Impartialité, objectivité et neutralité? : étude de pratiques enseignantes en Éthique et culture religieuse au Québec

The non-denominational Quebec program Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) requires that its teachers adopt a professional stance that is both impartial and objective. The program has provoked social controversy and lawsuits, with its critics appealing to teacher impartiality to justify their position, but interpreting it differently than do its advocates. Despite the importance of this issue, no empirical research has been put forward to analyze teacher impartiality. As for theory, we find these concepts used in a wide variety of ways. This dissertation proposes to clarify the issue, from both a theoretical and practical perspective. In the first section, we present an in-depth analysis of the professional stance of impartiality required in ERC. Following that is an explanation of the concepts of impartiality, objectivity and neutrality. While the term ‘neutrality’ seems to dominate educational and political literature, objectivity is mainly used to describe the stance of scientific researchers and the knowledge they produce. As for impartiality, it is the ‘poor cousin’ in literature, especially in education. It is more clearly defined in the domains of justice and law, characterizing in particular a judge’s impartiality. In the second section of this dissertation, we present the methodology used and the results of analyzing interviews and observations, by examining how ERC teachers problematize and negotiate the requirement of professional impartiality. Our innovative approach analyzes not only the implementation of this ERC impartiality requirement, but the discourse of 12 ‘typical’ or ‘exemplary’ secondary school teachers from different sociocultural settings (private denominational or public non-denominational schools, with multicultural or non-multicultural environments). The teachers replied to the following questions: How do teachers conceptualize the impartiality required in ERC? How is the ERC impartiality requirement put into practice in ERC teaching in secondary schools? The use of a thematic deductive approach (transversal analyses of non-participant observations in class and semi-directed teacher interviews) allows for the identification of existing connections between a theoretical analysis of the ERC program in the first case and the qualitative data gathered in the second case. Six primary conclusions emerging from these analyses are discussed. Proposing a critical reflection on the impartiality required in ERC, empirical results are clarified by theoretical analyses, which also aids in understanding the issue in fields where similar professional challenges are faced. The first outcome indicates that personal or professional variables in teachers have no influence on their understanding and implementation of the professional impartiality required in ERC. The second emphasizes the existence of polysemy and conceptual confusion concerning the terms neutrality, impartiality and objectivity, in teachers’ minds as well as in literature. In this regard, this dissertation suggests some useful paths of clarification. Next, based on a typology of impartiality developed in the first section, the third result explains that absolute or ‘axiological’ impartiality is generally rejected. The fourth conclusion reminds us that the idea of critical distance proves to be the foundation of the impartiality required in ERC. The fifth outcome demonstrates the differences between religious and ethical impartiality, with issues of religious indoctrination and the expression or non-expression of personal religious beliefs dominating the issue of impartiality. Finally, the sixth result summarizes the numerous difficulties associated with the requirement of intervening in accordance with program goals, as these goals refer to concepts that teachers find to be polysemous and vague.

Keyphrases: Canada, impartiality, neutrality, objectivity, Ethics and religious culture, Quebec, non-denominational religious teaching, non-denominational ethics teaching, professional stance, critical distance, diversity