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Educational reform : an investigation of democracy and the place of the self in Québec education

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.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.85199
Date January 2005
CreatorsRabinovitch, Lori Diane
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageDoctor of Philosophy (Department of Integrated Studies in Education.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 002227959, proquestno: AAINR12932, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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