Les savoirs professionnels à la base de la formation des enseignants au Québec et en Ontario : une étude comparative des modèles universitaires de professionnalisation et de leurs enjeux

The professionalization of teaching and teacher education has been a significant movement since the late 1980s in many social contexts. Since then, research on teachers' knowledge developed with the main objective of defining the nature of the knowledge base of teaching, which, at the same time, changed teacher education models. Canadian provinces were not spared by this movement, which induced reforms and changes in teacher education programs. This doctoral research focuses on the professionalization of teaching and teacher education, and on teachers’ knowledge base, in two Canadian provinces: Quebec and Ontario. Our general objective was to identify, in a comparative perspective, how universities in these two provinces translated the policies of professionalization of teaching and teacher education, as well as the evolution of teachers’ knowledge, into teacher education programs during recent decades. To this end, we analyzed, more specifically, three issues relating to teachers’ knowledge: the conceptions of teaching as a profession and the knowledge base for teaching that should respectively guide and be included in teacher education programs in each of the provinces; the standards and skills that frame these programs; and the knowledge base that is actually present in teacher education programs (primary/junior). Thereby, we set out to answer the following research questions: How have the policies for the professionalization of teacher education developed by Quebec and Ontario been translated into university training programs? More specifically: 1. What are the dominant conceptions of professionalization emerging from Ontario and Quebec educational policies? (1.1. What has been the evolution of the educational policies governing teacher education and certification in these two provinces? 1.2. How has the knowledge base of teacher education evolved, and what competency frameworks or standards have been proposed? 1.3. What is the current official vision of the professional teacher to be trained) 2. What happens to the conceptions of professionalization when translated into teacher education programs in universities in Quebec and Ontario? (2.1. How is the professional knowledge base conceived in teacher education programs? 2.2. Are there ways of articulating theoretical and practical courses? What is the place of the practicum and research in the programs? 2.3. Are there any differences in what teachers are expected to learn depending on the context or, on the contrary, is a standardized knowledge base visible in these two different contexts? Where can we find these differences?). This research thus raises the question about the teachers’ formal knowledge in the light of the sociology of professions, particularly through the neo-Weberian approach. This approach is situated within the “critical” approach in the field of the sociology of professions and is inspired by Weber to analyze professionalization according to the economic, political, historical and academic stakes that allow a group of workers to be awarded a “social closure” and to succeed in their “professionalization” process. Based on this theoretical framework, and through the analysis of 70 political and research documents, and a comparison of teacher education programs in 25 universities (12 in Quebec and 13 in Ontario) and 1030 courses descriptions, we identified a number of differences between these two provinces in the evolution of the official conception of the teachers’ knowledge base and its influence on the teacher education models that ensued. For example, we demonstrated how the conceptions of teachers’ knowledge in the 1950s and the 1960s (pedagogy as science in Quebec, and liberal education in Ontario), have influenced current models of professionalization in the two provinces. In Quebec, the importance of psycho-pedagogical skills led to a more “professionalized” teacher education model, while Ontario maintained a combined “academic” and “professional” model . We also analyzed and compared the role of the State in the professionalization of teaching as well as its current role of supervision of teacher education. This led to the finding that the governance of teacher education and the teaching profession is political in Quebec and corporatist in Ontario.  Overall, the neo-Weberian approach enabled us to make a new contribution, sociological and comparative, to the critical examination of teacher education in Quebec and Ontario, in particular by linking the historical evolution of teachers’ knowledge, the role of the State, the teacher education models, and the current formal knowledge base for teaching that comes from university research and programs.

Keyphrases: Ontario, Teacher Education, Professionalization, Formal Knowledge, Teachers, Teaching Profession, Quebec, Neo-Weberian Approach, Comparative Education