More frequent incivility at school which harms student success

A large majority of teachers consider that incivility is increasing in their school, which harms learning in class according to a survey carried out by the Federation of Education Unions.

Its president, Richard Bergevin, was not surprised to learn that 83% of respondents have observed an increase in incivility over the past two years, since this reality was already perceptible in the community, he explains.

However, he was surprised by the impact of the lack of respect, politeness and manners in class. At least 90% of teachers consider that incivility “reduces the time devoted to learning”, “harms concentration” and “reduces commitment to the tasks to be carried out”.

“These are significant impacts, which can undermine student success. We have to be concerned about it,” says Mr. Bergevin.

The repercussions are also important for teachers. More than 80% of them consider that incivility leads to an overload of work and a reduction in their motivation, “worrying” findings in a context of shortage, adds Mr. Bergevin.

Daily incivility

This incivility on the part of students is also frequent: 34% of teachers say they are the target of it daily (1 to 4 times), while 22% experience it five times a day or more. Only 15% say they are the target “rarely or never”.

Verbal incivility, such as foul or disrespectful language, is the most common (60%), followed by disruptive behavior (52%) and non-verbal language (36%), such as inappropriate attitudes towards the teacher.

The lack of respect or politeness can also come from parents, which has been the case for 30% of respondents since the start of the school year.

A government plan in draft

At the beginning of September, Prime Minister François Legault asked the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, to table a plan to bring discipline and good citizenship back to Quebec schools.

The young activists of the Coalition Avenir Québec, meeting at a conference, then spoke out in favor of teachers being appointed from kindergarten and the wearing of uniforms in secondary school, two proposals which were, however, received very coldly by teachers.

Only 5% of them believe that these measures could make a difference in their establishment.

Sanctions and restorative gestures

To correct the situation, teachers think that we should rather focus on sanctions (62%) or remedial actions (53%), while teaching expected behaviors (56%) and training for students, accompanied by their parents if necessary (40%), are also part of the preferred solutions.

Positive behavior is taught in several schools, but the use of sanctions is rarer in certain environments, says Richard Bergevin.

“When some teachers try to go back to that, they get rebuffed. It would be important for the government to be able to clearly say that this is part of the realities of a school environment, he adds. The code of conduct must regain strength and be applied.”

Note: the results presented in this text are taken from a web survey carried out by the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ) between October 10 and 25, 2024, which resulted in the collection of 7,023 valid questionnaires.