From Social Integration to Social Participation: A new curriculum for adult education

You may have heard of the Social Integration Programs at Endeavour, Galileo, Ventures and Wagar. After many years, all these centres have implemented a new Ministry of Education curriculum called Social Participation (SP). This new curriculum represents a forward-thinking approach to fostering inclusion, autonomy and active citizenship among adult learners. Designed to support individuals with diverse needs and abilities, this curriculum emphasizes real-life skills, community engagement and self-advocacy – all through the creation of a learning plan.

By focusing on practical learning experiences and authentic social interactions, each learning plan will empower adults to build confidence, strengthen interpersonal relationships and enhance their independence. This renewed framework reflects Quebec’s commitment to lifelong learning and the active inclusion of all citizens into the social and civic fabric of their communities.

The SP curriculum includes 30 brand new courses drawn from four themes: living conditions, social relationships, living environment and community.

As consultants, we jumped right into what we knew would be a jam-packed preparatory year. We unpacked the curriculum with our teams, established a working group of teachers from six school boards to create unit plans, delivered four after-school provincial workshops, prepared a full-day training session and launched a new teacher-built website. This was all made possible thanks to a generous budget from the Provincial Organization of Continuing Education Directors, English (PROCEDE).

This school year, our plan is to collaboratively guide our teaching staff in the implementation of SP, with particular attention to the formative and summative assessment of learning, as the new curriculum requires the completion of authentic exam-based evaluation situations. As students move through the program, they’ll be able to update their learning plan along the way, which will help them refine their goals based on what they’ve learned, while also allowing teachers to track students’ learning and continuously adapt their teaching.

Regardless of which adult education centre they attend, the province’s neurodivergent adult learners will benefit from a brand-new curriculum that represents an important shift from social integration to social participation.

Jennifer Campbell is an educational consultant for special education with the English Montreal School Board. Matthew Kennedy is a consultant for Social Participation and Sociovocational Integration with the Lester B. Pearson School Board, and Julie Robitaille is a pedagogical consultant with l’Équipe-choc pédagogique.