Brabant, C., & Bourdon, S. (2012). Educational Change and Reflexive Governance. Experimentation of an Appropriation of Change Model by Quebec Home Educators Groups. (Le changement en éducation et la gouvernance réflexive. Expérimentation d’un modèle d’appropriation du changement par des groupes de parents-éducateurs au Québec). Éducation et francophonie, Volume XL, numéro 1, printemps. Available on line at: http://www.acelf.ca/c/revue/sommaire.php?id=35. (“Abstract [via e-mail from author Brabant] This article tackles the question of change in education from the angle of its appropriation by parents who actively practice “learning as a family”, or who support their children’s education without full-time school attendance. This angle assumes that appropriating the process of change and the decision to apply the process corresponds to the appropriation of democratic mechanisms. A research-training, based on a pragmatic, reflexive and contextual approach to governance, attempted to create a collective actor able to participate in a thoughtful, active and democratic renewal of the school system. It also modelled the learning process for three groups of parents-educators. The analysis identified pragmatic learning, involving the group’s implementation of practical conditions for the realization of a project, and genetic learning, involving the creation of the collective actor, while targeting essential conditions for success of the approach. The resources supporting the process – the development of confidence, openness to outside resources, and the acquisition of discursive, reflexive, decisional and procedural abilities — allowed the groups to move from a fearful and resistant position in relation to the school authorities to a more confident and open attitude, and to formulate suggestions for governing their practice. These results suggest that the implementation of support measures for collective initiatives, such as the “accompanied self-training” explored in this research, is an effective way to face the challenges of change in education.)
