L’enseignement au Québec et en France des questions controversées en histoire : tensions entre politique du passé et politique de la reconnaissance dans les curricula

Abstract

<jats:title>Résumé</jats:title><jats:p>Cet article traite de l’expression des tensions entre la politique du passé et la politique de la reconnaissance dans l’enseignement des questions controversées en histoire au Québec et en France. L’histoire à enseigner y a connu d’importantes évolutions. Ces évolutions concernent la conception même de l’histoire et son rôle dans la société. Elles sont porteuses de tensions quant à ce qui est légitime pour « dire/faire l’histoire », donc à la part de récit commun et de critique ou à la part de cohésion des groupes nationaux pluriculturels et de transmission de mémoires, ainsi que d’expériences historiques spécifiques.</jats:p>

Historical Consciousness and the Structuring of Group Boundaries: A Look at Two Francophone School History Teachers Regarding Quebec’s Anglophone Minority

“…Located within memories of often‐unequal inter‐group power relations as well as within larger Franco‐Québécois imperatives of cultural and linguistic renewal, these two variants seemingly represent two options for knowing and acting toward the significant Other that emerge in ongoing debates over how to best capture and transmit Quebec's past in school history classrooms. Undoubtedly, the “openness to the Anglo‐Québécois” choice here corresponds to those discourses that call for producing critically engaged citizens that fundamentally appreciate differing viewpoints of the past for developing personal perspectives of temporal change, whereas the “remembering of past injustices” option instead embodies those concerns of promoting the Franco‐Québécois historical experience (i.e., collective memory) as the only viable collective narrative framework for integrating social diversity (Lévesque, 2004; Bulletin d'Histoire Politique, 2007; Éthier et al., 2007).…”

“…As a result, the degree of both educators' sensitivity to Anglophone social realities and historical experiences become clear, as do their willingness to transmit such information to their students and their openness to considering the latter as an integral part of a common Quebec collective identity. Given the centrality of the “French–English Conflict” in both educators' workings of historical consciousness, which also underlie general Francophone recollections of the Anglo‐Québécois as well as larger societal debates over Quebec history teaching (Létourneau & Moisan, 2004; Lévesque, 2004; Lemire, McAndrew, & Smith, 2006; Létourneau, 2006; Éthier et al., 2007), this article ends with suggesting a means for fostering autonomous and conscientious engagements with the past in the national history classroom. Not only does such an approach entail respecting differences in opinions and choices among students, but also highlights the potentials of embracing change for improving the quality of common future life.…”

“…At stake here for the Franco‐Québécois majority is undoubtedly the fundamental issue of how to remember Quebec's past, and more specifically, of what role Quebec Anglophones should play in such a past. While some interest groups seek to mainly transmit the dominant storyline of the Franco‐Québécois collective memory, which inevitably reinforces stereotypical images of “Anglophones,” others are instead keen on opening up opportunities to diversify this narrative and to include minority viewpoints by particularly producing critically engaged citizens (Lévesque, 2004; Éthier, Lanthéaume, Lefrançois, & Zanazanian, 2007).…”

Comparing Issues Surrounding Turkish and Japanese History Textbooks

“…Among others, this is shown in the PFQ's pages (Ministère de l'Éducation du Québec [MÉQ], 2004). Lefrançois & Éthier (2008) showed that in the PFQ's pages there are 247 occurrences of the base word citizen or its derivatives (citizens, citizenship, etc.). Of this number, 43% (105 words) are encountered in the 39 pages devoted to history courses (now called History and Citizenship Education, HCE), not counting 22 (9%) appearing elsewhere in the PFQ, which refers to HCE.…”

“…History is replete with controversial questions and politically sensitive interpretive debates. Historical narratives often extol the emotions of numerous people regarding important issues and complex topics, upon which it is impossible to rule based only on an examination of facts or experience (Berg, Graeffe & Holden, 2003;Éthier, Lantheaume & Lefrançois, 2008;Evans & Saxony, 2007;Wellington, 1986).…”