The purpose of the study was to examine francophone high school teachers' motivation and to test the Job Characteristics Model, a model of factors that affect the satisfaction and motivation of workers, to determine its possible utility as a diagnostic tool in the field of education. / The study is based on a sample of 136 high school teachers from a francophone high school. The data collection instrument used in this study was the Job Diagnostic Survey developed by Hackman and Oldham (1980). / The findings revealed that the Job Characteristics Model and the JDS instrument have some utility in the field of education. Proposed relationships between job characteristics and psychological states, between psychological states and motivation and satisfaction outcomes were found to exist. Psychological states appeared to mediate between job characteristics and outcomes. Among core job characteristics, task significance was the most important motivating factor for teachers followed by autonomy, skill variety, task identity, feedback from the job and feedback from agents. Among the critical psychological states, the most motivating factor is experienced meaningfulness of the work followed by experienced responsibility and, lastly, knowledge of the results. For the outcomes, internal work motivation was the best motivator followed by growth satisfaction and general satisfaction. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

A growing body of both substantive and theoretical literature suggests that educational underachievement among certain ethnic groups is due to the cultural discontinuity between mainstream education and minority students. A pedagogy that both uses and reinforces the culture of ethnic minority students, implemented by ethnically similar teachers, is therefore thought to contribute to a more constructive school experience and strengthen the social and political status of the ethnic community as a whole. For this thesis, a group of Haitian educators working in Montreal area schools was interviewed to investigate the extent to which this approach is viewed as a potential solution to the low academic achievement of numerous Haitian students. Some evidence was found that culturally congruent education is, according to the experiences of some of the respondents, a potentially beneficial strategy to curtail educational inequality. In was generally argued, however, that this should be a limited, remedial strategy with little bearing on the communal survival of the Haitian community.

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This thesis presents the results of a descriptive and exploratory study conducted with eight student-teachers preparing to teach English as a second language at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes, experience and beliefs of the student-teachers towards diversity (sexual, ethnic, linguistic, economic, religious, etc.). The notion of intercultural education as promoted by the Quebec Ministry of Education and elaborated by Fernand Ouellet (2002) was used as a theoretical framework. / Analysis of the qualitative data shows a misunderstanding of the term intercultural education by the student-teachers, but a positive attitude towards diversity. However, the participants of this study, when presented with situations dealing with discrimination, do not know how to solve the problems. They do not always fight homophobic discrimination, fearing complaints from parents or the school principal, although they act to counter racist or sexist forms of discrimination. Student-teachers tend to believe that a school teacher should not express opinions in the classroom or participate in debates. Finally, student-teachers expressed a number of criticisms towards the teaching program at MGill University.

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