Are Quebec teachers ready to teach the new culture and citizenship course?

Days before the start of school, some Quebec teachers say they feel unprepared to teach the province's new Culture and Citizenship of Quebec (CCQ) course.

The mandatory program requires covering a wide range of subjects, such as the environment, democracy, Indigenous peoples, sex education and information and communications technology.

In 2021, the Coalition Avenir Québec government announced the CCQ would replace the province's ethics and religious culture course by addressing contemporary challenges.

"It is very, very, very broad," said Stéphan Béland, president of the Vieilles-Forges teachers' union in Quebec's Mauricie region east of Montreal. "CCQ teachers will become specialists in many areas."

A survey conducted by the Fédération des syndicats de l'enseignement de la Centrale des syndicats du Québec (FSE-CSQ), an umbrella union for teachers, last spring shows that out of nearly 3,000 teachers who responded, 81 per cent said they were not trained or equipped enough to teach the program — despite two-thirds of them having received training.

Sensitive topics

Béland said the results are representative of the Mauricie region, and that several factors could explain them.

The training offered by the ministry was, and still is, optional. Although most of the guides are available online, teachers could theoretically teach the course without having received training.

The Education Ministry also has yet to approve the textbooks for elementary or high schools.

The ministry said in an email to Radio-Canada that textbooks will be available as of September.

"These are sensitive subjects," Béland said. "Whether in elementary or high school, there are teachers who may not feel able to teach [for example] content related to sex education."

Béland also pointed to educators not having enough hours to teach all the course content.

While the ministry recommends a certain number of teaching hours, it doesn't mandate the amount of time spent on the course, he said.

Steven Le Sueur, president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT), says he expects the course to have "a difficult start," with teachers lacking training and materials in both languages.

He said the government needs to delay the implementation of CCQ. 

"They always do things backwards," he said. "'Let's get it started, but then we'll get you the materials after the fact.' It just doesn't work that way." 

CCQ has potential, says teacher

Former history teacher Pierre-Luc Fortin teaches the Quebec Culture and Citizenship course at the Séminaire Saint-Joseph, a private high school in Trois-Rivières.

He said the course provides an "extraordinary opportunity" to train the citizens of tomorrow and get them thinking about relevant topics.

Fortin was one of the teachers who started teaching the CCQ course when it was still a pilot project, allowing him to put together materials with his team.

He said not having a textbook isn't all bad because it gives teachers the "autonomy to be able to touch on all sorts of subjects, and not necessarily be tied to a program."

"What helped a lot was that we have resources to support us," he said.

For instance, his students had the chance to visit a long-term care home and the Attache ta tuque exhibition at the Musée Pop in Trois-Rivières for the course.

Guest speakers in his classroom included nurses, police officers, lawyers and people from the Trois-Rivières solidarity committee who could speak to the different course themes, which has been essential to "realize the course's full potential," he said

"It takes teamwork," he said. "A single person without materials…. I couldn't have seen myself doing that," Fortin said.