d’un régime de pension vivent-elles une précarité moins évidente? Bien que
cela puisse surprendre, la réponse à cette question est négative. Les personnes
moyennement scolarisées II sont tout aussi désavantagées par rapport aux autres
sous-groupes même lorsque ces conditions existent. En d’autres termes, la protection
syndicale et le régime de pension (“contrôlant” la relation) ne sont pas des
atouts particuliers. Ces conditions, qui auraient pu être des filets de sécurité,
n’ont par conséquent pas d’influence particulière sur le cheminement des personnes
moyennement scolarisées II. Au contraire, si les entreprises fortement
syndiquées ont été davantage touchées par les fluctuations économiques, les
personnes moyennement scolarisées II qui s’y sont retrouvées ont été davantage
pénalisées.
La comparaison entre la situation en emploi et les cheminements sur le marché
du travail montre que dans l’ensemble, les différences vont dans le sens suivant:
les personnes moyennement scolarisées II, qui éprouvent plus de difficultés dans
leur situation en emploi que les autres sous-groupes, vivent des cheminements
sur le marché du travail encore plus difficiles. Les exceptions ne sont pas nombreuses:
les personnes de plus de 45 ans sont dans une position conforme aux
attentes quant à leur situation en emploi mais favorisées quant à leur cheminement.
Un aperçu du poids des facteurs
Dans le but d’évaluer le poids des divers facteurs, la régression de survie 11 peut
être mise à contribution, toujours avec la même mesure de la durée de l’intervalle
inter-transition. À partir du modèle initial qui consiste simplement à modéliser
l’effet de la scolarité sur le rapprochement dans le temps des transitions
“occupation-non-occupation,” nous ajoutons les caractéristiques socio-démographiques
prises isolément, les caractéristiques de l’emploi prises isolément, et
l’ensemble de ces caractéristiques. Le raisonnement implicite est de ne pas
imputer à un facteur ou à un ensemble de facteurs des influences qui seraient
attribuables à d’autres avec lesquels ils peuvent être associés. Une norme pour
chaque variable est établie avec la dernière catégorie, qui sert de point de
référence.
Si les personnes moyennement scolarisées II vivent une plus forte précarité
dans l’ensemble, ce n’est pas tant en vertu des caractéristiques socio-démographiques
que des caractéristiques de l’emploi, qui favorisent les personnes moins
scolarisées (Tableau 3). Le modèle initial montre effectivement que les deux
premiers sous-groupes sont très près du sous-groupe des personnes plus scolarisées
et que les personnes moyennement scolarisées II sont moins favorisées. En
contrôlant les caractéristiques socio-démographiques, les trois premiers sous-

360 GUY FRÉCHET
TABLEAU 3
Régressions de survie,* premier intervalle,
population active de 16 à 69 ans, Canada, 1986–1987
Modèle 1 a
Modèle 2 Modèle 3 Modèle 4
Log de vraisemblance
(distribution lognormale)
–8 664 093 –8 517 743 –6 749 307 –6 663 394
Intercepteur
Scolarité
3,28 3,50 3,08 3,23
Peu scol. 0,02 –0,03 0,13 0,08
Moy. I –0,01 –0,03 0,06 0,03
Moy. II –0,05 –0,04 –0,01 –0,01
Haut. scol.
Sexe
0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0
Homme –0,11 –0,06
Femme 0,0 0,0
Âge b
16–19 –0,06 0,01
20–24 –0,30 –0,21
25–34 –0,14 –0,07
35–44 –0,14 –0,06
45–54 –0,16 –0,11
55–64
Secteur d’emploi
0,0 0,0
Primaire –0,08 –0,07
Secondaire –0,02 –0,01
Tertiaire
Secteur professionnel
0,0 0,0
Primaire 0,18 0,15
Secondaire 0,07 0,07
Tertiaire
Nombre d’employés
0,0 0,0
19 et moins –0,03 –0,03
20 à 99 –0,02 –0,02
100 à 499 0,03 0,02
500 et plus 0,0 0,0
Protection c
Avec –0,04 –0,04
Sans 0,0 0,0

PRÉCARITÉ DE L’EMPLOI ET SCOLARISATION MOYENNE 361
TABLEAU 3 (continué)
Régressions de survie,* premier intervalle,
population active de 16 à 69 ans, Canada, 1986–1987
Modèle 1 a
Modèle 2 Modèle 3 Modèle 4
Régime de pension
Avec 0,19 0,19
Sans 0,0 0,0
Paramètre de l’échelle
normale
0,95 0,94 0,94 0,93
* Paramètres retenus pour les seules significations du X 2 ≤0,0001.
a
Modèle 1, initial; Modèle 2, avec caractéristiques socio-démographiques; Modèle 3, avec caractéristiques de
l’emploi; Modèle 4, final.
b
Seule la classe d’âge de 65 à 69 ans ne fut pas retenue en raison du faible nombre de cas.
c
Appartenant à un syndicat ou dont l’emploi est régi par une convention collective.
(Source: D’après les données de l’Enquête sur l’activité, 1986–1987; calculs de l’auteur)
groupes sont presque également défavorisés par rapport à celui des personnes
plus scolarisées. C’est surtout parce qu’il s’agit de l’influence négative des
hommes, des jeunes de 20 à 24 ans et, dans une moindre mesure, des personnes
de 45 à 54 ans. C’est là une première explication.
En contrôlant cette fois les caractéristiques de l’emploi, les deux premiers
sous-groupes sont relativement favorisés par rapport à celui des personnes plus
scolarisées, laissant le sous-groupe des personnes moyennement scolarisées II
dans une situation moins avantagée. C’est surtout parce qu’il s’agit des influences
positives liées aux faits d’oeuvrer dans les secteurs professionnels primaire
et secondaire et de jouir d’un régime de pension. Il s’agit là d’autant de facteurs
qui offriraient plus de stabilité ou qui inciteraient à plus de stabilité. Il s’agit
également de l’influence négative du secteur d’emploi primaire (le caractère
saisonnier de l’emploi y est plus fort), du fait de travailler dans de plus petites
entreprises et curieusement, de la protection en emploi! Il s’agit là d’une seconde
explication. Pour ce qui est de ce dernier facteur, cela confirme le fait déjà
observé que la syndicalisation ne semble plus être un filet de sécurité à toute
épreuve. Conjugué au fait que les personnes moyennement scolarisées II sont celles
qui proportionnellement jouissent de la moindre protection en emploi, comme
nous l’avons vu, les personnes de ce sous-groupe s’avèrent plus vulnérables à
tous égards.
Le modèle final tend à confirmer la prépondérance des caractéristiques de
l’emploi, bien que l’importance en soit considérablement amoindrie. Toutes les
caractéristiques étant contrôlées, le fait d’être un homme, un jeune de 20 à 24

362 GUY FRÉCHET
ans ou une personne de 45 à 54 ans continuent d’avoir une importance déterminante.
Cela est vraisemblablement lié au fait pour les jeunes d’être encore en
période d’insertion progressive sur le marché du travail, où l’alternance entre les
études et le travail est le lot de plusieurs.
Il reste également les transitions liées à la mobilité professionnelle volontaire
que nous n’avons pas étudiées séparément ici (le bloc de 20% des cas) et qui
pourrait expliquer une partie de cette “précarité,” qui n’en serait pas. Ce pourrait
être le cas notamment chez les personnes de 45 à 54 ans, mais, à cela, il faut
ajouter le fait que le chômage, par la combinaison de son taux et de sa durée
moyenne, les affecte tout aussi fortement que les plus jeunes depuis 1986 (Statistique
Canada, catalogues 71–001 et 71–529).
Toutes les autres caractéristiques de l’emploi déjà notées continuent d’agir
exactement dans le même sens. Les influences positives du fait d’oeuvrer dans
les deux premiers secteurs professionnels et de jouir d’un régime de pension,
combinées aux influences négatives du secteur d’emploi primaire, du travail dans
de plus petites entreprises et de la protection en emploi, apparaissent comme
étant les plus déterminantes.
DISCUSSION DES RÉSULTATS ET CONCLUSION
Les personnes moyennement scolarisées II vivent une situation en emploi plus
difficile que les autres et elles apparaissent également confrontées plus largement
à la précarité de l’emploi. La hiérarchie de la scolarisation ne se reflète pas dans
celle du marché du travail. L’idée généralement reçue de la relation linéaire entre
le revenu et le degré de scolarité doit être révisée, car les effets liés à l’atteinte
d’un degré de scolarisation, notamment dans les catégories médianes, sont loin
d’être ceux qui sont attendus. Nous observons plutôt des signes avant-coureur
d’affaissement du centre au profit d’une tendance à la bipolarisation des extrêmes.
En parler comme d’un fait accompli serait toutefois bien contestable, pour
plusieurs raisons qui relèvent du découpage utilisé et dont nous avons noté les
limites, dont le fait de n’avoir retenu que les personnes moyennement scolarisées
II pour les besoins de l’analyse et qui, rappelons-le, ne constituent que 12% de
l’ensemble. En parler comme d’une tendance rejoint toutefois d’autres faits, dont
celui déjà observé dans le domaine des qualifications sur le marché du travail et
qui consiste à voir s’opérer une bipolarisation entre les sphères de la conception
et de l’exécution, à la suite de Braverman ou Freyssenet. Il rejoint aussi celui de
l’hypothèse parfois avancée du déclin de la classe moyenne et qui tend à montrer
un affaissement progressif des catégories centrales (Myles, Picot et Wannel,
1988). Il n’en constitue peut-être qu’une autre facette.
Un fait a particulièrement retenu notre attention lors de l’analyse de la
situation en emploi: nous avons pu observer en effet que les personnes qui ont
quelques études post-secondaires paraissent désavantagées par rapport à celles qui

PRÉCARITÉ DE L’EMPLOI ET SCOLARISATION MOYENNE 363
ont complété ou non leur cours secondaire et dans bien des cas, également désavantagées
par rapport à celles qui n’ont complété que des études primaires.
Quant à la précarité de l’emploi, les personnes moyennement scolarisées
vivent également de réels désavantages à l’examen de la rapidité avec laquelle
elles subissent une transition sur le marché du travail. Nous avons montré qu’à
l’intérieur du groupe des personnes moyennement scolarisées, celles qui n’ont
que quelques études post-secondaires sont dans une situation moins enviable que
celles qui ont ou non complété leurs études secondaires et souvent, que celles qui
n’ont complété qu’un cours primaire. Ce sous-groupe des personnes moyennement
scolarisées II est celui pour qui le temps de survie dans l’état original est
le plus court et même le fait de jouir d’une forme de protection de l’emploi, pour
les personnes qui en jouissent, n’y change rien. Ce sous-groupe, composé soit de
décrocheurs, soit de personnes sans formation particulière, subit plus que les
autres les conséquences des fluctuations économiques. D’où l’émergence d’une
forme de bipolarisation entre les personnes peu et hautement scolarisées qui
laisse de moins en moins de place aux catégories intermédiaires.
Divers modèles combinant les facteurs ont été analysés dans le but d’éclaircir
les raisons du rapprochement dans le temps des transitions. Du côté des caractéristiques
socio-démographiques, les hommes, les jeunes de 20 à 24 ans et les
personnes de 45 à 54 ans apparaissent comme étant plus vulnérables. Du côté des
caractéristiques de l’emploi, les influences positives du fait d’oeuvrer dans les
secteurs professionnels primaire et secondaire et de jouir d’un régime de pension,
combinées aux influences négatives du secteur d’emploi primaire, du fait de
travailler dans de plus petites entreprises et de la protection en emploi apportent
des explications complémentaires, tout en fournissant un modèle relativement
conforme au modèle initial.
Manifestement, aucune des conceptualisations préalablement décrites ne
semble correspondre aux faits observés — les deux visions déjà évoquées et qui
semblent s’avérer plutôt complémentaires. L’idée sous-jacente pourrait être
traduite à la fois du point de vue des personnes comme du point de vue des contraintes
structurelles du marché du travail. La rationalité individuelle ferait que
les moins instruits pourraient plus difficilement se permettre de risquer une
transition et que les plus instruits auraient également intérêt à ne pas risquer de
perdre des acquis, mais qu’entre les deux, on puisse ou bien tenter raisonnablement
de vouloir changer de situation, ou encore être soumis aux aléas du marché
du travail. Du point de vue cette fois des contraintes structurelles, il est plausible
de croire qu’un bon nombre d’entreprises veuillent conserver une main-d’oeuvre
moins instruite pour les bas salaires, une main d’oeuvre plus instruite et plus
qualifiée pour ses compétences et qu’entre les deux, au gré des besoins, les
catégories intermédiaires seraient soumises à une plus grande précarité. Une
forme de bipolarisation représente la tendance qui se dessine actuellement au
Canada et ce, nonobstant les moyens déjà mis en oeuvre pour augmenter l’employabilité
des individus par le biais de la scolarisation.

364 GUY FRÉCHET
NOTES
1
Nous remercions Statistique Canada et Emploi et Immigration Canada pour leur contribution
financière à la réalisation de cette étude, ainsi que le chantier sur les “tendances” de l’Institut
québécois de recherche sur la culture, où cette recherche fut entreprise. Nous remercions
également Michel Bernier qui, à titre d’assistant de recherche, a collaboré à l’analyse statistique.
2
Réalisée conjointement par Statistique Canada et par Emploi et Immigration Canada, pour les
années 1986 et 1987 auprès d’un échantillon de plus de 67 000 individus dans l’ensemble du
Canada (Statistique Canada, 1990). L’échantillonnage a permis de rejoindre un ménage sur 225
et une pondération de certains facteurs sur ou sous-estimés (région, etc.) a permis d’assurer la
représentativité des 17 millions de personnes âgées de 16 à 69 ans au Canada.
3
Il existe des différences entre le système d’éducation québécois et ceux en vigueur dans les autres
provinces du Canada. Ces différences impliquent essentiellement que les personnes hautement
scolarisées pourraient ne pas correspondre en tous points aux deux catégories supérieures. Cela
s’avérera sans conséquence ici étant donné que nous fusionnons ces deux catégories (certificat ou
diplôme post-secondaire et grade universitaire). La correspondance entre les catégories de
l’Enquête sur l’activité et nos catégories est la suivante: “0 à 8 années,” peu scolarisées;
“Secondaire complété ou non complété,” moyennement scolarisées I; “Post secondaire noncomplété,”
moyennement scolarisées II; “Certificat ou diplôme post-secondaire” ou “Grade universitaire,”
hautement scolarisées.
4
Sur les 17 millions de personnes représentées par les répondants à l’Enquête, 12 millions font
partie de la population active et parmi celles-ci, les proportions respectives de personnes peu
scolarisées, moyennement scolarisées I, moyennement scolarisées II et hautement scolarisées sont
les suivantes: 9,3%, 49,7%, 12,1% et 28,9%.
5
L’analyse sera conduite en spécifiant le sexe, l’âge, le secteur d’emploi (primaire, secondaire ou
tertiaire), le secteur professionnel (primaire, secondaire et tertiaire, mais selon la profession
déclarée) et le nombre d’employés dans l’entreprise. Seront également pris en compte les facteurs
qui relèvent des avantages en emploi, soit l’existence de protection syndicale et d’un régime de
pension. De cette façon, une estimation est fournie de la probabilité de sortir de l’intervalle que
les personnes moyennement scolarisées peuvent connaître, pour la durée du premier intervalle
d’occupation ou de non-occupation.
6
À la seule condition que l’évaluation de leur degré de scolarité en 1987 corresponde à celle
fournie en 1986, afin d’exclure des erreurs de mesure. Ainsi, nous excluons d’emblée tous les
répondants ayant un degré de scolarité moindre en 1987 qu’en 1986, ainsi que ceux pour qui le
degré de scolarité a connu une hausse phénoménale de 1986 à 1987.
7
Par rapport à la moyenne de 12% de l’ensemble (sur le total de 1 458 000 personnes
moyennement scolarisées II), les hommes et les femmes sont également répartis, les plus jeunes
sont au-dessus de la moyenne (20% chez les 16–19 ans, 22% chez les 20–24 ans), les 25–34 ans
sont dans la moyenne et les plus âgés, constituent autour de 6%; un peu plus que la moyenne
(13%) oeuvre dans le tertiaire par rapport aux autres secteurs (de 9% à 10%), et la même
proportion (13%) possède une spécialisation du secteur primaire par rapport aux autres secteurs
(de 9% à 10%); ces personnes enfin se retrouvent en moyenne également répartis dans tous les
types d’entreprises, quelle qu’en soit la taille.
8
L’Enquête ne s’étant limitée qu’aux cinq premiers emplois occupés dans l’année et n’ayant tenu
compte que de quatre arrêts de travail significatifs, on observera théoriquement jusqu’à vingt
transitions au cours des deux années. Compte-tenu toutefois du fait que les cas observés tendent
à diminuer considérablement après un certain nombre de transitions, nous nous sommes limités
ici aux six premières transitions, pour lesquelles les cas observés demeurent en nombre suffisant.

PRÉCARITÉ DE L’EMPLOI ET SCOLARISATION MOYENNE 365
9
Il s’agit d’une variante du test de Wilcoxon, dont la distribution est semblable à celle du X 2
asymptotique. La méthode de calcul de ce score consiste, pour chaque individu, à comparer le
temps de survie avec celui de tous les autres individus. Ce score, initialement de 0, varie de 1 ou
de –1 selon que le temps de survie de chaque cas est plus court ou plus long que celui de
l’individu appartenant à un des sous-groupes. Il est alors permis, en fonction du seuil de
signification, de lire les scores moyens comme des indicateurs de la distance par rapport à la
moyenne (Blossfeld et al., 1989).
10
Le test indique un score de –277 060 pour les personnes moyennement scolarisées II, par rapport
à 66 832 pour les personnes peu scolarisées et 30 959 pour les personnes hautement scolarisées.
La durée médiane de l’intervalle (en semaines) pour chacun de ces groupes respectivement est de
26,2, par rapport à 30,3 et 28,7.
11
À l’aide de l’application de la procédure “Lifereg” de SAS, nous sommes ainsi en mesure
d’évaluer le poids respectif de chacun des divers facteurs alors que tous les autres sont contrôlés.
La variable dépendante est le logarithme de la durée de l’intervalle, dans ce cas-ci du premier
intervalle inter-transition, et la variable de censure (à droite) est l’apparition d’une première
transition. La distribution retenue est la lognormale. La réexponentiation des paramètres ainsi
obtenus permettrait de convertir en pourcentage les poids en question.
RÉFÉRENCES
Allison, P. D. (1984). Event history analysis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Blossfeld, H.-P., Hamerle, A. et Mayer, K. U. (1989). Event history analysis. Hove: LEA Publishers.
Fréchet, G. (1993). Perceptions des difficultés d’insertion en emploi et raisons de fin d’emploi: les
cas du Québec et du Canada. Revue canadienne de sociologie et d’anthropologie, 30, 468–487.
Gazier, B. (1990). L’employabilité: brève radiographie d’un concept en mutation. Sociologie du
travail, 4, 575–584.
Hagenaars, J. A. (1990). Categorical longitudinal data. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.
Krahn, H. (1991). Les régimes de travail “non-standard.” L’emploi et le revenu en perspectives, 3(4),
41–52.
Myles, J., Picot, G. et Wannell, T. (1988). Les salaires et les emplois au cours des années 1980:
évolution des salaires des jeunes et déclin de la classe moyenne. Ottawa: Statistique Canada.
Statistique Canada. (1990). Enquête sur l’activité, Guide de l’utilisateur des micro-données, Fichier
de données longitudinales 1986–1987. Ottawa: Statistique Canada.
Statistique Canada. La population active. Ottawa: Statistique Canada (cat. 71–001).
Statistique Canada. Moyennes annuelles de la population active. Ottawa: Statistique Canada (cat.
71–529).
Schiray, M., Gruyer, B. et Pinton, F. (1988). La précarisation du travail. Paris: La Documentation
française.
Guy Fréchet est professeur associé au Département de sociologie, Université Laval, Cité universitaire,
Sainte-Foy (Québec) G1K 7P4.

Art, Imagination, and Teaching:
Researching the High School Classroom
Stuart Richmond
simon fraser university
Process/product-style research into effective teaching has ignored what it means to be a
good art teacher. Imagination as a quality of good teaching has similarly been ignored.
I argue for the essentially imaginative nature of artistic production and appreciation, and
show how this influences the art teacher’s role. As well, I develop a conceptualization of
imaginative art teaching to guide the qualitative investigation of art teaching in six high
school classrooms.
Les recherches sur les processus et les produits relatifs à un enseignement efficace font
abstraction des qualités que doit avoir un bon enseignant d’arts plastiques. On oublie
également l’importance de l’imagination dans un enseignement de qualité. L’auteur
soutient que la production et l’appréciation artistiques sont essentiellement de nature
imaginative et explique comment cela influe sur le rôle de l’enseignant d’art plastiques.
Il élabore en outre une théorie de l’enseignement des arts plastiques axé sur l’imagination,
théorie servant de guide pour l’évaluation qualitative de l’enseignement des arts plastiques
dans six classes au secondaire.
And if we deny our imagination, and have no imaginative life, we are poor worms
who have never lived. — D.H.Lawrence (1929/1988)
What constitutes good teaching in any educational sphere is, in the end, both a
philosophical and an empirical matter. It is the normative concept taken as a
guide that enables observers to distinguish and make judgements about good
teaching. Looking to the diversity of practice in individual classrooms gives rich
contextual meaning to theory. On this account, the philosopher’s skills can
fruitfully mesh with those of the empirical researcher. The research project I
describe here attempts such a convergence. In discussing the purposes, methodology,
and conclusions of my qualitative study of high school art teaching in six
different urban and suburban classrooms, I emphasize the conceptualization and
investigation of imaginative art teaching.
BACKGROUND CONSIDERATIONS
There is surely something remiss about any conception of teaching in an educational
context that fails to find a place for the exercise of the teacher’s creative
366 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

ART, IMAGINATION, AND TEACHING 367
imagination (Egan, 1992; Egan & Nadaner, 1988; Eisner, 1983, 1985). That,
however, is precisely the case with some influential and long-standing empirical
research into “effective teaching.” The research in question is known as “processproduct”
research, and its main objective is to identify teacher behaviours that
bring about improvements in student learning (Westbury, 1988). O’Neill (1988)
reviews over 150 primary and secondary sources of teacher effectiveness
research to list “the 20 most promising instructional research factors” (p. 164),
citing, for example, such things as “teacher organization,” “instructional mode,”
and “teacher clarity.” Imagination is not mentioned in this survey, nor is art.
Indeed, as O’Neill points out, “application [of the research] is limited, for the
most part, to the teaching of basic skills in mathematics and reading at the
primary and intermediate levels” (p. 177). Porter and Brophy (1988) review the
recent work of the Institute for Research on Teaching at Michigan State University
and contribute a list similar to O’Neill’s. Their accompanying diagrammatic
model includes a box for the teacher’s knowledge of content without any explanation
of how this affects the quality or character of the teaching. Again, there
is no mention of art or imagination, as the research focuses on the teaching of
reading, mathematics, and science. This state of affairs is repeated in a lengthy
review of the literature on effective teaching by Hawley, Rosenholtz, Goodstein,
and Hasselbring (1984).
Art and imagination aside, it may be asked whether educators really need
empirical research of the costly process-product variety to convince them that,
for example, in the words of O’Neill, “the amount of time spent on a task
powerfully predicts student achievement” (p. 173); that there is a “positive
relationship between teacher clarity . . . and pupil achievement” (p. 170); or that
“research findings clearly reveal that well-organized teachers are the most
effective teachers” (p. 166). As Egan (1988) points out, the “findings” of
educational researchers are all too often covertly conceptual rather than
straightforwardly empirical; this seems to apply to the examples cited. That time
spent affects student achievement is no surprise. “Achievement,” in reference to
both quantity and complexity of learning, implies persistence. That teacher clarity
promotes student achievement is no surprise either, for to be clear means to be
easily understood. So too, in the last example, being well-organized in matters
of planning and presentation of subject-matter is, at the very least, a precondition
of effectiveness, for order lies at the heart of understanding, and understanding
is the principal aim of teaching. Despite the limited subject-matter focus of
teacher effectiveness research, O’Neill encourages teachers to apply its
conclusions to the teaching of art, music, and health, while trying, as he says, to
“optimize as many factors as possible” (1988, p. 177).
But besides a few homilies about praising students for good work, about
having worthy but realistic expectations, or about the value of supporting
students’ efforts (O’Neill, 1988), what use is this research to art teachers per se?

368 STUART RICHMOND
Unfortunately, it is of very little use, inasmuch as no consideration is given to
the specific demands of teaching art. Westbury (1988) notes, for example, that
although teacher education programs emphasizing process-product approaches
have successfully increased student achievement in areas requiring rule-following
or step-by-step skills (as in arithmetic, vocabulary, grammar, algebra, and science
facts),
process-product paradigms have been least applicable to such ill-structured content areas
as creative writing, problem solving, and the analysis and discussion common in literature
and social studies classes. Teacher effectiveness training has limited value in teaching
students to evaluate, to criticize, or to give creative or unique responses. (p. 149)
Westbury concludes that “research is needed in totally unrelated fields such as
art, music, and creative writing” (p. 141); the question is, however, what sort of
research is needed, and on what, principally, should it focus?
THE PEDAGOGICAL CONTEXT
In this research project, the pedagogical context is art education and art is
characterized by indeterminacy. Although useful information can be given to
students about an artist’s theory when viewing artwork, for example, and although
foreshortening strategies can be demonstrated to students attempting selfportraits,
ultimately it is logically impossible to explain precisely how art may
be created and understood. This is because each work of art, besides being part
of the broader tradition, is also to some extent original and unique. Art that is
aesthetically well formed, fresh, and expressive cannot be made to a formula, a
point Kant made two centuries ago (1790/1952). Even an artist making a realistic
painting of a living person, or painting a recognizable view of a landscape,
requires imagination to produce an insightful and revealing perspective. Artists
don’t “copy” reality; they see what they can paint in their idiom, to paraphrase
Gombrich (1969, p. 86). Artistic representation proceeds as artists invent and
modify their visual concepts (ways of picturing things) to suit purpose and
occasion. “Making comes before matching” (p. 116), says Gombrich, and “the
matching process itself proceeds through the stages of ‘schema and correction’”
(p. 116). Faced with the sublime Australian landscape, artists Sydney Nolan and
Fred Williams had to develop a new visual language to do it justice. In a piece
of abstract art, Picasso made a pair of handle bars and a bicycle seat serve as a
metaphor for a bull.
Understanding a work of art is also a matter of constructive interpretation.
Imaginative perception is needed to configure a work’s often ambiguous cues and
qualities. A viewer’s response to art is never simply a matter of decoding.
Rather, it involves “a rhythm which presupposes constant activity on our part in
making guesses and modifying them in the light of our experience” (Gombrich,
1969, pp. 271–272). Responding to art from the past involves, in addition,

ART, IMAGINATION, AND TEACHING 369
overstepping “inadequacies of evidence and temporal and cultural distances by
imaginatively reconstructing past meanings” (Richmond, 1992, p. 39).
Enabling students to produce and appreciate art is thus no easy matter. The
teacher must establish a curriculum that imparts important artistic knowledge and
skills yet inspires the student’s own expression and understanding. This is
complicated by the, in part, ungoverned character of artistic problems and by
subjective differences among students and teachers working in diverse classroom
circumstances. On a conceptual level, art teaching itself must engage imagination,
as what is sought is the student’s own artistic vision and for this there can
be no precise pedagogic rule. Teachers have to think of possibilities and develop
methods, usually by trial and error, to suit individual circumstances. Art teaching,
in essence, has to respect the logic of art and thus involves a certain amount of
“making and matching.” It is not true that there are no rules for making and
appreciating art. The rules include those of perspective, colour mixing, figure
modelling, film editing, and knowledge of genres and conventions, for example,
but they are bound to be inadequate. When existing principles are slavishly
followed, the result is not art but cliché, for which there can be recipes and
“tricks of the trade.” Making art in the studio and responding to art with
understanding and appreciation are widely recognized as central in art education
(Eisner, undated; Richmond, 1991, 1992; Smith & Levi, 1991; Swanger, 1990).
These components form the basis of the British Columbia provincial curriculum
guide for art (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 1983), as used by teachers
in this study.
RESEARCHING THE TEACHING OF ART
To recognize the ineffable character of art is to grant art education a degree of
metaphysical complexity. Describing her theory of moral judgement (which has
many similarities with the aesthetic) as “a kind of inconclusive non-dogmatic
naturalism,” Iris Murdoch (1970, p. 44) provides an apt parallel for the study of
art teaching. There is no formula for arriving at artistic (or moral) judgments,
and there is no formula for understanding and writing about human situations.
Observers must be knowledgeable about and sensitive to the complexity of particular,
often ambiguous contexts. They must feel comfortable with imprecision,
yet aim for justice and objectivity. They must be tentative in perception and
description without lapsing into obscurantism. The creative demands of art
teaching require research methods that respect the qualitative dimension, that is,
methods employing informed judgement. Fact-gathering research is important
because it can supply information about, for example, numbers of students taking
art classes, teachers’ art backgrounds, instructional content, specific teaching
methods, and so on, all vitally needed to inform policy development. Of equal
importance, however, is research focusing on aspects of intention and action that
give meaning to good teaching in particular contexts.

370 STUART RICHMOND
In this project, six researchers each compiled an individual case study report
based on classroom observations, field notes, and informal interviews. Specifically,
we sought to gain an appreciation of the kinds of teacher attitudes, beliefs,
intentions, approaches to teaching, teacher-pupil relationships, pupil activities and
achievements, and other classroom conditions and qualities that contribute to
good teaching in the visual arts. The research aimed better to understand what
it means to be an imaginative art teacher, and to derive recommendations for
teacher education in art.
On a formal level, the study follows the model of “deliberative” interpretive
inquiry articulated by Erickson (1986). It is also influenced by Eisner’s (1985,
1991) descriptions of “educational criticism,” which incorporate his “connoisseurship”
approach to qualitative classroom research. Erickson locates the nub
of his approach to research into teaching in such questions as “What is happening
. . . in this particular setting?” (p. 121), “What do these happenings mean to
the actors involved in them at the moment the actions took place?” (p. 121), and
“How does what is happening here compare with what happens in other places?”
(p. 122). The research is “deliberative,” in Erickson’s sense, in that data collection
is guided, though not limited, by six main research questions:
1. Under what circumstances (material, social, architectural) do teaching and
learning take place?
2. What educational purposes, broad and specific, underlie the teaching? What
ideals, beliefs, and feelings motivate the teacher?
3. What kinds of student artifacts, attitudes, skills, creative abilities, understandings,
and appreciations of art are being developed?
4. What approaches to teaching typify the situation? What approaches are particularly
effective and appropriate? What imaginative approaches to teaching
are evident?
5. What other qualities of classroom life contribute to successful teaching and
learning?
6. What implications for teacher education follow from the case studies?
Countering the view that such questions may limit a researcher’s “openness
to the uniqueness of experience in the setting” (p. 139), or that relevant questions
will emerge by induction, Erickson (1986) points out that,
the toothbrush and hunting-knife school has a valid point in reminding us of the
importance of induction, intuition, and intensive firsthand presence in the setting. Framing
research questions explicitly and seeking relevant data deliberately [however] enable and
empower intuition, rather than stifle it. (p. 140)
I began my research by focusing on the general setting, then moving to the
main questions and other situational aspects that emerged as inquiry proceeded.

ART, IMAGINATION, AND TEACHING 371
My intention was to identify relevant events and seek typicality and atypicality
within each situation. I sought disconfirming data to offset hasty assertions. The
research took place over five full school days (not consecutive in every case) and
classrooms were observed for complete days. Writing of the case studies was
guided by Erickson’s recommendations, especially those concerning the importance
of “analytic narrative vignettes.” The analytic narrative, says Erickson, “is
a vivid portrayal of the conduct of an event of everyday life” (p. 149) that instantiates
organizing concepts, assertions, and interpretations. Each cooperating
teacher examined the relevant case study report to ensure that the researcher’s
perceptions accurately reflected the teacher’s thoughts, feelings, and intentions
during particular teaching moments.
Since the research was qualitative in nature, standards Smith (1987) suggested
as a guide to journal editors assessing qualitative papers, that is, “the completeness,
coherence, and internal consistency of the account; whether it penetrated
and illuminated its subject; and the credibility of the author” (p. 179), provided
informal criteria of validity.
IMAGINATIVE ART TEACHING
Imagination is a philosophically complex concept of mind that resists definition
in strict behavioral terms. Sparshott (1991), for example, speaks of the concept’s
“elusiveness and polymorphousness” (p. 6). This is perhaps why it has been
ignored by scientifically minded educational researchers. Imagination is not a
skill or technique, nor is it, in any obvious sense, a simple cause-and-effect
variable. But if, as I have argued, both art and art teaching would be untenable
without it, then some way must be found to operationalize the concept for purposes
of empirical investigation. The first step in doing this was to move from
consideration of the noun imagination, a mental construct, to the adjectival form,
imaginative, which suggests activities with public criteria. The important concept
thus became imaginative art teaching.
In this study, art teaching refers to activities the teacher undertook to bring
about learning in the making and critical appreciation of visual art (painting,
drawing, printmaking, sculpture, crafts, and so forth). For Barrow (1990), the
word “imaginative” means “to be inclined and able to conceive of the unusual
and effective” (p. 108) in a particular field of endeavour. Imaginative art teaching,
as it involves the devising of educational purposes and pupil activities, the
presentation of content, the motivation of learning, and the development of a
classroom atmosphere conducive to the open, experimental learning associated
with art, would, in these terms, be generative of unusual and stimulating learning
possibilities, as well as being effective in attaining purposes, or in overcoming
difficulties. Sparshott (1991) expresses a similar thought by saying that to be
imaginative is “to be able to come up with unexpected and fruitful solutions to
problems” (p. 5). We value imaginative thinkers for their inventiveness, but also

372 STUART RICHMOND
for the workability of their ideas, plans, prescriptions, and actions, that is, for
their power to achieve chosen ends well. Imaginative teaching is commendable
inasmuch as it is directed to, and is effective at, realizing the development of
appropriate learning experiences for particular pupils; it is not characterized by
novelty alone or by the sheer number of suggestions put forward. Imaginative
teaching draws upon and utilizes knowledge of art, students, curriculum,
pedagogy, past experiences (of teacher and pupils), social circumstances, and
educational beliefs; it cannot operate in a vacuum. Imaginative thought transforms
knowledge of what is into insightful conceptions of what might be and is
therefore a component of all forms of planning and design. Maxine Greene
(1970) argues that imaginative activity is “formative” (p. 320), in that it “culminates
in new patternings” (p. 325) which bring order to indeterminate situations.
It is easy to see how imagination facilitates good teaching. The imaginative
teacher envisions how certain directions, hints, questions, demonstrations,
explanations, tasks, analogies, and examples might function to bring together or
to focus, for example, a pupil’s artistic skills, interest in a topic, sense of design,
and creative insights, so that work on a painting moves forward without diluting
the student’s own artistic struggles and sense of achievement. It is imagination
that helps teachers construct learning opportunities and helps them be flexible
and adaptable in the face of the unique, changing, and, to some extent, unpredictable
conditions of practice. Indeed, in the view of Egan (1992), “Imaginativeness
is not a well-developed, distinct function of the mind but is rather a particular
flexibility that can invigorate all mental functions” (p. 36). Imaginative teaching
is concerned with bringing immediacy and vitality to the study of art. It is
effective in the personalizing of artistic understanding. Imaginative teaching in
the artistic setting, or any educational setting for that matter, is good teaching.
The teacher is a role model for young art students in that the form and content
of teaching serve as an analogue of art as well as prompting the pupils’ own
imaginative designs.
In summary, imaginative art teaching, for purposes of this study, is teaching
that:
1. generates unusual (unconventional, original) ideas and activities;
2. constructs learning opportunities that lead effectively to worthwhile artistic
understanding for particular pupils;
3. utilizes the teacher’s knowledge and judgement;
4. is flexible and adaptive in response to the unique demands of practice;
5. respects the exploratory, open-ended, and insightful nature of art; and
6. is vital and motivating, and is a model for the pupils’ own imaginative efforts
in art.
I do not suggest that these criteria will apply unequivocally and precisely in
every situation. The concept represents an ideal and as such is meant to provide

ART, IMAGINATION, AND TEACHING 373
guidelines for research, given shared understandings of participants operating
under specialized professional circumstances. Observers are not measuring
carefully structured discrete acts. Rather, they interpret events in the flow of life,
make links, and grasp implications. In some situations, it may not be immediately
clear, for example, what specific items of knowledge a teacher has used in
making a motivating suggestion to a student. Judgements may sometimes have
to be based on informed speculation rather than on fact.
It should also be remembered that teaching is imaginative by degree. We
speak, for example, of particular actions or achievements as being highly imaginative
or fairly imaginative, rather than as being or not being imaginative in
some absolute sense. Despite such uncertainties, the point remains that to be
deemed good, art teaching needs some imaginative elements over the long haul.
One last note: I was not attempting to discover empirically whether good art
teaching is imaginative in practice. For that six cases would hardly be convincing.
The point has already been made that imagination and art teaching are
conceptually linked. My intention was to show the reality of the ideal, that is, to
show its diversity in practical experience for purposes of greater understanding.
In normative matters it is possible to learn from a small group of individuals, or
even from a single excellent teacher.
NEGOTIATION OF ENTRY
I met with the six researchers, who were volunteer graduate students, teacher
education graduates, art teachers, and art education students, to clarify purposes,
concepts, and methods. Successful high school art teachers, identified by school
district arts coordinators as being potentially willing participants, were approached
informally and the six interested in the project were invited to a voluntary
meeting where the research was explained in detail and without obligation. Procedures
followed the ethical requirements of the university. Researchers were
paired with teachers on the basis of geographical convenience.
THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS IN REVIEW
1. Under what circumstances (material, social, architectural) does teaching and
learning take place?
In the broader metropolitan community the visual arts have a high profile
through the various galleries, art and craft associations, community colleges, a
college of art, and two universities. The six schools involved in the study are
modern, urban and suburban. The school populations vary in composition from
white and middle-class to multi-racial and working-class. Pupil numbers range
from 1,000 to 1,800. In one school, students speak 22 different home languages.
Classroom arrangements for art are predominantly single-use special facilities.

374 STUART RICHMOND
Both participating school districts employ arts coordinators who help develop
programs, provide workshops for teachers, and give leadership and advocacy. Art
from the high schools is frequently exhibited in the municipal galleries, community
centres, shopping malls, and the schools themselves. The teachers belong to
the British Columbia Art Teachers’ Association, which puts out newsletters, hosts
annual conferences, and has links with national and international art education
organizations. Working conditions, by no means perfect, are favourable towards
visual art, bearing in mind that in comparison with mathematics and language
arts, for example, lack of high school graduation requirements for art, limited
timetable space, lack of program continuity through the grade levels, and the
absence of university entry status continue to ensure art’s lower academic status.
2. What educational purposes, broad and specific, underlie the teaching? What
ideals, beliefs and feelings motivate the teacher?
Every teacher in the study operates on the basis of strongly held beliefs about
art, education, and student needs. Without exception, the teachers view art as a
serious discipline, that is, as a form of creative aesthetic expression and
understanding that develops the mind and enriches the quality of everyday life.
The teachers enjoy their jobs and work hard for their pupils. Art teaching for
these individuals is more a vocation than a means to a pay cheque. Although all
the teachers concentrate mainly on teaching art, both child-centred and studentcounsellor
perspectives were identified. One teacher sees his role very much as
that of unofficial mentor for students generally, and for those with special problems.
This same teacher also takes a critical, philosophical approach to teaching
artistic thinking and to explaining important concepts in art. Multicultural,
teacher-as-facilitator-of-learning, and teacher-as-artist perspectives were also
identified. In one case, a teacher specifically categorized her approach as a
mixture of self-expression and discipline-based art education. The perspectives
were not uniquely represented but were exhibited as emphases with considerable
overlap.
3. What kinds of student artifacts, attitudes, skills, creative abilities, understandings,
and appreciations of art are being developed?
Student work is mainly studio-oriented. Individual and group project work
centres on drawing, painting, ceramics, graphic arts, and sculpture. Art history,
criticism, and aesthetics are integrated with practical work as needed to provide
background knowledge, rather than being treated systematically as distinct areas.
The teachers periodically present slide talks to inspire and inform work in
progress. Student work is firmly prescribed in the younger grades (8 and 9),
becoming increasingly free and independent by Grades 11 and 12. In all classrooms
emphasis is on the production of creative artistic work. There is an open

ART, IMAGINATION, AND TEACHING 375
attitude toward a wide variety of genres, traditions, and cultures, which translates
into students’ freedom to include, and be informed by, a broad range of historical
and contemporary images. In Grade 12, emphasis is squarely on artistic production
that is personal, creative, and expressive. Some students are preparing
portfolios for art college entrance and for the Harvard Advanced Placement evaluations.
A key element in teaching and learning in the later grades is the striving
for balance between personal expression and knowledge of rules and traditions.
4. What approaches to teaching typify the situation? What approaches are
particularly effective and appropriate? What imaginative approaches to teaching
are evident?
The teachers are well organized. The more individual and diverse the pupil work
in art, the greater the risk of chaos. This, coupled with the need for accessible
tools and materials, demand excellent organizational skills. Classrooms are well
supplied with materials, pictures, books, art magazines, and so on. Teachers teach
by means of short lectures, demonstrations, videos, student diaries, group discussions,
student self-evaluations, research activities, sketch books, student art
production, visiting artists, gallery visits, slide shows, assignment instructions,
and individual consultations. In keeping a room full of (diverse) practical activities
running smoothly, the teacher necessarily assumes the role of orchestrator.
Students report that they appreciate their teachers’ choice of projects, and the
freedom they are given to choose and create for themselves. Students like having
the freedom to change rules for assignments; their teachers’ many suggestions
for making art; their teachers’ ability to solve constructive and aesthetic problems
on the spot; and their teachers’ open, relaxed attitudes, familiarity with contemporary
culture, sense of humour, seriousness, and encouragement of experimentation.
Much of the art teachers’ work is planning; giving explanations, demonstrations,
and instructions; and servicing students’ constant practical needs. At the
same time, however, teachers respond imaginatively to the evolving needs of
their respective situations, as the following example shows. The extracts cited are
from a single case study, to provide a contextual overview. Space prevents similar
treatment of all the studies.
Case Study: Teacher as Artist
• Some rectangular pillars in the school courtyard are decorated with murals
created in clay by past art students. These murals, wrapped around the pillars,
must be 10 feet high and 6 feet around. They add a personal touch to an
otherwise institutional-type building.
• The art room looks organized and personal. An chair that a student has
painted orange hangs from the ceiling beside some bicycle wheels. The hood

376 STUART RICHMOND
over the fan has a mural painted on it. A second mural is painted on the wall in
the corner. Three work tables have decorated legs.
• The teacher is an artist, a dynamic sculptor who works in clay and is well
known in the art community. He is very direct in his comments and encourages
the students “not to be boring and produce work that’s like a TV dinner.” Students
in his Art 11 class are developing a drawing of a hand using a calligraphy
pen and wash. The teacher tells students that the hand must metamorphose into
something new, for example, the wing of a bird, and recommends that they read
Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. One student has too strong a background in his
drawing. The teacher advises this student to remove the figure, using a tear line
as an interesting edge, glue this to another piece of paper, and try again.
• Students in the Art 12 class are to find a three-dimensional object at home
or in a junk store, or to build something, and paint it so as to transform it into
art. He shows them a $.50 table that he has painted in shades of blue. He has
also glued handmade ceramic tiles onto the top surface.
• Two students from Art 12 are working on their own independent project.
They are making an additional mural for a pillar in the courtyard. The teacher
has built a horizontal frame that supports two sides of the mural so that the
mural, while being completed, is lying on its side. The mural will have to be cut
up to be fired. The two students start working immediately and really seem to
know what they are doing. The mural will include the school name surrounded
by swirling images of intertwined hands and faces. They have made plaster
moulds of hands and faces that are arranged and attached to the clay base. They
know how to handle clay and are very conscientious about keeping it moist and
well wrapped. Each student must log 300 hours. They clearly love what they are
doing. The mural is very expressive and thoughtful. The teacher lets them
progress and checks in with them periodically. The students tell me he has given
them freedom to develop their own imagery and helps out mostly with technical
difficulties. These students seem very self-directed, often staying late in order to
hold to a tight time schedule.
• Recently, the Ceramics and Sculpture 11 class went to the Sun Yat Sen
Chinese gardens in Vancouver for a field trip. Now they are making leak
windows from plaster. Some students are making Egyptian paste beads and are
ready to take them out of the kiln. Quickly the teacher leaves the classroom with
a few students and plops a bucket of sawdust over the beads on the ground
outside. The students like making beads and many wear necklaces they have
made in class.
• Another day in the same class, I see the results of a coil pot project. The
students have made some really beautiful large pots that are evidently the product
of an intense period of focused activity. Most pots have a strong shape and
design, and are expertly executed for this grade level.
• The teacher pushes students to expand their notions of what is and is not art.
He believes art is all around us in everyday objects and that we need to develop

ART, IMAGINATION, AND TEACHING 377
our visual sensibilities to be able to understand the visual world. He keeps
everything. He stores such everyday objects as packing material, boxes, steel
rims off doors, and all kinds of items that some people would consider junk. He
encourages students to view these materials as usable and exciting to work with.
He is very interested in hearing students’ ideas and pushes them to develop these
ideas further. One student said that “the harder you work, the harder [this
teacher] pushes.”
• His authority as a teacher stems from his being an artist. He can be
intimidating at times, but the students see him as a real person with a life of his
own. He cares very much about what he does, about art in general, and about
what the students do. One student said that “the class likes the fact that he is an
artist,” and that “he has lots of ideas and knows what he is doing.”
• He is very knowledgeable about art history and is conscious of teaching the
students about past and present artists, concepts, movements, and schools of
thought. When the Art 12 students were presenting their chosen artist to the
class, the teacher was able to expand on what they had reported and to focus on
the most important contributions by each artist, while adding personal information
about each artist. This was done spontaneously and with enthusiasm.
• Students in Art 12 are working on such objects as baskets, a coconut shell,
a mirror frame, and a small table, and are researching using books in the room.
The teacher advises the student working on the mirror frame to look in the Art
Nouveau book. To another student, who is working on a basket, he points out
possibilities for creating texture, that is, by applying different colours, then
rubbing some off again. He shows her a book on papier-mâché and recommends
that she visit “Paper Ya” on Granville Island for more ideas on texture. Yet
another student expresses interest in her dreams and the imagery in them. The
teacher tells her about the Surrealists. The teacher is very enthusiastic and the
students gradually become more focused. Thus, the classroom is divergent but
not chaotic. The teacher responds to totally different projects and ideas one after
another. He is a non-rigid, non-linear thinker, and the activity in the class reflects
this.
• He is absolutely unwilling to accept students who do not work, listen, think,
or try, or who do not respect dates and so on. However, as long as they are
working, he is not strict about the students’ behaviour. He teases them, for
example, asking one student where his donut is while she is obviously eating the
only one there. The students chat and laugh amiably. Students visit from other
classes. The students are free to be themselves. There is a unique quality to this
classroom: at once emotionally charged and socially relaxed.
What comes through these descriptions is a strong sense of the energy this
teacher generates. Art is taken seriously and students work hard on interesting
and challenging projects. They are highly motivated and value the work being

378 STUART RICHMOND
done. The calibre of students’ work attests to the teacher’s effectiveness. The
teacher is extremely knowledgeable and capable artistically, and responds inventively
to students’ questions and problems. He inspires students to do better
through the strength of his own commitment, the quality of the program, and his
own excitement. He is demanding of himself and of the students, but also gives
the students room to be themselves and to think creatively. This teacher is
imaginative, not in some remote, earth-shattering way, but in all manner of daily
occurrences that form real-life teaching. His ideas for projects, his witty
exchanges, his artistic and constructive suggestions to students, his own art work,
and his sense of the dynamic quality of art show a constant attempt to overcome
the prosaic.
5. What other qualities of classroom life are conducive to successful teaching
and learning?
A relaxed studio atmosphere generally prevails in the art classrooms. Teacher/
pupil relations are informal and teachers are supportive of experimentation and
risk-taking. This is obviously no accident. The open-ended nature of art requires
an unforced working situation. There is also a great deal of humour in all the
classes. But there is a serious attitude as well. All the researchers commented on
the influence of teacher personality on classroom atmosphere, teaching manner,
and teacher/student relations. Teaching is a very personal endeavour. Role expectations
and professional demands are filtered through a temperament. Gray
and MacGregor (1987), in their study of 32 art teachers in three Western
Canadian provinces, refer to art teaching as an “idiosyncratic activity” (p. 28).
6. What implications for teacher education follow from the case studies?
• Teachers need to be well-prepared in the subject of art as a discipline. The
implementation of a high school curriculum presupposes artistic knowledge and
skill.
• Teachers need planning strategies for program development and teaching. Art
teaching that encourages individual creativity requires organizational competence.
• Good teachers operate on the basis of their own refined beliefs about the
purposes and value of art and art education, and the developmental needs of their
students. Pre-service art teachers should receive instruction in the philosophical
foundations of art and education. The purpose of this work should not be to
instill specific beliefs or to suggest that there is one received conception of art
education, but to provide opportunity for discussion and informed critical
reflection. It is here that student teachers are invited to enter into a conversation
that will continue throughout their professional lives. There is no finite answer
to questions concerning the value of art but it is possible to refine the difficulties
and to suggest possibilities for consideration given prevailing circumstances.

ART, IMAGINATION, AND TEACHING 379
• Good teachers see their jobs as filled with uncertain, diverse, particular, and
unpredictable elements. This complexity should not be bemoaned as confounding
instructional generalities; instead, it should be seen as a welcome sign of the
individual, creative nature of art teaching. Teacher education programs should
challenge students to extemporize, form their own judgements, and work through
planning and teaching problems that are open-ended enough to provoke unique
approaches. This work could be undertaken individually and in groups, on campus,
to minimize fears of professional failure. For instance, student teachers at
Simon Fraser University are asked to select a topic of local or broader social
significance and interpret it expressively through the media of music, art, drama,
and dance (Richmond, Scarr, & McLeod, 1993). In the process, the students use
a double-entry journal to record their responses, as students, to the experience.
For example, “What were the pluses and minuses of working collaboratively in
the arts?” They also record their impressions from a teaching perspective, as they
are asked to teach small segments of the project to their peers. Later, in debriefing
sessions, students teachers and instructors supportively examine what went
well, what went wrong, what could be improved, and so on. Importantly, however,
students are required to make choices and to develop imaginative ways of
planning and teaching.
CONCLUSION
Good art teaching is imaginative. This is not, perhaps, so very novel a proposition,
but one needing to be justified and shown empirically, given the bias
toward science, craving for generality, and absence of imagination in most
research studies on teaching. Imaginative art teachers develop (make and match)
unusual, motivating, and effective learning opportunities to suit their own
circumstances, are artistically skilful and knowledgeable, have a strong sense of
purpose, are flexible, and invite experimentation in an open, relaxed studio
environment. They aim to strike a balance between the rules of art and the students’
creative and interpretive freedom. In practice, the good art teacher is a
model of art.
REFERENCES
Barrow, R. (1990). Understanding skills: Thinking, feeling, and caring. London: Althouse Press.
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (1983). Secondary art guide 8–12: Curriculum guide and
content resources. Victoria: Province of British Columbia.
Egan, K. (1988). The analytic and the arbitrary. Canadian Journal of Education, 13, 69–82.
Egan, K. (1992). Imagination in teaching and learning: The middle school years. London, ON:
Althouse Press.
Egan, K., & Nadaner, D. (1988). Imagination and education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Eisner, E. W. (1983). The art and craft of teaching. Educational Leadership, 40(4), 5–13.

380 STUART RICHMOND
Eisner, E. W. (1985). The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of school programs
(2nd ed.). New York: Macmillan.
Eisner, E. W. (1991). The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational
practice. New York: Macmillan.
Eisner, E. W. (Undated). The role of discipline-based art education in America’s schools (pamphlet).
Los Angeles: Getty Center for Education in the Arts.
Erickson, F. (1986). Qualitative methods in research on teaching. In M. C. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook
of research on teaching (3rd ed.; pp. 119–161). New York: Macmillan.
Gombrich, E. (1969). Art and illusion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Gray, J. U., & MacGregor, R. N. (1987). Proacta: Personally relevant observations about art concepts
and teaching activities. Canadian Review of Art Education: Research and Issues, 14, 21–33.
Greene, M. (1970). Imagination. In R. A. Smith (Ed.), Aesthetic concepts and education (pp. 303–
327). Urbana: University of Illinois Press
Hawley, W. D., Rosenholtz, S. J., Goodstein, H., & Hasselbring, T. (1984). Effective teaching.
Peabody Journal of Education, 61(4), 15–52.
Kant, I. (1952). Critique of judgement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Original work published 1790)
Lawrence, D. H. (1988). Introduction to these paintings. In J. D. McClatchy (Ed.), Poets on painters:
Essays on the art of painting by Twentieth-Century poets (pp. 45–79). Berkeley: University of
California Press. (Original work published 1929)
Murdoch, I. (1970). The sovereignty of good. London: Ark Paperbacks.
O’Neill, P. G. (1988). Teaching effectiveness: A review of the research. Canadian Journal of
Education, 13, 162–185.
Porter, A. C., & Brophy, J. (1988). Synthesis of research on good teaching: Insights from the work
of the Institute for Research on Teaching. Educational Leadership, 45, 74–85.
Richmond, S. (1991). Three assumptions that influence art education: A description and a critique.
Journal of Aesthetic Education, 25(2), 1–15.
Richmond, S. (1992). Historicism, teaching, and the understanding of works of art. Visual Arts
Research 16(1), 32–41.
Richmond, S., Scarr, M., & Mcleod, D. (1993). Integrating the arts in teacher education: A practical
approach. Canadian Review of Art Education: Research and Issues, 20(1), 30–53.
Smith, M. L. (1987). Publishing qualitative research. American Educational Research Journal, 24(2),
53–67.
Smith, R. A., & Levi, A. W. (1991). Art education: A critical necessity. Urbana: University of Illinois
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Sparshott, F. (1991). Imagination — the very idea. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 48, 1–8.
Swanger, D. (1990). Essays in aesthetic education. San Francisco: Mellen Research University Press.
Westbury, M. (1988). The science and art of teacher effectiveness: An examination of two research
traditions. Canadian Journal of Education, 13, 139–161.
Stuart Richmond is in the Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia,
V5A 1S6.

From the Dollhouse to the Schoolhouse:
The Changing Experience of Women
Principals in British Columbia, 1980 to 1990
Yvonne Tabin
Peter Coleman
simon fraser university
This study sought to determine if and how the experiences of recently appointed women
principals differ from those of earlier appointees in the Lower Mainland of British
Columbia. Interviews revealed both differences and similarities. Although recent women
principals continue to face sex-role stereotyping from outsiders, they are now accepted
and supported by their male peers. They demonstrate greater career initiative than their
earlier counterparts and have a wider range of experience in both teaching and administration.
Both groups are well-educated, expert teachers. They focus on learning for
themselves, developing collegial relationships with teachers and caring relationships with
children, who are their priority. They are career-oriented women whether mothers and
wives or not. They perceive themselves as women principals whose leadership is
characterized by their gender and accentuated by their feminine qualities. They are
redefining the world of educational administration to include the woman’s voice.
La recherche menée par les auteurs visait à déterminer si les expériences de directrices
d’école nommées récemment diffèrent de celles de directrices nommées antérieurement
dans le Lower Mainland de la Colombie-Britannique. Des entrevues ont permis de révéler
à la fois des différences et des similitudes. Bien que les directrices en poste depuis plus
récemment continuent à faire face à des stéréotypes reliés au sexe et au rôle de la part de
personnes extérieures, elles sont maintenant acceptées et appuyées par leurs pairs de sexe
masculin. Elles font preuve d’une plus grande initiative vis-à-vis de leur carrière que
leurs homologues précédentes et ont une plus vaste expérience de l’enseignement et de
l’administration. Les deux groupes sont constitués d’enseignantes chevronnées. Ces
dernières mettent l’accent sur l’auto-apprentissage et l’établissement de relations
collégiales avec les enseignants et de liens chaleureux avec les enfants, qui sont leur
priorité. Il s’agit de femmes pour qui la carrière revêt une grande importance, qu’elles
soient ou non mères ou épouses. Elles se perçoivent comme des femmes dont le
leadership est caractérisé par leur sexe et accentué par leurs qualités féminines. Elles sont
en train de redéfinir le monde de l’administration scolaire afin de donner aux femmes
une voix au chapitre.
Despite the recruitment of educational administrators almost exclusively from
the professional ranks of teaching, where women are in the majority, there are
still relatively few female administrators. In 1990/91, 60% of all elementary and
381 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

382 YVONNE TABIN & PETER COLEMAN
secondary school teachers were women; 72% of all administrative positions
(principal, vice-principal, department head) were occupied by men. Also, 29%
of men, but only 6% of women, teachers in elementary and secondary schools
were administrators (Statistics Canada, 1992). The percentage of women administrators
has nearly doubled in the last ten years, but there are still large and
seemingly inexplicable differences in representation.
One explanation for the scarcity of women in school administration is that
men make better principals. But early studies on women in administration (see
Fishel & Pottker 1973, 1979; Frasher & Frasher 1979; Meskin 1974, 1979)
showed that women were slightly better elementary school principals than men.
These studies have been discounted for methods of research that were “of doubtful
quality” (Charters & Jovick, 1981, p. 307) and an androcentric bias that
measured women against male standards (Shakeshaft, 1987, p. 162). Notwithstanding
these empirical studies, male administrative superiority seems an untenable
position.
Other putative explanations include the presence of male bias among those
responsible for appointing principals, or the unattractiveness of the job itself to
women. Surveys of central office administrators and school board members have
indeed shown that they tend to hold attitudes more favourable to men than
women in administration (Adkison, 1981; Stockard, 1980; Taylor, 1977). Despite
equal opportunity legislation, unfavourable attitudes continue to affect the
appointment of women to administrative positions (Porat, 1985; Shakeshaft,
1986), particularly to advanced “line” positions (Fishel & Pottker, 1979;
Schmuck & Wyant, 1981; Stockard, 1980). Teaching has traditionally provided
an entry into administrative careers primarily for men, who have an “up or out”
orientation (Adkison, 1981) representing a definition of career that includes
commitment demonstrated by lack of interruptions (Biklen, 1986). Women do
not always define career and success this way and consequently do not see
administration as a logical career step up from the classroom (Biklen, 1986;
Carlson & Schmuck, 1981; Stockard, 1980). They desire leadership roles in education,
but they do not see such roles as necessarily administrative (Shakeshaft,
1986; Stockard, 1980). And because the teaching profession does enable women
to move in and out easily as their life circumstances change, and the decision to
parent at home continues primarily to affect the careers of women, senior
administrators have assumed that women are less committed to their careers than
are men, and less concerned with upward mobility (Biklen, 1986).
Another explanation involves women’s lack of access to informal processes
socializing individuals toward administration. Sponsorship is particularly important
for aspirants to administrative posts (Ortiz & Marshall, 1988), and women
have traditionally had difficulty obtaining sponsorship from men (Ortiz, 1982).
This has been compounded by the small number of female role models for women,
from which sponsors might be drawn (Carlson & Schmuck, 1981; Tibbets,
1979). Thus, anticipatory socialization (Adkison, 1981), in which “the individual

WOMEN PRINCIPALS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 383
becomes oriented toward a new status before occupying it” (p. 332), is less likely
to occur for women. Consequent uncertainty about leadership expectations has
prevented many women from formally applying for leadership positions (Adkison,
1981; Tibbets, 1979).
During the 1970s, however, women’s participation in graduate education programs
increased dramatically. Doctoral programs in educational administration
in the United States reported that over 50% of students in the 1980s were women
(Shakeshaft, 1987). The greater numbers of women qualifying for administrative
positions indicate that they do aspire to leadership (Adkison, 1981; Fauth,
1984; Shakeshaft, 1987). Recent increases in the number of women assuming
principalships in schools in British Columbia confirm that here too they aspire
to leadership, and suggest also that conditions in the administrative world, and
hence the experiences of women appointees to the principalship, may have
changed.
METHOD
Research in educational administration has often eliminated or ignored the
female experience and point of view. Shakeshaft (1987) accounts for this by
explaining that “The funding of research, the objects of study, the use of
research have to date been dominated by white males. Not unexpectedly, they
have forged forms of thought within an all-male world” (p. 150). Ultimately this
has led to the creation of an essentially male conception of the principalship. But
now, Biklen et al. (1983) argue,
intellectually, we are taking leaps in the sociology of knowledge beyond a view of the
world where “man is the measure.” We are therefore confronted with the task of putting
together a way of looking at the world, of reconceptualizing knowledge, so that all lives
count. (p. 14)
Understanding the situations of female principals from their perspective is
necessary to help develop a greater understanding of the nature of the principalship.
Our study was intended to contribute to this understanding by examining
an important research question: “How do the experiences of recent women appointees
to administration differ from those of earlier appointees?”
Data Collection
Our study required two cohorts of women administrators composed of both new
and experienced principals. We defined “recent” as those appointed to the principalship
in September 1987 or later, “earlier” as those appointed to the principalship
in September 1982 or before. Thus, recent appointees had a maximum of
two-and-a-half years’ experience in the principalship, and earlier appointees a
minimum of eight years at the time of the study. Since very few high school

384 YVONNE TABIN & PETER COLEMAN
principalships in British Columbia are held by women, we limited our study to
principals at the elementary school level.
The 17 principals interviewed held positions in seven different school districts
in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, all within a 90-minute drive from
Vancouver. The recent appointees administered schools varying in enrolment
from 100 to 340 students. Three of these principals were each responsible for
two schools, with the largest combined enrolment being 356 students. The
earlier appointees administered schools varying in enrolment from 100 to 650
students. One principal was responsible for two schools with a combined enrolment
of 530 students. Each group included urban, suburban, and rural schools.
Given the relative paucity of descriptive Canadian research in this area, openended
interviews were considered the most appropriate means of eliciting from
women principals information about their careers. We formulated a series of
interview questions on: the nature of elementary, high school, and university
education; types of teaching and administrative experience; formation of the
decision to aspire to administration; impact of non-professional life on career;
appointment to the principalship; effect of gender on career; influence and support
from others; allocation of time between various responsibilities; individual
sense of the principal’s job; frustrations and satisfactions with the principalship;
feelings about their work within the school; regrets about career; advice to prospective
women principals; and career goals and aspirations.
Interviews lasted from one to one-and-a-half hours and were tape-recorded
and later transcribed. Respondents were asked to clarify and elaborate where
necessary, and to give specific examples, especially where their first responses
were minimal.
Data Analysis
Miles and Huberman (1984) state that “form follows function. Formats must
always be driven by the research question(s) involved, and their associated
codes” (p. 80). We analyzed the data collected from the 17 principals with this
in mind. Miles and Huberman affirm that “induction and deduction are dialectical,
rather than mutually exclusive research procedures” (p. 134). Our analysis
of data began deductively, with the establishment of some beginning codes
based on the questions, and then was completed inductively, in response to
emerging data.
RESULTS
We report results in four major emergent categories: Developmental Experiences;
Career Development; Administrative Beliefs and Practices; and Assessing
the Experience. In each category data are presented by contrasting recent with
earlier appointees, and quotations illustrate one group or the other.

WOMEN PRINCIPALS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 385
Developmental Experiences
When discussing their decision to become teachers, all earlier appointees except
one revealed that they either always knew they would be a teacher or knew at
least from elementary or high school. Almost all reported there were not many
choices available: teaching, nursing, and perhaps dietetics or secretarial work.
Several women recounted having thought about other careers, but said their decisions
were affected not only by the social limitations related to gender, but by
their inability to finance a long degree. “If the truth was known,” confided one
experienced principal, “I probably always wanted to be a doctor. And at that
time there wasn’t the encouragement or the money to do that.”
In contrast, only a few recent appointees reported always having known, or
having decided early on, that they would be teachers. They maintained that helping
others learn and enjoying children motivated them to choose teaching.
All these women, by their account, chose their careers freely and are happy.
Constrained choice, however, is more characteristic of the earlier group. Recent
appointees seem to have chosen to become teachers because they wanted to
teach and help children, whereas earlier appointees saw teaching as the only
option or the most appealing of the limited choices available to them: women
not wanting to nurse became teachers by default.
At the time of the study all the recent appointees (nine principals in total)
were either enrolled in or had completed Master’s degree programs. Five of the
eight earlier appointees had Master’s degrees and two had two each. The group
of recent appointees had slightly more formal training than the earlier appointees.
(Recent male appointees are likely equally well qualified, given current
district expectations.) Several earlier appointees, however, also fit in this extraqualified
category: these women had to be very well certified to obtain their
positions as administrators (Adkison, 1981; Fauth, 1984; Shakeshaft, 1987;
Yeakey, Johnston, & Adkison, 1986).
Most of the women we interviewed (12 of 17) studied part-time to complete
their degrees, while they worked full-time or part-time, and had young children
at home. In 14 cases the Master’s degrees were also completed through parttime
study, most often, once again, while working full- or part-time with children
at home. Like the principals in Edson’s (1988) study, these women were
determined to further their education, and exhibited much tenacity in doing so.
Career Development
Most recent appointees interviewed have quite a broad range of teaching experience.
Four were appointed to the principalship after approximately 12 professional
years (excluding time out to study or to care for children). The rest were
appointed to the principalship after 15 to 22 years. The youngest became a principal
at 34 years of age. Most were older.

386 YVONNE TABIN & PETER COLEMAN
In speaking of their careers all recent appointees revealed a personal focus on
learning — from other teachers, from principals, from the variety of positions
they held. These women also sought out new experience. One principal said that
when she applied for a head teachership, “what I was looking for was another
challenge,” a motivation expressed by most principals in this group. These
principals also chose professional development carefully, as another means of
learning more.
Almost all recent appointees reported becoming known in their districts
because of their teaching, and their activities and leadership at the school and
district levels. They were noticed by supervisors and their attention-getting
(GASing: getting the attention of superiors, cited in Ortiz, 1982; Ortiz &
Marshall, 1988; Wolcott, 1973) was active and deliberate: “I personally was
hired because I covered every base that I had to to become a principal. And I
have to tell you that I did that as a strategy.” About half the recent appointees
said administration was not originally a career goal, but they were bored and
needed a change. The decision to try administration came gradually as they
taught. Among these women there was no doubt about whether they could do
the job, but, rather, a sense of determining ahead of time what they wanted to
do in the job: “the principal as an agent of change,” “the best way to implement
my philosophy.” They did not need encouragement from or prodding by others.
Mentorship, however — strong, supportive guidance, and active help in
developing leadership skills and solidifying philosophy — was important for most
recent appointees. This mentorship was usually provided by principals, all male:
“The principal that I called my mentor was strongly supportive in terms of being
very vocal about me in the district, really selling me ...suggesting that I take
on certain tasks. So he was very active in guiding me.”
Most earlier appointees also have a fairly broad range of teaching experience.
At the time of interview, all had been in education for at least 25 years. These
appointees also revealed a focus on learning, but not on “seeking out.” They
rarely mentioned asking for or choosing new assignments, or looking for challenges
in new positions.
About half the earlier appointees reported that administration was not originally
their career goal. They say they were encouraged by others — husband, principals,
district office personnel, colleagues — and recounted being asked to apply
for administrative postings, especially their first. Of her former principal, one
experienced administrator recounted:
He brought the posting to me one day in early June and waved it under my nose and
said, “Here’s a posting you might be interested in.” And I just laughed and said, “Well,
that’s very flattering of you to say that, but, you know, I’m not trained to be a principal.”
And he said, “Well, you certainly have the skills. I think you should apply.”

WOMEN PRINCIPALS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 387
Her husband supported her principal: “Well, why don’t you, then? You could do
it.” Only three principals in the “earlier” group mention mentorship; for two of
them it was provided by other women.
Earlier appointees are as interested in learning and growth as recent appointees,
but their responses to this interest were generally more passive. Recent
appointees definitely contemplated the activities they were to become involved
in and chose this involvement carefully and deliberately. Earlier appointees were
not as openly aggressive about looking for and obtaining positions. Most earlier
appointees had never seen a woman principal, or had seen women systematically
removed from the principalship (Shakeshaft, 1987). They therefore could not
imagine the job being done by women. Ortiz (1982) notes that women have
often been censured for revealing administrative aspirations. Earlier appointees
felt pressure to be self-deprecating and were reluctant to be seen as ambitious,
thus laughing at the suggestion that they become principals. Sex-role stereotyping
seems important here. Most recent appointees, by contrast, appeared to have
been much less influenced by stereotypical constraints on women’s career
behaviour.
Concerning support for aspiring women principals, few earlier appointees had
mentorship; if they sought it they could not obtain it (Ortiz, 1982). Recent
appointees did not seek mentorship either, but it was provided to them by their
male principals. This represents a substantial change in inter-gender social
relations. Earlier appointees who were not explicit about their career goals may
not have received support for this reason; additionally, they were beginning to
tread unfamiliar paths for women, paths less socially acceptable (Adkison, 1981;
Shakeshaft, 1987).
Once having become principals, however, earlier appointees networked extensively,
especially with other women principals. Like Edson’s (1988) principals,
these women spoke gratefully of the support they received from others as they
undertook new careers. Often they met formally in a group when numbers were
small; meetings ceased when more women administrators were hired in their
districts. In this case networking was clearly a function of numbers; formal
gatherings provided an opportunity for underrepresented women to encourage
and support one another and helped offset the negative feelings associated with
being tokens (Adkison, 1981; Kanter, 1977; Ortiz, 1982).
Recent appointees we interviewed do not network specifically with other
women; because of the greater numbers of women principals, they do not have
to make a special effort to develop support, as did earlier appointees. At the
same time, recent appointees did not mention exclusion from the old-boys’ network.
One might assume that entry into this group is open to them. On the other
hand, the old-boys’ network may still be exclusionary, with recent appointees
simply not acknowledging this exclusion. A third scenario is also possible:
recent women appointees may be choosing to chart their own course alone, establishing
their own individual priorities and styles as principals.

388 YVONNE TABIN & PETER COLEMAN
As a possible consequence of their experience-seeking activities, recent
appointees have come to the principalship with far more non-school, adultoriented,
supervisory experience than earlier appointees. The specialization roles
of these women, either at the school level as learning assistance teachers or at
the district office as helping or resource teachers, are unsurprising, as women
have traditionally and still hold these specialty positions (Ortiz, 1982).
Perhaps as a result, they do not appear to be coming to the principalship any
younger than the earlier principal group. If women have traditionally become
principals later than men (Ortiz, 1982; Prolman, 1982), which was true for the
earlier appointee group, then recent appointees are becoming principals even
later. Because of time out with children some of these new principals may not
have as many years in total teaching time as their counterparts without children,
but their careers are as long. By interrupting their careers to bear and raise
children, all these principals match the “in and out” orientation Biklen (1986)
described, but they are at the same time very strongly career-oriented. Importantly,
the careers of these women principals with children do not differ significantly
from those of the women principals without. Children are often thought to delay
and/or permanently limit a woman’s chances for career advancement; our sample
does not show this effect.
In mentioning boredom in the classroom and the lack of opportunities for
leadership in school (Biklen, 1986), these women suggested their need for more
challenges that others who perceive teaching as a satisfactory career do not
necessarily seek (McLaughlin & Yee, 1988). Such women may be a special
strain of teacher who become principals because there is nothing else to do. But
developing what one principal terms the “assumption that one is administrative
material,” an orientation to administration based on knowledge and confidence
in one’s abilities, and at the same time a clear idea about what one hopes to
accomplish as a principal, is new for women aspirants.
Administrative Style
Almost all principals demonstrate a strong sense of personal priorities and can
articulate lists of school goals that apply to teachers, students, and curriculum
development.
Among the earlier appointees, however, two principals did not show this clear
sense of priorities. These are the oldest of the entire group and have taught and
administered the longest. Both these principals have always chosen to continue
to teach while principaling; they measure their successes as teachers rather than
as principals. It is possible that the experience and age of these two women
leads them to speak less confidently or to articulate their vision and priorities
less clearly. Neither had expected they would become principals nor had had
confidence that they could. These two older principals are particularly important
cases in showing change over time in women’s perceptions of their work in

WOMEN PRINCIPALS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 389
education. Corwin argued in 1970 that teaching and school administration were
two separate careers. Subsequent developments in unionization in the United
States and in British Columbia have made this separation even more clear. The
women who appear most comfortable in their roles perceive themselves clearly
to be principals, first, and demonstrate strong priorities and vision. The sense of
oneself as principal is perhaps developing more quickly and strongly among
current aspirants.
A number of recent appointees mentioned a positive relationship with children
as an aspect of their administrative style, and described their relationship with
staff as one of support and encouragement, facilitating rather than directing. “My
decision to go into administration was based more on working with teachers in
workshop situations rather than in a manager/employee kind of relationship,”
explained one principal; “I enjoy being able to facilitate a group of adults in a
direction that we all want to go.” Most recent appointees also described their
approach as people-oriented, open-door, warm, humanistic, caring, emotional,
intuitive, and reflective. Earlier appointees also focus on a positive relationship
with children. They too boasted of a supportive, encouraging relationship with
staff. But only two spoke of the caring, personal aspect of being a principal,
which is quite strong among recent appointees.
In describing their administrative styles, recent appointees’ emphasis on what
might traditionally be called the feminine stands out. These women spoke of the
special skills and characteristics of women as principals: empathy, intuition,
emotion, nurturing, cooperation, and understanding. “I think the new women
administrators are more democratic, are more willing to go to the staff and say
‘Let’s make this decision together,’” stated one new principal. Earlier appointees,
on the other hand, did not describe their administrative styles in feminine
terms. But they seem to have come to the same conclusions recent appointees
held right from the start: that one does not have to be a man to be a good principal,
that a good woman makes a good or even better principal.
Assessing the Experience
Recent appointees did not report the effects of tokenism, exclusion, discrimination,
or harassment and criticism from men. Each is among an increasing number
of women administrators in their school district. Neither did they speak of
limited options, and only one mentioned another preferred career.
For these women, however, sex-role stereotyping from the outside persists.
One principal related a typical story:
In dealing with parents, especially early in my career, it was very difficult for some of
them to believe that a female would have any position of authority. ...Andeven this
year people come and say “I’d like to see the principal” and are sort of taken aback that
it’s a woman.

390 YVONNE TABIN & PETER COLEMAN
In addition, these recent appointees still have to work harder than the men to
prove to others that they merit their positions.
Almost all recent appointees cited the effects of affirmative action. “I think in
some ways it helped to be a woman,” stated one principal; “it’s very seldom that
I’ve found that being a woman has worked against me.” But there is uneasiness
about hiring on this basis. One principal spoke forthrightly:
In our school district this last year I believe there were seven administrative positions and
six of them went to women because the district felt that the time was right for women to
get these positions and I don’t like that at all. I think that that’s a real insult.
At the same time several cited resistance to affirmative action. One recent
appointee applied for a principalship several times in her former district. One of
her friends suggested to her that, “it’s because I’m a woman that I did not get
anything, because we’re in the backlash.” Although affirmative action may,
initially, raise awareness of imbalances (based on race, gender, or other distinctions),
it rapidly becomes insulting to those for whom it has been established,
and sometimes provokes negative responses.
All earlier appointees reported on the effects of tokenism, exclusion, discrimination,
chauvinism, and harassment from male colleagues. When she was
appointed, said one principal, “most of the women who were applying for jobs
at that time had their Master’s programs. And very few of the men did. They
were playing the old-boy network.” There was an absence of career-building
direction from men. Even after they had become principals, these women reported,
their male colleagues reacted negatively to their activities and leadership:
“When I was at [my first school], the school was sometimes referred to as the
‘dollhouse.’” These women encountered much sex-role stereotyping and fought
a double standard regarding their conduct. Personal traits and actions that would
have been accepted quite calmly in men were criticized in them. As the only, or
one of the first few, woman administrators in their districts, they were watched
carefully:
I think I have to do better because I always think people want me to fall on my face.
They want it to say, “Oh, it’s just that woman. She’s crazy.” And so I have to make sure
that message doesn’t get out.
Two earlier appointees mentioned that the time was right for them, as women
were beginning to obtain principalships. One principal spoke positively about the
fairness of her district’s hiring practices: “I think that the applications were
considered by merit and they sort of went over backwards to be fair to the men
when women started to produce better resumés than the men did.”
Earlier appointees recognize that women were usually not hired as administrators
at the time when they became principals and often this, as well others’
perception of affirmative action, intensified their resolve to become principals:

WOMEN PRINCIPALS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 391
When I went in to be interviewed [as a principal for the first time] I was waiting with a
fellow and I could tell that he was surprised that I was there. He was next in. When the
fellow that was in the room at that time came out he looked at me and he said, “Oh,
you’ll probably get this because you’re a woman.” And, you know, I can remember
thinking, “You’re damn right I’ll get it.” It seemed like he made me so determined where
I don’t think I was that determined before.
Despite their often negative experiences these women did not perceive themselves
to have been subject to discrimination.
By far the largest non-professional influence on these women’s careers is
their family. Although they laugh and exclaim about how difficult it is to
manage a career and family, they do not seem particularly overwhelmed by all
they are doing. Two earlier appointees did mention “not being able to do it all.”
Despite this, all the women with children, particularly the recent appointees with
younger children, do appear to be doing it all. Given that many of these women
worked when their children were small, surprisingly few mentioned concern over
childcare.
Their hearts are not at home — at least not between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
Monday to Friday. To say this is not to deny these women’s feelings for their
children. It is their careers and lifestyles, rather than their feelings, that do not
conform to the traditional view of motherhood. To the outside observer, these
women, who make time stretch to fit their needs, are exceptional.
For both new and experienced principals the most satisfying aspect of their
job concerns children and teachers. Satisfaction comes from seeing pleasing and
rewarding results before one’s eyes, that is, student and teacher success, and not
from pay cheques, status, or praise from superiors. Most of these women said
they enjoy their jobs and look forward to coming to work each day. They find
their work challenging and meaningful. Stated one principal: “I like being an
administrator. I’m never bored. I don’t have time to be bored and I am grateful
for that. I really like my job.”
Recent appointees feel very lucky. They have enjoyed everything they have
done and they feel rewarded and gratified. They are, however, concerned about
decreasing contact with children as they move further and further away from the
classroom. Said one principal:
People tease and they say, “So, assistant superintendent,” and I think there’s a desperate
need for assistant superintendents to be women, but I’m not sure that’s what I want. The
frustration I feel in this job is the not immediate contact with children.
When asked to discuss job satisfaction, none of the earlier appointees expressed
concern about decreased contact with children in the principalship and only
one earlier appointee spoke of feeling lucky.
It is ironic that the women who have been much more deliberate and instrumental
in developing their careers and aiming for the principalship cite luck so

392 YVONNE TABIN & PETER COLEMAN
often. Hard work, dedication, and careful choices seem to have been much more
important to their career success than luck. And the group of women who more
often found themselves in promising situations accidentally, without having used
much deliberate control, do not mention luck. From the perspective of these
earlier appointees, however, getting to the principalship may not have been a
matter of luck at all, but, rather, a course requiring much hard work and perseverance
given the difficulties and obstacles before them. Perhaps when new
women principals compare themselves to earlier appointees, they feel particularly
lucky, as women, to have achieved what they have more easily.
All recent appointees are, not surprisingly, interested in expanding on their
experience as principals. About half would like to pursue their administrative
careers at the district level as directors in curriculum development, professional
development, or special education, and the other half aspire to the superintendency.
Interestingly, not one of these women independently mentioned becoming
superintendent. Asked directly if she would be interested, one new principal
confided, “I was going to say [superintendent], but I thought, no, assistant
superintendent.”
Over half the earlier appointees plan to remain a principal with possibly one
last principalship at a different school before retirement. Several mentioned
directorships or district principalships and hope to move on in this direction
from their schools. Three earlier appointees mentioned specifically not having
had a desire to be a superintendent and one revealed that she had thought about
it early in her career but had given up on it a long time ago because of family
responsibilities.
It is interesting that no earlier appointees mentioned an interest in the superintendency
even though some are still of an age to aspire to that position. Prior
expectation and sex-role socialization may be important here. These women did
not aspire to the principalship until well into their careers, having seen very few
women principals. And aspiring to the superintendency might, in their eyes, have
been ludicrous, and certainly beyond reach. The higher aspirations of the recent
appointees are understandable within the context of their professional, social, and
cultural experience, and realistic given their prior expectation and career orientation.
When asked to give advice to prospective women principals both earlier and
recent appointees offered much, freely. Earlier appointees advise women to be
prepared to do anything the job entails. These principals advise women not to
try to compete with men, but to deal with male colleagues on an intellectual
level, and not to feel that as women they’re less able. They encourage women
to work differently and to eschew traditional male models:
I think that the most important thing is to be yourself and don’t be afraid to be a woman.
You don’t have to outman the men. You don’t have to be hard and tough and so on. You
can still be feminine.

WOMEN PRINCIPALS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 393
Another experienced principal advises female candidates to “look at what we are
as women and bring it to the job rather than try to compete with men. Don’t go
for the traditional male model. You don’t have to do it that way.” Earlier
appointees encourage capable women to consider the principalship and to go for
it if they want it: “Don’t be ashamed of ambition because I think some women
are...there’s nothing wrong with it.”
Recent appointees gave much specific advice concerning traditional feminine
attributes: be caring, be personal, be supportive, be compassionate. Both groups
contribute to the impression of a new and developing role for women in the
principalship.
SUMMARY
Although the experiences of individual women within these groups vary, we
have developed composite sketches that show the sharp contrasts between the
groups.
The Earlier Principal
The earlier appointee enjoyed school and performed well. She always knew she
would be a teacher because, for the most part, there were few choices open to
her as a woman. She began teaching young, with no expectation of becoming a
principal. Along the way she married and had several children, staying at home
full-time for a year or two when they were born, returning to work part-time
quickly, and then full-time by the time her children were four or five years old.
As a teacher she did not independently seek new assignments. She received
unsought attention as a by-product of good teaching. She was asked to apply for
her first administrative position and encouraged to move in that direction. She
thought she could do the job as well as other principals she had seen, was
intrigued by the new challenge and so became a principal after more than 15
years as a teacher. She was the best candidate, hired not because of affirmative
action, but at a time when women were just beginning to join administrative
ranks in greater numbers. Part of her motivation included boredom with the
classroom role.
Along the way to becoming a principal she received no pre-administrative
mentoring. While a principal, she completed a Master’s degree in education,
part-time while working. She began her administrative career in a small school
and is now in her third school. As a principal, her top priority is children. Other
major priorities are working through teachers to best teach and accommodate
children, and ethos building.
During her career, the earlier appointee suffered many negative consequences
of being a woman. She received little career-building support, and was excluded
from the old-boys’ network. She had to contend with male colleagues’ negative

394 YVONNE TABIN & PETER COLEMAN
reactions to her and with harassment by them. She had to work harder to become
a principal and had to continue prove herself once there. She felt a
responsibility to do well for the sake of those women coming up behind her.
Along the way, she began to perceive that women often do things differently.
She decided not to compete with men, but rather to be a principal in her own
individual non-male way.
The earlier appointee enjoys her job and especially likes working with good
teachers. She feels rewarded and gratified, and has no regrets about her career.
She often found the demands of family, husband, career, and studies difficult
and pressing, but not daunting. A preference not to lose contact with children,
as well as family responsibilities prevented her from seriously considering the
superintendency.
The Recent Principal
The recent appointee also liked school and performed well. She made the decision
to become a teacher freely, not because of limited options. She liked
working with children and wanted to teach others. She was also fairly young as
a new teacher. The idea of being an administrator occurred to her, and grew,
while she taught.
She sought variety in her teaching, at a number of levels. She has always had
a focus on learning and constantly sought new experience and new assignments.
She became known in her district for her teaching and also for school and
district leadership. She took on extra responsibilities for more challenge. Unlike
the earlier appointee, she deliberately managed her career to enhance promotability.
She was bored in the classroom and needed a new challenge. She knew she
could be a good principal and knew what to do to get there. She took the initiative
to apply for an administrative posting.
The recent principal was appointed, she believes, because of her good track
record as a teacher, because she was well-qualified with a specialty area, and
also because of affirmative action. Along the way the recent appointee was also
mentored by the male principal with whom she worked as a vice-principal. His
support, which was provided and not sought, was active and guiding.
As a principal her top priority is that children learn. Developing the school as
a warm, comfortable, safe place for children — building climate — is also important.
And working with teachers, facilitating and acting as an instructional
leader, is also at the top of her list of priorities.
Because the recent appointee is now among a number of women administrators
in her district, she does not suffer the effects of tokenism. But sex-role
stereotyping from others continues, as do the double standard and behavioral
stereotyping for women principals. She believes, however, that the feminine
characteristics she accentuates in her everyday work — understanding, warmth,
empathy, nurturing — are a hallmark of women’s administrative style.

WOMEN PRINCIPALS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 395
The recent appointee loves her job and is happy to work with good teachers.
She feels very lucky, and has no regrets about her career. She wants to gain
more experience as a principal, then plans for a position at the district office,
either a directorship or the superintendency. She advises administrative aspirants
to gain credibility as teachers, and, before they become principals, to sort out
their beliefs and philosophy and to develop a vision of what they wish to accomplish.
She believes they should use their unique characteristics as women to best
advantage to simply be good women principals.
CONCLUSION
The differences we found between the careers of recent and earlier women
appointees to the principalship demonstrate significant changes over the last few
years in the social context and work of women principals in elementary schools.
Although the recent women principals we interviewed may still have to prove
themselves to outsiders, and still do face sex-role stereotyping from society as
well, they are now at least accepted and supported by their male peers, unlike
earlier appointees. New women principals also demonstrate greater career initiative
than their earlier counterparts and are more active in their planning and pursuit
of career goals; they show much less false modesty about their attainments
and prospects. They also have a greater range of experience in both teaching and
administrative areas and, aspiring to district management as they all do, their
upward career orientation is greater than that of earlier appointees.
The differences summarized above reflect growth and change in educational
administration. Earlier female appointees were not accepted as equals by the
male majority of principals with whom they worked. They remained on the outside
and chose to do so because they were not male principals and realized that,
despite effort, they could never become a natural part of the group. In proceeding
to be themselves and following their own individual paths they realized that
they were different. They found their own voices, their voices as women.
Recent women appointees also perceive themselves as different. They have
gone one step further, however, accentuating and highlighting the feminine character
of their leadership. To apply Carol Gilligan’s (1982) phrase, these women
speak collectively as principals “in a different voice.” What they clearly articulate
as theirs is a leadership stamped by the fact that they are women. In their
commentary on their lives, their experiences, and their goals these women,
whether feminist or not, individually have articulated distinctive values and are
beginning to reshape the world of educational administration to include the
woman’s voice.
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Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6.

Exploring Men’s Experiences as
Elementary School Teachers
Rebecca Priegert Coulter
Margaret McNay
university of western ontario
Seven men, beginning their careers as elementary school teachers, talked with us in individual
and group interviews about their experiences as men working with young children.
We identify various issues these men confronted as they attempted to create for themselves
a place in a work world traditionally thought more suited to women. Reflecting on
their comments and stories, we discuss assumptions and stereotypes about men in nontraditional
occupations, and consider whether men have a unique contribution to make to
teaching in elementary schools. We conclude that the call for “more men in elementary”
oversimplifies complex issues and leaves unexamined the political nature of that call.
Dans le cadre d’entrevues individuelles et en groupe, sept hommes au début de leur
carrière d’enseignant au primaire ont parlé avec les auteures de leurs expériences en tant
qu’hommes travaillant auprès de jeunes enfants. Les auteures identifient les divers
problèmes auxquels ces hommes ont fait face en essayant de se tailler une place dans un
monde de travail traditionnellement considéré comme mieux adapté à des femmes.
Réfléchissant sur leurs commentaires et leurs expériences, les auteures analysent les idées
préconçues et les stéréotypes au sujet des hommes dans des professions non traditionnelles
et se demandent si les hommes ont quelque chose de spécial à apporter dans
l’enseignement au primaire. Elles concluent que l’appel visant à multiplier le nombre
d’hommes au primaire simplifie à l’extrême des questions complexes en faisant
abstraction de la nature politique de cet appel.
In her critique of research in the sociology of education, Acker (1983) identifies
as problematic the absence of good studies on gender relations in teaching; she
specifically asks why teaching children “is regarded as an occupation suitable
only for women” (p. 134). Her concern is well-placed, for there has been little
analysis of whether men have a unique contribution to make to elementary teaching.
As a step toward a better understanding of gender relations and the sexual
division of labour in teaching, we document seven men’s perceptions of their
work as elementary teachers and of the issues they confront as they create for
themselves a place in a work world focused on children and traditionally seen
as more suited to women.
The call for “more men in elementary” has arisen sporadically in Canada and
the United States since the 1950s, and is intensifying, especially in Ontario,
where the proportion of full-time male elementary public school teachers has
declined in the last 10 years from 33% to 26% 1 (Walker, 1992). Support for this
398 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

MEN AS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS 399
call rests largely on the claim that male teachers serve as role models for boys
and father substitutes for children from female-headed, lone-parent families.
Voiced most regularly by presidents of the Ontario Public School Teachers’ Federation
(OPSTF), the affiliate of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation representing
all male pubic school teachers in the province 2 (e.g., Lewis, 1993; Martin, 1989),
this claim has both professional and popular support. The Faculty of Education
at the University of Toronto, for example, in glossy advertising aimed specifically
at men, claims that “the absence of male role models at the elementary school
level adversely affects the provision of quality education.” School boards, too,
publically agree on the need to hire more men for the primary grades. In 1992
hiring projections, the Board of Education for the City of London (Ontario) indicated
to prospective applicants that the “Primary Division (Male)” was one area
where hiring would occur. School boards identify “male elementary teachers” as
a “specialty” where shortages are occurring nationally (Canadian Education Association,
1992).
Significant questions are begged when being male is seen as a teaching
specialty, when male elementary teachers are valued primarily as role models,
and when “quality education” is defined as dependent upon the presence of male
teachers. “Despite the impassioned plea for more men in early education,” write
Robinson, Skeen, and Flake-Hobson (1980), “the data supporting this need . . .
[are] weak . . . sparse . . . and inconsistent” (p. 234). Gold and Reis (1982) note
that “most of the arguments and research in this area have not attempted to use
a theoretical construct, but have relied upon common sense, an alluring but
sometimes untrustworthy guide” (p. 495, italics added). Their review of research
concludes that claims for male elementary teachers as important same-sex role
models are not supported empirically: boys who have male teachers do not have
fewer problems in school nor are they better adjusted; boys from father-absent
homes do not imitate or rely more on male teachers than other boys. Robinson
(1981) finds little evidence that more men in elementary schools will counterbalance
the “feminized” environment of those schools or enhance boys’ learning.
Pleck (1981) finds no evidence that female teachers encourage “feminine”
pursuits or that boys see school as “feminine.” He suggests these notions are
more stereotypical than factual, and concludes: “Most of the studies of the effect
of the sex of the teacher on student performance examine only boys’ performance,
as if this were the only grounds on which to decide [italics added] whether
to increase the proportion of male teachers” (p. 126). Allan’s (1993) review of
the literature leads him to conclude that calls for “more men in elementary” are
based largely on “folk theories” unsupported by research.
By the early 1980s, sex-role theory was “an event in psychology’s history”
(Pleck, 1987, p. 38), discarded as conceptually unstable, and practically and
empirically inadequate (Carrigan, Connell, & Lee, 1987). Segal (1990), acknowledging
its superficial appeal, outlines its flaws:

400 REBECCA PRIEGERT COULTER & MARGARET MCNAY
It assumes a consistent and uniform set of social expectations about men and women
universally shared within any society, positing a non-existent homogeneity to social life.
It supposes a conformity to social expectations . . . , positing a non-existent uniformity
of individual behaviour. The complex dynamics of gender identity, at both the social and
individual level, disappear in sex role theory, as abstract opinions about “difference”
replace the concrete, changing power relations between men and women. Sex-role theory
fails to explain either the passion or the pain of rigid adherence to dominant gender
stereotypes of some, resilient resistance to them on the part of others, or confused or
contradictory combinations of the two in yet others. (p. 69)
Goodman (1987) demonstrates the inadequacy of a theoretical position rationalizing
a call for more men in elementary schools solely in terms of role models.
Male teachers, he reports, hold widely different views about their roles. Some
consciously seek to perpetuate and reinforce traditional, narrowly conceived
gender roles for boys and girls; others, recognizing that girls may experience
discrimination, adopt a liberal, individualist approach to teaching and define their
task as providing equal opportunities for girls to do what boys do. Few male
elementary teachers identify themselves as profeminist, or see their roles in terms
of an actively anti-sexist pedagogy. Indeed, Goodman and Kelly (1988) suggest
that “physical presence is not enough. The need is not for men who simply pass
on the traditional male-centred culture unproblematically. To make a significant
difference, we need more men who will mediate culture from an anti-sexist
perspective” (p. 1).
Goodman’s and Kelly’s (1988) work is part of a growing literature asking men
to talk about their work as teachers and making an effort to understand their
complex, often contradictory experiences (Allan, 1993; Skelton, 1991). As
Morgan (1981) argues, “Taking gender into account is ‘taking men into account’
and not treating them . . . as the normal subjects of research” (p. 93). Layland
(1990) reinforces this observation:
The latent effect of seeing feminist research as exclusively about women’s lives is that
it allows things male to go uninvestigated, almost as though the idea of the male-as-norm
were not being questioned any more. However, we must demystify power and its
components, one of which is the production of “masculinity” and “masculine” behaviour.
(p. 129)
Studying men who do traditional women’s work — in this case, male elementary
teachers — can be particularly informative: in the context of their experiences,
“gender is highly problematized and [these men] negotiate the meaning of masculinity
every day” (Allan, 1993, p. 114).
We report here on seven men beginning their careers as elementary teachers.
All are white and middle class; at the time of the study they ranged in age from
28 to 40. Five were married, four with children. George and Doug taught Grade
1; James, Grade 3; Lee, Grade 3 and Grade 4; Buck; Grade 4; and Dave and

MEN AS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS 401
Jerry, Grade 5. Prior to entering the B.Ed. program, George had been a church
minister and Doug a counsellor in a boys’ home; James had been an architect;
Lee had worked on his family’s farm and as a research assistant for Agriculture
Canada; Buck had worked in construction and in furniture sales and restoration,
and as an aide in his mother’s special education class; Dave had been a performer
and teacher of music; and Jerry had had management training in banking and
had taught economics at a community college. These men, bringing such a rich
background of work experience to teaching, may be atypical of male elementary
teachers. We think it likely, nevertheless, that the issues that arose for them also
exist for other men in this profession.
Our primary source of data is a set of transcripts of focused group interviews
(Cohen & Manion, 1989) conducted following the close of the men’s preservice
year and at approximately two-month intervals after that until the end of their
first year of teaching. We asked them about their experiences as men in their
predominantly female education classes and with the predominantly female staffs
in the schools where they were first student teachers and later staff teachers.
Several kept a log of experiences and incidents they deemed relevant to the
theme of the study. We also interviewed each man about his life history.
The men in this study volunteered to participate because they already had
some questions about the nature of their work as male elementary teachers. The
camaraderie and support promised by the group structure was an incentive as
well. We acknowledge that our questions about gender issues and teachers’ roles
encouraged the men to be more reflective about their personal and professional
practice than they might otherwise have been. Doug commented: “Being in the
group has certainly coloured my observations and the way I’ve encountered my
experiences. I see more deeply than I otherwise would.” George concurred:
Reflecting on the discussion helps to shape [your behaviour]. You think twice about how
you’re going to approach [something] or how you’re going to say something. You reflect
back on [things] and say, “I shouldn’t have done that.” It’s all consciousness-raising.
In the sections that follow, we describe and comment on themes arising from
a year’s discussions with these men. We reflect on assumptions and stereotypes
about men in non-traditional occupations, and consider how men might make a
unique contribution to elementary teaching.
ENTERING THE PROFESSION
The men expressed various reasons for choosing to teach at the elementary level,
although all agreed they enjoyed working with children.
Dave: I have found kids in that age range . . . really exciting to teach. No matter what
sort of abilities they had, they were just fun. There is something about the attitude
that goes with the age that I find delightful.

402 REBECCA PRIEGERT COULTER & MARGARET MCNAY
Some thought, or at least hoped, that as men they had a particular contribution
to make.
Doug: [We can teach children] about the nature of women and . . . men. I think certain
ideas are settled . . . in kids at that age . . . for all time — [ideas] about who can
nurture and who can’t. ...I’msure in a lot of homes . . . [children] see . . .
women as the nurturers and the father as the man who goes out and provides
for the family . . . and unless they get something that opposes that in their
education . . . they are going to be stuck with this belief. ...Andeverything
they learn from then on is going to be conditioned by these deeply held [ideas]
about the nature of men and women. To the extent that we can show them a
different way — show them [how] to see women and men differently — they are
[going to be] more open to expressing themselves, caring about other people,
and showing that they care, and [so on]. It’s such a small [thing] but important.
Lee: It is in the kids’ interest . . . to have male teachers. ...Ifyouwant a society
that is not sexist . . . then [school] is a one of the places where we have to . . .
[make] changes.
The men saw themselves, by their very presence, demonstrating both an alternative
career choice for men and less traditional ideas about what it means to be
a man. They saw their contribution consisting “not in ‘acting like a man’ for
children, but in disproving the idea that men need to act in some special ‘manly’
way” (Seifert, 1973, p. 168).
Dave, recalling an episode from his student-teaching days, pointed to another
reason for choosing to teach at the elementary level:
Those [boys in the class] worked in different ways. ...And...thewaythey worked
and probably always worked will never be valued by the school system. Whereas the way
the girls were working . . . was just what we all love to see. ...[This is] the way I felt
about much of my elementary schooling. ...Thestandard was always the way these girls
were working. ...Andeverything was compared to that.
Dave wanted to change what teachers tend to value in students, especially what
they value in boys — to confront a school culture which, despite research to the
contrary (Greenberg, 1985), he saw as detrimental to boys’ learning.
Although each man had “taken it for granted” that he might teach young children,
friends and family members often thought differently. Doug “never had to
justify going into teaching but . . . did have to justify the choice of elementary.”
Jerry, attending “bank functions” with his wife, found that
[People] say, “Well, what do you do?”
“I teach school.”
“High school?”
“No, kids 10 or 11 years old.”
“You’re kidding; really?” And that’s all they say.

MEN AS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS 403
The men were not unaware of the “need” for more men in elementary schools,
and some were surprised at how few registered at this level in the preservice
program. They were even more surprised to find they were among the last to be
hired. “I have been told there is a big demand for male teachers,” Jerry said,
“[but] I haven’t seen a contract yet.” Expecting to benefit from their privileged
status as men, and to be snapped up by school boards, they were frustrated and
resentful when it did not happen.
Doug: My interviews have gone well and I have letters saying, “You have been recommended
to be hired as soon as possible.” There was a girl [sic] who didn’t get
a letter because she had done so poorly on her interview and her academic
background was spotty. ...Then I got the news she had been hired. ...Ijust
couldn’t believe it. ...[Iwasangry] at the system.
Here was an apparent contradiction between the popular notion that more men
are wanted in elementary schools, and the actual practice of school boards.
ISSUES OF SEX AND SEXUALITY
Some men found themselves welcomed enthusiastically by hiring committees and
colleagues; others sensed an unspoken suspicion about sexual orientation. “Why
do you want to teach elementary school?” interviewers asked, but in tones that
suggested the real question was, “Is there something wrong with you?”
Buck: The first question I was asked was, “Why [elementary]?” All of a sudden I felt
like I was defending myself against these three people. It was like a tag team—
attack the male.
George: In one instance it was very blatant: a woman [principal] . . . who had difficulty
with a man coming into primary and who wondered what was wrong with me,
which was very unsettling.
Other teachers, principals, and acquaintances were also suspicious, sometimes
openly and explicitly.
Jerry: I had a teacher say to me, “Why are you going into high school? You’ve taught
at [a Community College]?” I said, “No, I’m going into [elementary].” “You’re
going to teach little kids?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “Are you queer?”
Such references to sexual orientation hint at unfortunate misconceptions about
men, masculinity, and homosexuality, which the men resented.
Buck: It was like, “[Do] you desire little girls?” and that’s what really annoys me
about the whole thing. ...

404 REBECCA PRIEGERT COULTER & MARGARET MCNAY
As Acker (1983) claims, men who teach children “run the risk of being branded
as sexually deviant” (p. 134).
The issue of male sexuality arose in other ways. How to show affection appropriately
was a particular concern, since OPSTF guidelines caution men about
touching children. Buck questioned those guidelines strenuously:
Why is it . . . the women teachers are hugging the boys and girls but I have been told I
have to be really careful about that ...?Idon’t feel I should have to — [if there’s] a
little kid that’s fallen and hit her head and she’s crying — that I [should] have to catch the
attention of another teacher [before I can] comfort her. ...AmIallowed to do this or
not?
The men soon came to believe concerns about touching had been overly
magnified, and that, in Lee’s words, “You can still be a mature, normal human
being and not worry about law suits . . . in this profession.” “What was most
noticeable about [being a] male [teacher],” Buck commented, “was most of the
time it wasn’t a big deal.” Nevertheless, his sexuality was inescapable.
Buck: [It was only] when we went swimming and . . . you get your clothes off . . .
then [you get] the comments. ...Itiswhen you get down to what you do in
physical education that I notice it more. The girls were talking more and
coming around. When you get the clothes off — it was kind of interesting
actually.
As he talked, Buck suddenly seemed to realize what he was saying and quickly
protested, “There was nothing sexual, God help me. ...They just don’t often
see a male walking around in a bathing suit.”
Increasing evidence of male sexual abuse of children has led to closer scrutinizing
of the conduct of male teachers, and Buck’s hasty denial of any sexual
aspect to his relationships with students is understandable. Wolpe (1988) has
observed that, in general, teachers neither see nor acknowledge the part human
sexuality plays in teacher-student relations. Certainly, none of the men in our
study chose to discuss sexuality in the context of teaching, although we wonder
if they might have done so with male researchers. Societal fears and contradictory
messages about male sexuality undoubtedly serve to suppress any conscious
analysis of this aspect of human relationships in the context of teaching.
OTHER TEACHERS’ VIEWS OF MALE PRIMARY TEACHERS
Men who expressed interest in teaching primary grades encountered explicit
discouragement from other teachers, both male and female.
Doug: I started to sense . . . that . . . the female . . . teachers . . . [thought] there was
something wrong with a male wanting to teach elementary; that kids at that age

MEN AS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS 405
need to be hugged and . . . [males] are not going to be able to hug kids. ...I
hear it expressed as blatantly as that and [I feel] a real resentment. ...Soyou
hear one thing — [men] should be in elementary — then you hear . . . the exact
opposite — kids need to be mothered, they need things men can’t give them.
What is going on here?
Jerry: I was told by a female teacher who had been teaching 13 years that men can’t
teach primary. ...Shesaid men are not willing to run up and wipe a dirty nose
...orlaceaboot...orlocate a lost mitt. She said, “You just won’t make it
there.”
Conceptions of men as unable or unwilling to care for young children (Seifert,
1988) have more than a hint of biological determinism about them, and run
counter to the men’s conceptions of themselves.
As a Grade 1 teacher, George found that no one really believed he could be
committed to teaching young children:
One reaction I have had from male colleagues ...isthesuggestion that once I get this
year behind me I would like to “move up” . . . and I say, “Oh, no, I’m hoping I’ll be so
good they’ll keep me right here.” . . . I [told them] I had had a chance to take a higher
grade and chose this one. Then they look at [me] as if [I am] making it up.
There is maybe a bit of a sense that it’s right for the women to have the primary
grades and . . . that [I am] there for a year but [am] not really serious as a primary
teacher and so [they think], “You’ll go, and why don’t you, because you don’t really care
about primary that much.”
At the beginning of the year, George had found the primary teachers “very
supportive,” but even at the end of the year he could “still sense in the staff
room...that they are not completely used to [a man in Grade 1]”:
I get the sense that these women are trying to sweep the primary division clean — which
really bothers me because I keep thinking I have done a credible job and they are not
looking at that side of it.
I really think some of them think this has been just a flash in the pan — that the old
boy [the principal] made a mistake last year. It really hurts because I don’t want to move.
And, George thought he knew why the other primary teachers wanted him to go:
They want [the classrooms] back because that’s the way it was. ...It’stheroom, and
they want the grade. It is very specific what they are after. And they want that kitchen
centre back, too. And those slates over there. ...[Those supplies] came with the room,
but they want them back.
Indeed, Acker (1983) has suggested that female primary teachers, having carved
out an area of influence, may “[hold] on to it as one of the few arenas in which

406 REBECCA PRIEGERT COULTER & MARGARET MCNAY
they [can] exert any power, even at the expense of further reinforcing stereotypes
about women’s sphere” (p. 134).
MEN’S VIEWS OF FEMALE TEACHERS AND OTHER MALE TEACHERS
The tensions and contradictions of gender politics in schools were reflected in
the men’s views of other teachers, particularly the female teachers. The men
acknowledged the unrecognized contribution women make to education, and the
support many female teachers offered them as first-year teachers. They also saw
the “old boys’ network” still operating. “Really,” Dave observed, “it is not fair
by any objective standard . . . the way women are treated in education.” Doug’s
wife had just been passed over for an appointment as department head in a local
high school:
There is a lot of stupidity in education . . . it’s no wonder they . . . have to pay school
boards to hire women principals because they [i.e., the boards] are too stupid to run their
own. So they say, “Here’s $5,000; hire a woman if you can.” So they go out and look for
a woman to hire. But they still think they’re not hiring the best person because they have
no gender-neutral idea of what qualifies as best.
In recognizing the effect of gender on internal occupational segregation, Dave
and Doug confirmed research on what happens when men enter women’s work
domains. Williams’ (1989) study of male nurses, for example, shows that although
there are contradictory and sometimes negative responses to men in nursing,
“differential treatment of male and female nurses often benefits men . . . giving
them greater prestige and more autonomy” (p. 90). Indeed, Williams (1992)
notes that for men in the “female” professions, “their gender is construed as a
positive difference” (p. 259).
The men in our study did see themselves as different from female teachers.
Doug: People . . . [think] my job is . . . to do the same job a woman would do. ...
I think that is totally wrong . . . I’m not striving to do what a woman would do
. . . because women make a lot of mistakes. They do a lot of harmful things to
kids. ...They say all kinds of things they shouldn’t be saying about what boys
should do and what girls should do.
However, these men also saw themselves as different from other male teachers,
most of whom they characterized as “traditional” males. Disdaining staffroom
talk in general, they perceived the men to be interested only in sports, women
in shopping. Dave described the Friday ritual at his school: a few male teachers
went to a local “strip joint” for lunch, some of the women to a restaurant. Both
groups invited Dave to join them but he refused either “to go and drink at lunch,
let alone go into one of those places,” or to join the women. Although he was

MEN AS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS 407
not “one of the boys,” he was not so disloyal to his sex as to become “one of the
girls” either.
CONFRONTING THE STEREOTYPES
Given the conventional wisdom that more men are needed in elementary schools
to serve as role models, it is not surprising to find the men in our study using
language consistent with this perspective. All were concerned about their colleagues’
narrow definitions of what it means to be a man or a woman. For
example, each man found that the (male) principal or a (female) teacher in the
school would say something like, “Oh, good, we’ve got a man on staff to do the
phys. ed.” This stereotyping was irksome to all of the men, but especially to the
two who disliked teaching physical education.
Some of the men made conscious efforts to challenge the stereotypes, particularly
the definitions of women’s work and men’s work prevailing among students
and staff. Doug’s colleagues, male and female, were amused when he took his
turn doing the dishes in the staffroom. The other male teacher on staff simply
sent some female students down to do the dishes when it was his turn and, Doug
reported, “Everybody thinks that is perfectly fine.” Doug encouraged his students
to question such sexual division of labour, using the authority of his male voice
to instruct them: “I start with my grade ones; I tell them women can be mathematicians
and scientists, and men can do the dishes.” The other men were also
careful not to stereotype work by gender, allocating boys their share of cleaning
up and serving food, and girls their share of moving desks and digging soil for
science.
The men believed they served as role models “just by being there.” George,
who taught Grade 1, noticed a change in the attitudes and behaviours of Grade
6 boys over the year. Initially, George noticed, “a lot of the older kids had
difficulty” with a male teacher hugging little children, and playing with them in
the schoolyard; but “for them not to be making silly comments about it in June
shows something must have happened along the way.” By the end of the year,
Grade 6 boys were approaching George:
They would say it really fast: “If you want me to come in, I will come in, I’ll help you.”
Then [I] would have to find something for them to do, to respond positively. Otherwise
you haven’t made any gains, if you can’t foster it. ...Ithink they wanted to show
another side of themselves and probably felt safer doing it in a classroom out of the flow
of their peers — they didn’t have to stand up in an auditorium and say something geeky
or anything. ...
Several of the men thought it important to let students see men feeling “emotional.”
A children’s story had moved Lee to tears when he was reading it aloud
and the class remembered the incident in June when again he showed outward

408 REBECCA PRIEGERT COULTER & MARGARET MCNAY
emotion at the farewell party for his teaching partner. Buck told his students he
always cried during Bambi. These men thought it important to “let [children] see
a man in a different light, a different role. ...”
Men’s separation from the work of child-bearing and child-rearing has been
linked to the development and persistence of patriarchy and male dominance, and
has led to the view that gender relations might be transformed and men become
more caring and “connected” if only they would become more deeply involved
in fathering and child care work (Chodorow, 1978; Grumet, 1988; O’Brien,
1981; Stockard & Johnston, 1980). Thus, many people, including the men in our
study, believe that men working with children in schools is a step toward gender
equality. Hearn (1987), however, has examined the relationship between the
professions and the construction of masculinity, and suggests that although male
professionals in such fields as teaching may exhibit more “liberal” models of
masculinity than do other men, there is no guarantee that bringing more men into
the caring professions would fundamentally alter the structural inequities of a
male-dominated society. In fact, Hearn (1987) warns, increasing men’s involvement
with reproductive work in the family and in such institutions as schools
may only serve to extend male control of women and children. Nevertheless,
“working with others’ emotions and one’s own emotions [as in teaching] can for
some men challenge and question traditional models of masculinity and their own
masculinity in a more thoroughgoing way” (Hearn, 1987, p. 144).
Although all the men in our study saw themselves as different from “traditional
macho” or “jock” male teachers, they were, in many instances, explicitly
advised to use a stereotypical masculinity for disciplining students. “You are a
male, and you have to use it,” Buck’s vice-principal told him. Admitting they
were not as good at discipline as experienced female teachers, the men resisted
being identified as disciplinarians just because they were men, but the struggle
was especially difficult for Buck and Dave, who were employed in schools
known to be “tough”:
Buck: If . . . at home . . . the father is the disciplinarian, then they are more inclined
to accept you as that at the school. Right off the bat you are on the wrong foot.
But I was told to use that. That is one of the realities of that school.
MASCULINITY AS A TEACHING RESOURCE
By the end of the year, “the realities of the school” had shaped the men in our
study in different ways. In one conversation, Dave and Buck recognized their
own “traditional” masculinity and how they used it at school:
Dave: There are some things I thought I had put behind me. . . . I used to be an
extremely aggressive hockey player . . . extremely aggressive . . . and I found
that all that was still there somewhere — I had just been ignoring it and not

MEN AS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS 409
using it. ...[Then I found myself] using all the same kinds of things in a
different way. I don’t throw people into the boards or up against the wall any
more . . . not [in] that same physical sense, but [I use] the same kind of aggressiveness
in the classroom.
Buck: That’s funny, because I get that, too. And I haven’t [felt that way] since I
played hockey a long time ago . . . the pulse pounding and the concentration on
something. And, you know, it scares the hell out of kids. Like . . . when we had
the gun scare and [Alan] was trying to get out the window and I said, “You will
sit and you will sit now!” and he must have known because he just sat right
down and was quiet. ...Itwaskind of neat.
Dave: The kids know when you cross the line. ...They know they can’t push you
any further. ...They know where the power lies, and they are more than a
little bit afraid of what you might do to them.
Buck: It’s the same psych game you use to stare down somebody on the ice. The same
game.
Dave: Exactly the same game, and those kids know they are not going to win.
In Canada, hockey symbolizes much that is taken to be quintessentially male
so it is not surprising these two men should find the game providing an apt
metaphor for their “face-offs” in the classroom. Their ambivalence (“It was kind
of neat”/“I thought I had put [it] behind me”) and their excitement as they
discovered a mutual approach to discipline based on male aggression in sports
reinforces the notion that something deeper is going on with men in the
classroom than can be accounted for in an unexamined theory about role models.
More fundamental questions about power, authority, dominance, control, and
gender relations must be explored.
Consider the following description of a male teacher-male student encounter.
The boys wanted to play basketball and Buck complied:
I went out and ran around like a maniac for 45 minutes playing basketball . . . and we
were slapping hands and all the male bonding stuff, and it worked. ...Showing that you
know where they’re sort of at . . . with the male sex thing works. These kids followed me
around after that . . . just because I played a little B-Ball. ...Youhave to perform as a
male.
Buck is clearly thinking of “performing as a male” in this instance within a
somewhat narrowly defined concept of masculinity. He is talking also about male
bonding, male solidarity, the homosociability of a male group based on a recognition
of shared male interests. The key question is not so much what kind of
role model he is, but what he might choose to do with his new-found bond with
the boys. Were he to draw on the bond to work actively against the negative

410 REBECCA PRIEGERT COULTER & MARGARET MCNAY
aspects of male group behaviour, and turn the relationship to good use through
a consciously anti-sexist pedagogy, he would demonstrate how men might make
a special contribution to teaching.
The question of pedagogy, however, anti-sexist or otherwise, was not central
for the men in our group. They were more focused on surviving their first year,
believing the best they could do was to model a liberal masculinity. Even that
was difficult, they found, because the organization of the school, the expectations
of staff and students, and their own socialization as men made it easy to slip
back into older, more familiar patterns of gendered behaviour. As George said
after he realized people were staring at him, a middle-aged man skipping rope
with little children, “I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll just stop,’ and then I thought, ‘Well,
maybe I won’t.’ But you have to push yourself. You have to consciously decide
to carry on what you’re doing.” Another observed:
You get very defensive . . . being in a new profession and being in a strange part of that
profession. All sorts of things well up in you, and you attribute causes where they don’t
belong. ...Itisvery difficult to make sense of it all.
Indeed, when asked specifically whether more men should enter elementary
teaching, and what special gifts they might bring to it, the men did not advocate
a general policy. Although they believed they had, individually, contributed to
the well-being of students, they were less optimistic about the contributions of
men in general. James provided the firmest statement:
Well, no, I don’t think there should be more male teachers in the classroom unless males
decide to do it not because they are males. ...Itisanindividual personal journey that
has to be made and if this were a healthy society, chances are it would be more or less
50:50 that would be in the classroom but I think quotas encouraging men to go in could
be very dangerous. I think that could be very dangerous.
James’ view was grounded in his conception of teaching as a vocation, not just
a job. Although the other men understood the question in less metaphysical
terms, they nonetheless shared James’ misgivings and, based on their own
experiences and observations, found few reasons to argue the case for “more men
in elementary.”
CONCLUSION
At the end of the school year, several men received complimentary notes and
comments from parents, most of which made some reference to their being male.
The men themselves were reluctant to attribute their success to their sex or to
claim they made a difference in children’s lives because they were male. They
found it difficult to describe, discuss, or assess in a sustained way what it means

MEN AS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS 411
to be a man and to work with children, probably partly because they lack the
language to do so (Tolson, 1987). “It is very difficult to make sense of it all,”
one said. Indeed, by challenging, however modestly, the gender assumptions embedded
in the organizational structure of elementary schools (Acker, 1990, 1992;
Mills, 1992) and the gender assumptions built into the work of elementary school
teaching (Williams, 1993), the men had experienced a series of contradictions in
their work lives. Valued as that rare commodity, men in elementary teaching,
their motives, abilities, and sexuality were nonetheless often viewed with suspicion.
Taking up non-traditional work as a way to question and confront gender
relations, they faced enormous pressures to conform to traditional notions of
masculinity which then only reinforced traditional patterns of sex differentiation.
Placing more men in elementary teaching without asking why ignores complex
questions about the structural dimensions of gender relations in schools. The call
for “more men in elementary” is, in essence, a political call; very different
agendas are involved. As Hearn (1987) suggests, bringing more men into elementary
schools might only extend men’s power and control over women, and
reinforce existing gender regimes. On the other hand, bringing men in has the
potential of allowing women and men to engage together in anti-sexist teaching
practices and to challenge the gendered process of schooling. Until the purposes
for “more men in elementary” are clarified, individual men will continue to experience
the contradictions of doing “women’s work” and being “real men” at
the same time.
NOTES
1
In contrast, the proportion of men in elementary (K–6) teacher education programs in Ontario has
risen from 10% in 1987/88 to 18% in 1992/93. Whether this increase reflects the success of a
campaign by the Ontario Public School Teachers’ Federation (see note 2) to attract more men into
elementary school teaching, a temporary response by men to changing economic realities and contractions
in the labour market, or merely the usual range of fluctuations in faculty enrolments is
unclear.
2
In Ontario, the by-laws of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation assign teachers to membership in one
of five affiliates. Female teachers employed in elementary public schools are members of the Federation
of Women Teachers’ Associations of Ontario, whereas male teachers employed in the
same schools are members of the Ontario Public School Teachers’ Federation. All teachers working
in separate schools are members of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, and
teachers in French-language schools belong to the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants
franco-ontariens. Secondary school teachers are members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’
Federation.
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Stockard, J., & Johnston, M. (1980). Sex roles. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Tolson, A. (1987). The limits of masculinity. London: Routledge.
Walker, S. (1992, August 16). Primary schools losing male teachers. Sunday Star, pp. A1, A6.
Williams, C. L. (1989). Gender differences at work: Women and men in non-traditional occupations.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Williams, C. L. (1992). The glass escalator: Hidden advantages for men in the “female” professions.
Social Problems, 39, 253–267.
Williams, C. L. (1993). Introduction. In C. L. Williams (Ed.), Doing “women’s” work: Men in
nontraditional occupations (pp. 1–9). Newbury Park: Sage.
Wolpe, A. (1988). Within school walls: The role of discipline, sexuality and the curriculum. London
and New York: Routledge.
Rebecca Coulter is in the Division of Educational Policy Studies and Margaret McNay in the
Division of Curriculum Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London,
Ontario, N6G 1G7.

Gender Studies and Teacher Education:
A Proposal
Allen T. Pearson
Patricia T. Rooke
university of alberta
Although gender studies have become a central concern in Canadian universities through
women’s studies programs or programs in feminist theory, they have not influenced
courses and programs in faculties of education to the extent they should. We propose the
“mainstreaming” of gender studies and argue that courses and programs should be
reconceived and reconstructed to incorporate the findings and approaches developed in
feminist and women’s studies. We talk of “gender studies” because, unlike “women’s
studies,” we are not advocating a separatist strategy and do not propose a particular
theoretical framework, as may be suggested by “feminist” theory. We justify mainstreaming
gender studies in teacher education programs because they can contribute to the
general education of teacher candidates and can help develop the attitudes, knowledge,
and skills central to the practice of teaching.
Bien que les études axées sur la notion de sexe soient devenues une préoccupation majeure
dans les universités canadiennes par le biais des programmes d’études sur les
femmes ou sur les théories féministes, ces études n’ont pas influencé les cours et les
programmes dans les facultés des sciences de l’éducation autant qu’elles auraient dû. Les
auteurs proposent l’intégration des études sur le sexe et soutiennent que les cours et les
programmes devraient être repensés et restructurés afin d’incorporer les conclusions et les
approches issues des études féministes et sur les femmes. Les auteurs parlent d’“études
sur le sexe” parce que, contrairement à ce qui en est pour les “études sur les femmes,”
ils ne prônent pas une stratégie séparatiste et ne proposent pas un cadre théorique particulier,
comme le suggère peut-être la théorie “féministe.” Ils justifient l’intégration des
études sur le sexe dans les programmes de formation des maîtres en affirmant qu’elles
peuvent contribuer à la formation générale des étudiants-maîtres et aider au développement
d’attitudes, de connaissances et de compétences essentielles à la pratique de l’enseignement.
In the broadest context of that word, teaching is a political act; some person is choosing,
for whatever reasons, to teach a set of values, ideas, assumptions, and pieces of information,
and in so doing, to omit other values, ideas, assumptions, and pieces of information.
— Florence Howe, Myths of Co-Education (1984)
In 1990/91, the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of
Alberta faced the a number of retirements and asked whether it should seek new
414 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

GENDER STUDIES AND TEACHER EDUCATION 415
positions to carry on as in the past or use the opportunity to establish new directions.
1 We recognized that we could, perhaps, achieve both. The traditional stress
on the disciplined study of education through history, philosophy, sociology, and
anthropology could be strengthened by focusing staffing efforts in an area that
would add a new direction to the department’s concerns; gender studies provides
just such an area. Scholarship in gender studies, with its bases in the department’s
traditional disciplines, would enhance the disciplined study of education.
Some of the most promising and exciting work in the foundational fields, as well
as some that may lead to dead ends, is being done in the area of gender studies.
As well, a focus on gender studies is appropriate at this time in Canadian society.
Events in society, some horrific and other ludicrous, have demonstrated the
necessity for universities and faculties of education to take seriously the concerns
raised by gender studies.
Our thinking raised issues far beyond our department. We believe that gender
studies can teach us much about teacher education, and it is those lessons we
pursue here. We begin by defending our decision to talk of “gender studies,”
rather than “women’s studies” or “feminist studies.” Next we explain how gender
studies can be integrated into “traditional” academic courses and approaches.
Finally, we justify an integrated approach to gender studies, or the mainstreaming
of gender studies in teacher preparation programs, because it enhances and illuminates
what teacher education programs ought to be trying to achieve.
MAINSTREAMING “GENDER”
Our initial approach to the departmental council about mainstreaming the
compulsory core courses was motivated less by ideological and philosophical
concerns (although we were committed to the idea of integration for reasons both
pedagogical and philosophical) than by a sense of urgency. This sense of urgency
was intensified by a growing unease that departmental offerings had remained
unchanged for a number of years, and that the department had to take a new
direction to be relevant in a milieu increasingly unresponsive to foundational
subjects and exposition of the humanities in a professional faculty. We argued
pragmatically that mainstreaming core and especially compulsory courses would
reinvigorate the department and sustain its leadership in teacher education and
in research and scholarship in the foundational fields.
“Mainstreaming” is the term commonly used in women’s studies to describe
the basic notion we advocate. Because this term is ambiguous in faculties of
education and school systems, it would be useful to have a synonym. Fortunately,
mainstreaming has embraced mutually inclusive terminology in the literature,
including: integration, balancing, transforming (the curriculum), and reclaiming
(female experience). We shall use “integration” and “balancing” interchangeably
because these suggest the complete education of men and women in the redesigning
of curriculum and course content, which in turn suggests a redefinition of

416 ALLEN T. PEARSON & PATRICIA T. ROOKE
what constitutes knowledge and in what forms such knowledge ought to be transmitted.
Mainstreaming is both epistemological and pedagogical; it is very much
the “stuff” of foundations disciplines.
Moreover, if integration and balancing are worthwhile goals for the department
as it looks toward the next decade, indeed the next century, then a core of
appointments would be desirable although not necessary to motivate and facilitate
innovative approaches to courses, especially undergraduate compulsory courses.
It is crucial, however, that we use the most pragmatic and useful descriptions for
such a core of persons. Are they to be in “women’s studies” or “feminist studies”?
In this case there is much in a name. We prefer “gender studies” because
this latter term embraces aspects of the first two: gender cannot be studied
without relation to “women’s studies,” and gender studies is the offspring of
feminist discourse itself.
Mainstreaming, integration, balancing — the lively debate of the last decade
has used concepts, theories, new analytical approaches, sources, and methodologies,
and a range of empirical studies that have emerged from the new corpus
of scholarship inspired by feminism and articulated through women’s studies.
Nevertheless, integration and balancing do not have the same purpose as
women’s studies programs. Some academic feminists are philosophically opposed
to mainstreaming; others see it as premature. Women’s studies programs are
rooted in separatist strategies. Although it is legitimate to have separate women’s
courses, it is also appropriate to mainstream core courses. Mainstreaming, though
not assimilationist (which implies a loss of identity and scholarly integrity),
appropriates women’s studies by incorporating the corpus of scholarship
women’s studies has created into those core courses feminist theory can reconceptualize.
The description “feminist studies,” too, might present a difficulty, as feminist
studies have a particular ideological dimension. One can use the gender studies
approach and construct new content without necessarily grounding it in a particular
feminist theory, although this would have been impossible without the feminist
discourse. A gender studies approach thereby allows individual department
members to hold a variety of perspectives.
Gender — the social construction of sexed bodies in relation to each other —
is a cognitive, social, and epistemological category, and an analytical tool
providing a conceptual bridge to past and present relationships between men and
women. It encompasses class, ethnicity, race, and any other social category we
customarily deal with. It has multicultural and global implications, as it asks how
men (often a white dominant social class) have defined, created, and perpetuated
prevailing power relations and structures which have shaped and continue to
shape educational experiences and processes. Gender as a category of analysis
seeks to understand how men and women’s experiences are linked, in an inclusive
vision of human dynamics based on notions of difference and diversity, not
generalization and sameness. In this respect ethics and philosophy are as crucial

GENDER STUDIES AND TEACHER EDUCATION 417
as history or sociology. Classrooms have agendas, both explicit and hidden, in
which culture reproduces itself through the reproduction of gendered knowledge.
In short, as all foundations people know, the discourse of scholarship and knowledge
can be a language of power. Gender analysis highlights power relations
while intersecting with other categories of social meaning.
TRANSFORMING PEDAGOGICAL INQUIRY
A multidisciplinary core of scholars could facilitate the transformation of a whole
department by providing departmental workshops, seminars, and discussions, and
distributing bibliographic materials in their respective disciplines. Mainstreaming
is a journey from male-defined to gender-balanced education. It does not
abandon centuries of scholarship, but rather asks of this scholarship different
questions, reinvigorating it and creating new bodies of knowledge in the process.
In short, mainstreaming both past experience and present knowledge leaves
familiar landscapes in place but uncovers distortions of past practice and ongoing
assumptions while radically changing our understanding of how such landmarks
were formed and why. It revisits the old foundations question of “what knowledge
is of most worth” by revising what is assumed to be innate and natural;
what is necessary and why; what is possible and not; and how to assess opportunity
and access for different social categories. The major foundations disciplines
have equal stakes in reformulating and answering such questions; fields of study
more recently included under the foundations umbrella (global, adult, international,
and intercultural education) have no less a stake.
We have already noted that the arguments for mainstreaming, and the intellectual
climate of debate surrounding it, are, we believe, the very “stuff” of
foundations disciplines. We have, moreover, been encouraged by the numerous
examples — regrettably more in the United States than in Canada — of mainstreaming
the humanities and liberal arts. Some of these have met with resistance
from various quarters, but they provide us with models to adopt, modify, or
adapt to our own situations.
Different departments and faculties at other universities have been involved
in what might be described loosely as the “integration movement,” especially in
the United States. At a major research institution, the University of Maryland at
College Park, implementation of a comprehensive plan to improve undergraduate
women’s educational experiences has been underway since 1985. 2 Prototypes of
this experiment can be traced to the early 1980s at numerous universities and
colleges, some even to the 1970s. Smith, Wellesley, and Wheaton colleges, state
universities including Arizona, California State at Hayward, Georgia, Maine,
Montana, and North Dakota, and such religious colleges as Guildford and St.
Mary’s can be counted among these. The Feminist Press, the Great Lakes College
Association, and a consortium of liberal arts colleges have set “mainstreaming”
as a major goal. 3 A powerful group, the Organization of American Histori-

418 ALLEN T. PEARSON & PATRICIA T. ROOKE
ans, has endorsed the publication of bibliographies and teaching manuals to
demonstrate the possibilities and importance of integrating the new feminist
scholarship and women’s history into mainstream history in the classroom and
in history texts. 4 In 1990 the Women’s Studies Quarterly published a whole issue
on the topic. Summer institutes have encouraged each participant, chosen through
competition, to transform a course to take back to his or her university and
department for approval and implementation. In short, across the United States
conferences, faculty development projects, seminars, and workshops have been
organized to demonstrate strategies that facilitate mainstreaming.
Integration and balancing do not mean merely “add women and stir,” nor do
they mean squeezing the “facts” into existing materials and modes of instruction.
In “Trying Transformations,” Aitken et al. note that mainstreaming is not a
formula or a “how to” for making classroom materials fit otherwise unaltered
courses, but offers opportunities for faculty development and provides a
legitimate arena in which to address and diffuse gender politics in academe. 5 Its
purpose is to alter such materials and modes. If exclusion has led to sexism and
discrimination, and arranged our perceptual and conceptual worlds by developing
limited and androcentric knowledge, then inclusion shifts the central thrust of
inquiry and creates other categories of signification by redefining what is
important. It represents a dramatic rethinking of choices, transforming a multitude
of areas in which we already work, such as the study of classrooms, teaching
and learning, professionalization, achievement, equal opportunity, family,
socialization, ethics, social justice, equity, epistemology, and many others.
Although integration does not mean adding a new unit to present course
content, this would certainly be better than nothing. Single unit inclusion often
consists of a single (guest) lecture on a relevant topic of interest, for instance,
“women” or “Natives.” Such lectures do not alter the direction of the instructional
approach or instructional intent. They do not compel the instructor to
redefine the parameters of the course content or the intellectual experience. They
do little to expand theoretical understandings.
Integration is, moreover, a major component of equity demands. With regard
to women and minorities, equity is too often interpreted in its most narrow sense,
that of hiring practices and salary differentials (although these are not insignificant).
Equity in fact seeks to eliminate imbalances perpetuated by sex role
stereotyping and sex biases. There can be no more appropriate means to do this
than through the example of the professoriate in a faculty of education and
through course content and pedagogical methods.
All of the above coincide with observations by Concordia University’s history
department, which has committed itself to mainstreaming. Concordia sees this
policy as synonymous with “the democratization of knowledge and learning.”
Quite apart from institutional obligations under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
to facilitate a more equitably constituted gendered and multicultural work

GENDER STUDIES AND TEACHER EDUCATION 419
force, and also apart from the legal and ethical necessity to eradicate discrimination,
Concordia notes that “the imbalance produced by exclusion cannot be
resolved only by quantitative changes in staff. Qualitative changes are also
required.” 6
Integration not only introduces a whole new body of scholarship (which is
substantial), it also demands that we totally transform our pedagogy to incorporate
it and the new assumptions it brings. This in turn represents an exercise
in praxis — from theory to practice — something uniquely appropriate for foundations
disciplines. Integration brings to a discipline various modes of inquiry, in
an interdisciplinary approach.
To date the debate and strategies introduced have met resistance. Again,
Aitken et al. astutely observe that the varieties of resistance reflect “in
microcosm the power structure of the university itself” and have “served to
reveal in stark detail the nature and depth of opposition to feminist scholarship.” 7
The debate over mainstreaming is far from neutral and is rarely conducted on the
conventional grounds of objectivity related to the canons of a discipline. Instead,
the debate provides “a theatre in which the gender policies of the academy operate(d)
in a particularly dramatic and revealing fashion.” 8 Under these circumstances
we were scarcely surprised to identify similar sites of resistance in the
responses of some of our own department members during the debate surrounding
our proposal, not the least being references to other inequalities. Such
references raised issues about relative oppression, minimizing the significance of
gender oppression although no one denied its reality.
Obviously, then, we are not speaking of superficial changes when we advocate
a social reconstruction of knowledge which has devalued and continues to
devalue most things related to women. This reconstruction constitutes more than
making new objects of knowledge or inserting more information into existing
bodies of knowledge. 9 It suggests a redefinition of knowledge itself, with women
as agents and gender an analytical tool fundamental to its articulation. Under
these conditions the reorganization of such knowledge — or mainstreaming — is
not simply “about women,” maintaining as it does that gender as a system of
social and relational organization is endemic to all societies and is not just a
social role or a set of traits common to either sex. 10
The term “integration” is, in fact, inadequate, for as Peggy McIntosh suggests,
it implies being “integrated into the dominant curricula” rather than transforming
curricula. “Mainstreaming” too is inadequate as a term, for it implies the existence
of only one mainstream rather than “a diverse and plural stress on women’s
and men’s experiences.” 11 If women enter the mainstream there remains a risk
that they will so merge with it that they become indistinguishable from men. 12
The point is not to identify what knowledge gender studies promotes, but to be
able to imagine that another kind of knowledge is possible — can evolve, or be
created — even as knowledge has been transformed in the past. The medieval
mentality of the Schoolmen is not the same as that of the Enlightenment thinkers,

420 ALLEN T. PEARSON & PATRICIA T. ROOKE
any more than the mentalities of modernity coincide with those of the postmodernists.
Feminists and other women do not have an impermeable idea of
what this knowledge might be; only the hope that it can be, and that as a
consequence the processes, products, and experiences of education for men and
women will be affected profoundly. Mainstreaming calls us simultaneously to
respect differences and to refute traditional views of differences between men
and women based largely on hierarchical dichotomies, of “superior” and “inferior,”
just as the traditional differences on grounds of race have placed white
males in a dominant position over all other males. 13
TEACHER EDUCATION
Although mainstreaming is quite widely found in the humanities and the liberal
arts, we know of no cases where it has been applied to preservice professional
teacher education. The justification for mainstreaming is different in this context
than in those where it is more commonly found. In the humanities and liberal
arts, subjects are not taught for their utilitarian ends; mainstreaming is defended
on the ground that a mainstreamed history course is better history. In professional
education, however, much of the concern is with the application of
knowledge in later professional contexts, so the arguments for mainstreaming in
professional education take quite a different turn. This view is put in its starkest
terms by a comment of an engineering professor to the effect that if bridges
don’t fall down there is no need to alter the engineering curriculum. We want to
argue that mainstreamed gender studies do make a difference to the professional
work of teachers.
Teacher education programs almost universally contain four components:
general education, specialized knowledge, professional knowledge, and practice. 14
This seems to be a normative as well as descriptive claim: not only do teacher
education programs contain these components, strong arguments can be produced
to show that they should. After all, one is hard pressed to imagine a desirable
teacher education program that does not give its students a strong, or at least
reasonable, general education; that does not provide for in-depth study in the
areas in which the person will teach; that does not provide for a study of both
the professional abilities of a teacher and the nature of education as a professional
activity; or that does not allow for the practice of professional skills.
Given this, 15 our concern here is to show how gender studies contributes to these
essential components of a teacher education program.
General Education
How does integrated gender studies in a teacher education program contribute to
the intending teacher’s general knowledge? Of the four program components, the
role of general knowledge is least clear. That teachers should learn the subjects

GENDER STUDIES AND TEACHER EDUCATION 421
they are going to teach, learn how to teach those subjects, and have practice in
teaching those subjects is obviously desirable. But why it is desirable for teachers
to learn subjects they will not teach is less clear. We suggest two possible
outcomes of general education that would contribute to making a person a better
teacher: open-mindedness and sensitivity.
Open-mindedness is a trait central to what we ought to expect of teachers:
A person who is open-minded is disposed to revise or reject the position he holds if sound
objections are brought against it, or, in the situation in which the person presently has no
opinion on some issue, he is disposed to make up his mind in the light of available evidence
and argument as objectively and impartially as possible. 16
In light of this characterization we want to show that the integration of gender
studies in teacher education helps bring about this end. Under this view, openmindedness
is a disposition, namely a disposition to reconsider. It allows that we
are not always open-minded even though we may be for the most part; after all,
we may have temporary lapses or failings. It also allows for degrees of openmindedness.
The disposition may be more strongly present in one person than in
another. It further suggests that open-mindedness can be thwarted: “For example,
there are numerous ways such as refusing to look at or listen to something,
failing to consider a point, ignoring an opponent, etc., in which a person can
indicate that he has a closed mind.” 17
Teaching need not be open-minded; indeed there are instances of teaching,
such as teaching children the multiplication tables, where the issue of openmindedness
seems otiose. Where teaching is seen as a generalized activity aiming
to educate students, to develop worthwhile knowledge and understanding, openmindedness
is much more important.
We may think of open-mindedness as characterizing a way of teaching or we may think
of it as an aim of teaching. If we are right in thinking of open-mindedness as the appropriate
attitude with respect to truth and as having intrinsic value, then we will hold not
only that teachers will aim at developing this trait in their students, but will also aim at
manifesting it in their work as teachers. 18
Given this, we need to be on the alert not to prepare teachers in ways that
may contribute to their not being open-minded. Open-mindedness in teachers can
be thwarted, even if “closed-mindedness” is not produced, by limiting the
knowledge a person acquires. 19 If one is exposed to a limited range of knowledge,
one lacks the resources for reconsidering some positions. Open-mindedness
is the disposition to see, examine, and weigh alternatives, to not lock on to a
position without considering its alternatives. To the extent that we limit the
alternatives available to people, we limit their ability to consider different
positions. Integration of gender studies into general education provides people

422 ALLEN T. PEARSON & PATRICIA T. ROOKE
with a broader cognitive perspective than if they experience only courses and
programs that ignore women’s experience and views. It will not guarantee greater
open-mindedness; for various reasons, a person may participate in courses where
gender studies are integrated without coming to see that this knowledge allows
one to reconsider what has previously been learned. If teachers of such courses
encourage and develop students’ ability to raise questions about what has been
taken for granted, there is an increased likelihood that students’ views of the
world will be challenged, possibly resulting in students thinking differently.
There is thus an improved chance that students in such teacher education programs
will be more open-minded. Hence, insofar as we value the trait of openmindedness
in teachers, the integration of gender studies in teacher education
courses is instrumentally justified in these terms.
A second instrumental justification for the integration of gender studies into
the general education component of teacher education programs is the contribution
of gender studies to the teacher’s sensitivity. We believe sensitivity, a
character trait that has received little attention in discussions of teacher education,
is crucially important for teachers, and therefore that which contributes to
development of sensitivity is an important part of teacher education. We further
believe that integrating gender studies into teacher education will increase this
sensitivity. To make this case we must first say what we mean by sensitivity.
The sensitivity with which we are concerned is the teacher’s sensitivity to
students’ needs and interests. At a minimum, a teacher should be aware of what
students need at a given point in their education and what their interests are.
From the point of view of motivating students to learn, one will have difficulty
in teaching if one is unaware what is of interest to students and what is needed
to help students move along. As well, a teacher must be able to diagnose what
should be done in light of students’ interests and needs. Sensitivity, in our sense,
includes all this and also has a moral element: the teacher needs to be concerned
about children so that their individuality may develop and flourish. In the
broadest terms, a teacher is concerned to make the lives of students better, to
provide knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will help children lead worthwhile
and fulfilling lives. Given this general commitment, implicit in teaching, it
follows that part of the moral domain of teaching is sensitivity in our sense. This
is not a truth universally recognized. There are those who see education as
concerned with the good of society, with preserving and transmitting to children
a certain way of life, or who believe schools are there to ensure that students
learn what is necessary for the economic well-being of society. We do not want
to belittle the importance of either of these social goods, but we do want to
maintain that over and above these is the concern for the good of the individual
student. Once this concern is recognized, it is clear that sensitivity to students is
an important character trait of teachers. 20
Sensitivity can be learned through the integration of gender studies in teacher
education programs, particularly in the general education component. Making

GENDER STUDIES AND TEACHER EDUCATION 423
students aware of the full range of human experience increases their understanding
of people’s lives, an understanding important for sensitivity because for
teachers to be disposed to care about the flourishing of their students requires
that they are able to see the lives of their students in their totality — to see the
forces that shape the development of their personalities, to understand the social
conditions that influence their circumstances in life. Integration of gender studies
can increase sensitivity not only on matters of gender, but also on matters of
class, race, and ethnicity. Helping students to see how people are different and
similar with respect to gender raises the question of what other kinds of perspectives
are used to distinguish among people. Hence, insofar as sensitivity is a
desirable trait of teachers it too instrumentally justifies the integration of gender
studies into the general education component of teacher education programs.
Specialized Knowledge
The specialized component of the teacher education program consists of courses
prospective teachers take to provide themselves with the knowledge they need
to teach in the school. It includes, for example, courses in mathematics that the
future math teacher takes, history and sociology courses for the social studies
teacher, and the broad range of courses that the future elementary teacher takes.
These courses are typically done outside the professional program, in arts or
science. The justification for integrating gender studies into these courses is the
same as for the any course in the liberal arts: courses that have been integrated
are quite simply better courses in that they present more complete pictures of the
subject matter. There will of course be differences in the extent to which gender
studies can be integrated into these subjects; for instance, history will allow for
more integration than will mathematics.
Professional Knowledge
The professional knowledge component introduces students to teaching and its
theoretical underpinnings. Here one finds courses with such labels as educational
psychology, administration, history, philosophy of education, sociology of education,
policy studies, social foundations, curriculum, instruction, pedagogy, and
methods of teaching. The arguments for integrating gender studies into the more
theoretical parts of professional knowledge are similar to those for its integration
into general education, but here the concern is for the understanding of education,
schools, and teaching. This part of teacher education provides the student
with a theoretical understanding of the profession. Teaching has been described
as “women’s paid work”; 21 that is, traditionally women have been well represented,
even overrepresented, in the teaching profession even at times when their
representation in other professions has been negligible. Although women have
dominated the ranks of the profession, their voice has not dominated theoretical

424 ALLEN T. PEARSON & PATRICIA T. ROOKE
discussions of education. Integrating gender studies will bring their voice forward,
resulting in a fuller understanding, or more complete picture, of education.
The relationship between the opening discussion of mainstreaming and the
issue of voice is crucial. Mainstreaming content, it has been argued, has
pedagogical implications for both teaching style and methodological approach.
The female voice, articulating as it does “different ways of knowing,” will
influence the teaching of professional aspects of a wide range of teaching
activities. The dynamics between the two — mainstreamed content and professional
knowledge — will generate a wider epistemological framework. We do not
know what this will look like. To “know” in this sense would contravene the
concept of transformation itself, which suggests an on-going involvement, a
laboratory, if you will, of experimentation, trial, and error. Neither is the ensuing
debate predictable. We appreciate, for example, one reviewer’s concerns that the
discussion of sex differences (even a re-emphasis on women’s voice) may reinforce
these very differences, that it cannot be assured that faculty have more than
commonsense views about sex differences, and that all areas of knowledge and
teaching must be scrutinized constantly with the gender dimension in mind. 22
Notwithstanding these concerns, this more complete picture of the theoretical
bases of education and teaching encompasses many issues, among them the role
of women in the administration of schools; possible psychological differences
between males and females in the ways that people learn and develop; sex-role
stereotyping; differential forms of education for girls in the past and differential
opportunities for girls and boys in the present; and feminist approaches to moral
education. These issues, representing some of the concerns identified to date in
scholarship on women in education, ought to be part of a complete program in
the development of professional knowledge. 23 The integration of gender studies
also leads us to ask new questions. One area of concern is research on sex
differences in education, which has led and continues to lead to the oppression
of women. Another is the male standard that continues to inform curriculum
development. 24 These raise serious questions for the study of education. No claim
to knowledge can be considered beyond debate or question. But to deny legitimate
and scholarly approaches a place in the debate is an equal mistake. Students
in teacher education programs should become participants in the theoretical
discussions that define and defend our profession. For them to become full participants,
the full range of these debates must be an integral part of teacher
preparation programs.
As well as adding to our understanding of the more theoretical parts of professional
education, the study of women in education has added to our understanding
of the methodology of teaching. Our knowledge about gender differences in
the motivation for and selection of subjects can give us important information
about how to treat subjects in schools. Teachers need to be aware of social
structures that create such differences. More fundamentally, the development of
a feminist pedagogy would need to be studied. 25 Approaches to teaching that rely

GENDER STUDIES AND TEACHER EDUCATION 425
on personal experience and autobiography need to be integrated with our more
traditional styles of teaching.
Two catchwords in current use in the professional preparation of teachers are
“effectiveness” and “reflection.” Teacher educators want, at least for the present,
teachers to be both effective in and reflective about their teaching. The integration
of gender studies will contribute to both. Teachers who are aware of
differences between females and males will be able to take these into account in
their teaching; in so doing they will be more effective in their teaching than if
they were to teach in ignorance of these differences. As well, teachers’ greater
knowledge and understanding will enable them to be more reflective in their
teaching. To reflect on one’s teaching requires that one has a knowledge background
against which one can place present experience and from which one can
begin to understand that experience. To expand the teacher’s understanding of
the profession is one way to help the teacher become more reflective about
practice. 26
Practice
We now turn to the final component of a teacher education program: practice.
To begin, and to be very practical, one of the authors recently served as a faculty
consultant for some student teachers doing their practicum in English and language
arts at the junior high school level. One day, a student teacher had a very
lively discussion with her class. The students were so interested in the topic that
they volunteered all comments, and the student teacher did not call on students
for their views. After the lesson, the faculty consultant asked the student teacher,
“In that discussion, did you notice that not one female student said a word?” The
student teacher had not noticed this; that someone always had something to say
without her having to call on students was enough to suggest class discussion
was going well. The student teacher and faculty consultant then had a discussion
about how students at this age display assertiveness in differential ways, about
the social expectations for “good boys” and “good girls,” about the ways girls
and boys see themselves at this point in their lives. They also discussed whether
teachers should reinforce this kind of position or whether they should try to
encourage girls to participate in class discussion. The student teacher opted for
the latter view.
We recognize there is nothing profound about this case. But this discussion
would not have taken place if the faculty consultant had not had a little background
knowledge in gender studies, since it was information from this area of
knowledge that provoked the faculty consultant to pay attention to the gender of
those participating in the class discussion. In this way gender studies was integrated
into the student teaching component of the teacher education program. As
the practice component is where the knowledge and skills obtained in the other

426 ALLEN T. PEARSON & PATRICIA T. ROOKE
three components are put to use, if the integration of gender studies into the
professional preparation of teachers is justified, it follows that it is important that
gender studies be integrated into the teaching practice component.
CONCLUSION
We began with a quotation reminding us that teaching is a political act. Teaching
teachers is of course no less a political act. The decision to mainstream gender
studies in teacher education is a political act that we have here tried to defend.
Our arguments have treated the issue in a broad political way, as an issue concerned
with the good of society and its members. To show how mainstreaming
gender studies contributes to teacher education is not just to make some points
about the preparation of teachers, it is as well to ask us to think about the kinds
of lives we want to lead and the kind of society we want to live in. Teachers in
some, perhaps small, ways affect the attitudes of the young as they mature into
members of society. Teacher educators, perhaps in even smaller ways, affect the
attitudes that teachers bring to their classrooms. To advocate the mainstreaming
of gender studies is therefore to make a commitment to a view of the world that
is to be presented to children in schools. We believe our commitments are clear;
we hope our arguments are persuasive.
NOTES
1
We thank the anonymous peer reviewers for comments that helped us improve this article.
2
This program is complemented by a similar plan for Afro-American undergraduates. See Evelyn
Torton Beck, Sandra C. Green, Diana R. Jackson, and Betty Schmitz, “The Feminist Transformation
of a University: A Case Study,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 18, nos. 1/2 (1990): 174–78.
3 We thank Ann Hall of the University of Alberta for her summary “Curriculum Transformation,
Integration and/or Balancing,” April 1988. The following include only some of the numerous case
studies: Bonnie Spanier, Alexander Bloom, and Darlene Boroviak, eds., Gender Integration
Projects Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman, 1984); Jo Ann M. Fritsche, ed., Toward Excellence and
Equity: The Scholarship on Women as a Catalyst for Change in the University (Orono, Me.:
University of Maine Press, 1985); Margaret L. Anderson, “Changing the Curriculum in Higher
Education,” Signs 12, no. 2 (1987): 222–54; Betty Schmitz, Myra Dinerstein, and Nancy Muirs,
“Initiating a Curriculum Integration Project: Lessons for the Campus and the Region,” in Women’s
Place in the Academy: Transforming the Liberal Arts Curricula, ed. Marilyn Schuster and Susan
Van Dyne (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Allanheld, 1985): 116–29; K. Merrill, “Wheaton College:
Integrating the Study of Women Into the Liberal Arts,” Women’s Studies Quarterly, 10, no. 1
(1982): 24–25; M. Schuster and S. Van Dyne, “Placing Women and the Liberal Arts: Stages of
Curriculum Transformation,” Harvard Educational Review 54, no. 4 (1984): 413–28; and P.
Brown, “Montana State University: Seeking Women’s Equity Through Curriculum Revision,”
Women’s Studies Quarterly 10, no. 1 (1982): 25–26.
4
The “Restoring Women to History” series (1988; revised edition, 1990) consists of teaching
packets and material for Western civilization and U.S. history courses.
5
Susan Hardy Aitken et al., “Trying Transformations: Curricula Integration and the Problem of
Resistance,” Signs 12, no. 2 (1987): 255–75.

GENDER STUDIES AND TEACHER EDUCATION 427
6 We thank Rosemary Shade for sharing this proposal with our department. Also see M. McGowan,
“A New Opportunity for Women’s Studies: Inclusion in a Revised Core Curriculum,” Frontiers
8, no. 3 (1986): 110–13, and P. McIntosh, “Warning: The New Scholarship on Women May Be
Hazardous to Your Ego,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 10, no. 1 (1982): 29–31.
7 Aitken et al., p. 258.
8
Ibid.
9
See Judith Waltzer, “New Knowledge or a New Discipline?” Change (1982): 21–23; and Betty
Schmitz, “Current Status Report on Curriculum Integration Projects,” Women’s Studies Quarterly
10, no. 3 (1982), 16–17. For a Canadian perspective, see J. Gaskell, A. McLaren, and M.
Novogrodsky, Claiming an Education (Toronto: Our Schools/Ourselves Education Foundation,
1989).
10
Two interesting explications of this issue are found in N. Glazer, “Questioning Eclectic Practice
in Curriculum Change: A Marxist Perspective,” Signs 12, no. 2 (1987): 293–304, and L. Kramer
and G. T. Martin, Jr., “Mainstreaming Gender: Some Thoughts for the Non-Specialist,” Teaching
Sociology 16, no. 2 (1988): 133–40.
11
Peggy McIntosh, “A Note on Terminology,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 11, no. 2 (1983): 29–30.
The author comments on the terminological confusion as reflecting the profundity of the activity
(of mainstreaming). See also Nan Koohane, “Our Mission Should Not Be Merely to ‘Reclaim’
a Legacy of Scholarship — We Must Expand on It,” Chronicle of Higher Education 32 (2 April
1986): 88.
12
Sandra Coyner, “The Ideas of Mainstreaming: Women’s Studies and the Disciplines,” Frontiers
8 (1986): 87–95; C. Stimpson, “New Consciousness, Old Institutions: The Need for Reconciliation”
(unpublished paper); and Leslie R. Wolfe, “O Brave New Curriculum: Feminism and the
Future of the Liberal Arts,” Theory Into Practice 25, no. 4 (1986): 284–89 all discuss these issues
as part of their arguments.
13
See Mary Kay Thompson Tetreault, “The Journey from Male Defined to Gender Balanced Education,”
Theory Into Practice 25, no. 4 (1986): 227–34 and C. Lougee, “Women, History and the
Humanities,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 9, no. 1 (1981): 4–7. For a careful discussion of the
significance of “separate spheres” historically, both as trope and as an ideology, including how
its assumptions have shaped scholarship and needs to be re-examined, see Linda Kerber, “Separate
Spheres, Female Worlds, Women’s Place: The Rhetoric of Women’s History,” Journal of
American History 75 (June 1988): 9–39.
14
Lawrence A. Cremin, The Education of the Educating Professions (Washington, D.C.: The American
Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 1977): 12–13.
15
For a defense see, for example, Allen T. Pearson, The Teacher: Theory and Practice in Teacher
Education (New York: Routledge, 1989), Chapter 8.
16
William Hare, Open-mindedness and Education (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press,
1979): 9.
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid., p. 65. Emphasis in the original.
19
The discussion here bears some relation to Hare’s point on unconscious bias as possible evidence
of close-mindedness; cf. op. cit., pp. 79–80.
20
Although the particular character trait of sensitivity that we have identified is little discussed, it
is closely related to a central theme in moral education and moral philosophy. See, for example,
Nel Noddings, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1984) and Debra Shogan, Care and Moral Motivation (Toronto:
OISE Press, 1988).

428 ALLEN T. PEARSON & PATRICIA T. ROOKE
21
Michael W. Apple and Susan Jungck, “‘You Don’t Have to be a Teacher to Teach This Unit’:
Teaching, Technology, and Gender in the Classroom,” American Educational Research Journal
27, no. 2 (1990): 232.
22
An interesting variety of perspectives on this is found in Kathleen Weiler, Women Teaching for
Change: Gender, Class and Power (South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin and Garvey, 1988) and Frieda
Forman et al., eds., Feminism and Education: A Canadian Perspective (Toronto: Centre for
Women’s Studies in Education, 1990).
23
For a position on gender studies in the professional component of teacher education, see Daniel
P. Liston and Kenneth M. Zeichner, “Teacher Education and the Social Context of Schooling:
Issues for Curriculum Development,” American Educational Research Journal 27, no. 4 (1990):
630–36.
24
Nel Noddings, “Feminist Critiques in the Professions,” in Review of Research in Education 16,
C. Cazden, ed. (Washington, D.C.: AERA, 1990): 407–9.
25
Ibid., p. 411.
26
See Pearson, op. cit., pp. 144–46.
Allen T. Pearson and Patricia T. Rooke are in the Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty
of Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2G5.

Creating a Professional Standard of Moral Conduct
for Canadian Teachers: A Work in Progress
James R. Covert
memorial university of newfoundland
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the rights of all Canadians. Historically,
Canadian legislation has allowed denominational schools to exercise the rights of the
group over the individual rights of teachers. Denominational doctrine is used as a bona
fide definition of moral conduct in these situations. In public schools, the standards of
moral behaviour are less clear. In this article I investigate the role of the local community
in setting moral standards for public schools by reviewing several court cases. I suggest
that public school teachers may best protect their human rights by asserting their professional
status through collective bargaining and peer review.
La charte des droits et libertés protège les droits de tout Canadien et toute Canadienne.
Depuis toujours, la législation canadienne permet aux droits des écoles confessionnelles
d’avoir préséance sur les droits des enseignants et des enseignantes. La doctrine confessionnelle
sert à définir la conduite morale dans un tel contexte. Dans les écoles publiques,
ces critères ne sont pas aussi nettement définis. Dans cet article, l’auteur étudie le rôle de
la communauté locale dans l’établissement de critères moraux dans les écoles publiques
en passant en revue plusieurs procès. Il soutient que c’est en affirmant leur statut
professionnel par la négociation collective et l’évaluation par leurs pairs que les enseignants
et enseignantes des écoles publiques réussiront peut-être le mieux à protéger leurs
droits.
THE CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
The early eighties saw the culmination of a long legal and political process to
enshrine certain human rights in the Canadian Constitution. With the passage of
the Constitution Act of 1982, 1 including within it the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, the Government of Canada claimed certain human rights and freedoms
should be granted to all Canadians. Jean Chrétien, then Minister of Justice, outlined
this sentiment clearly in a preface to The Charter of Rights and Freedoms:
A Guide for Canadians:
In a free and democratic society, it is important that citizens know exactly what their
rights and freedoms are. ...Inacountry like Canada . . . the only way to provide equal
protection to everyone is to enshrine those basic rights and freedoms in the constitution.
To be sure, there have been a host of federal and provincial laws guaranteeing some
of our fundamental rights and freedoms. However, these laws have varied from province
429 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

430 JAMES R. COVERT
to province, with the result that basic rights have been unevenly protected through our
country. Now that our rights will be written into the Constitution, it will be a constant
reminder to our political leaders that they must wield their authority with caution and
wisdom. 2
In making these claims, Mr. Chrétien voiced the concerns of many Canadians.
The Charter was to ensure that fundamental freedoms would be available to all
Canadians. These universal Charter freedoms were to be administered by the
courts in such a way that different cultural groups within Canadian society, as
well as individual citizens, would be treated fairly.
Section 2 sets out individual fundamental freedoms.
Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and
other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association. 3
Section 7, together with other preceding sections, spells out how these fundamental
freedoms are legally protected.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be
deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. 4
Ensuring individual freedoms in the Canadian multicultural context is a difficult
task, particularly because of the origins of the nation and the terms of Confederation.
Nevertheless, Section 27 of the Charter is an interpretive injunction
that gives direction to judicial interpretation in light of the multicultural character
of Canadian society.
This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and
enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians. 5
To ensure that the Canadian mosaic endures, it is necessary to protect the rights
of constituent groups, sometimes to the detriment of the individual. There is,
however, still a commitment in the Charter to the exercise of individual rights.
This article is about the tension between group and individual rights as it relates
to teachers; more specifically, it is about the protection of the human rights of
individual teachers from arbitrary infringement by local school authorities.
Section 1 of the Charter recognizes that individual rights are not unlimited and
emphasizes the importance of the judicial system’s tempering spirit.

A PROFESSIONAL STANDARD OF MORAL CONDUCT 431
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and
freedoms set out in it subject to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can
be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. 6
One other section of the Charter is noteworthy because of its importance to
the human rights of teachers. Section 29 reaffirms the rights of certain denominational
schools previously granted under Section 93 of the British North America
Act.
Nothing in this Charter abrogates or derogates from any rights or privileges guaranteed
by or under the Constitution of Canada in respect of denominational, separate or dissident
schools. 7
The specified schools can exercise their rights to maintain the religious integrity
of their programs. The supremacy of these religious group rights over individual
rights is clarified in the following passage.
This ensures, for example, that neither the freedom of conscience and religion clause nor
the equality rights clause, will be interpreted so as to strike down existing constitutional
rights respecting the establishment and state financing of schools operated on a religious
basis, with students and teachers selected according to their adherence to a particular
religious faith. 8
The courts had the opportunity to weigh the human rights of teachers against
the rights of denominational schools several times in the eighties. Some of these
were post-Charter cases but none was heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.
The picture will remain somewhat confused, therefore, until the Supreme Court
of Canada tries some cases involving the human rights of teachers. Education in
Canada is a provincial matter, and judicial rulings made in one province need not
determine policy in another province. Although all judicial systems strive to
apply the law fairly and reasonably, judicial interpretations vary from one jurisdiction
to another. It is unusual, however, for a provincial court to ignore rulings
from another provincial jurisdiction.
THE BONA FIDE QUALIFICATION AND DENOMINATIONAL RIGHTS
All Canadian teachers are free, as citizens, to exercise their religious freedom.
When, however, the exercise of their religious preference interferes with the
religious board’s ability to impart denominational doctrine, the teacher may be
dismissed. The courts have constitutionally affirmed that denominational schools
may legally discriminate against teachers on religious grounds. The Supreme
Court of Canada has ruled that for denominational school boards to maintain
their religious mandate they must be permitted to employ and maintain a teaching
staff committed to denominational school’s religious character.

432 JAMES R. COVERT
JUDICIAL RULINGS THAT UPHOLD DENOMINATIONAL RIGHTS
The Caldwell Case
Perhaps the best known of the cases involving the religious rights of teachers is
the Caldwell case. It began in 1979 prior to passage of the Charter, and was tried
under the British Columbia Code of Human Rights, eventually reaching the Supreme
Court of Canada. Mrs. Caldwell was dismissed from her teaching position
in a Roman Catholic school for marrying a divorced Protestant in a civil ceremony.
Mr. Justice McIntyre, ruling for the Supreme Court of Canada, emphasized
the religious nature of the school and the importance of the teacher as a
religious role model.
The relationship of the teacher to the student enables the teacher to form the mind and
attitudes of the student and the church depends not so much on the usual form of academic
instruction as on the teachers who, in imitation of Christ, are required to reveal the
Christian message in their work and as well in all aspects of their behaviour. The teacher
is expected to be an example consistent with the teachings of the church, and must
proclaim the Catholic philosophy by his or her conduct within and without the school. 9
The Roman Catholic school board claimed that Mrs. Caldwell could not serve
as an appropriate moral role model for her students because she had failed to
abide by Roman Catholic doctrine. Although her professional competence was
not questioned, her marriage outside the church was seen as an abridgement of
a bona fide religious qualification.
Excluding consideration of the religious requirement, there is absolutely nothing in the
case that would justify the dismissal of the appellant as a reasonable cause. In fact, her
conduct and competence as a teacher of mathematics and commercial subjects is acknowledged
by all. Therefore, any justification for the non-renewal of her teaching
contract must be found if at all in the absence of a bona fide qualification. 10
In that same school, roughly 30 percent of the teachers were not of the Roman
Catholic faith. The Supreme Court recognized this fact, but still claimed that denominational
adherence was a bona fide qualification for employment and could
be used as a reasonable cause for dismissal.
Although it would prefer to have a full Catholic teaching faculty, it has not always been
possible for the school to do so. In the academic year of 1977–78 that school employed
20 teachers of whom six were non-Catholics. Two were of the Islamic faith and four were
Christians of non-Catholic denominations. Before employing a Catholic teacher, the
school requires a certificate from the teacher’s parish priest to the effect that he or she
is a practising Catholic. For non-Catholic teachers no such certificate is required but the
nature and purpose of the Catholic school is stressed and explained and steps are taken

A PROFESSIONAL STANDARD OF MORAL CONDUCT 433
to ensure that non-Catholic teachers observe the principles and practices of their own
particular faith. The continued practice of the individual’s faith is a requirement for
continued employment. In short the school expected that non-Catholic teachers would support
the religious approach of the school. 11
Therefore, adherence to the Roman Catholic doctrine constitutes a bona fide
qualification only for Roman Catholics. Non-Catholic teachers must exhibit
authentic religiosity in terms of their own faith, but it is clear that Roman
Catholic teachers must meet a bona fide qualification from which other teachers
in the same school are exempt. Thus, denominational schools maintain a double
standard of employment validated by the Supreme Court of Canada. In making
this ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada reaffirmed the considerable Canadian
legislative tradition enabling the right of religious school boards to maintain the
religious character of denominational schools. The rights of the denominational
group outweigh the rights of the individual teacher.
The Walsh Case
In Newfoundland, the issue of a bona fide religious qualification arose in 1988,
after the ruling in the Caldwell Case, and was interpreted by Mr. Justice Marshall
under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms at the Appeals Court level. Mr. Walsh
was a Roman Catholic at the time he was employed, but later became a member
of the Salvation Army and married a woman from his newly chosen faith. He
was dismissed from his teaching position because he failed to continue to uphold
the bona fide qualification required at the time of his employment. It was argued
that he could no longer be an appropriate religious role model for his students
because he had, by example, repudiated Roman Catholic doctrine. Mr. Walsh
contended that he was willing and able to teach the Roman Catholic religion to
his students because he had been a practising Roman Catholic for twenty-eight
years. The Roman Catholic Board claimed that he could not be a living example
of the faith because of his actions in private life. When Mr. Walsh contended
that his human rights had been violated under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
Mr. Justice Marshall ruled:
This is not to say, as intimated by appellants’ counsel, that requiring religious conformance
as a condition of employment renders Mr. Walsh’s rights to freedom of conscience
and religion illusory. These rights exist. However, they can not be exercised to impair the
right of the School Board to operate its denominational school in accordance with bona
fide religious beliefs and practices for the benefit of all members of that faith. Where a
conflict exists, s.22 of the Charter clearly requires the scale to be tipped in favour of the
general right. 12
Mr. Justice Marshall used the precedent set by the Supreme Court of Canada in
the Caldwell case to rule against Mr. Walsh because of his failure to maintain

434 JAMES R. COVERT
a bona fide religious qualification, clearly demonstrating that a teacher’s Charter
right to religious freedom can be overridden by the rights of a denominational
group as specified by Section 29 of the Charter. All levels of the judicial system
indicated that Mr. Walsh was an educationally competent teacher. He was dismissed
because he failed to meet an additional qualification, that of appropriate
religiosity.
Mr. Walsh’s competence as a teacher was never an issue. At issue was his serious
departure from the denominational standards accepted by him as a condition of
employment and the potential ill effects upon his students that could reasonably be
anticipated as a result of their being instructed in the tenets of a particular faith by one
who had openly repudiated that faith. 13
This is a second instance where an educationally competent teacher was dismissed
for failing to uphold the bona fide religious qualification.
The Walsh case was similar to the Caldwell case in one other aspect. This
Newfoundland Roman Catholic school board also employed teachers who were
not Roman Catholic — the arbitration board ruling made this fact quite clear.
Non-Catholic teachers (and some 10–15% of the Board’s teaching staff fall into that
category) are expected to show sympathy toward this policy [requiring religious
conformance]. 14
Section 29 therefore allows teachers of different religions to be treated differently
within the same school board. Because some teachers employed by the school
board have a bona fide religious qualification and others do not, a Roman
Catholic teacher may be held to a different, and some would say higher, moral
standard than a non-Roman Catholic hired by the same board. The fact that this
bona fide religious qualification is applied over and above other professional
qualifications means that some teachers may be dismissed for things that are
tolerated in others teaching in the same school. It may seem strange that teachers
can be dismissed for failing to uphold a bona fide qualification that several of
their colleagues may never have met, but some may see this inconsistency as an
acceptable price to pay for maintaining a denominational system.
Beginning teachers should be fully informed of their duties and obligations
prior to employment. In denominational schools, educational competence is not
enough to be and remain employed. Teachers who begin as practising members
of the employing denominational faith should realize that any change in their
religious status may jeopardize their future employment with that denominational
board. If teachers must accept these restrictions on their human rights in order
to be employed, at least they should be able to base their decision on a full
understanding of their situation.

A PROFESSIONAL STANDARD OF MORAL CONDUCT 435
It is also important that Canadian teachers be given the option of working in
a non-denominational setting. Interestingly, in Newfoundland all schools are currently
affiliated with a Christian religion. If teachers do not have the option of
teaching for a non-denominational school board, then their human rights are in
greater jeopardy than those of teachers who chose to relinquish their human
rights in order to be hired by a denominational board.
JUDICIAL RULINGS THAT QUESTION DENOMINATIONAL RIGHTS RULINGS
In the two previous cases, due process was the method used to protect the human
rights of teachers. Another option may exist: teacher associations may be able to
structure their collective agreements to better protect teacher rights. This is
exemplified by the Kersey case, heard prior to the Caldwell ruling, in 1982.
The Kersey Case
In 1980, Mrs. Kersey, a non-Catholic, was hired on a one-year contract by the
Essex County Roman Catholic School Board in Ontario. Her contract was
renewed for a further year because the board could not find a qualified Roman
Catholic teacher to fill the position. Following her second appointment with the
board, Mrs. Kersey’s position was declared redundant and she was placed on a
recall list. The next year a Roman Catholic teacher, who was lower on the recall
list, was hired to fill a position for which Mrs. Kersey had the requisite professional
qualifications. The teacher association argued that Mrs. Kersey should be
reappointed because she ranked higher on the recall list and the advertised position
made no reference to religion as a qualification for employment.
The Board of Arbitration ruled that the collective agreement did not require
religious qualification as a condition of employment. They stated:
Therefore, since there is nothing in the Collective Agreement . . . indicating that Roman
Catholicity is a basic requirement in all recall situations, and since denomination was not
included within the list of qualifications specified on the particular job posting in question,
there is no basis on which to conclude that being a Roman Catholic is a “required
qualification” for this available position. ... 15
The arbitration board ruling went on to address the relevance of a bona fide
religious qualification for holding a teaching position in the eighties.
It seems to us an obvious fallacy in the Employer’s position that it is here arguing that
Roman Catholicism is an inherent and basic qualification for any full-time teaching position,
including the one at issue here, while, at the same time, stating that non-Catholic
teachers have been, and continue to be, employed precisely because they have been found
to be qualified for a certain teaching position where no qualified Roman Catholic is

436 JAMES R. COVERT
available. To find that Roman Catholicism is a fundamental qualification for a full-time
classroom teaching position within this system would compel a conclusion that the non-
Catholics employed are, therefore, not qualified when, in fact that was the very reason for
their employment in the first place. ...[O]ne would not reasonably expect a School
Board in the 1980’s to blindly assume in all cases that, simply by the fact of Roman
Catholicity, a teacher is qualified to teach various academic subjects, even religion, where
a non-Catholic with identical other “qualifications” is not. Nor, it seems to us, does the
fact of denomination in and of itself necessarily ensure the Board’s stated aim of an
educational service consistent with the philosophy of Catholic education regardless of the
individual teacher’s personal commitment to, or performance of, his religion. 16
The Board ruled in favour of Mrs. Kersey and she regained her position, due in
part to the wording of the collective agreement. This ruling suggests that there
may be room for teacher associations to resolve the inconsistency of the bona
fide qualification within the framework of their collective agreements.
The Barron-Babb Case
The question of religion being a bona fide job qualification arose in Newfoundland
again in the Barron-Babb case in 1983, in which the arbitration board was
also concerned about the relevance of a religious credential in a situation wherein
one teacher association represents both denominational and nondenominational
teachers in collective bargaining. Ms. Barron-Babb was a Roman Catholic teacher
dismissed for marrying a Protestant in the Anglican Church. Ms. Barron-Babb
sought special dispensation to marry outside the Roman Catholic religion, but
due to circumstances beyond her control, she had to marry her Protestant fiance
in a non-Catholic ceremony. She vowed to remain a practising Roman Catholic
and to teach the children in the same manner that had won her a tenured appointment
one year earlier. The arbitration board ruled in her favour.
The Association does not, in the bargaining process, take cognizance of the claim that
teachers professing the Roman Catholic faith have more or fewer rights under the Collective
Agreement than teachers professing other faiths. The Association, furthermore, and
where the argument of teaching by example is concerned, is willing to admit a substantive
difference between a teacher who does not nor ever did profess the Roman Catholic faith
and one who once did so but who is not now in good standing in the church. That the
purpose of Roman Catholic education may be advanced by the former, even though he
or she might be Protestant or indeed, a non-Christian, but not by the latter, would appear
to be somewhat incongruous.
Again the arbitrators must agree that, within the context of the Collective Agreement,
the imposition of special sanctions against a particular group of teachers is discriminatory
and contrary to the principles of natural justice and of equity. 17
When the case was appealed to the Supreme Court of Newfoundland, Mr.
Justice Goodrich also found in favour of the teacher, but stated that the arbi-

A PROFESSIONAL STANDARD OF MORAL CONDUCT 437
tration board had made the right ruling for the wrong reason. The case was won
on a legal technicality, since the Minister responsible had not signed the by-law
governing the case.
These two cases, Kersey and Barron-Babb, show the importance of due
process and indicate that it is possible for teacher associations to write safeguards
for teacher human rights into collective agreements. It should also be noted that
two arbitration boards in two different provinces questioned the appropriateness
of religion as a bona fide qualification.
THE ROLE OF THE COMMUNITY IN DETERMINING AN APPROPRIATE ROLE MODEL
FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS
The Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the Caldwell case has gone a long way
toward defining what standards should be observed in certain denominational
situations. Teachers in non-denominational settings, however, do not have denominational
doctrine to provide guidelines of appropriate behaviour. Collective
agreements, precedents set by arbitration board rulings, and judicial review all
become primary sources of information about what counts as appropriate teacher
behaviour in both denominational and non-denominational schools. It is therefore
important for judicial rulings to be understandable and consistent. The following
cases indicate possible inconsistencies in judicial rulings, and raise the question
of who should set policy for appropriate teacher behaviour in the public school
setting. They deal with the private lives of teachers and the part that the local
community plays in determining what should count as appropriate teacher behaviour.
The standards for non-denominational schools are still evolving, but can be
traced back to the denominational cases already discussed. Two additional denominational
cases, the Casagrande case and the Bonnier case, indicate how the
importance of an appropriate lifestyle in a denominational school setting might
influence the interpretation of appropriate teacher behaviour in the public school.
These cases also show that similar life situations can lead to opposite judicial
rulings in different provincial jurisdictions.
The Casagrande Case
In 1986 the Roman Catholic School Board of Hinton, Alberta, was accused of
violating a teacher’s Charter rights by interfering in her private life and
discriminating against her on the basis of sex. Ms. Casagrande was dismissed
from her teaching position when she became pregnant out of wedlock for a
second time. Mr. Justice Holmes, presiding over the arbitration hearing, indicated
that teachers must behave morally in their private lives as well as on the job.

438 JAMES R. COVERT
In line with this [Roman Catholic] philosophy, the board adopted a policy which required
each of its teachers, firstly, “to conduct himself and herself in a manner both in the school
and in the community which is consistent with the philosophy of the school district”;
secondly, “to participate in the faith community as a positive example to the students and
parents.” 18
The school board argued that Ms. Casagrande failed to live up to Roman
Catholic doctrine by engaging in pre-marital sexual intercourse. The ensuing
pregnancy was an indicator of this inappropriate lifestyle, but it was the lifestyle
that was objectionable, not the pregnancy.
The evidence did not indicate the appellant was treated differently than would be any
other Catholic teacher, male or female. ...[T]he alleged discrimination was based not
on pregnancy or the sex of the appellant but her act of sexual intercourse out of wedlock.
That kind of misconduct would seem attributable to both males and females. 19
According to Mr. Justice Holmes, this was not a case of sexual discrimination,
because the lifestyle attributed to Ms. Casagrande could also be adopted by male
teachers. Both males and females must abide by the same denominational doctrine.
If male teachers are caught engaging in a similarly inappropriate lifestyle,
they too may be dismissed. The ruling indicates that all Roman Catholic teachers
must live a lifestyle consistent with the religious doctrine of the Roman Catholic
Church. Therefore, Roman Catholic doctrine should provide moral principles for
all Canadian Roman Catholic teachers regardless of provincial boundaries or the
preference of the local school boards, and all Roman Catholic teachers employed
by Roman Catholic school boards across the country should have a clear understanding
of their rights and obligations.
This ruling indicates that what a Roman Catholic teacher does in her or his
private life may be cause for dismissal even though it does not involve marriage
outside the church. This precedent based on lifestyle may also form the basis for
rulings made in cases concerned with teacher behaviour in public schools.
The Bonnier Case
Prior to the Casagrande case, a similar question of lifestyle, this time for a male
Roman Catholic teacher in a Roman Catholic school in Laval, went as far as the
Quebec Superior Court. In 1978, Mr. Bonnier posed nude with his co-habitant,
Miss Nude Quebec, who had been a student of his the previous year. The picture
was taken at a private nudist club and was published in a Montreal newspaper,
Le Nouveau Samedi. The school board suspended Mr. Bonnier without pay for
six weeks, and Mr. Bonnier appealed his suspension to a board of arbitration.
The arbitration board ruling carefully considered Roman Catholic doctrine, but
also took contemporary morality into account.

A PROFESSIONAL STANDARD OF MORAL CONDUCT 439
The Board must consider the times in which we live. The same act carried out 15 or 20
years ago would have caused a mini-revolution with considerable consequences. 20
The arbitration board said nothing had been presented during the hearing to
indicate that Mr. Bonnier’s nudity was contrary to its understanding of Roman
Catholic doctrine. In addition, it indicated that the incident had taken place
during the summer, so there was little disruption to the school. Further to this
point, the arbitration board said the Laval School Board had been effective in
quieting any parental concerns. It said, however, that had there been a greater
public outcry, Mr. Bonnier might have lost his job.
Without saying that he has done anything wrong, however, in agreeing to pose nude with
his girlfriend at a public event, he was risking causing a controversy that would have
made it difficult to carry out his duties and might have justified his employers’ adopting
the most severe disciplinary measures. By acting in this way, Mr. Bonnier risked publicity
which could have been disastrous for him. Can we be sure that the parents of his pupils
would have accepted the fact that he was living with an ex-student and entered a nudist
competition with her? Might the parents not have believed that their own girls would have
been at risk in having him as a teacher? 21
This raises the question of local control even in instances where Roman
Catholic doctrine governs the behaviour of denominational teachers. Had the
incident caused an outcry from the parents, and had it not been handled so well
by the school board, the ruling might have been different.
Because Mr. Bonnier had been an exemplary teacher for eleven years, and
because the incident caused little public concern, the arbitration board pronounced
the suspension “draconian, disproportionate and totally unacceptable.” 22
They ordered that Mr. Bonnier be totally exonerated.
The grievance is upheld, and the employer is ordered to cancel the suspension and remove
the letter from his file, and reimburse him, with interest, for the money he lost. 23
The arbitration board added an interesting footnote to its ruling.
Without discussing or contesting his opinions on nudism or the way he spends his leisure
time, we hope that the present decision will serve as a warning to him to be more careful
in the future. 24
It is difficult to see how complete exoneration would serve as a warning to Mr.
Bonnier, or how it would help to provide guidelines for other Roman Catholic
teachers. The school boards in both the Casagrande and the Bonnier cases saw
the teacher’s action as contrary to Roman Catholic doctrine, but the judicial
interpretation in the two cases was less consistent. In the Casagrande case, the
hint of sexual discrimination arises, but the real concern in the Bonnier case is

440 JAMES R. COVERT
whether the arbitration board’s decision would have been swayed by a louder
outcry from the local community. It is interesting that when the school board
appealed the Bonnier ruling, the Quebec Superior Court upheld the finding of the
arbitration board, saying that the board was within its rights when its members
used their own personal knowledge and experience to interpret Roman Catholic
doctrine.
In Alberta, Ms. Casagrande was dismissed from her teaching position for
living an inappropriate lifestyle that happened to manifest itself in pregnancy. In
Quebec, Mr. Bonnier was judged not to be living an inappropriate lifestyle even
though he was co-habiting with a student from his class of the previous year, and
allowed a photograph of himself in the nude with his partner to be published in
a newspaper. Although the premarital living arrangements in both instances may
have been similar, the evidence of their co-habitation was quite different. The
resultant disciplinary action imposed by the judicial system was diametrically
opposed even though Roman Catholic doctrine governed both cases. This suggests
that local preference may play a role in judicial rulings even beyond the
school board level.
The Shewan Case
Another case that involves the local community defining what should count as
an appropriate teacher behaviour made its way to the highest court in British
Columbia in 1987. The Shewan case arose from another instance of teacher nudity;
this time, however, there was a public outcry, and it occurred while school
was in session. The case differs from the previous cases because it occurred in
a non-denominational school and therefore the teacher’s behaviour was not governed
by denominational doctrine.
John and Ilze Shewan were both teaching in the public school system in Abbotsford,
British Columbia. John took a photograph of Ilze posing semi-nude that
was published in Gallery magazine. The couple was married at the time and the
picture was modest compared to the full frontal nudity of Mr. Bonnier and Miss
Nude Quebec. The school board suspended both teachers for six weeks and the
Shewans appealed the decision.
Because Mr. and Mrs. Shewan were employed in a non-denominational
school, the question of what should count as a standard of teacher behaviour
arose. This standard could have been derived from either the local community
or the larger Canadian society. In the first appeal, the Board of Reference
reversed the school board’s decision and ruled in favour of the Shewans, saying:
The question we believe that should be asked is not whether the Shewans’ conduct fell
below some of the community standards but whether it was within the accepted standards
of tolerance in contemporary Canadian society. 25

A PROFESSIONAL STANDARD OF MORAL CONDUCT 441
The Supreme Court of British Columbia rejected this test of acceptability. In his
ruling, Mr. Justice Bouck stated that teacher conduct should be judged by the
standards recognized in the community where the teachers are employed.
The behaviour of the teacher must satisfy the expectations which the British Columbia
community holds for the educational system. Teachers must maintain the confidence and
respect of their superiors, their peers and in particular, the students, and those who send
their children to our public schools. Teachers must not only be competent, they are
expected to lead by example. Any loss of confidence or respect will impair the system
and have an adverse effect upon those who participate in or rely upon it. That is why a
teacher must maintain a standard of behaviour which most other citizens need not obtain
because they do not have such public responsibilities to fulfil. 26
In making the local community responsible for teachers’ moral standards, Mr.
Justice Bouck established a precedent whereby local community standards, devised
by local school boards, based on local preferences, are more appropriate than
standards established by either a provincial or national view of contemporary
morality. To further clarify his position, Mr. Justice Bouck offered this observation:
If no other teachers are doing this, then it may be misconduct. Evidence of this nature
was not heard by the Board of Reference but I believe I am entitled to draw an inference
from the proven facts as to whether a substantial number of teachers in the Abbotsford
area do indeed publish their nude pictures in men’s magazines. It seems clear they do
not. 27
Apparently if other teachers in the Abbotsford area were in the habit of posing
in the nude, the Shewans would not have been suspended because posing in the
nude might then be considered as appropriate teacher behaviour on local standards.
The exercise of local preference cannot explain the tolerance of nudity in
the Bonnier case, because the local school board suspended Mr. Bonnier based
on their understanding of denominational doctrine. The arbitration board overturned
the school board’s ruling, and the ruling was upheld by the Superior Court
of Quebec. The troublesome part of the Bonnier ruling is the claim that had there
been a greater public outcry, the decision might have been reversed. The arbitration
board’s reference to the possibility of public pressure swaying their decision
lends credence to Mr. Justice Bouck’s decision upholding the local community’s
right to determine appropriate teacher behaviour. These two cases illustrate the
problem of legal situational ethics.
It is difficult for teachers reading these rulings to understand how standards
of moral behaviour should be applied. The apparent lesson to be learned from
Casagrande is not to get caught twice becoming pregnant as a consequence of
engaging in pre-marital sexual intercourse. The lesson in the Bonnier case is less
clear. It may be acceptable to co-habit with a former student and pose in the

442 JAMES R. COVERT
nude for a newspaper photographer, if there is no public outcry, or obvious
evidence of pre-marital sexual intercourse. From the Shewan case, it can be
assumed that teachers living in different communities will have to measure up
to different social standards. That the gamut of appropriate teacher behaviour
ranges from the fixed notions of a denominational doctrine to the rather nebulous
standards of local community preference may be of concern to those just beginning
a teaching career or who are experiencing a significant change in their
traditional lifestyle.
Fearing that school boards may arbitrarily set standards for dismissal, teachers
may become cynical and hypocritical, simply keeping their private lives a secret.
Thus their moral behaviour on the job will not necessarily reflect their true moral
beliefs. This could undermine the whole concept of teacher as moral role model,
or lead to the impossible situation in which school boards would have to invade
the bedrooms of their teachers to determine whether their private lives are consistent
with their professional lives.
THE PROFESSIONAL ALTERNATIVE
Typically, teachers are not free to act in public or in private as other Canadians
might, because they have a responsibility to uphold a moral code non-teachers
need not abide by. This duty to act responsibly places teachers in the company
of such other professionals as doctors, lawyers, and the clergy. Each of these
professional groups are expected to behave both on and off the job in ways
above moral reproach.
This notion of professionalism may provide a solution to some of the problems
raised by the non-denominational case discussed above. If public school
teachers fail to get relief from the due process of the judicial system, or are not
satisfied with protection afforded by their collective agreement, then greater
professional autonomy may provide a more attractive alternative. These solutions
are not as applicable to teachers in denominational schools, who are still governed
by sections 22 and 29 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Such professions as medicine and law have established mechanisms for policing
their own members, based on the autonomy granted to them because of their
knowledge and expertise. These professions are careful to screen candidates for
training programs, construct examinations for entry into practice, and then scrutinize
the moral behaviour of their practitioners through peer review.
Professional teachers suspected of not providing an appropriate role model
could be heard first before a tribunal of peers. Cases would then proceed to the
public courts only if either party was not satisfied. Peer review may be the best
solution for the problems raised in this article and is a powerful reason for the
further professionalization of teachers.
The establishment of such a mechanism for policing the teaching profession
would be a monumental task given the profession’s size and scope, but it might

A PROFESSIONAL STANDARD OF MORAL CONDUCT 443
be the only way to assure teachers’ human rights. Perhaps an understanding of
cases such as these will provide the impetus for teachers to turn to their peers for
protection.
If the Shewan ruling sets precedent in non-denominational settings, and
appropriate teacher behaviour is to be determined by local preference, then a professional
body empowered to investigate, supervise, and discipline its members
is essential to oversee the human rights of teachers, especially in public school
settings. Perhaps this is what Mr. Justice Bouck had in mind when he made his
ruling in the Shewan case. The courts have traditionally been loathe to judge the
competence of professionals. Perhaps Justice Bouck was encouraging teachers
to take matters of judging professional competence into their own hands. It
should be noted that British Columbia has set up a professional body — the
British Columbia College of Teachers — in the years since the Shewan ruling.
Teachers ought not be required to abandon their human rights at the schoolhouse
door. Beginning teachers may enter into an initial contract in ignorance of
the consequences of their actions. In periods of job shortages, teachers may be
so eager for employment that they are willing to overlook the restrictions on their
individual freedoms. Even if the terms of employment are clear and the teacher
understands the obligations and duties at the beginning of employment, life situations
can change over the course of a teaching career. If a mechanism for professional
peer review were in place, a teacher’s behaviour or competence would be
judged first by knowledgable teaching professionals. These professional boards
would establish standards for teacher conduct and advise the courts about the
various personal and professional competencies needed to teach effectively. Due
process could still be pursued for those unsatisfied with the professional tribunal’s
judgement.
This is an excellent time to establish a professional review board because the
teaching profession is on the brink of a massive period of retiring and rehiring.
The teachers of the baby-boom generation will soon make way for new, highly
qualified teachers, graduating from teacher education programs that have selected
their students very carefully. Never has the quality of candidates for the teaching
profession been higher, nor has the climate for further professionalization of
teachers been more favourable. Teachers are more technically expert at their task
and more knowledgable than ever about the reasons underlying the teachinglearning
enterprise. If professionalism is built on knowledge and technical
expertise, then teachers should be more qualified than ever before to accept
professional autonomy.
Teachers graduating from teacher education programs are often told that they
are professional, but it is not always clear what benefits accrue from professional
status. More autonomy, leading to a greater protection of teacher human rights,
provides a strong argument for professionalization.
Educators at all levels need to become more involved in defining what should
count as appropriate role model behaviour for teachers. 28 Teachers as profession-

444 JAMES R. COVERT
als should have a greater say in defining the moral standards of the profession
and should have greater control over the discipline of professional misconduct.
Traditionally the courts have sought guidance from professionals about definitions
of professional competence and the establishment of appropriate disciplinary
measures. If the courts fail to receive guidance from educational professionals,
they will continue to establish educational policy to fill the vacuum.
NOTES
1
Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B of the Canada Act 1982 (U.K.), 1982, c.11.
2
Minister of Supply and Services Canada, The Charter of Rights and Freedoms: A Guide for
Canadians (Ottawa: Publications Canada, 1982), p. v.
3
4
5
6
7
8
Ibid., p. 3.
Ibid., p. 9.
Ibid., p. 29.
Ibid., p. 1.
Ibid., p. 31.
Ibid., p. 32.
9 Caldwell v. Stuart, (1984) 2 S.C.R. 603, pp. 4–5.
10
11
Ibid., p. 23.
Ibid., pp. 5–6.
12
Walsh v. The Roman Catholic School Board for St. John’s, (1986), 59 Nfld. and PEIR 129 (Nfld.
T.D.), Nfld. C.A., (1988) unreported, p. 19.
13
Walsh v. The Roman Catholic School Board for St. John’s, (1986), p. 15.
14
Walsh v. The Roman Catholic School Board for St. John’s (1985), p. 3, unreported Board of
Arbitration.
15
Re the Essex County Roman Catholic School Board and Kersey (1982), unreported Arbitration
Board ruling, Hennegan, 3 February 1983, p. 20.
16
Ibid., pp. 17–19.
17
Re Roman Catholic School Board for Conception Bay North and Barron-Babb (1983), unreported
Arbitration ruling, Harris, 21 March 1983, p. 20.
18
Hinton Roman Catholic Separate School District No. 155 v. Casagrande (1986), unreported Arbitration
ruling, Mr. Justice Holmes, 29 May 1986, p. 9.
19
Ibid., p. 7.
20
Syndicat des Professeurs de la Ville de Laval c. Commission scolaire Chomedey de Laval (1982),
Recueil des Sentences de l’Education 26, 2529, p. 6. The quotation has been translated.
21
22
23
24
Ibid., p. 7. The quotation has been translated.
Ibid., p. 8. The quotation has been translated.
Ibid., p. 9. The quotation has been translated.
Ibid., p. 8. The quotation has been translated.
25 Abbotsford School District 34 v. Shewan (1987), 21 B.C.L.R. (2d) 93 (C.A.), p. 95.

A PROFESSIONAL STANDARD OF MORAL CONDUCT 445
26
Ibid., p. 98.
27
Re Board of School Trustees of School District No. 34 (Abbotsford) and Shewan et. al. (1986),
Dominion Law Reports (4th) 26, p. 71.
28
A good example of educators’ efforts to apply sound educational principles to a judicial ruling
is M. Manley-Casimir and S. M. Piddocke, “Teachers in a Goldfish Bowl: A Case of Misconduct,”
Education and Law Journal 3, no. 2 (1991): 115–48.
James R. Covert, recently retired from the Faculty of Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland,
is currently affiliated with the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, 145 Jean-
Jacques Lussier, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5.

Discussion Notes / Débat
A Reply to “The Revival of School
Administration: Alasdair MacIntyre in the
Aftermath of the Common School”
Benjamin Levin
J. Anthony Riffel
Jonathan Young
university of manitoba
Mark Holmes is one of Canada’s most thoughtful and articulate critics of
education and educational administration. His work is usually carefully reasoned
and closely argued. We have serious concerns, however, about his recent
argument in the Canadian Journal of Education (vol. 17, no. 4; 1992). Here we
take up our main reservations about Holmes’ critique of schooling and his
proposals for change. We do so hoping to continue the important dialogue about
the value foundations of education. This is a conversation to which Holmes has
contributed in important ways, and in which we know he believes passionately.
The first part of Holmes’ paper briefly reviews the work of Alasdair
MacIntyre and traces some of its implications for school administration. Holmes
uses MacIntyre’s After Virtue (1981) to point out some important flaws in
contemporary thought on and practice in school administration. First, he argues
that contemporary school administration has been falsely premised on the idea
that there is a generalizable science of management, leading to a valuing of
“training and skills” over “wisdom, education, and moral judgment” (p. 428).
Second, he argues that modern administrators confuse role and person, fusing
themselves with their role, becoming “the person he or she is expected to be at
work” (p. 426). The consequence of this, says Holmes, is that this role is without
substantive core and thus the administrator loses the moral foundation essential
to any educational judgments. This critique of modern school administration is
centrally important. The challenge of making morality and virtue central to our
conceptualization of school administration, and to the daily life of schools, is
urgent.
The second part of Holmes’ paper extends his critique of school administration,
linking it to a critique of the present state of public schooling in Canada and
beyond, and offering an alternative model, “the MacIntyre School,” that would
provide an “education predicated on virtue.” We find this part of the paper far
less persuasive.
446 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

DISCUSSION NOTES / DÉBAT 447
Holmes claims there is convincing evidence of loss of faith in the idea of
common public schooling. We fail to find such evidence. Schools have always
been open to criticism, rarely to unfettered praise. A publication of the U.S.
National Education Association in 1957 listed many of the same concerns that
Holmes raises about schooling. Recent Canadian public opinion polls continue
to show strong public support for public education (Livingstone, Hart, & Davie,
1993; Williams & Millinoff, 1990). Parents, who might be expected to know
most about the realities of schooling, hold more positive views than do nonparents,
suggesting that first-hand experience makes people more satisfied with
schools. We are not arguing that all is well with public attitudes to schools. Polls
by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (Livingstone, Hart, & Davie,
1987, 1989, 1993) show that many people, though not a majority, think the quality
of schooling has declined in the past decade. This is a serious concern, but
it is nowhere near a crisis of public confidence.
Nor do Holmes’ other indicators stand up. Canadian data do not show a large
increase in attendance in private schools. Private school enrolments have grown
from about 4% in 1968 to about 5% today, even though several provincial
governments have extended increasing financial support to such schools in recent
years, making them affordable to more people. This hardly constitutes a largescale
shift in enrolment.
Holmes believes that most of “the public” wants more testing and more
emphasis on preparation for work or post-secondary education. Again, we do not
find evidence to support this view. Studies in both the United States and the
Great Britain find that parents want schools to do many things for their children,
but place particularly high emphasis on schools that have a warm and caring
atmosphere, that treat students well, and that emphasize the broad development
of knowledge and skills (Dore, 1993; Goodlad, 1984; Williams & Millinoff,
1990). We think Holmes exaggerates considerably the problems in the current
situation of public schooling.
Our second major concern is that Holmes seems to believe that all problems
of schooling can be traced to what he refers to as the dominance of a progressive
educational ideology. We see three problems with this view. First, this argument
overstates the impact of schooling and school practices on educational outcomes,
and stresses far too little the broader social context. Second, evidence indicates
that although progressive ideology is espoused, it has never characterized actual
practice in classrooms. Third, the available empirical evidence supports the
impact on achievement of many aspects of progressivism. We consider each of
these points more fully.
Holmes seems to believe that growing crime, violence, and teenage pregnancy
are linked to changes in schooling, or at least that they could be altered by
changes in schooling (p. 433). We believe there is overwhelming evidence to
show that social change is only marginally affected by changes in schooling.
There is 25 years of evidence that students’ socio-economic status continues to

448 DISCUSSION NOTES / DÉBAT
predict educational and social outcomes more reliably does than any single element
of schooling. Indeed, Holmes makes the same point by noting the relatively
positive outcomes in such U.S. states as Montana and North Dakota. Schooling
practices in these states do not differ from those in other states, but the communities
and their residents do. Walberg documents impressively the weak relationships
between “educative factors” and “real-world outcomes in adult life” (1987,
p. 203).
Similarly, Holmes criticizes Canada’s performance in terms of youth unemployment
in comparison with, say, Germany. The implication that schools are
primarily responsible for youth unemployment has long been shown to be erroneous
(see, for example, Cohen, 1991; Krahn, 1991; Touraine, 1991); youth
unemployment in Canada and in Germany is far more a function of changes in
demographics, labour markets, and workforces than of anything the schools do.
While Holmes holds up progressivism as the villain in the decline in schooling,
we believe that if there has been a decline it is unlikely that progressivism
is its cause. For one thing, so-called progressive teaching practices have never
been as widespread as their opponents claim. Certainly the advocates of such
practices as cooperative learning, team teaching, and whole language lament the
limited extent to which these practices are used in schools. Almost all available
evidence shows clearly that teaching practices, with the possible exception of
those in the primary grades, are remarkably similar today to what they were 50
or 70 years ago (Cuban, 1988; Goodlad, 1984; SRI International, 1991).
Most importantly, many practices closely tied to progressivism have considerable
research support (Leinhardt, 1992). Cooperative learning has a substantial
base of empirical support (Slavin, 1990), as do heterogeneous grouping (Slavin,
1991) and the so-called “no-fail” policy (Doyle, 1989; Shepard & Smith, 1990).
It is also striking that secondary schools, which are the most traditional, are
viewed least favourably by the public (Livingstone, Hart, & Davie, 1993).
Holmes argues that there can be no common school, so we must have schools
of choice instead. But the problems with choice as a concept are legion and well
documented (Edwards & Whitty, 1992; Kerchner & Boyd, 1988). The preliminary
evidence on choice schemes does not suggest they lead to increased
community or increased virtue. American evidence suggests that parents continue
to pick schools closest to them, or those which are segregated by social class
(Sosniak & Ethington, 1992). Some British evidence suggests that locally
managed schools are more concerned with painting the buildings and having
uniforms as ways of increasing enrolment than they are with any change in the
substance of education (Halpin, Power, & Fitz, 1992). Other problems with
choice in Britain are documented in Edwards and Whitty (1992).
Moreover, nobody is prepared to accept that all choices of school (including
to have none) are legitimate, since there is clearly a public interest in having all
students educated. Holmes himself would presumably not want to accept any
kind of school of choice, even if it met his criteria of intense representation of

DISCUSSION NOTES / DÉBAT 449
a coherent doctrine. He has already pointed out that our society is characterized
by pluralistic sets of beliefs. How will cordoning these off into separate communities
help us maintain common bonds? If Holmes believes in developing virtue,
then its public pursuit as a common good must surely be a key part of the exercise.
The alternative looks like small pools of goodness in the midst of swamps
of modern malaise, and in a highly interdependent world it is hard to see how
such a solution could long exist.
Holmes is concerned with the promotion of virtue — the education of citizens
committed to honesty, justice, courage — and suggests that what he calls a
MacIntyre School is the way to do this. Holmes does not really clarify what he
means by such a school, but from the preceding section of his paper we conclude
that choice and the absence of progressive educational practices would be among
its prominent features, as would emphasis on “content, substance, virtue, as
distinct from self, the learning environment, and learning process” (p. 433).
We, like Holmes, would rejoice in a world in which truth replaced therapeutics,
courage replaced public relations, and so on (p. 434). Most advocates of
progressivism since John Dewey would have no trouble embracing Holmes’ concern
for “truth, courage, justice, friendship, and humility” (p. 422), nor would
most Canadian teachers, we suspect. But can these changes can be brought about
through changes in school governance arrangements and a return to traditional
educational practices, whatever these may be?
We think not. Holmes seems to think that virtue is best achieved through
inculcation, which would include the authoritative transmission of values from
one generation to the next, modelling by teachers and administrators, and the
reinforcement of the school by the home as well as by agencies with cultural
capital, perhaps churches especially. As important as these inculcative strategies
(modelling in particular) may be, we do not believe them adequate to the development
of virtuous individuals or a good society.
It is not just that, in practice, the traditional approach has so often sought to
regiment and control students. The difference between merely inculcating
students with certain values, however humanely this might be done, and engaging
them with value issues is decisive.
Our argument with the inculcative strategies Holmes recommends is that they
may be necessary for the development of virtue, but they are far from sufficient.
We certainly would not quarrel with his emphasis on teacher and administrators
who model truth, honesty, and courage, although we do not see these as being
as rare as Holmes suggests. We too believe that schools function more effectively
with the support of homes and various institutions, although we are
unconvinced that choice is the best or the only way to achieve this. And we
agree that there are some values which cannot be negotiable, although we suspect
that our list would differ somewhat from his.
But we also need schools and classrooms that encourage students to develop
and to test their ideas openly, without retreating to authority. We need teachers

450 DISCUSSION NOTES / DÉBAT
and administrators who encourage experimentation and reflection, who support
students in their moral struggles, who are forgiving of their moral failures and
celebrate their moral successes. And, when choices are to be made, we need
people who will consider the consequences for other individuals and groups, not
just themselves. Our society will not work without individuals who have a strong
sense of themselves and a deep appreciation of their interdependence with others.
This seems to us to be much closer to the progressive agenda in education than
to the traditional one.
REFERENCES
Cohen, G. (1991). Then and now: The changing face of unemployment. Perspectives, 3(1), 37–42.
Cuban, L. (1988). A fundamental puzzle of school reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 69, 341–344.
Dore, R. (1993, May 14). Unvarnished truth please, not gloss. Times Educational Supplement, pp.
10–11.
Doyle, P. (1989). The resistance of conventional wisdom to research evidence: The case of retention
in grade. Phi Delta Kappan, 71, 215–219.
Edwards, T., & Whitty, G. (1992). Parental choice and educational reform in Britain and the United
States. British Journal of Educational Studies, 30(2), 101–117.
Goodlad, J. (1984). A place called school. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Halpin, D., Power, S., & Fitz, J. (1992). Opting for self-governance: Change and continuity in
grant-maintained schools. In T. Simkins, L. Ellison, & V. Garrett (Eds.), Implementing educational
reform: The early lessons (pp. 53–67). Harlow, Essex: Longman.
Holmes, M. (1992). The revival of school administration: Alasdair MacIntyre in the aftermath of the
Common School. Canadian Journal of Education, 17, 422–436.
Kerchner, C., & Boyd, W. L. (1988). Chasing two rabbits: Markets and bureaucratic failure in educational
reform. Journal of Educational Finance, 14(1), 57–75.
Krahn, H. (1991). Youth employment. In D. Johnson & L. Barnhorst (Eds.), The state of the child
in Ontario (pp. 139–159). Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Leinhardt, G. (1992). What research on learning tells us about teaching. Educational Leadership,
49(7), 20–25.
Livingstone, D., Hart, D., & Davie, L. (1987). Public attitudes towards education in Ontario, 1986.
Toronto: OISE Press.
Livingstone, D., Hart, D., & Davie, L. (1989). Public attitudes towards education in Ontario, 1988.
Toronto: OISE Press.
Livingstone, D., Hart, D., & Davie, L. (1993). Public attitudes towards education in Ontario, 1992.
Toronto: OISE Press.
MacIntyre, A. (1981). After Virtue. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
National Education Association. (1957). Ten criticisms of public education [Special issue]. Research
Bulletin, 35(4).
Shepard, L., & Smith, M. (1990). Synthesis of research on grade retention. Educational Leadership,
47(8), 84–88.
Slavin, R. (1990). Research on cooperative learning: Consensus and controversy. Educational
Leadership, 48(4), 52–54.

DISCUSSION NOTES / DÉBAT 451
Slavin, R. (1991, April). Ability grouping in the middle grades: Effects and alternatives. Paper
presented to the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.
Sosniak, L., & Ethington, C. (1992). Where public school choice is not academic. Educational
Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 14, 35–52.
SRI International. (1991). What is taught, and how, to the children of poverty. Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Education, Study of Academic Instruction for Disadvantaged Students.
Touraine, A. (1991). A world that has lost its future. In A. Touraine (Ed.), Facing the future: Young
people and unemployment around the world (pp. 1–41). New York: Orient Longman.
Walberg, H. (1987). Learning and life-course accomplishments. In C. School & K. Warner Schaie
(Eds.), Cognitive functioning and social structure over the life course (pp. 203–229). Norwood,
NJ: Ablex.
Williams, T., & Millinoff, H. (1990). Canada’s schools: Report card for the 1990s. Toronto:
Canadian Education Association.

Who Should Control Educational Policy—
Experts or the Public?
A Response to Levin, Riffel, and Young
Mark Holmes
hampton, new brunswick
I was pleased to receive the Levin, Riffel, and Young critique. It is a coherent
and succinct statement, reflecting well the arguments advanced by those opposed
to fundamental educational reform. The underlying assumptions of my argument
for encouraging what I termed MacIntyre schools are that there is large-scale and
inevitable dissatisfaction with the public schools, and that the common school is
obsolete.
Levin, Riffel, and Young (1993) claim “strong” support for public schools,
quoting Ontario data (p. 447). They claim that secondary schools, which are less
progressive, are more unpopular than are elementary schools (p. 448). And they
claim that progressive instructional methodologies are more effective than alternatives.
When the cited Livingstone, Hart, and Davie population was asked if it would
support or oppose a voucher system whereby “parents can then send the child to
any government approved school they choose,” 49% favoured the idea and 27%
opposed (1993, p. 10).
Levin, Riffel, and Young “do not find evidence” to support my claim that the
public wants more testing (p. 2). Province-wide testing, opposed by all parts of
the educational establishment, is now even more strongly supported by the
Ontario public (73% in favour) than it was two years ago (Livingstone, Hart, &
Davie, 1993, p. 13).
I would expect secondary schools to be generally less popular with parents and
students, for several reasons. The fact is that, according to Levin, Riffel, and
Young’s source, 46% (in 1992; 30% in 1990) believe elementary schools have
deteriorated over the last ten years; 39% (in 1990) that secondary schools have
deteriorated; 30% and 25% (in 1992), respectively, think the schools have improved
(Livingstone, Hart, & Davie, 1993, p. 13).
According to Levin, Riffel, and Young, I believe that “all problems of
schooling can be traced to . . . the dominance of a progressive educational
ideology” (p. 447). I made no such claim. My article arguing for a MacIntyre
school (certainly the antithesis of progressive pragmatism) was based on the
assumption that there can be no single acceptable school for all — whether it
follow MacIntyre, Dewey, Marx, or Adam Smith. I do believe that the prevalent
452 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

DISCUSSION NOTES / DÉBAT 453
and often mandatory progressivism in Canada is a harmful influence on academic
success (as well as on character development). Yes, Slavin and others have
shown in small-scale research that highly structured collaborative learning can
be academically effective. I have no quarrel with such practice. It is the
unstructured, non-sequential core ideas of Canadian elementary schools that have
been shown to be ineffective — whole language instead of structured, phonetically
based approaches to reading; learning centres; individualization; absence of clear
objectives and standards; abolition of external testing; and individualized, nonsequential,
and spiral approaches to mathematics, reading, and writing. Manipulable
factors require close attention by educators.
Levin, Riffel, and Young confuse two important concepts — the public school
(which in Canada generally refers to a publicly run school under the authority
of the province, sometimes including Roman Catholic schools) and the common
school (which is the school which all or nearly all students in a given neighbourhood
attend). The common school is generally foreign to the English and the
Canadian tradition. The idea of the common school (children from all walks of
life being educated together) is used generally (and specifically by Levin, Riffel,
and Young) to attack those who want something different. But note how rarely
defenders of the common school idea analyze the choices they themselves support.
French immersion, in which more students are enrolled than in all the
private schools together, is the most notable example. Surely French immersion,
dividing children by language and social class, is more divisive than permitting
small religious minorities their own schools, if they want them.
This is not an independent school issue; it is a question of which schools
deserve public support — the mechanism for financial provision is secondary.
Differentiation between schools based on wealth and materialism (in terms of acceptable
— to the peer group — brands of clothing, headgear, popular music, and
footwear) is potentially divisive, as we see in the nominally common school
situation prevalent in the U.S.A. I prefer that parents be encouraged and enabled
to make positive, substantive choices for their children.
The crux of the difference between Levin, Riffel, and Young and me is
reached only near the end of their response, when they ask how “cordoning off”
separate communities will help maintain “common bonds” (p. 449). They forget,
at this point, their argument that schools have minimal effect compared with the
home background. They go on to assert that I, believing in the development of
virtue, must therefore value “its public pursuit as a common good” (p. 4). And
so I do. But their own top-down authoritarianism is explicit in the choice of the
word “cordoning,” as if I were suggesting that a central authority should
determine who should attend which school, and in their assumption that I should
attempt to impose my preferred education on everybody else. The idea that one
can have strong ideas about morality and spirituality without wishing to have the
authority to impose them on all the nation’s young escapes them. But then they

454 DISCUSSION NOTES / DÉBAT
have a public quasi-monopoly to defend, and they are correct if they see genuine
choice as a threat to the cosy educational establishment.
Differentiated schools will not help create cultural uniformity. If that is one’s
aim, then a mandatory, common, low-doctrine school based on the lowest common
denominator of beliefs and values makes the most sense in a multi-faith,
multilingual, and multicultural country. Such a value vacuum will not survive,
of course; witness the low-doctrine schools spreading today. The administrative
vacuum is soon invaded by peer-group and educator fads and fancies (e.g.,
correct clothing, footwear, and popular music; disarmament, green politics, and
anti-business sentiment). Neither a vacuum nor emotivist choice is what parents
want. They want education based on a strong, coherent set of values (but, reasonably,
disagree on which set).
The common school, progressive or otherwise, is not a practical option. So,
what kinds of schools should replace it? I argued that an important place should
be given to a school based on the traditional, fundamental virtues, not because
it would be overwhelmingly, let alone universally, popular, but because it has
intrinsic merit, and because it will be chosen by many of those parents currently
educationally disenfranchised.
REFERENCES
Levin, B., Riffel, J. A., & Young, J. (1993). A reply to “The revival of school administration:
Alasdair MacIntyre in the aftermath of the common school.” Canadian Journal of Education 18,
446–451.
Livingstone, D. W., Hart, D., & Davie, L. E. (1993). Public attitudes towards education in Ontario:
Eighth OISE survey. Orbit 22(2), 1–29.

Book Reviews / Recensions
La profession enseignante au Québec: enjeux et devis des années 1990
sous le direction de Claude Lessard, Madeleine Perron et Pierre W. Bélanger
Québec: Institut Québécois de recherche sur la culture, 1991. 241 pages.
RECENSION PAR SUSANNE FONTAINE, CONSEIL SUPÉRIEUR DE L’ÉDUCATION
L’ouvrage publié sous la direction de Lessard, Perron et Bélanger fait le point
sur le mouvement de professionnalisation du corps enseignant au Québec et
dégage les défis pour l’avenir dans une perspective de renouvellement massif de
la profession enseignante. Il rassemble les textes issus d’un colloque tenu dans
le cadre du congrès de l’Association canadienne-française pour l’avancement des
Sciences (ACFAS) en mai 1990.
Lessard donne, en introduction, le ton de cet ouvrage. Tout d’abord, il situe
le travail enseignant par rapport aux deux modèles de professionnalisation qu’il
qualifie de “technologique” et d’“organique” et démontre que le discours enseignant
au Québec et les stratégies participent de ces deux modèles. En deuxième
lieu, il met en perspective la situation québécoise par rapport à celle qui règne
aux États-Unis, au Royaume-Uni et en France à partir de l’analyse comparée de
Judge. Traversée par les mêmes courants que dans les autres sociétés, la profession
enseignante, au Québec, se distingue quant aux cinq paramètres retenus pour
la caractériser: caractère national, stratification interne, syndicalisme, autonomie
professionnelle et unité du corps enseignant. Lessard situe enfin les grands
enjeux d’avenir pour la profession enseignante: politiques de renouvellement face
au vieillissement du corps enseignant, autonomie professionnelle et contrôle du
travail enseignant dans un contexte idéologique et socio-économique qui commanderaient
une meilleure productivité du système éducatif.
Mellouki met l’accent sur le contexte socio-historique du métier d’enseignant
au Québec. Il s’intéresse particulièrement aux années 1965–1966: moment stratégique
où s’est opéré un changement important dans la qualification des enseignants
du primaire et du secondaire. À travers les discours, les intentions et les
ententes des acteurs politiques et syndicaux, les choix des décideurs, l’auteur
dégage les grands événements qui sont venus modeler les caractéristiques de la
qualification des enseignants: orientations concernant la formation de niveau
universitaire, la définition des objectifs des programmes de formation pédagogique.
...Ainsi, il illustre comment la transformation de la qualification des
enseignants, les rapports entre les acteurs et la conjoncture socio-politique et
455 REVUE CANADIENNE DE L’ÉDUCATION 18:4 (1993)

456 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
idéologique façonnent le rôle pédagogique des enseignants, l’image qu’il se font
d’eux-mêmes et de leur place dans la société.
L’analyse de Lessard, Tardif et Lahaye laisse entrevoir des différences significatives
dans les représentations des enseignants du primaire et du secondaire
concernant les rapports sociaux dans l’école, la direction, la supervision, les
relations entre les enseignants et le travail d’équipe. Ainsi, au primaire la
représentation du système concret d’action semble s’éloigner du modèle bureaucratique
classique régi par des normes impersonnelles et abstraites. Malgré les
règles (conventions collectives notamment) et les contraintes (programmes et
régimes pédagogiques en particulier) il y a un “espace de jeu” qui structure les
rapports avec la direction. Au secondaire, la distance avec la direction est plus
considérable et les structures d’organisation plus complexes. Dans les deux
ordres d’enseignement cependant, les enseignants se montrent favorables à la collaboration
et à l’ajustement mutuel dans le respect des individualités et des styles
de chacun. Une nouvelle “professionnalité” semble, selon les auteurs, se dessiner
autour de l’équilibre entre la collaboration et l’autonomie, le besoin de support
et le désir de se soustraire au contrôle, entre le travail d’équipe et l’action individuelle
en classe.
Maheu et Robitaille traitent des identités professionnelles au coeur de la pratique
enseignante au collégial. Selon eux, trajectoire individuelle dans un contexte
social donné, l’identité professionnelle de l’enseignant est tributaire des propriétés
particulières du travail réflexif. De plus, s’appuyant sur les résultats d’entrevues
effectuées auprès de professeurs, ils dégagent trois identités types qu’ils nomment:
identité d’autonomie, identité de retrait et identité d’ambivalence.
Dandurand, pour sa part, analyse l’accélération des mouvements de professionnalisation
et de normalisation de la tâche des professeurs des universités francophones
du Québec au cours de la période allant de 1976 à 1990. Cette évolution
est influencée par une conjoncture économique et démographique de décroissance,
accompagnée de transformations dans la composition d’un corps enseignant
de plus en plus qualifié et expérimenté, et a des résonances dans la structure
profonde de l’université — qui préside à la hiérarchisation des institutions et à la
dynamique des acteurs. Cette évolution touche à la fois les volets recherche et
enseignement, qu’on tend de plus en plus à professionnaliser et à soumette à des
critères institutionnels de contrôle.
Bousquet analyse les prévisions quant au renouvellement du corps enseignant
des commissions scolaires jusqu’en 2011. Dans les trois scénarios retenus, les besoins
de recrutement seront importants, mais l’auteur ne prévoit pas de crise en
raison, d’une part, de la diminution prévisible de clientèles et de l’étalement des
départs des enseignants, et d’autre part, d’une réserve de personnel enseignant
qualifié. De plus, au Québec, la profession enseignante reste attirante pour les
éventuelles recrues. Le renouvellement massif des effectifs enseignants demeure
cependant un défi important.

BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 457
Le vieillissement rapide du corps professionnel universitaire est le résultat
combiné d’une croissance et d’une diversification rapides des systèmes universitaires
sur une courte période — de 1960 à 1970 — suivis, fin des années 70, d’un
ralentissement subit. Selon l’étude de Perron, Bélanger et Hart, le phénomène du
vieillissement et le renouvellement nécessaire des effectifs universitaires au
Québec questionnent les politiques d’embauche des universités. Les études
démontrent qu’elles tendent à devenir plus sélectives et conservatrices; le choix
des départements semble s’orienter vers les candidats sûrs déjà insérés dans la
carrière universitaire.
Ce recueil de textes reflète l’état de la réflexion sur la profession enseignante
au Québec. Dans une gamme diversifiée de tons et de modes d’approche, il permet
de mieux saisir les grands enjeux qui se présentent à l’heure actuelle. Il a
en outre le mérite de faire le point sur la profession enseignante au moment où
on l’interpelle de toute part et de permettre un certain recul et un regard objectif
sur les aspects majeurs de la problématique actuelle. Il a également le mérite de
permettre une analyse de la profession enseignante à tous les ordres d’enseignement
mettant ainsi en relief les différences et les similitudes. Enfin, il est
susceptible d’inspirer de nouvelles recherches en vue d’éclairer des zones
d’ombre ainsi que la réflexion et l’action des décideurs et des principaux acteurs
qui modèlent l’activité éducative du primaire à l’université.
Autour de l’idée de science
par Marie Larochelle et Jacques Désautels
Sainte-Foy: Les presses de l’Université Laval, 1992. 314 pages.
RECENSION PAR RÉAL LAROSE, UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL
Ce livre de Larochelle et Désautels est le compte rendu d’une recherche qui se
présente en définitive comme un rapport de thèse. Le problème auquel les auteurs
s’attaquent est celui de l’apprentissage des contenus à caractère scientifique
qui se pose, semble-t-il, à tous les ordres d’enseignement.
L’étude du phénomène est menée dans la continuité des réflexions récentes de
la didactique des sciences et de la philosophie constructiviste. Le fruit de leur
conjecture conduit les auteurs au postulat de la nécessité d’établir la différence
entre le savoir “spontané” (expression préférée aux termes de “conception erronée”
ou “préconception”) et le savoir “savant” pour mieux assimiler ce dernier.
L’opérationnalisation de ce postulat, qui fait figure d’hypothèse de la recherche,
prend l’appellation de “stratégie du dérangement épistémologique.” La mise en
oeuvre de cette stratégie emprunte la forme d’un cours de philosophie des scien-

458 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
ces, dans un collège d’enseignement général et professionnel, où le cours en
question, dans tout son déroulement, devient une simulation du monde de la recherche.
Il faut ici exercer un raisonnement récursif. Le problème auquel s’attaquent
les étudiants-chercheurs est, cette fois-ci, de découvrir la configuration interne
d’une boîte noire (genre de simulateur ordiné portant le nom d’Énigmatique) laquelle
réfléchit des rayons ou encore des projectiles suivant des lois comme il
s’en trouve dans le monde de la matière. Autre récursivité: L’activité de recherche
(observation, hypothèse, expérimentation, résultat, interprétation, conclusion)
devient elle-même objet de recherche et doit être auto-observée par les étudiantschercheurs.
Ils questionnent et livrent dans des journaux de bord les postulats,
les croyances et les stéréotypes qu’ils entretiennent par rapport à l’objet premier
de leur recherche: le fonctionnement de la boite noire. De plus, les écrits des
étudiants sont à leur tour d’abord observés puis annotés par les professeurschercheurs
qui alimentent de leurs commentaires et de leurs questions la réflexion
des étudiants quant aux conceptions spontanées qui meublent les idées qu’ils
se font de la recherche. Si au départ il fallait jongler avec une “matriochka” de
petit format, celle-ci a maintenant pris les proportions d’un format géant. L’idée
de conception spontanée à ces méta-niveaux de réflexion est devenue du “surspontané,”
voire des conceptions spontanées du deuxième ordre.
Il ne s’agit pas, par ces commentaires, de vouloir tourner en dérision ce travail
audacieux, minutieux et original. C’est à l’université et au CÉGEP que la stratégie
du dérangement épistémologique risque d’avoir le plus d’effet. Il est fort
possible que “l’Énigmatique” puisse intéresser les élèves du secondaire mais les
méta-réflexions sur la production des connaissances scientifiques paraissent fort
difficiles à engager à cet ordre d’enseignement.
Quant aux commentaires des étudiants-chercheurs qui se sont portés volontaires
pour cette recherche, Autour de l’idée de science, ils sont pour le moins
magnifiques. Et c’est ce même niveau de discours qui soulève quelques appréhensions.
La stratégie du dérangement épistémologique que l’on a mentionnée
plus haut semble fonctionner à merveille pour le développement de compétences
à théoriser, à argumenter et à négocier. Toutefois, ce sont des compétences qui
relèvent plutôt du “faire savoir” que du “savoir-faire.” Les étudiants que l’on
veut former deviendront-ils des juristes de la science incapables de déboucher un
lavabo? En effet, le voyage autour de l’idée de science ne s’arrête que sur le
langage des mots. Le langage mathématique, entre autres, qui est le deuxième œil
pour observer les objets de la science en leur donnant la profondeur de champ
nécessaire, est complètement bouché. Quant au langage des mains, celui qui
permet de scier, clouer, coller, planter, plier, etc., il n’en est aucunement fait
mention! C’est pourtant par ce dernier langage que, finalement, les artefacts les
plus prodigieux sont mis au monde. Combien de scientifiques, à leur début, sont
presque choqués de découvrir que leur domaine d’application, comme la métal-

BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 459
lurgie ou la physique nucléaire par exemple, relève encore plus d’un art empirique,
heuristique et pragmatique que de la science. Ils découvrent que la plus
grande partie des connaissances dont ils ont besoin n’est ni dans des livres, ni
dans des revues scientifiques, mais dans des feuillets techniques. Ces sources de
renseignements se réfèrent moins à des expériences scientifiques qu’à des directives
du genre “faites-en l’essai et si ça fonctionne, allez-y.” Pour être un scientifique,
il faut être mécanicien, plombier, cultivateur, opticien, etc.
Ces dernières considérations ne sont d’aucune façon des reproches aux auteurs,
tout au plus une façon de les provoquer pour nous servir un autre livre tout aussi
intéressant.
La philosophie et les enfants
par Marie-France Daniel
Montréal: Les éditions Logiques, 1992. 376 pages.
RECENSION PAR LUCIEN MORIN, UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL
Le but poursuivi par Marie-France Daniel dans cet ouvrage facile à lire et stimulant
est une “analyse conceptuelle de la philosophie de l’éducation de Matthew
Lipman et du programme qu’il a mis de l’avant, la philosophie pour enfants; (et)
de façon corollaire une analyse des influences de cette philosophie.” Si analyser
veut dire décomposer une oeuvre en ses parties afin de saisir le rapport entre
celles, alors on peut dire que l’auteur a réussi son projet.
Après une longue introduction qui situe l’originalité de l’approche de Lipman
par rapport à certaines théories modernes de l’éducation — Carl Rogers et sa version
de l’humanisme, Paulo Freire et la théorie de la conscientisation, B. F.
Skinner et le behaviorisme, Jean Piaget et le développement génétique, Vygotski
et le socio-constructivisme — l’auteur soutien que c’est indéniablement au pragmatisme
de J. Dewey que la philosophie de l’éducation de Lipman ressemble le
plus. Et elle retient les similitudes entourant des questions de fond: les principes
et les finalités de l’éducation; l’importance première de l’expérience personnelle;
une pédagogie axée sur l’activité de l’enfant; la pensée réfléchie et critique; le
développement holistique; les échanges et les valeurs démocratiques. Pour l’essentiel,
tout l’ouvrage est consacré à rendre manifeste cette parenté, en trois
chapitres bien étoffés et bien construits.
Le chapitre un est bien titré: “visions de l’éducation chez Lipman et Dewey,”
car il aborde d’emblée les grandes questions fondamentales. Celle des fins
d’abord, comme il se doit, le présupposé lipmanien de base étant la découverte
du sens des choses en lien avec le développement global de la personne. À partir

460 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
de cette prémisse, la suite est une critique inévitable de l’éducation traditionnelle,
de la formation et du rôle des maîtres (qui ne savent pas toujours ce qu’ils font),
de la pédagogie ou de la didactique traditionnelle (qui reflète trop la logique
adulte et trop peu l’expérience enfantine). À voir les choses sur l’écran géant des
grands principes, il n’y a pas de doute que la pensée éducative de Lipman, tout
en conservant son originalité, prend manifestement ses sources dans la mamelle
pédagogique de Dewey: but de l’éducation, conception de l’enfant et de l’apprentissage,
pédagogie, mission pratique et sociale de l’école.
Le chapitre deux expose clairement l’essence et le sens de la doctrine lipmanienne.
Au risque de verser dans l’intellectualisme, le but de ce “révolutionnaire”
est le développement de la pensée. Mais qu’est-ce penser? Mieux, qu’est-ce que
bien penser, de façon autonome, critique et raisonnable? L’école primaire peutelle
vraiment enseigner la philosophie à des enfants? L’enfant est-il vraiment
capable de philosopher? Avec tout ce que l’on sait de l’enfant et de la philosophie.
...Ilfaut lire Marie-France Daniel et voir comment elle montre Lipman
dans toute sa réussite: les habiletés intellectuelles renforcées chez l’enfant sont
le raisonnement, la traduction, la formation de concept et la recherche. Cependant,
l’enfant n’est pas qu’intelligence, et Lipman n’a-t-il pas toujours prétendu
à la formation globale ou holistique de la personne? C’est par la communauté de
recherche, par le dialogue philosophique que la philosophie pour enfants est
éducation globale et pragmatique. Tout ça sent un peut le grec, et on pense de
suite à Socrate et la maïeutique, à Platon et au dia-logos. À Aristote même, et
à sa logique, qu’on soupçonne déjà avec le titre du roman Harry Stottlemeier’s
Discovery. Il y a même une opposition réelle entre Lipman et Dewey sur la question
de la logique, mais que Lipman réussit à surmonter à son avantage, au dire
de l’auteur.
Le chapitre trois, le dernier, porte sur l’éducation éthique et politique. Après
avoir exposé la conception de Lipman sur la morale (qui est à la fois contenu et
processus), l’éducation morale comme éducation holistique, et la communauté de
recherche philosophique comme instrument d’éducation morale, l’auteur passe
à une critique bien montée de la thèse lipmanienne. C’est certainement le lieu où
elle est le plus à l’aise et le plus maître de son sujet. Les remarques entourant
les influences d’un Kohlberg sont très justes et les critiques de certains postulats
de Lipman, pertinentes. Enfin, après avoir poursuivi la description de la communauté
de recherche en tant qu’initiation aux valeurs démocratiques, l’auteur
revient sur la position célèbre de Dewey et termine son ouvrage par une ultime
comparaison.
Cet ouvrage a plusieurs mérites. D’abord, il est bien écrit, c’est-à-dire
simplement. Dès le début, le lecteur sait clairement où il s’en va et, au terme,
réalise sans surprise, mais avec satisfaction, qu’il est bien rendu là où il fallait.
Surtout, Marie-France Daniel présente bien le programme de Matthew Lipman.
Sans dérapage aucun, sans approfondissement ardu non plus, elle s’en tient à sa

BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 461
promesse de présenter l’essentiel. Et les liens avec le pragmatisme de Dewey ne
sont pas sans utilité. Ceci étant dit, il n’y a pas de doute qu’un esprit curieux
souhaiterait voir prolongée et creusée cette présentation, davantage axée sur une
description de la philosophie éducative que sur son examen. Ainsi, il pourrait
imaginer sans difficulté un développement beaucoup plus poussé et étudié de
l’influence grecque chez Lipman, notamment toute l’oeuvre logique d’Aristote.
De fait, à travers Lipman, la logique aristotélicienne donne toute une leçon à la
pédagogie contemporaine, et n’est pas sans contribuer à un renouvellement du
regard sur les capacités d’apprentissage logiques des enfants. Et puis, la docilité
avec laquelle l’auteur s’accorde au pragmatisme de Dewey pourrait en déconcerter
quelques-uns. Encore là, ces quelques remarques finales ne doivent pas être
perçues comme un reproche. À peine une déception légère.
La formation du jugement: peut-on apprendre le jugement?
Sous la direction de Michael Schleifer
Montréal: Les éditions Logiques, 1992. 268 pages.
RECENSION PAR GILLES BIBEAU, UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL
Lorsque j’ai découvert le titre de ce livre, avec un sous-titre captivant comme:
“Peut-on apprendre le jugement?”, je n’ai pu résister à l’invitation qu’on me
faisait d’en faire un compte rendu. En effet, la question de la formation et de
l’exercice du jugement chez les humains m’a toujours intrigué. Je me suis toujours
demandé comment il se faisait que certaines personnes, par ailleurs très
brillantes, capables d’analyses poussées et extrêmement systématiques, paraissaient
avoir du mal à porter un jugement sur la majorité des choses auxquelles
elles étaient exposées. En lisant le texte en exergue, je pensais trouver satisfaction:
“Comment apprendre à distinguer ce qui est authentique de ce qui ne l’est
pas; ce qui est profond de ce qui est superficiel; ce qui est justifié de ce qui ne
l’est pas? La capacité de faire ces distinctions relève du jugement.”
L’ouvrage constitue les Actes d’un colloque qui s’est tenu en mai 1991 à
l’Université du Québec à Montréal dans le cadre des travaux du CIRADE (Centre
interdisciplinaire de recherche sur l’apprentissage de le développement en
éducation). Ils ont été regroupée en trois parties.
En première partie, sur le concept de jugement, ont trouve des articles de
Reboul, Brief, Schleifer, Potvin; une deuxième partie comporte des contributions
de Lipman, Lebuis, Angers, Palascio, Bednarz, Chapdelaine, Janvier; une
troisième partie offre des textes de Beausoleil, Bouchard, Leclerc, Altamirano,

462 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
Dallaire, Pardes. Chacune des parties est suivie d’un certain nombre d’échanges
et de discussions.
Je dois dire que le texte qui a répondu le mieux à mon questionnement sur le
jugement est celui d’Olivier Reboul, qui cherchait à répondre à la question
définitoire, avec des sous-titres comme: “Le jugement comme sagesse,” “Le
jugement comme marque de l’entendement,” avec des témoignages comme ceux
d’Alain, d’Aristote, de Saint-Paul et de Quintillien. Ses propos entraient bien
dans la description que je pourrais appeler populaire du jugement. Mon imprudence
naturelle m’a entraîné à lire les autres articles et à aborder toutes sortes de
considérations sur le jugement considéré tantôt comme une capacité de raisonnement,
tantôt comme une capacité de traitement de l’information, tantôt comme
une forme d’évaluation, tantôt comme une série d’opérations intellectuelles,
notamment dans le texte de Lipman, qui aligne une bonne vingtaine de sortes de
jugement qui ont paru comme autant de types d’opérations logiques regroupées
en trois catégories. La première, les jugements génériques, comporte des jugements
d’identité, de différence et de similitude.
Ma déception de profane s’est approfondie encore davantage lorsque j’ai
abordé la deuxième et la troisième partie sur la formation du jugement et sur le
jugement dans l’intervention professionnelle. J’ai compris, en relisant les textes,
que ma déception était issue du fait que chaque intervenant appliquait la notion
de jugement à des domaines cognitifs différents ou élargis, manifestant par là un
souci d’élaboration plus grand que le besoin un peu simpliste que je cherchais
à satisfaire.
À la fin du collectif, je comprenais que la formation du jugement correspondait
davantage à ce que je désignais plus volontiers par les mots opérations
intellectuelles ou raisonnements logiques de diverses natures plutôt qu’à la notion
de jugement comme sagesse.
J’ai compris, à la fin, que le jugement pouvait être considéré de deux points
de vue: l’action elle-même de juger ou d’arriver à une conclusion, l’ensemble des
opérations intellectuelles nécessaires ou utiles pour arriver à cette conclusion.
Dans le premier sens, le jugement est le résultat d’une espèce de synthèse réalisée
par l’individu sur un ensemble de considérations ou d’arguments, alors que,
dans le second cas, le jugement paraît être une série d’opérations plutôt de type
analytique sur un sujet donné dans une situation donnée.
Les colloquistes ne sont pas arrivés à porter un jugement unanime ou univoque
sur la possibilité de former le jugement à travers l’éducation. Pour certains,
le jugement se développe par des séries d’exercices sur les opérations intellectuelles
de différents niveaux et de différents types comme ceux de la résolution
de problèmes, alors que pour d’autres, ceux qui considèrent le jugement comme
une capacité ou une habilité à arriver à des conclusions sans avoir une conscience
totale des arguments ou des éléments de l’argumentation, il est encore
impossible de dire comment on peut former un tel jugement.

BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 463
Teaching Against the Grain: Texts for a Pedagogy of Possibility
by Roger I. Simon
Toronto: OISE Press, 1992. xviii + 172 pages.
REVIEWED BY URSULA A. KELLY, SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY
In the present ethos, where educational thought is colonized by an overarching
conservatism, educators seeking a visionary reprieve — a seeing through and
beyond the often reactionary rhetoric — find themselves in a season of neardrought.
For this reason alone, I welcome Roger Simon’s recent publication, a
collection of interrelated essays on various aspects of teaching for social
transformation. Teaching Against the Grain is a foundational text for rethinking
the boundaries and possibilities of educational practice and should be of interest
to cultural workers — teachers, students, artists, activists — interested in using
their specific work sites to promote positive social change.
The eight essays in the book are divided equally into two sections. The first,
“Engaging the Project,” establishes the epistemological foundations for an
evolving pedagogy of possibility; the second section, “Reinventing Practice,”
wrestles with the problems and possibilities of implementing a critical practice.
Only two essays have been previously published, one of which is co-authored
with Don Dippo. To diminish at least somewhat the unavoidable compromising
of what is an important and complex polemic, I shall briefly review each essay
individually and in order of its place in the book.
In Teaching Against the Grain, Simon provides a substantive treatise on a
“pedagogy of possibility.” He challenges the clichés through which a critical
pedagogy is often (mis)understood by those both outside and inside the politics
of its commitments. He resists, for example, the plaguing tendencies towards
“totalizing revolutions” (p. 5) and “universalizing abstractions” (p. 7).
Teaching Against the Grain is testimony to the evolution of a profound and
moral thinker, an educator whose contributions can be measured in the textured
resonance of line and nuance of phrase as Simon revisits and revisions principles
of hope, justice, freedom, and possibility. Roger Simon offers educators, across
a diverse range of cultural fronts, a harvest of thought. Reaping this harvest is
the stuff of dreams in the sense that Ernst Bloch defines them, hopeful “images
of that which is not yet” (cited in Simon, p. 7). In the opening essay, Simon calls
these “disruptive daydreams” (p. 3), “the beginning of hope” (p. 9), the impulse
for which is the necessity of social change produced out of the dissatisfactions
and distortions that are the contemporary arrangements (disorders) of social life.
This same impulse propels Simon’s writing. What Simon calls “the guiding
telos” (p. 27) of the book is “the expansion of human capacities contained within

464 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
the requirements of securing human diversity, compassionate justice, and the
renewal of life” (p. 27). Simon’s “project of possibility” is marked by a profound
sense of the complexities of human lives shaped by larger social configurations.
In the second essay, “The Horizon of Possibility,” Simon constructs the ethical
dimensions of this project. He is glaringly aware of the contradictions inevitably
arising from the constrictions within which such a project and its requirements
must be located, where the struggle for transformation is implanted in a restrictive
and divisive social order. Simon acknowledges the need for a discussion of
these requirements, although his is disappointingly abbreviated. However, his
articulation of the constrictions and requirements of possibility does encourage
the embrace rather than the dismissal of hope in face of the massive educational
venture he envisions.
The scope of the project Simon outlines demands the work of committed
educators across many fronts. The expansion of possibilities for education,
generally, is a hallmark of all of Simon’s work. Yet, in “Teachers as Cultural
Workers,” Simon develops the cultural and pedagogical bases for collective
efforts at expansion that are at once enabling and enthralling, nudging as they do
at ways “to constitute, organize and articulate a new set of relations between
education and other practices of semiotic production” (p. 39). Naming the work
of education as “semiotic production” (p. 37) and the practices of schooling as
“cultural technologies” (p. 40), Simon locates both within the realm of cultural
studies, a move that “signals a shift from an exclusive concern with the
substance and method of representation to questions such as which representations
are engaged by whom, how, why, and with what consequences” (p. 46),
questions that cut to the heart of a project of possibility.
Insisting that “all cultural work needs to address the concerns of pedagogy”
(p. 46), Simon sets the tone for the final essay of section one, “Pedagogy as
Political Practice.” If pedagogy is “an attempt to influence experience and its
resulting forms of subjectivity” (p. 59) through the broad bases of semiotic
productions and cultural technologies, then an attendant demand on pedagogies
is that “the [partial] moral vision they imply must be clarified and subjected to
constant critique” (p. 62). The impositional violence of unreflexive pedagogies,
once named, can be addressed through “a counterdiscursive activity that attempts
to provoke a process through which people might engage in a transformative
critique of their everyday lives” (p. 60), that is, “a pedagogy of possibility” (p.
60). Simon outlines curricular measures to shore up this pedagogy while not
losing sight of the “threat and anxiety in the process” (p. 63). A “sense of
collaborative struggle” (p. 63), “a responsible reflexivity” (p. 64), and “an
assessment of epistemological responsibleness” (p. 65) are dimensions of a
pedagogy of possibility that nurture “communities of solidarity” (p. 65) defined
across difference.
Simon ends this important essay with a especially provocative section in
which, as a response to the work of Jane Gallop, he raises the question “Is there

BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 465
a particular eros that underlies my aspiration for a pedagogy of possibility?”
Seeking to reclaim eros from the throes of sexual objectification and “the
negation of the lived grounds of the other,” Simon posits a pedagogy guided by
a desire that finds expression “in the recognition of the particular dignity of
others, not as objects, but as people with whom mutuality is possible” (p. 72).
Regrettably, Simon avoids the thornier issues surrounding desire, eros, and
pedagogy. The notion of desire itself requires expanded discussion. Simon refers
often to desire at various points in the text, yet the dimensions of desire, in
particular how desire is constituted (and reconstituted), is insufficiently explored.
Certainly, dissatisfaction reminds us that the “crystallization of desire” (p. 4) is
inexact and, in this inexactness, it is often disfigured in a deeply problematic mix
of desire and power/powerlessness. As teachers, then, with “a desire to awake
or incite a particular passion [for social transformation] in those with whom we
teach” (p. 56) and with substantial institutional power, the “design” (p. 71) we
may have on our students is but part of a difficult, disturbing equation in which
desire’s imprecisions and distortions can sharpen the contradictions of eros and
a pedagogy of possibility. As bell hooks (1993) notes, “there is a healing
eroticism in liberation struggle” (p. 127), and it is to the tender spirit of this
eroticism that Simon points. Still, the questions raised by this section do beg a
more substantive development in the name of a pedagogy that dares to name its
desires “against the grain” and amid contemporary distortions where the nexus
of power and desire is oppression and pain.
Appropriately, given the first section of the book, the essay “The Fear of
Theory” introduces the second section, which focuses on issues of practice. Here,
Simon analyzes his own classroom teaching where “counterdiscursive activity”
(p. 60) produces not only the intended “hope-engendering space” (p. 81) but also
“a space provocative of fear” (p. 81). The basis of this fear is “theory’s
disruptive potential” (p. 86) and its “implications for affecting new identities and
disorganizing old ones” (p. 92). Simon develops the idea that the fear might be
understood as an active refusal of or resistance to certain forms of knowledge,
what he calls “the desire to ignore” (p. 95). Drawing in particular on Shoshana
Felman’s work on Jacques Lacan, Simon argues that the fear of theory is
pedagogical opportunity; it is possible to learn about the complex conditions that
form this “dynamic of threat and exclusion” (p. 96). Within a project of
possibility, such learning demands a “dialogic pedagogy” in which teacher and
student work to uncover each other’s “structured resistances ...aswell as the
knowledge of what it is that resists in the other” (p. 97). Despite his acknowledgement
that “the concept of dialogic pedagogy is perhaps one of the most
confused and misdeveloped ideas in the literature on critical teaching” (p. 96),
Simon bypasses the chance to add a substantive contribution to redressing this
problem, a disappointment given the high calibre of his articulation and
clarification of other issues within critical pedagogy.

466 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
Many sources of beauty are encountered in this text. One of the most fulfilling
arises from the interspersing of Yiddish language, Jewish story, and Jewish
history as partial expressions of Simon’s own “location as a Jew engaging his
own tradition” (p. 141). Simon uses this engagement with his Jewish subjectivity
to elaborate important concerns of text, history, and meaning in the excellent
essay “Beyond the Racist Text: Jewish Applause for a Yiddish Shylock.” Current
controversies over texts and curriculum in all forms of schooling make this essay
important. Its pedagogical implications will be especially appreciated by
educators grappling with the problems associated with censorship, what Marlene
Nourbese Philip (1990) calls “the privileged discourse” (p. 209). Using as his
starting point a discussion of a Yiddish production of The Merchant of Venice,
Simon develops a convincing basis for moving beyond the question of the racist
or sexist text into questions of the discursive conditions that make possible
specific writings and readings and the implications of these latter questions for
redefining how we teach controversial texts. This essay highlights Simon’s ability
to deal concretely, convincingly, and uncompromisingly with issues of practice.
If Simon’s collection has a significant flaw at all, it is the inclusion of the
essay “What Schools Can Do: Designing Programs for Work Education that
Challenge the Wisdom of Experiences,” co-authored with Don Dippo. The
purpose of this essay is to focus on “the centrality of the pedagogical problem
of both legitimating student experiences [in cooperative work education
programs] as appropriate curriculum content and at the same time working to
challenge such experiences” (p. 135). However, written as it is in a less reflexive,
less analytic style sharply juxtaposed against that of Simon’s earlier essays, this
essay fails the promise of its purpose. Further, placed where it is in the
collection, the essay is noticeable in its failure to sustain the philosophical depth
of the book, the momentum of which builds with each of the preceding essays
only to be interrupted (eroded) by the tone of this piece. Some editing should
also have been done to provide greater continuity between this essay and the
others in the collection and to avoid the repetition of already-established
arguments and secondary references (the Bloch quote on dreams appears in the
first essay and this one). Given the comparative weaknesses of this essay, I feel
this space could have been better used to develop an essay on a point of
provocation raised but not fully developed elsewhere, for example, eros and
pedagogy or the dialogic method.
For his title, Simon draws on Walter Benjamin’s words, to “brush history
against the grain.” This is a compelling connection given the shared and urgent
concerns of Simon and Benjamin to articulate ways in which renewed
possibilities for humanity might be expressed through a radical reconnection of
the present with the past. In many ways, then, it is appropriate that, in the final
essay, Simon reclaims Benjamin’s work for its offerings to a critical pedagogy,
specifically a pedagogy of remembrance. The final essay, “Remembrance as a

BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 467
Source of Radical Renewal,” points backward as it gestures forward, while it
simultaneously captures the contradictions of present locatedness. These are the
same movements appropriate to a pedagogy of possibility encouraged by a
“dialectical historical imagination” (p. 146). Simon states that this essay marks
the beginning of “a new long-term effort to rethink the way in which educational
practices are implicated in the production of social memories and historical
sensibilities” (p. xvii). This work will, undoubtedly, be something for us to look
forward with; no less so, and, indeed, for this very reason, it is also work for us
to look forward to.
REFERENCES
hooks, b. (1993). Sisters of the yam: Black women and self-recovery. Toronto: Between the Lines.
Philip, M. Nourbese. (1990). The disappearing debate: Racism and censorship. In L. Scheier, S.
Sheard, & E. Wachtel (Eds.), Language in her eye: Writing and gender — Views by Canadian
women writing in English (pp. 209–219). Toronto: Coach House Press.
Interwoven Conversations: Learning and Teaching Through Critical
Reflections
by Judith Newman
Toronto: OISE Press, 1991. xii + 421 pages.
REVIEWED BY HEATHER HEMMING, ACADIA UNIVERSITY
This book creates a rare opportunity, an invitation to look through a window at
one university professor’s reflections on teaching and learning. The window
through which Judith Newman makes public her teaching and learning provides
an evolving story that moves forward and backwards in time such that readers
are encouraged to “create movies in their mind” (Elbow, 1973). To do this,
Newman creatively weaves together conversations that she has with others and
with herself, interspersed with anecdotes from her practice. This is a book about
teaching in a post-secondary setting, although it speaks to teachers at all levels
and falls under the general rubric of literature on reflective teaching. It is written
in the context of a summer institute for graduate students, primarily public school
teachers interested in literacy.
In Interwoven Conversations, Newman tries to capture her thoughts and
decisions at even the most basic level, such as touring the premises to touch base
with students (p. 120) and preparing the environment (p. 130). In these instances
the rawness of the description is somewhat startling and atypical of many books
about teaching. At other points, Newman uses theoretical frameworks developed

468 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
by other researchers to analyze and make sense of what has occurred. For
example, she demonstrates how Frank Smith’s notion of the learning enterprise
(p. 16) and Mayher’s perspectives on uncommon sense (p. 19) are related to
what she is experiencing in her teaching.
A particularly unique feature of this book is that Newman makes room for the
stories and conversations of others — of students and colleagues. At many points
boxes of print are separated from the body of the text, allowing the other
person’s perspective to enter the conversation. For example, she includes
thoughts from her colleague Ann Vibert on the value of reflecting in her writing
on understanding what her students experience (p. 68). Another example, woven
into the fabric of the text, is a student’s conversation about her attempts to make
sense of the importance of teaching spelling rules (p. 100).
Many of these anecdotal stories and conversations have the potential to
provide important insights and might typically be excluded from a book on
teaching and learning, particularly if not integrated into the main body of the
discussion. By including these personal stories either in a separate or integrated
fashion Newman allows them to become part of the formal conversation about
teaching. She demonstrates that she values the stories and in so doing elevates
their importance in academic discourse.
As Hunt indicates in the Foreword (p. viii), teaching is not a neat process.
Through the thoughts and pedagogical practices presented in the conversations,
Newman generates for the reader an understanding of the complexity of teaching.
All 14 chapters of the book illuminate this. Newman discusses her teaching and
learning in ways that usefully highlight such concepts as engagement (p. 298),
demonstration (pp. 179–180), ownership (p. 285), and teaching as a learning
enterprise (pp. 15–17). Other ideas include, in Chapter 3, for example, the
struggles entailed in setting agendas for learning, specifically related to creating
a reader response situation within the classroom (pp. 146 –155). Chapter 9
describes the process of helping teachers explore critical incident stories as a tool
for turning a reflective gaze on themselves. The notion of teachable moments is
the focus of chapter 11, where Newman makes an important clarification when
she suggests that a teachable moment can involve teaching by telling, if the
information is volunteered in response to what students are actually doing and
if it is likely to prove immediately helpful.
This book, as suggested in the sub-title, is situated within the theoretical
framework of reflective practice. There exists, however, a diversity of meanings
and intentions associated with the theories on reflective practice and it is
therefore important to situate any book within its particular perspective. One
criticism of Interwoven Conversations is that Newman does not clearly define
where the work fits within the reflective practitioner perspective. Given the vast
number of studies that have emerged within a reflective teaching framework,
indicating the diversity of meanings and assumptions, this lack of specification
is unfortunate. One can infer from the references that Newman’s work is closely

BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 469
aligned with that of Donald Schön. Newman encourages her students and readers
to engage in “reflection on action” while continually demonstrating her ability
to participate in “reflection in action.” The reader has an opportunity to read
about the processes she engages in as she observes, reflects, and acts once she
has recognized what is problematic.
The necessity for delineating one’s theoretical perspective more carefully can
be illustrated by one brief, albeit rather crucial, example. Consider the multiple
meanings associated with the word “critical.” Newman’s use of the label “critical
reflection” cannot be assumed to align this work with those, like Zeichner and
Liston (1987), who argue that whatever issue is identified as problematic, the
reflection must move beyond the problematics of the immediate situation into an
awareness of political and ethical possibilities.
Although the book offers general insights into learning and teaching, it is
nonetheless about particular students (graduates and professionals) in a particular
context (a university summer institute). The conversations in which Newman
engages, the reflection, knowledge building, and subsequent writing, all must be
understood in their context specificity. Yet although the students are described
generally at the beginning of the book, and although it is possible to build
profiles of the participants as the book evolves, what is left unexplored are the
implications of their backgrounds, in terms of race, class, culture, and gender, for
the events of the summer institute. If we consider the book as a moment in the
construction of educational knowledge, this gives rise to epistemological and
political concerns about the presence of privilege. What might a critical reflection
reveal concerning the perspectives of those who construct knowledge in this book
and those on whose experiences this knowledge is constructed?
Overall, Interwoven Conversations is an important text that attends to a need
in teacher education literature, a need that Short (1992) identified when she
stated that “missing from most of these reports is any reflection by university
educators on what they have learned and how the projects have changed them
as teachers and researchers” (p. 35). This book provides the reader with a rare
opportunity to explore the rich conversations Newman has with herself and with
others. If you accept the invitation she extends in the preface, to read the book
both aesthetically, so you can make connections to your own life, and fast, so the
narrative elements connect, you will have an opportunity to engage in self-reflection
that will ultimately lead to the creation of new conversations.
REFERENCES
Elbow, P. (1973). Writing without teachers. London: Oxford University Press.
Short, K. (1992). “Living the process”: Creating a learning community among educators. Teaching
Education, 4(2), 34–42.
Zeichner, K., & Liston,D. (1987). Teaching student teachers to reflect. Harvard Educational Review,
57, 23–48.

470 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
Understanding Skills
by Robin Barrow
London, ON: Althouse Press, 1990. vii + 194 pages.
REVIEWED BY IAN WINCHESTER, ONTARIO INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES IN
EDUCATION
According to Barrow, Understanding Skills is about the possibility of providing
a liberal education in schools. This idea, which goes back to Plato, or at any rate
to the Ancient Greeks, is one that can be dressed up in modern-day jargon that
would include “understanding,” “critical thinking,” “imagination,” and “creativity.”
Barrow claims, however, it is characteristic of our age that we misunderstand
such key concepts and that consequently our schools are disaster areas
which completely miss approaching the idea. Barrow makes a good case for this
important thesis in the book.
It is, however, really a book of much greater importance than this. Barrow’s
service to us as educators is far greater because it is about what we all take
deeply for granted, but normally do not articulate — our deepest presuppositions.
Barrow does this, but doesn’t notice that this is his main achievement, as I shall
explain below.
Barrow argues for the possibility of a liberal education in our time through the
philosophical study of a number of misunderstandings that make the provision
of such an education impossible. The misunderstanding Barrow most frequently
mentions is the confusion of the possession of skills with the possession of
mental qualities. The next-most frequent philosophical misunderstanding is the
belief that there are mental faculties among which understanding or intelligence
are numbered.
Nearly all Barrow’s analyses are salutary and most of what he destroys is
worth destroying. Thus, he shows us how the current obsession with “giftedness”
is often wildly misplaced and full of confusions. He weans us from belief in the
faculties of “imagination” or of “creation.” He shows that “value clarification,”
while having some uses, is no general panacea for our educational ills, especially
those involving relations among us in a multicultural setting. He disabuses us of
the notions that all values are relative, that any choice or inheritance of these will
do, and that tolerance should teach us to tolerate any degree of silliness in this
realm. All these things he does as preliminary to his discussion of how we might
get back to a genuine liberal education.
On the positive side, he tries to show us that reason can be cultivated and that
an ideal liberal education should try to cultivate it. He argues that there really
can be a core curriculum to which everyone should be exposed, regardless of

BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 471
individual differences. And he talks wisely about how teacher education might
be improved so that we might approximate to the ideal.
From Barrow’s point of view, his most important critique is of the notion that
mental qualities (like critical thinking, communicative ability, creativity, problemsolving
ability, and imagination) are skills. I am not sure who, exactly, thought
that such qualities were skills. But assuming that Barrow is right, that some
pretty important people thought so and have imposed silly curriculum
requirements on teachers because of it, Barrow argues convincingly that this is
a disastrous mistake. Of course he does not deny that all these things involve the
possession of skill of various kinds and varieties. But not one of them is a skill
or reduces to skill. In arguing this he refers more than once to the earlier work
of Gilbert Ryle, the Oxford philosopher and author of The Concept of Mind.
In this regard, however, Barrow’s account, although on the side of the angels,
is in part on the side of the fallen ones. He tends to use “skill” as a noun and not
an adjective, something Ryle would find misleading systematically. For Ryle
rightly pointed out that some performances are skilled and some are not, and
considered it a general confusion to reify notions like “skill.” Thus one might
paint with skill, or with various degrees of skill, or perhaps totally without
skill — there there are many shades and degrees. But there is no activity to be
called “the skill of painting.” Yet in Barrow we find passages like this:
Now a skill is fairly and unambiguously a particular kind of ability. Not all abilities are
skills. A skill is an ability, usually physical, that is discrete and improved by training and
practice. Thus standing on your head is a paradigm case of a skill. (p. 88)
Of course one can use words as one will. But for avoiding confusion I should
have thought it would have been more in line with Barrow’s overall intentions
to merely say that standing on one’s head is something that one might do
skilfully, or with various degrees of skill, or, perhaps, not at all.
To berate the point, Barrow is so concerned to point out that a variety of
things thought to be skills are not, that he forgets Ryle’s main point, namely, that
many things reified in common speech or in bad philosophy are things best
expressed through adjectives or adverbs and not through nouns. Thus one might
sing, paint, or think about theoretical physics imaginatively, or creatively, or
dully or feebly or badly. One might engage in a discussion thoughtfully,
helpfully, or seriously. One might communicate with vigour or clarity, or
communicate skilfully or clumsily, but not engage in the “skill of communication.”
And so on.
Thus it is not that imagination is not a skill, which is to confuse one apparent
noun with another. Rather it is that both are essentially qualifying notions, that
is, ways in which various activities might be engaged. Then it becomes clear that
imagination cannot be a skill since one may, in general, do X (say, play the
violin) imaginatively but not skilfully or vice versa, or both, or neither.

472 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
But if Barrow is wrong in thinking he is only writing a book diagnosing ills
in the educational thought of our time and offering remedies in the form of a
liberal education, what is he really doing? The most important part of Barrow’s
book, I believe, is a list of six erroneous, he claims, beliefs which are part of the
way we currently think about education and which, he further claims, lead to
untenable or false views about how we should teach and organize school
curricula. What he has really done, I think, is to detect some of the main
presuppositions in our time which affect the educational enterprise. And this is
an achievement of a very high order.
Roughly speaking, he thinks we: (1) are unwittingly committed to a faulty
psychology, (2) assume that mental qualities are skills, (3) presuppose that ideas
can be understood independent of their history or cultural context, (4) take for
granted that the only values worth having are materialistic and technocratic ones,
(5) treat all values as relative, and (6) act as though scientific inquiry is the only
real means to knowledge.
To characterize the presuppositions of an era is to perform one of the most
difficult tasks a philosopher can perform. It is hard to see what we presuppose,
since our deepest presuppositions are always built into all our ways of talking,
writing, thinking, and acting in a particular realm. Some of those who have
written best about presuppositions, like Collingwood, despaired of our being able
to do more than to characterize — after the fact — just what it was that we did so
deeply take for granted. Thus the notion of criticizing or replacing or testing
these presuppositions struck Collingwood as absurd.
Barrow sees clearly some of the important things we take deeply for granted.
However, he wishes to engage in a truth contest with each of them. Thus he
treats them as merely a kind of apparent truth that can be controverted or
disproved or straightforwardly replaced by argumentation.
What Barrow has identified, I fear, are some of the main presuppositions of
our scientific age which specially affect the educational enterprise. What he can
also see is that other ages, especially, for example, the age of Plato, about which
Barrow knows more than most, had quite different presuppositions — which
Plato shared with his contemporaries. What Barrow has not noticed is that it was
not possible, even for Plato, actually to controvert the presuppositions of his
time. For example, it would have been impossible for Plato to have suggested the
set of seven presuppositions Barrow has identified as possible replacements for
things taken most deeply for granted in the fifth or fourth century B.C.
We get some idea of how difficult it is really to get away from our
presuppositions when we see Barrow’s ideal core curriculum. For what he
expresses are exactly what we in the West, along with everybody in the world
who has a twentieth-century school system, more or less take as given. Barrow’s
list is as follows: history and geography, philosophy (including ethics and
aesthetics), natural science, mathematics, literature. The only one (or three) of
these that looks a little controversial is philosophy. But with the apparent

BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 473
exception of philosophy, the rest are just the standard fare of the core curriculum
worldwide in our era. There is nothing about swimming, which was part of the
Roman curriculum. Nor about handling the lance, the mace, or the horse, which
chivalry the world over cared about; or weaving, knitting, and lace work for the
ladies. And the reason there is not is that essentially Barrow is continuing his
(very important) work of identifying the presuppositions of this scientific age, in
this case the things we take for granted about root curriculum. And that is why
nobody has implemented what Barrow apparently fears, namely a curriculum
consisting of “Understanding 10, 11, and 12,” “Imagination 10, 11, and 12,”
“Creativity 10, 11, and 12,” and so on.
Is philosophy as he expresses it, with its ethical and aesthetic component, an
exception here? I don’t really think so. It is just that philosophy is something that
permeates everything else in the curriculum: philosophy as method, ethical
approach, concern for truth, concern for beauty, care for argument, care for
logical presentation, care for accuracy, care for precision, care for. ...Barrow
has noticed this and explicitly spelled it out as a special topic to be studied.
Perhaps its explicit study might destroy it in a scientific era, since it is a hidden
activity lurking everywhere in the curriculum. Those of us who are engaged in
trying to get philosophy into the last year of high school as an option in all
Ontario schools, may find we are engaging in a great evil, if this is true.
In summary, then, Barrow’s book is a vigorous, sometimes wonderfully
written, exposé of many things we take for granted in education in our time. He
has done us a tremendous service in identifying them. Certainly these things are
more likely to change if most people are aware of what it is they themselves
presuppose. But this is not likely to occur through a series of knock-down
arguments of the sort provided in this book. Rather, it will be through the slow
encroachment of ideas over a long period of time due to the transformation, or
perhaps the decline and fall, of this “technologico-Benthamite” civilization that
has us all in thrall. Whether we will like that when it happens, I do not know.
What I am sure of is that a liberal education as we presuppose it is not likely to
survive this civilization’s decline and fall either.
Autonomy and Education
by Eamonn Callan
Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1988. 164 pages.
REVIEWED BY MURRAY ROSS, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
A quarter-century ago the significance of children’s intellectual autonomy was
an issue of considerable interest. With the revival of child-centred education

474 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
(most notably in British Columbia’s “Year 2000” reforms), the question of
children’s autonomy has once again come to the fore. Hitherto, one of the more
widely accepted views of autonomy’s place in education originated with the
London school of educational philosophers during the 1960s. These philosophers,
principally Robert Dearden, Richard Peters, and Paul Hirst, objected to the
romantic excesses of child-centred educational theory and the priority it gave to
the autonomous judgment of the child. On the London view, a commitment to
the autonomy of children must be tempered with the understanding that children
are comparatively ignorant and thus cannot know what is in their interest,
educationally speaking. It was seen as a mistake, therefore, to give the child
much freedom of choice in the determination of curriculum. This rather
traditional view is again being challenged by partisans of various stripes — whole
language enthusiasts, constructivists and others who wish to carve out a more
respectable place for the interests and proclivities of children. Under these
circumstances Eamonn Callan’s philosophically sophisticated Autonomy and
Schooling is a timely and much-needed contribution to the debate.
Up to a point Callan’s account of autonomy is consistent with the standard
view: autonomy is a matter of self-rule. Beyond this, it deviates from betterknown
treatments, especially those stressing the incompetence of the child, or
following the Kantian tradition of linking reason with autonomy. The autonomous
person, says Callan, is ruled by a realistic and independent will, while
autonomy itself is manifested in the way persons control and develop their
interests. The key to Callan’s position is the weight he attaches to the psychological
interests of the child and the logical necessity of a certain type of
freedom that will enable children to pursue these interests.
Callan’s defense of an interest-based curriculum is convincing, and destructive
of the standard dismissals of children’s interests by Dearden et al. His argument
hinges on the reasonable assumption that many of a child’s interests will be
educationally relevant. Nonetheless, it is telling that the educational problem
Callan uses to illustrate his discussion of interests — the case of the conventionally
successful, though indifferent student — can be considered quite apart from the
highly abstract treatment of autonomy and freedom to which much of the book
is devoted. Indeed, the first third of the book pertains to matters more purely
philosophical than educational, ranging widely across a variety of knotty
philosophical problems in ethics and political theory. Even though Callan’s
argument concerning interests succeeds independently of his construal of the
relation between positive freedom and autonomy, readers with a philosophical
bent will find much of interest in the novel treatment of these relations. 1
Callan’s commitment to child centred education does not take a wholly
familiar form, however. He argues, for instance, that compulsion in schooling is
warranted and necessary, providing it is properly restricted and exercised within
the context of a quasi-democratic school structure. Callan also takes pains to

BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS 475
distance himself from the more discredited doctrines of child-centred education,
such as those positing some innate goodness or wisdom in children, or
denouncing all forms of direct instruction.
In his rejection of the orthodox view that autonomy is conceptually linked to
the practices of reason, he argues, unconvincingly in my view, that one can be
realistic and independently minded without being committed to critical reflection.
It is hard to see how someone can be a realist in Callan’s sense, that is, someone
who demonstrates “a persistent orientation of the mind towards reality and a
corresponding suppression of the various ways human beings are apt to evade
reality” without being generally disposed to offer reasons and to seek them when
required. Similarly, Callan’s disregard of the need for a liberal education
characterized by breadth of knowledge is puzzling. It suggests he has not found
the right balance between the private sphere of personal interests and the public
domain of epistemic practices which lie at the heart of our traditions of inquiry.
These practices, which enlarge this private sphere beyond its solipsistic limits,
offer one of the most valuable defenses against the intellectual dependence which
so troubled Kant. The aim of developing rationally autonomous persons requires
that learners accept as true only those claims grounded in good reasons (providing
the claims are of the sort where justification is called for). Since the criteria
for the truth of propositions, and thus the criteria which pick out “good” reasons,
vary across disciplines, breadth of knowledge is not something that can be sacrificed
in an effort to foster autonomy. Students who are not taught these disciplines
are simply denied access to the means of rational autonomous development
which schools are best suited to deliver. Perhaps it is Callan’s expectation that
students will eventually develop more catholic interests once they are given a
freer hand in ordering the content of their inquiries. But this assumption, like
others in this otherwise fine book, is an empirical matter about which less is
known than Callan seems to allow.
NOTE
1
Philosophically inclined readers might wish to consult Robert Dearden’s critical review
in the Journal of Philosophy of Education 24, no. 1 (1990): 127–131.

Index to Volume 18 /
Index du Volume 18 *
Articles
Acker, Sandra, & Keith Oatley. Gender Issues in Education for Science and
Technology: Current Situation and Prospects for Change, 255.
Allison, Patricia. See Nagy, Philip.
Bailin, Sharon. Drama as Experience: A Critical View, 95.
Baudoux, Claudine et Albert Noircent. Rapports sociaux de sexe dans les classes
du collégial québécois, 150.
Benyamna, Salah, Jacques Désautels et Marie Larochelle. Du concept à la chose:
la notion de particule dans les propos d’étudiants à l’égard de phénomènes
physiques, 62.
Bourdages, Céline. Voir Deschênes, André-Jacques.
Bryson, Mary, & Suzanne de Castell. Queer Pedagogy: Praxis Makes Im/Perfect,
285.
Chomienne, Martine. Le changement de rôle d’un enseignant dans un environnement
technologique riche, 323.
Coleman, Peter. See Tabin, Yvonne.
Coulter, Rebecca Priegert, & Margaret McNay. Exploring Men’s Experiences as
Elementary School Teachers, 398.
Covert, James R. Creating a Professional Standard of Moral Conduct for Canadian
Teachers: A Work in Progress, 429.
de Castell, Suzanne. See Bryson, Mary.
Deaudelin, Colette, Jean Loiselle et Marielle Pratte. L’utilisation pédagogique
d’outils informatiques de gestion de données à l’école primaire, 46.
Désautels, Jacques. Voir Benyamna, Salah.
Deschênes, André-Jacques, Céline Bourdages, Louise Lebel et Bernard Michaud.
Quelques principes pour concevoir et évaluer des activités d’apprentissage en
formation à distance, 335.
Eyre, Linda. Compulsory Heterosexuality in a University Classroom, 273.
*
Key to pagination / Références aux numéros du volume: (1) 1–94; (2) 95–184; (3)
185–306; (4) 307–480.
476 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 18:4 (1994)

INDEX TO VOLUME 18 / INDEX DU VOLUME 18 477
Falardeau, Mireille et Michel Loranger. Le choix de stratégies d’apprentissage
dans différents contextes scolaires par l’élève du primaire et du secondaire,
307.
Fréchet, Guy. Précarité de l’emploi et scolarisation moyenne au Canada, 349.
Henry, Annette. Missing: Black Self-Representations in Canadian Educational
Research, 206.
Kennedy, Deborah. Nonsexist Language: A Progress Report, 223.
Larochelle, Marie. Voir Benyamna, Salah.
Laskey, Arlene. See Nagy, Philip.
Lebel, Louise. Voir Deschênes, André-Jacques.
Loiselle, Jean. Voir Deaudelin, Colette.
Loranger, Michel. Voir Falardeau, Mireille.
McNay, Margaret. See Coulter, Rebecca Priegert.
Michaud, Bernard. Voir Deschênes, André-Jacques.
Nagy, Philip, Arlene Laskey, & Patricia Allison. Evaluation as Harvesting:
Drama in Education as Tender Fruit, 117.
Ng, Roxana. “A Woman out of Control”: Deconstructing Sexism and Racism in
the University, 189.
Noircent, Albert. Voir Baudoux, Claudine.
Oatley, Keith. See Acker, Sandra.
O’Farrell, Lawrence. Challenging Our Assumptions: Playwrights and the Drama
Curriculum, 106.
Orr, Deborah Jane. Toward a Critical Rethinking of Feminist Pedagogical Praxis
and Resistant Male Students, 239.
Pearson, Allen T., & Patricia T. Rooke. Gender Studies and Teacher Education:
A Proposal, 414.
Potvin, Pierre et Romain Rousseau. Attitudes des enseignants envers les élèves
en difficulté scolaire, 132.
Pratte, Marielle. Voir Deaudelin, Colette.
Raphael, Dennis. Accountability and Educational Philosophy: Paradigms and
Conflict in Ontario Education, 29.
Richmond, Stuart. Art, Imagination, and Teaching: Researching the High School
Classroom, 366.
Rooke, Patricia T. See Pearson, Allen T.
Rousseau, Romain. Voir Potvin, Pierre.
Stewart, Douglas. Teaching or Facilitating: A False Dichotomy, 1.
Tabin, Yvonne, & Peter Coleman. From the Dollhouse to the Schoolhouse: The
Changing Experience of Women Principals in British Columbia, 1980 to 1990,
381.
Van Brummelen, Harro. The Effects of Government Funding on Private Schools:
Appraising the Perceptions of Long-Term Principals and Teachers in British
Columbia’s Christian Schools, 14.

478 INDEX TO VOLUME 18 / INDEX DU VOLUME 18
Discussion Notes / Débats
Bergmann, Sheryle. A Response to Colla J. MacDonald’s “Creative Dance in
Elementary Schools,” 168.
Holmes, Mark. Who Should Control Educational Policy — Experts or the Public?
A Response to Levin, Riffel, and Young, 452.
Levin, Benjamin, J. Anthony Riffel, & Jonathan Young. A Reply to “The Revival
of School Administration: Alasdair MacIntyre in the Aftermath of the
Common School,” 446.
MacDonald, Colla J. An Educator’s Perspective on Creative Dance in Elementary
Schools: A Response to Sheryle Bergmann, 171.
Riffel, J. Anthony. See Levin, Benjamin.
Young, Jonathan. See Levin, Benjamin.
Review Essay / Essai Critique
Ryan, James. Studying Effective Schools and Districts: The Problem with Universals
and Uniformity, 79.
Book Reviews / Recensions
Bibeau, Gilles. La formation du jugement: peut-on apprendre le jugement? sous
la direction de Michael Schleifer, 461.
Daniels, LeRoi B. Reform and Relevance in Schooling: Dropouts, De-Streaming
and the Common Curriculum, edited by Derek J. Allison & Jerry Paquette, 93.
Das, J. P. Vygotsky and Education: Instructional Implications and Applications
of Sociohistorical Psychology, edited by Luis C. Moll, 181.
Fontaine, Susanne. La profession enseignante au Québec: enjeux et devis des
années 1990 sous le direction de Claude Lessard, Madeleine Perron et Pierre
W. Bélanger, 455.
Gauthier, Clermont et Clémence Michaud. Le jugement, les valeurs et l’action,
par Pierre Angers et Colette Bouchard, 174.
Hemming, Heather. Interwoven Conversations: Learning and Teaching Through
Critical Reflections, by Judith Newman, 467.
Hohl, Janine. Apprendre à vivre ensemble: immigration, société et éducation par
Jocelyn Berthelot, 86.
Kelly, Ursula A. Teaching Against the Grain: Texts for a Pedagogy of Possibility,
by Roger I. Simon, 463.
Larose, Réal. Autour de l’idée de science par Marie Larochelle et Jacques
Désautels, 457.
Lemieux, Nicole. La socialisation: construction des identités sociales et professionnelles
par Claude Dubar, 176.

INDEX TO VOLUME 18 / INDEX DU VOLUME 18 479
Mclean, Eric. La direction des mémoires et des thèses par Aimée Leduc, 88.
Michaud, Clémence. Voir Gauthier, Clermont.
Moran, Louise. Open Learning and Open Management: Leadership and Integrity
in Distance Education, by Ross H. Paul, 91.
Morin, Lucien. La philosophie et les enfants par Marie-France Daniel, 459.
Ross, Murray. Autonomy and Education, by Eamonn Callan, 473.
Winchester, Ian. Understanding Skills, by Robin Barrow, 470.
Young, Jon. Innovative Multicultural Teaching, edited by Vincent D’Oyley &
Stan M. Shapson, 178.
Other / Divers
de Castell, Suzanne. Introduction [to special issue “Against the Grain”: Narratives
of Resistance]: 6 December 1989/1993, Je me souviens, 185.