College Quarterly Winter 2007 - Volume 10 Number 1 Home Contents Upon Which Conception of Citizenship Should We Build a Model for Civic Education? Rethinking a Deliberative Context for Teacher Education from the Aims of Citizenship Education in the New Quebec Education Program By David Lefrancois and Marc Andre Ethier "For our part, we believe that free education must be understood exclusively as denoting education which is as free as it can be within the constraints of an overall educational program and within the constraints of the social environment. Thus may it always turn out, and, in fact, it often turns out that the child’s behaviour is far from the same thing as the interests of the group. Then conflict may always arise, which, without forcing the child to do anything in particular, will make him see the value of changing the way he behaves so as to accord with the interests of the group. The school routine should be so organized that the child finds it best to go in step with the group, in the same way as when he is at play; that any departure from the group seems just as meaningless as quitting a game. Just like playing a game, life should demand a constant straining at the leash, a constant joy in concerted activity" (Vygotski, 1926). Within the framework of current reflection of a philosophical nature on citizenship, citizenship education and the training of those who will take on this type of teaching, we hope to achieve a double objective that can be summarized thus: z To contribute to the development of a conception of citizenship founded on the theory of deliberative democracy z To identify the normative implications of this conception for citizenship education and for the training of teachers. This investigation, which is organized into two segments, takes inspiration most notably from certain American authors who have already presented work along similar lines – examples being Amy Gutmann (1999) and Stephen Macedo (2000). On the other hand, reflections of this nature have never been put forth in terms of the Quebec context. Yet, at this present time, when work on the application of major educational reforms which prescribe the implementation of a new citizenship education program is being undertaken, clarifying the notion of citizenship should in fact be an essential prerequisite step before attempting elaboration on the types of training to be involved. This present exercise in clarification is Page 1 of 24 College Quarterly - Winter 2007 10/7/2008 http://www.senecac.on.ca/quarterly/2007-vol10-num01-winter/ethier_lefrancoise.html