TITLE OF THE PUBLICATION
Did you say institutional pedagogy?
« Vous avez dit pédagogie institutionnelle ? »
SURNAME AND NAME OF AUTHOR(S)
Jacques Cornet
PUBLISHER
Webzine Mondequibouge.be
PLACE AND DATE OF PUBLICATION
Brussels – October 2011
TYPE OF PUBLICATION
Web Article
LANGUAGE OF THE DOCUMENT
French
LANGUAGE OF THE REVIEW
English
THEMATIC AREA
Identification of students’ at risk
DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS
This article is the interview of the author by a journalist. Jacques Cornet explains what institutional pedagogy consists in.
The institutional class is a classroom with a Law: duty to work and prohibition to harm. Aside from that, everything can be negotiated or refused. Announced and lived as such in the classroom, it is extremely structuring and soothing for the students.
Working is compulsory in the name of the community. Everybody has to work, it is part of the human condition.
Institutional pedagogy is also a pedagogy of Desire. The duty to work is not enough. Everything is attempted so that the learner wants to work. Let not the teacher’s power impose work to the child. And let not the teacher’s love prompt the child to work. Desire baits are placed, namely mediations, third parties.
The Institutions will do mediation in the class. They are multiple: project pedagogy, speech time in the beginning of the day, responsibilities ... The idea is to always search for more. Desire baits must be multiplied because a bait never works for everybody, since everybody does not start working in the same way.
In institutional pedagogy, is also taken into account the Unconscious. The teacher must absolutely endeavours not to harm, pay attention to their relation, have ethical requirements regarding themselves and their relation to children and young people.
Finally, there are Participation councils. The students are partners in their training. They express themselves during the class council.
COMMENTS ON THIS PUBLICATION
Jacques Cornet’s proposal is based on the main idea that social obvious facts must be deconstructed: “The way phenomena are named imposes without our knowledge a way to perceive them and react to them.
Thus, he never talks about “early school leaving”, but exclusion. According to him, it is the school system that excludes. It is thus the system that needs to question itself and renew its practices.
In the article, he explains how the institutional pedagogy can contribute to students staying at school.
Jacques Cornet knows well the world of education, being himself a teacher at HELMo (higher education school in Liège) training future teachers.
He is also a member of “CGé – ChanGements pour l’Egalité” (“Change for equality”), a socio-pedagogical movement partner du of the website Mondequibouge.be.
Mondequibouge.be, through its webzine, brings to the fore educators, those active citizens, communities and bodies that act to set up initiatives for more social justice, solidarity and ecology.
Name of Compiler
Julien Keutgen
Name of Institution
Inforef
Role in the institution
Translator – project assistant
