January 2009

RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM FQPPU

Survey of the Québec professoriate: highligts and questions

Edited by Nathalie Dyke and Frédéric Deschenaux, this report (available in French only) presents the preliminary conclusions from the survey conducted by FQPPU in the spring of 2008 of professors in all Quebec universities. Launched during the colloquium Must we rebuild the Québec universities, this document will be followed up by further analyses over the next few months.

The Québec University - Putting the pieces back together on Canal Savoir

Produced by FQPPU and Caroline Martel from productions artifact, and intended to stimulate discussion on the evolution of universities and the professoral career, this DVD has been chosen to air on Canal Savoir. Recoller les morceaux - Putting the pieces back together will be part of the scheduled programming for winter 2009 on this TV and web-based channel devoted to sharing and popularizing knowledge, and to showcasing programs about creating knowledge which are produced by institutions of higher learning.

Articles in À Babord ! and VRS

Members of FQPPU’s Executive Commitee, along with regular contributors to the work of the Fédération, are the authors of several articles in a superb special Fall issue of the journal À babord !, « L’université entre déclin et relance ». Among the texts (availables in french only) in issue number 26 now online are : « Les sept péchés capitaux » by Pierre Hébert; « Nouveau fétichisme » by Amélie Descheneau-Guay; « L’ennemi est à nos portes » by Frédéric Deschenaux; « La recherche universitaire sous influence » by Cécile Sabourin, an revised version of which appeared in the October-December 2008 issue of the French review VRS – Vie de la recherche scientifique.

Anyone wishing to obtain a paper copy of issue no. 26 of À babord ! may request one from Luciano Benvenuto by telephone at 514-272-3153.

FQPPU COLLOQUIA

Must we rebuild the Québec universities ? – Notes on the Colloquium held November 6-7, 2008

Some eighty attendees responded last November to the Fédération’s invitation and contributed to the high quality of the discussions which characterized this colloquium. Bernard Courteau and Mario Nemirowsky have prepared an excellent summary (avalaible in french only) for the Association des professeures et professeurs retraités de l’Université de Sherbrooke. They have graciously permitted FQPPU to publish their notes. Our thanks to them, and to all the conference speakers, for the documents based on their presentations.

Women and science in the university – May 14 at Acfas Conference 2009

Although they make up almost 30 % of the professoriate in Québec universities, only 15 % of professors in pure and applied sciences are women. This under-representation of women in the sciences applies equally in student enrolment in graduate programs in the sciences; female students are less inclined than their male counterparts to pursue their studies past the undergraduate level.

With the aim of enlarging awareness of the problems of women in science, FQPPU proposes to hold a colloquium on the subject during the Acfas conference in 2009, and hopes that the discussions will result in firm actions. If we in Québec are truly committed to equal access for women in all spheres of society and the professions, it is crucial to understand fully the obstacles in the path of women intending to pursue studies or a career in science, in particular obstacles arising from conditions within universities. Nadia Ghazzali, a mathematics professor at Université Laval, will be the keynote speaker at the colloquium on May 14, and the program will be available beginning mid-February. Mme Ghazzali recently published, in collaboration with Mélanie Lanouette, a work entitled Les femmes en sciences et en génie à travers l’histoire au Québec (available in french only).

CAUT WOMEN'S CONFERENCE 2008 : MOBILIZING IN AN ERA OF RESTRUCTURING

For its Women’s Conference in the autumn of 2008, the Canadian Association of University Teachers invited Rosemary Deem to lead a discussion on the new managerialism and its implications for working conditions; other themes are work in a time of scarcity and its corollary, unsustainable employment. Professor Deem, of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Bristol, is the co-author of a book entitled Knowledge, Higher Education, and the New Managerialism, which demonstrates how changing management practices are having dangerous consequences for university culture. Both the presentations and the discussions emphasized that women are the losers in an environment obsessed with competition for prizes, demonstrating « leadership » and using excellence as a justification to eliminate or merge programs and disciplines.

Françoise Naudillon, Secretary of FQPPU’s Executive Committee, shares with us her notes (avalaible in French only) on this 2008 conference.

10 YEARS OF ICT IN UNIVERSITIES – RESEARCH, TEACHING AND ADMINISTRATION

Organized by the Sous-comité des TIC (STIC) of the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec, a colloquium held last autumn aimed to sum up the integration of technologies and information systems in the three spheres of university activity and to forecast its future directives. A pre-colloquium the evening before focused in particular on the integration of electronic resources in university libraries with e-learning. Professor François Pettigrew, UER-Éducation de la Téluq-UQAM, who represents FQPPU on STIC, attended these two sessions and has prepared this report (available in french only).

DECLARATION: MAKING PUBLIC EDUCATION THE QUÉBEC PRIORITY

FQPPU was one of the eleven organizations representing professional and students unions in the education field which signed this declaration (avalaible in French only). Published last November 24, on the eve of the party leaders’ debate during the recent electoral campaign in Québec, the manifesto contained an urgent appeal to all levels of Québec government to put in place, from prekindergarten to university, the changes needed to return to the values of equality, solidarity, social justice and cooperation that inspired the democratization of education in Québec, and to halt the commoditization and privatization of our educational system.

ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE

Sciences and Democracy

Sciences & Democracy World Forum will be a major event on the eve of the World Social Forum which will take place in Belèm (Brazil - Amazonia) from January 26 to February 1, 2009. Complete information on this Forum along with an invitation to researchers and other individuals to sign a petition can be found on their site. The programme is also available.

The President of FQPPU will participate in the Forum representing both the Federation and in her role as coordinator of the Québec/Canada Committee for the Charter of Human Responsibilities. Other representatives from the Quebec committee, set up several months ago to develop a « sciences and democracy » network in Québec, will also take part, and invite all those interested to a followup event after the Forum.

In preparation for this event, one of its founders, Hervé Le Crosnier, will publish during the whole of January and early February a blog, a series of about twenty short discussion e-papers, available on his site. These texts are available through licence Creative commons, by-nc and so may be reprinted.

Governance, funding, evaluation and climate change - Key challenges for public education

Education International hosted a meeting in December at Åre in Sweden for delegates from teachers’ unions in OECD member countries to discuss funding and governance in educational institutions. From the various sessions on the agenda, Cécile Sabourin chose to participate in those (availables in french only) dealing with the impact of the economic crisis on funding for education, climate change and union responsibilities in the education field, and public-private partnerships.

Hidden Privatisation in Public Education

This study, commissioned by Education International from Professor Stephen J. Ball and Dr. Deborah Youdell puts the spotlight on practices of privatization camouflaged as modernization. Hidden Privatisation in Public Education, a preliminary version of which has already been the subject of a presentation by Marie Blais of FNEEQ during a workshop hosted by the Table des partenaires universitaires at the first Forum social québécois (August 2007), is now available in its final version.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Noir Canada – Gag-lawsuits, Bill 99 must be brought back

Last December, right before the Québec elections, the Association québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique, the Réseau québécois des groupes écologistes, and the Ligue des droits et libertés joined with the publisher Écosociété and the authors of Noir Canada. Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique to launch a letter-writing campaign to persuade political parties, as soon as the National Assembly resumes, to pass a motion demanding that Bill 99 be brought back to where it was before the Assembly disbanded.

This Bill is entitled An Act to amend the Code of Civil Procedure to prevent abusive use of the courts and promote citizen participation in public debate. Its amendment and adoption are of paramount importance for the small press Écosociété and the authors of Noir Canada who have been slapped with lawsuits of 6 million and 5 million dollars from mining giants Barrick Gold and Banro, respectively. If you have not already done so, we invite you to join in solidarity and lend your support to this small publishing house and the authors who are victims of these gag-lawsuits.

CAMPAIGN TARGETING THE EDUCATION SECTOR - RAISE YOUR HAND FOR THE FOREST

Market Initiative recently launched a campaign to sensitize all those concerned with education (teachers, students and parents) to the need to support scholastic publishers who are committed to protecting ancient forests and their biodiversity by printing their books on ecologically-produced paper. Raise your hand for the forest / Je lève la main pour les forêts  also aims to encourage all educational institutions to use ecopaper in their printing and photocopy services.

Market Initiative invites you to participate in this campaign by signing the Declaration for the Protection of Ancient Forests on its website, which also contains useful tools and strategies for action.