Date of Award

9-12-2024

Publication Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.Ed.

Department

Education

Keywords

Education;Education reform;Quebec

Supervisor

Cam Cobb

Abstract

The quest to have a highly performing education system is one shared by many nations. In this sense, nations and jurisdictions will often analyze and compare their education system with others to optimize their own. Upon such analyses and comparisons, there will often be a need for reforms to increase performance and efficiency in education. Such reforms may be small-scale at times, but governments around the world will sometimes attempt system-wide curriculum reforms. In 1996 the province of Québec held a large commission called the “États Généraux de l’Éducation” (General Status of Education) to correct certain issues, most notably a higher dropout rate than other provinces in the country. After this commission, Québec undertook a system-wide curriculum reform based on a socio-constructivist approach. It was highly contested from the beginning and remains so to this day. This research project therefore aims to gain a better understanding of the successes and failures of system-wide curriculum reforms by looking into Québec’s reform in a case-study analysis. Results of this research indicate that top-down leadership, where a reform is imposed by a governing authority and in which teachers and the community do not have an active participation role produce higher levels of resistance than when change starts from the bottom up. This case-study analysis points to the notion that the preparation phase of a system-wide reform should be longer and given more importance than the implementation phase as understanding of the reason for this reform, or lack thereof, caused the most insecurity and resistance. Keyword: Education, reform, Québec, leadership, teamwork, reform planning.

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