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

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