The Province of Quebec launched a province-wide reform of its schools and adult education centres in 1997 to respond to the exigencies of an increasingly multicultural population, and the requirements of a knowledge-based society. The reform aims to enhance democracy and citizenship. Based on the recent explosion in philosophical literature about varying models of democracy, and the concept of self advanced by each model, it is important to investigate what vision of democracy and concept of self is proposed for Quebec through this reform and what institutional measures are being adopted by the educational community to ensure its realization. This paper uses the principles of applied philosophy for an investigation of the reform from three perspectives: a study of theories about democracy, education, and the development of self; a critical text analysis of the reform's formative document; the creation of a study group inside a school board implementing the reform in its schools. The conclusion of the present investigation is that a model of deliberative democracy and dialogical concept of self is not the model of democracy that dominates Quebec's current reform project despite evidence that such a model is most likely to ensure that this reform will successfully address the needs of the population.

The overall purpose of this thesis was to contribute to the understanding of teachers’ endeavours to their own professionalization in connection with developmental work at school. The main purpose was to analyse how well these endeavours could be interpreted and understood in terms of the action-altematives of closure and alliance. This thesis comprises empirical investigations of three developmental activities involving various categories of teachers. The first study concerned nursing instructors in the upper secondary school and the college of higher learning in an experimental activity dealing with nursing practice, the second study concerned a pre-school teacher, a recreation instructor and junior level teachers in an experiment with school start for six-year-olds, and the third study concerned immigrant language teachers of Finnish in a developmental acivity, whose purpose was to improve the quality of bilingual teaching. A qualitative approach was chosen with interviews as the principal method for the collection of data for the descriptions of teachers’ endeavours to professionalize in practice. These descriptions were later analysed and interpreted in the light of concepts adopted from the neo-Weberian perspective in combination with the more liberal attitudes characteristic of the perspective of ”the Third Path”. Inclusion, dual closure, and demarcation, and, in addition the opening alternative of vertical alliance were the activity options included in the analysis. The results showed that teachers’ endeavours to professionalize occur through interwoven efforts aiming at competence and position, seeing position and improvement of position as decisive for the possibilities of the development of competence. Furthermore the results showed that teachers put into practice closure as well as alliance with a purpose to maintain or improve their own position. The conditions of the individual case decided the choice of action-alternative and the result of the endeavours. With a single exception, where the teachers chose an alliance which was primarily horizontally directed, the teachers’ endeavours to professionalize were inconsiderable. The differences noticeable in teachers’ endeavours to professionalize have been discussed in the light of their different conditions as to their positional starting point, the present impendent scenario, the existence of real activity options and how well the chosen strategy was manifest in official documentary guidelines. Furthermore the various conditions for the initiation of the developmental activities have been discussed and also to what extent the intentions behind the change-over to the goal-related and decentralized educational system has won legitimacy on various levels of the educational system. / digitalisering@umu

Systemic educational reforms entail major changes at the different levels of the system, of which classroom practice is ultimately crucial to obtaining the desired output. Within this paradigm shift, experienced teachers have to replace what they are likely to consider good teaching and learning approaches with unfamiliar strategies. Continuing professional teacher development (CPTD) plays a key role in successfully changing classroom practices. This in-depth case study research —six teachers in two different countries, Canada and South Africa—looks into the information acquisition process of instructors. Interviews were performed at different levels of the educational system – policy makers, pedagogic/subject advisors as well as teachers for which questionnaires and classroom observation were also used to collect data. A research-based analytical tool developed by Laura Desimone (Desimone, 2009) guided the exploration of the vast data collected and served as the analytical framework for the various data sources, drawing a link between the intended, implemented and attained policies. The thorough discourse analysis situated in the interpretivist framework gives global insight into the teachers’ perception of the impact of CPTD as it enables a deep understanding of the information acquisition and utilization by teachers. The examination of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in different reform contexts brings a profound perspective on how professional development activities contribute to the professional capital of educators, as envisaged by Hargreaves and Fullan (2012). Data suggest that policies related to professional development are adequate in Québec and in South Africa, but that planning around implementation is hasty or lacking altogether. Regardless of the socio-economic environment and the professional development accessibility, teachers do not perceive CPTD as being a major vector of change and they were found to lack the necessary capacity to change their practices to reflect their beliefs. Finally, teachers reported that the most influential factor on practices is the availability of teaching and learning material and learners’ reaction to it. In conclusion, in the two contexts observed, CPTD was not emphasised to the level required for a paradigm change such as constructivist-based systemic reforms. I suggest adapting CPTD delivery methods to teachers’ need by ensuring widespread and reform-aligned professional development. In addition, access to information through appropriate teaching materials combined with appealing and applicable activities should be facilitated. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

The recently reformed Quebec Education Program has been implemented since the fall of 2000 and has drawn our attention to many questions regarding the philosophical and practical elements of education in Quebec. This thesis critically examines the implementation of this reform. It investigates the philosophical underpinnings of this new program, its approaches and implementation objectives. It provides an overview of the design of this new program and outlines some of the dominant themes emerging from its approach. It critiques the implementation of this reform by presenting some of the factors that make it difficult to effectively sustain change in school. Finally, it will conclude that we need an education that encompasses the authenticity of teaching and learning and which creates an atmosphere that will actively engage students in their learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Includes survey instruments. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ.187-204)

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Seton Hall University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-112).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tennessee Technological University, 2006. / Bibliography: leaves 45-48.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-206). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: F.M. Connelly.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Lorna Earl.