Religion, "communauté" et citoyenneté : le cas des écoles Steiner, musulmane et juive en contexte montréalais

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the author explores the conception of citizenship in three private schools in Montreal belonging to different minority groups (Waldorf, Muslim and Jewish). After a short overview of the main critiques circulating with regards to faith-based schools in current social and political debates, she looks at the theoretical concepts of school community and citizenship. The author explains that these considerations help analyze how teachers in such schools try to develop, by simultaneously different and convergent strategies, a training in citizenship as a form of “universal particularism”. She points out that these three schools attempt to transmit an open attitude toward religious and cultural diversity, and promote the participation of their students in the wider society through a religious or spiritual particularism, which appears to be a sort of sacred ground for civic values. The author found that the Waldorf school illustrates a more or less "ideal type" of communialization, given that the Waldorf school focuses on spiritual work without necessarily situating itself with relation to other social groups. She found that the Muslim school adapts references associated with the religion in an attempt to constitute a "bridge" between primary socialization and that of the host society. Finally, she found that the Jewish school fosters the externalization of an ethno-religious community. The Jewish tradition being taught at the school is described as "non-religious traditionalism" by school officials, and presents few re-interpretations or transformations of the tradition in the context of the school.

Diversité urbaine

Vol. 12

no. 2

53-68

2012

fr