Special Feautre Webcast: Culture and Pedagogy in Ontario French-Language Schools
Webcast: December 18, 2006Scroll down to access archived streaming video.
Featuring:
Dr. Avis Glaze: Chief Student Achievement Officer and CEO at the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, Ontario Ministry of Education
Dominic Giroux: Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Education
Issam Massouh: Manager, Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, Ontario Ministry of Education
Lise Paiement: Director, Project Pédagogie culturelle
Judith Charest: Director's Assistant, Project Pédagogie culturelle.
The aménagement linguistique policy for Ontario's French-language schools and francophone communities was established to better serve their specific needs and those of their educational institutions, taking into account their minority setting within the province. The principal reason for this policy is to contribute through targeted interventions to the development of the French-language school communities in Ontario. A unique feature of French-language schools resides in their mandate to educate students and to protect, enhance and transmit the language and culture of the communities they serve.
The French-language School's Mandate
The French-language school is a place of learning devoted to the academic success and personal growth of all its students. It provides an environment based on engaged leadership and encourages individual and collective collaboration through partnerships with families and its different community groups as a whole.
The French-language school is an identity-building environment that fosters:
- The development of cultural identity
- The development of a sense of belonging to a dynamic culture
- The growth of all its students, and
- A commitment to a diverse French-language community
Identity building
The identity-building component of the aménagement linguistique reflects the unique character of the French-language school and targets specific interventions aimed at the acquisition of culture. School years are important in the identity-building process of young children.
The French-language school offers a privileged setting for the acquisition of culture and in a minority context is often the only place to provide a francophone environment and a unique lifestyle to young people and community members. The French-language school plays a crucial role in the creation and preservation of a culturally rewarding space where young people can develop a strong sense of belonging.
Pedagogy and culture
A model consisting of seven principles helps define the relationship between pedagogy and culture:
- Identity building: a lifelong process that requires awareness, insight, and accountability
The pedagogy and culture model suggests that the establishment of a context that fosters reflection, analysis, and dialogue (awareness); the recognition of the individual's values and choices (insight); and the acceptance of responsibility (accountability) will lead to the development of the individual's cultural autonomy and identity building. - Fulfilling environments (self-knowledge and understanding others – values – sensibilities)
Understanding oneself and others is the starting point of a person's identity quest. - Oral communication (authentic dialogue)
Oral communication is far more complex than mere vocabulary acquisition; it is the critical tool for articulating one's self (ME). - Empowerment (competence – autonomy – affiliation)
Pedagogy and culture also suggests that to acquire a sense of belonging the individuals must be able to contribute and assume a key role in their own self-actualization and in their community. - Academic congruity (conviction – integrity – quest for excellence)
- Evidence for an emerging leadership (agents of change)
- Assessment (factors for motivation, reflection, action, and change)
In this webcast, Judith Charest describes how this project evolved, and Lise Paiement explains the seven principles of the model used to demonstrate the relationship between Pedagogy and culture. You will hear testimonials from school principals, teachers, and a parent; you will also observe some students in action. Dominic Giroux will comment on the project's impact and the partnership it created with the French-language Education Policy and Programs Branch.
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