Quebec’s bifurcated schools: Tensions between democratic and commercial values

Abstract

In education decentralization policy may be beneficial in terms of overcoming an overly cumbersome bureaucracy in educational systems. However, it can also have adverse effects in terms of competition, yielding new kinds of inequalities. This is true in Quebec, where the division of educational labor and the emergence of technical work were indirectly made necessary by the decentralization of the education system, leading to a destandardization of school programming. Students turned away by schools that set standards for excellence turn to schools defined by their educational and social vocation. How do public-sector teachers view all of these changes? As we will see, for many teachers, an attachment to the Quebec education system’s democratic values is not incompatible with buying into free-market values in education.