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Bullying is a pressing issue that challenges educational and other social practitioners, as many students' schooling process is impeded, often significantly, as regards safety and physical and psychological health. This issue, which is widely discussed in the public sphere and is often debated by adults, also concerns youngsters. Here and elsewhere, measures have been implemented to reduce and prevent bullying in schools. How do high school students interpret the phenomenon of bullying when they are invited to discuss it among themselves in focus groups? What do they say and how do they talk about it? Through the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism this article sheds light on the meanings that high school students attribute to bullying and on the emerging interactive dynamics that emerged during their discussions. The analysis of the discursive segments manifested a co-construction of meanings stimulated by the interactions students engaged in, and fed by different sources of knowledge that revealed, in a broader sense, students’ relationship to knowledge. In conclusion, we stress the important role of adults for mediating interactions that support the transformation of students’ cognitive capacities and enable them to understand the complexity of the problems with which they must deal.

Keywords: bullying, intimidation, symbolic interactionism, interactionnisme symbolique, focus group, focus group, meaning coconstruction, coconstruction de sens, student voices, voix de jeunes

Studies of adolescents and young-adults suggest that deliberative dialogue, a form of consensus-seeking argumentation, leads to stronger learning outcomes than persuasive dialogue. However, this research has not been informed by an analysis of dialogue among more experienced arguers. In the present study, we compare the deliberative and persuasive dialogues of novice and experienced arguers to better understand the difference between these two forms of discourse at differing levels of argumentative expertise. Our results confirm theoretical distinctions between deliberation and persuasion. Results also suggest that greater experience in argumentation is associated with a richer array of argumentative purposes, producing more cohesive, intersubjective and dialectically relevant dialogue. The implications of these findings for learning are discussed.

Keywords: deliberation, persuation, critical dialogue, argueing to learn

This qualitative study documents the experiences of Quebec university students (18) whose parents were born in Latin America, throughout their educational journey. The analysis reveals the existence of a boundary between those they call French-speaking Quebecers and the others. For them, this boundary based on a linguistic difference—often attributed to their accent—leads them to experience language anxiety and linguistic discrimination. They report that the education system does not take sufficient account of their difficulties. To conclude, paths of intervention promoting plurilingualism are identified to promote their inclusion.

Keywords: jeunes, youth, school experiences, expériences scolaires, discrimination linguistique, linguistic discrimination, immigration, immigration, Latin America, Amérique latine, Québec, Quebec, Canada, Canada

In 2020, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights noted significant issues with the child protection system in France, including inconsistencies between departments, that undermine the defence of children's rights. For instance, ensuring that young people enjoy the right to take charge of their own stories has not been a priority for French child protection services, despite the guarantees provided in Article 7 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and recent commitments by French political authorities. In this context, how should the issue be addressed through the practice of social work? How can family support workers guide the young people they work with in writing their life stories? How do foster children experience the process? We explore these questions through a preliminary analysis of the results of a mixed methodology research study on the life narratives of foster children. Responses to a questionnaire distributed to 250 family support workers and data collected during 15 interviews point to difficulties with putting stories into words, given the complexities associated with the construction and transmission of foster children’s life narratives. The results highlight how the opportunity to discuss their lives with family support workers helps children put their life stories into written form and adopt a narrative identity capable of overcoming difficult memories, unspoken truths, and institutional ignorance.

Keywords: foster children, jeunes confiés, child protection, protection de l’enfance, writing one's own story, écriture de son histoire, life narratives, récit de vie

This paper focuses on the results of a longitudinal study examining the English-language content of Francophone minority school boards’ websites throughout Canada, mindful of the changing profile of the boards’ parental population. A document analysis research approach was used to analyse how the content destined for a non-French-speaking audience has evolved, enabling the audience to have access to new and pertinent information. It was observed that the majority of boards in Western Canada and Ontario have increased the presence of English on their websites. Atlantic Canada (with the exception of New Brunswick) has followed this trend. It is worth noting that other languages and content areas have shown up on the web sites, confirming the changing demographics of Francophone minority communities in Canada.

Keywords: francophone minority education, websites, English language, parent-school partnership, school boards, éducation francophone minoritaire, sites Internet, partenariat école-parents, conseils scolaires

Educational consultants participate in the implementation of Ministry of Education policies and those of their school board in matters of education in order to meet the needs of innovation, communication and collaboration of 21st century learners. Despite their pedagogical knowledge, their propensity for innovation and their interpersonal skills, however, they are unprepared to fulfill their position as an agent of change with their teaching colleagues. This article presents the results of research aimed at understanding the ways in which the transformational leadership of educational consultants is manifested in terms of their role as agents of change. Semi-structured interviews with seven educational consultants and four directors of pedagogical services from four French-language school boards in Ontario revealed links between the skills they mobilize to guide teachers towards a change in practice and the manifestations of transformational leadership as developed by Bass (1998).

Keywords: educational consultant, agent of change, transformational leadership, skills, conseillers pédagogiques, agent de changement, leadership transformationnel, compétences

In line with a socio-critical approach to digital uses, which includes both the school and the extracurricular contexts in its analysis of student’s relationship to digital technologies, this article presents a review of the scientific literature on the transfer of learning regarding the three disciplinary skills of French as a first language induced by the extracurricular digital uses of adolescents. The data consisted of scientific documents obtained through a review of writings published between 2010 and 2018 and retrieved from databases and specialized journals. The results show that the transfer of learning is not a systematic process because when an adolescent uses a technology in the new context, they do not use the same skills as in the initial context.

Keywords: ordre d’enseignement secondaire, secondary level of education, digital uses, enseignement du français langue, caractéristiques des adolescents, teaching French as a first language, contextes scolaire et extrascolaire, transfer of learning, adolescents' characteristics, transfert des apprentissages, school context and extracurricular context, usages numériques

The purpose of this article is to describe second-year elementary school teachers’ implementation of invented spelling in the classroom. The Essential Supports for Emergent Writers model was adapted to analyze the invented spelling of five teachers who were observed twice during the school year. The results show that in the context of invented spelling, students are able to verbalize their knowledge of the language and that teachers provide spelling explanations based on their conceptions. Invented spellings therefore seem to offer adequate conditions of effectiveness for developing writing skills in the context of teaching at the primary level.

Keywords: invented spelling, emergence of writing, teaching practice, condition efficiency, elementary, orthographes approchées, émergence de l’écrit, pratique enseignante, condition d’efficacité, primaire