Teaching Culture and Citizenship in Quebec at the High School Level

As a first step, we strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with the course program, learning progression, and evaluation framework.
It is crucial to keep in mind the program’s three goals:

• Prepare students to exercise citizenship in Quebec
• Aim for recognition of oneself and of others
• Pursue the common good

To achieve these goals, students will need to develop critical thinking and dialogue skills, drawing on both the theoretical foundations of sociology and of ethical philosophy.

Here are some of the many resources available to help you deepen or clarify your understanding of certain aspects of the course (all in French only):

• Videos and a self-guided training from the Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec
• Culture et citoyenneté québécoise – Portail national (includes training and teaching sections)
• Carrefour de ressources en Culture et citoyenneté québécoise from RÉCIT Développement de la personne
• The CCQ informational website designed by the Centre de services scolaires des Découvreurs.

The CCQ course is given at all levels of high school, with the exception of Secondary III. We recommend that you read the orientations for the grade(s) you teach. They have valuable information that will help you clearly define your teaching goals.

Another important thing to keep in mind is the two competencies that will be developed throughout high school:

• Studying cultural relations (a competency rooted in sociology)
• Reflecting on ethical issues (a competency rooted in ethics)

In an ideal world, you would base your annual lesson plan on the orientations of the themes, as well as the competencies. This will make it easier to integrate mandatory content, rather than doing things the other way round.

As previously mentioned, the CCQ program is rooted in the disciplines of sociology and ethics, each of which is associated with an evaluative competency.

The sociological approach aims to study the relationships between individuals and institutions through observation and analysis. In particular, students are introduced to the scientific method: observing, asking questions, formulating hypotheses, validating or invalidating them by checking reliable sources, etc.

Ethics is an approach that uses reflection and dialogue to explore the options or actions that would be desirable to choose when faced with an ethical dilemma. To do this, we study different points of view, taking into account emotions, feelings, and experiences, and trying to understand the different points of reference on which the point of view is based. Students develop their own perspectives through dialogue and critical thinking.

As a teacher, the stance you take in the classroom is crucial, since the subjects you are teaching are complex and need to be approached with care. Here are a few tips: 

• Be careful not to pass on your own biases: Take a step back from subjects before teaching them, and detach yourself from your own preconceptions.
• Give a variety of examples from different points of view: The aim is to get students to develop their own opinions by giving them all the tools they need to do so.
• Make sure that the classroom climate remains conducive to discussion: It is a place where different values, norms, rules, and feelings mingle, which can lead to disagreements. It is your responsibility to pay attention to non-verbal cues and keep discussions nuanced to ensure a free, respectful, and safe space of expression for all students.
• Remain impartial and give equal value to all opinions, unless they cross a line into inappropriate territory, in your professional opinion.
• You must also protect students’ personal information. They are not obligated to share their emotions or other information about their private lives (sexual orientation, political opinions, etc.) and must not be evaluated in this respect.

By taking a balanced approach and using available resources, you will be well prepared to give your students an enriching and relevant learning experience.

Having the right resources on hand from the outset is always helpful. Here are some activities, articles, and concept sheets that you can find on the Alloprof website:

• The Emotion Wheel
• Articles from Alloprof Teachers on media literacy, democracy and citizenship education, online violence, digital sobriety, environmental education, and fake news, for inspiration or discussion topics
• Articles for students: how to react to and protect yourself from bullying and what to do if you witness bullying.
• Concept sheets to help you draw connections between subjects. Many CCQ concepts are addressed in other disciplines, but from a different angle. Familiarize yourself with them and talk to your colleagues so you can come up with complementary lesson plans:
  • Male and female puberty
  • Public and private spaces
  • Democracy today and the redefinition of the state’s role
  • Civil rights, the history of rights and freedoms, and the fight against racism
  • Indigenous peoples of North America, Indigenous territories in Canada, the claims of Indigenous peoples, and residential schools
  • The Information Age and website credibility
  • Ecology, environmental issues, climate change, the environment, sustainable development, and environmental concerns
  • Consumption
  • Balancing school and work
  • Ideologies around the world, feminism, the fight for women’s rights and equality in the 20th century, the labour movement, nationalism (Canadian, French-Canadian, and Quebec)
  • Poverty and wealth disparity

In addition to the CCQ program–specific resources mentioned at the beginning of this article, we recommend watching the videos on Télé-Québec en classe and consulting the resources from Agence Science-Presse (both links available in French only). You can also use movies, documentaries, and short films from the NFB and Wapikoni (French only) as jumping-off points for your lessons.