The FSE-CSQ used Friday’s event at its educational and professional symposium, Masters of Our Profession!, taking place in Laval, to present the results of a wide-ranging consultation with its members on the future of their profession.
In the first phase of the consultation, which took place in autumn 2022 and was attended by more than 6,000 teachers, one question addressed the use of mobile phones in the classroom.
methodology
The first consultation phase was conducted from November 11th to December 22nd using a questionnaire with the tool SurveyMonkey. The FSE sent the affiliated unions an email with the hyperlinks to the questionnaires. A total of 6048 people took part. This is 9.7% of the membership reported by FSE unions.
Source: Federation of Educational Unions
According to the FSE-CSQ, 92.4% of respondents agreed that cell phones should be banned in the classroom unless they are used for educational purposes.
The Ontario government under Doug Ford has banned cell phones in the classroom to end the distractions they cause.
Photo: iStock
The President of the FSE-CSQ, Josée Scalabrini, ensures that the teachers she represents are not opposed to the use of mobile phones as teaching tools. However, they believe that these devices are a source of distraction outside of learning activities.
lose the thread
Being able to use a mobile phone for learning and teaching methods is not a problem for us. What we don’t want is the cell phone becoming a distraction so that while teaching and tutoring the student is more drawn to the messages they receive, to the vibration their cell phone puts out, and from there, they lose an overview of what is happening in the classroom. So for us it’s really a matter of distraction, says Ms Scalabrini in an interview with Radio-Canada.
“They say we don’t need it. There are enough things in our society that grab our attention. We can very well do without mobile phones. »
– A quote from Josée Scalabrini, President, FSE-CSQ
The FSE-CSQ wants the Legault government to pass an ordinance that defines the use of cell phones in the classroom across Quebec. This would save school authorities and teachers from having to decide each year whether or not to include cellphone bans in the school’s code of conduct.
92% of teachers’ union members would like cell phones to be banned in the classroom. Minister Drainville is open to progress. Report by Magalie Masson.
Rather than letting each teacher decide what they prefer, we should have clear guidelines stating that pedagogically it is acceptable, but for the rest, no, the cell phone has no place in the classroom, then we won’t. If we are obliged to resume these exchanges, we don’t have to explain to the parents again why we don’t want this mobile phone in the classroom, explains Josée Scalabrini.
She mentions that some parents want their child to have their phone with them at all times so they can reach them in an emergency. The President of the FSE-CSQ does not agree with this argument.
social debate
We say that before the mobile phone we managed to reach the school, we managed to talk to parents and teachers, so for emergencies we will find another mode. That’s no reason to argue that every kid should have a cell phone. Let’s have a social rule, let’s have a social debate that tells us that it is not a necessity unless it has pedagogical reasons and that it will be easier for everyone to apply it, emphasizes Josée Scalabrini.
When Ontario announced its intention to ban cell phones in the classroom in March 2019, the Legault government indicated that Quebec had no intention of following its neighbor’s lead.
“I do not intend to issue a ministerial directive in this direction,” said then Education Minister Jean-François Roberge.
With information from Magalie Masson