Survey of the Effects of Law 21 on Students and Staff in Faculties of Education in Québec

Abstract

A working group of the Observatoire sur la Formation à la Diversité et l’Équité conducted a survey of the impacts of Law 21, the Act respecting the Laicity of the State, during its first year of application on faculties and departments of education across Québec. Although the law is not supposed to affect universities or student teachers, since they are not employees of the Centres de services scolaires or school boards, findings from among the 972 survey respondents (students and staff in Québec faculties of education) associate Law 21 with negative and discriminatory treatment of student teachers during teaching internships, more polarized and conflictual interactions in university classrooms, and negative effects on the well-being, as well as academic and professional achievement, of students. The survey shows that discriminatory situations or effects related to Law 21, as reported by respondents, disproportionally affect those who are undergraduate students, identify as female, are immigrants or of immigrant background, have a first language other than French, and belong to a visible or religious minority. It also indicates that Québec universities have adopted specific measures in response to Law 21 to try to prevent such discriminatory experiences, but some of these have had stigmatizing or exclusionary effects.