Conceptions des groupes œuvrant à l’ouverture d’une école publique alternative quant aux facteurs qui favorisent ou contraignent leurs démarches auprès des autorités scolaires
This research focuses on the process of the establishment of alternative public schools in Quebec from the perspective of founding parent groups. It aims to study the interactions of these groups with school boards. Although the Education Act allows for the establishment of alternative schools within the public system, the Réseau des écoles publiques alternatives du Québec shows a broad disparity of practices and openness in the procedures among school boards. Normative propositions stemming from the theory of reflexive governance (Maesschalck, 2001) allow one to understand the problem. Thus, the principles describing the relationship between the subject and the institution (Maesschalck, 2005; Brabant, 2009, 2010) and the pragmatic, reflexive and contextual approaches suggested by the reflective governance theory (Maesschalck, 2001) constitute the theoretical bases chosen to analyze the answers to the question: “What are the conceptions of groups seeking to establish an alternative public school regarding the factors that favor or constrain their initiatives with school authorities in Quebec?”. Semi-guided interviews were conducted with representatives of ten groups of parents who successfully or otherwise failed to open an alternative public school. Classified according to categories of resistance to change establish by Bareil (2004, 2008), the results show that the progress made by these requests for change is influenced mainly by individual, organizational, political and change-related factors. Tensions between subject and institution described by the principles of exception, ignorance and opacity also play a role. Finally, some of the collective skills of parents' groups have an impact on the capacity to develop a collective and political action that is confident in its ability to bring about the desired change. Based on the new knowledge generated by this research and the support of proposals for reflective governance, three possible solutions are suggested to improve the process for the establishment of alternative public schools in Quebec.
Écoles publiques alternatives administration scolaire Alternative public schools school administration education governance change management educational context barriers to change