Wednesday, August 20, 2008

8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

Morning activity

Reception and registration of convention participants

9:00 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.

Opening address by Mr. Jean-Marc St-Jacques, President of Québec’s Fédération des établissements d’enseignement privés (Federation of Private Schools - FEEP)

9:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

 Québec in the current surge of school reforms 

Opening lecture by Mr. Paul Inchauspé, consulting expert with the Centre francophone d’informatisation des organisations (Francophone Centre of Organization Informatics)

Quebec, as most Western countries in the past few years, has not spared the trend of renewing its school system.

Why? What new set of events or circumstances has lead these countries to undertake reforms? In what way does this new wave of reforms differ from the one carried out in the 60s and 70s? Will they be implemented the same way they have been back then?

What directions or variations will be put forward by these reforms in the 3 following fields: the nature of the knowledge schools should dispense, the implied representation of the teachers’ role, and the type of community, in the context of such reforms, that must be initiated or re-established in schools?

It is on this current background of major trends in school reforms that the Quebec Province will base its decisions concerning its own reform. And will be pointed out specific components of our schools’ culture and history to explain some of these choices.

Lecture in French with simultaneous interpreting in English.

10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Break

Networking and visit to the exhibition area

11:00 a.m. to noon

Workshops - Group 100

Noon to 1:30 p.m.

Lunch Break 

Networking and visit to the exhibition area

1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Workshops - Group 200

2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Break

Networking and visit to the exhibition area

3:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.

Round Table – The Impact of Opening up to the World in an School Environment

Why open up to the world?

To get our students ready to become world citizens able to deal with any circumstance whatever the context? To develop a commitment for foreign issues?

How can this openness be promoted?

Through open and daily teachings by dedicated teachers aware of the importance of opening up to the world and ready to defend and supervise such openness? By inviting on campus speakers, singer-song writers and writers from other cultures? By organizing student exchange trips with various countries? Must students physically leave the classroom and school to promote openness?

Moderator: to be determined

Participants:

Louis Bouchard, Executive Director, SÉBIQ, Québec, Canada

Anne-Renée Caron, teacher, Collège Saint-Maurice, Saint-Hyacinthe, Canada

Ugo Cavenaghi, Director General, Collège Sainte-Anne de Lachine, Québec, Canada

Pierre L’Heureux, Director General, Collège Mérici, Québec, Canada

Paul Miller, vice-president, Global Initiatives, NAIS, United States

Evening at leasure 

Thursday, August 21, 2008

8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

Workshops - Group 300

9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Education and the Common Good 

Lecture by Mr. John Ralston Saul, novel writer, essayist

Education was at the heart of the rise of modern ideas of democracy and citizenship. This is as true today as it was 100 years ago. If there is a crisis in our democracies, then it must be linked in some way to a crisis in our education.

Lecture in English with simultaneous interpreting in French.

10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Break

Networking and visit to the exhibition area

11:00 a.m.
to noon

Workshops - Group 400

Noon to 1:30 p.m.

Lunch Break

Networking and visit to the exhibition area

Luncheon meeting with Association representatives

1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Workshops - Group 500 

2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Break

Networking and visit to the exhibition area

3:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.

Round Table – Denominational Schooling at the Hour of Secularism

Should private schools become the stronghold of denominational education?

How should private schools let religious beliefs or secularism be expressed within their walls? How can the presence of symbols that “conspicuously” illustrate a school’s denomination be reconciled with respecting human rights and freedoms? Can the denominational framework of private schools leave room for pluralism?

Moderator: Jacques Racine, professor, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

Participants

Jean-Guy Beaulieu, École secondaire de Bromptonville (highschool), Québec, Canada

Yolande Geadah, author of Accommodements raisonnables, Droit à la différence et non différence des droits (Reasonable Accommodations: the right to be different, not different rights)

Félix Meloul, Association of Jewish Schools, Montréal, Canada

Étienne Michel, Secrétariat Général de l'Enseignement Catholique (General Secretariat of Catholic Schools), Belgium

Rachid Raffa, Carrefour Culturel Sésame de Québec (Sesame Cultural Forum, Québec City), Canada

7:00 p.m.

Cocktail at Québec City’s Museum of Civilization and visit to the Hands-on room on “The Learning Process”, an exhibit resulting from the partnership between the FEEP and Industrielle Alliance.

Friday, August 22, 2008

8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

Workshops - Group 600

9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

Workshops - Group 700 

10:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.

Break

Networking and visit to the exhibition area

10:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Workshops - Group 700 (continued)

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

 From interaction to intention: a school that teaches growth 

Closing lecturfe by Mr. Clément Laberge, Director, Digital Development, at Editis, France

Students are instinctively attracted by the constant opportunities for interaction through their computer, phone, iPod and game console. With the exponential expansion of Google, Wikipedia, Facebook — and of the blogging phenomenon — everything happens instantly. Their network of friends knows no borders. It seems their social and cultural environment has become global well before the world to which their education should prepare them. They are not easily alarmed: they feel they have the world at their fingertips. Consequently, school must undergo a change that takes into account this new situation. But how? And with which outlook?

Must not school be – as never before – the place where hopes, projects and dreams take shape? Where culture and ambitions are expressed? Where we learn to imagine our future and construct intention, i.e. the image of whom we intend to become from now on? Where we become proficient in applying our knowledge, our skills and all these new networks and forms of interaction to give life to our intention, to reach for the freedom and level of welfare it will provide, rather than having it be a source of distraction and consumerism?

This closing lecture will provide the opportunity to address these issues in the light of our discussions throughout the Convention.

Lecture in French with simultaneous interpreting in English.

13:30 p.m.

End of Convention

Saturday, August 23, 2008

 All day

Activities à la carte

Society and its new realities

For those concerned with the deep sociological transformations of our modern society. This series of workshops will discuss issues that affect everyday school life, e.g. secular and denominational environment, conventional family, today’s family (dislocated, blended, one-parent), overconsumption, voluntary simplicity, etc.

Opening up to the word and a shared international commitment

For those concerned with the current deconstruction of our society. In workshops, not only will we be made aware of the various types of global reality, but also and especially have time to reflect on the level of commitment needed to ensure the greater welfare of all, the free circulation crucial to the survival of our planet, and a viable international cooperation.

Governance and ethics

For the administrators responsible for managing the course of their institution on a long-term basis. Issues discussed will interest those looking to develop their institution as a business, through sound management practices, creative administrative tools and balanced partnerships, yet are concerned with maintaining a level of ethics consistently progressive and accountable in the current context of open performance reporting.

Pedagogy and teaching methods

For those whose mission is to ensure general and specific knowledge, language proficiency, moral and social values are transferred using efficient teaching methods, differentiated pedagogy tailored to current school conditions, and the innovative technologies now available to teachers and students so that students may steadily develop the various skills required today.

Student life and personal development

For those responsible for the promotion and smooth running of student support services, extracurricular activities as well as pastoral guidance to help students in achieving balance and self-motivation in personal development.