Before the 1960s, the initial training of teachers in Quebec was the responsibility of “normal schools”.
The teacher’s action was that of a divine mission where Judeo-Christian religious and moral principles transcending the French-Canadian nation of the time were at the heart of educational action.
It was during the 1930s and 1940s that new intellectual elites expressed demands such as that of shedding religious influence.
The need to modernize this training was felt in 1953 during the reform of the “normal schools”. The Parent Report of the 1960s is, moreover, the crowning achievement of this modernist thought of the 1950s.
The technocrats of the Parent Commission then created an education system under the leadership of the Ministry of Education. Assuming the direction of initial teacher training, the newly created ministry assigns responsibility for this to the faculties of education. So, from 1964, the “normal schools” were abolished.
Catastrophic situation of graduates
Today, more than 50 years after the Parent Report, the situation of education graduates is catastrophic. In Quebec, the average drop-out rate from the teaching profession, even before having accumulated five years of experience, is between 25% and 40%. While institutional factors give rise to this phenomenon of abandonment (e.g. working conditions, job insecurity, etc.), other factors are more linked to the deficient initial training which unfortunately gives rise to a weak feeling of competence and effectiveness linked to the act of teaching and the act of intervening with students.
Because of these mixed results, I believe the time to take stock has come. Should we continue to give the faculties of education the responsibility for initial training? If yes, why ?
Or should we rather consider the creation of a national institute exclusively dedicated to this training? After all, in Quebec, we have HEC Montreal renowned for training in business administration or the Polytechnique for engineering and how many other specialized schools.
Wouldn’t the education of tomorrow also deserve its specialized institute? Because the faculties of education find themselves more and more in a situation irreconcilable with the rigor required by a high level training in education.
We can cite the precariousness of the jobs of lecturers, clientelism, the lack of significant practical experience of a majority of speakers hired to work on initial training, the rejection of evidence from a large number of trainers or again the efforts of several professors, mainly directed with a view to their promotion.
Education is fundamental in Quebec
Starting from the premise that the way in which we educate the individuals making up society depends on our vision of the world, the creation of such an institute in Quebec, as is notably the case in Singapore (National Institute of Education), in Hong Kong (The Education University of Hong Kong) in Toronto (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) and in many other countries, would, among other things, convey that education is fundamental in Quebec.
It is not a question here of recreating a “normal school”, but of designing an intellectual crossroads where students can rub shoulders with experts with significant practical experience and in which the opinion and the ideology of the trainers will make room if necessary. scientific evidence that has long been found in medicine, agriculture, transportation, technology and in how many other fields.
-Jérôme St-Amand, Ph. D. Professor and researcher in educational sciences, University of Quebec in Outaouais
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