Québec City, January 14, 2004.
— In its latest report,
the Advisory Board on English Education (ABEE) conveyed to
the Minister of Education, the Hon. Pierre Reid, its belief
in the importance of paying particular attention to what extent
secondary school teachers are prepared, or consider themselves
prepared, to implement the reform in their classrooms at this
time. Competency-based multidisciplinary teaching was not
likely on the curriculum when they themselves were students.
The response of teachers to the challenge of the new curriculum
and to the structural changes it entails is therefore crucial.
In preparing this report entitled Profile
of the Teacher as Keystone in Secondary Reform Implementation,
the Board heard invaluable accounts from many sectors of the
education system: school administrators, university professors,
union members, and, above all, teachers working in urban and
rural milieux, in the public and private sectors. Particular
attention was given to participants’ first experiences
of implementing the reform in secondary schools.
The report finds that the concepts underlying
the reform are pedagogically well founded and feasible in
terms of their application in the schools, but that their
full implementation depends largely on the constructive participation
of teachers. The considerably more complex content of the
secondary school curriculum effectively requires fuller explanation
and demands increased attention to teaching priorities. The
Board believes that all parties—the Ministère
de l’Éducation (MEQ), the school boards, teachers,
parents, unions, administrators—must develop common
strategies so that all teachers clearly understand the curriculum
reform, sharing a common language and a common perspective
on the imperatives of change.
The report contains 23 recommendations,
principally addressed to the MEQ and the government, but also
to the school boards, universities and teachers’ unions.
These recommendations cover a number of issues, including:
