The Department of Education mourns the passing of Paul Bouchard

Concordia Alumnus and Full Professor left his mark on Adult Education as a field of study and practice in Quebec, Canada and internationally.

Our colleague Paul Bouchard (1994 - 2016) died on November 22, 2020 at the age of 67, at the Palliative Care Centre of Lanaudière (Soins palliatifs du centre hospitalier de Lanaudière).  He was appointed to the full-time tenure-track faculty position in 1994 in the Department of Education and retired in 2016.  In addition to his teaching and research Dr. Bouchard served as the Director of the Teacher-Certification Diploma in Adult Education from 1996 to 2005 (date of discontinuation of the program by the Ministry of Education).  Parallel to his research projects related to the integration of technology in teaching and learning, he was one of the first professors who added technological requirements to his courses at both the graduate and the undergraduate levels.  He stated his philosophy of education and the importance of teaching at the undergraduate as well as the graduate level as follows:  “I believe it is important for undergraduate students to be in contact with senior faculty as it represents an opportunity to interact with a teacher who is also involved in the production of knowledge, and is thereby enabled to give some perspective to textbook claims and theories”.

Dr. Bouchard was well known for his contributions to the scholarship of Adult Education in three main areas:  Adult Education Policy, Learning Theory and Instructional Design.   And in these areas, his greatest contribution was his ability to translate theory into policy and practice.  In particular, his articles are considered to be the classics in the area of workplace learning and Instructional Design and have been selected for publication in the most frequently used textbooks in the area.  Furthermore, his contribution to pulling together the Quebec and Canadian strands of Adult Education as a field of research and teaching remains an important contribution to the growth and the professional development of the field.

Dr. Bouchard’s expertise in Instructional Design for preparation of adult learning modules and manuals is recognized nationally and internationally and he was often invited to consult and produce such training and educational materials for ministries, international development agencies and corporations.  He did his work in three languages French, English and Spanish.  To give a few examples of Dr. Bouchard’s international contributions, let us mention that he prepared a book of guidelines on teacher supervision for the Ministry of Education of Mali.  He also served on an educational panel for public health radio in Haiti in 1998.  He offered Human Relations courses in Tunisia and co-authored a series of training modules for AIDS prevention in West Africa.  He also served as an advisor to the Ministry of Education in Ecuador in developing an adult education policy for the country.

In Quebec, Dr. Bouchard was a member of the Ministry of Education’s committee to reestablish the certification of adult education by school boards in Quebec.  He was also a member of the committee looking into the educational reform in Quebec, in the 1990s.  In 2000 and 2001 he sat on the ministerial committee that drafted the Politique sur le curriculum de la formation des adultes.  Dr. Bouchard also served as an expert on several committees at the Federal level related to HR policies in human learning.

Dr. Bouchard was president of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE-ACÉÉA) for a two year mandate and served as the chief Editor of the journal:  The Canadian Review for the Study of Adult Education -La revue canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation des adultes for another two years.

Integrating arts in adult education and adult curricula has been a long-standing tradition in the field.  Dr. Bouchard was an accomplished musician (first degree B.F.A in Music from Fine Arts Faculty at Concordia and B.F.A. Visual Arts, from the Nova-Scotia College of Art & Design) and during his leisure time he wrote and performed music with several bands he formed, including KUZA.  This was yet another concrete way for Dr. Bouchard to translate theory into practice.  He and his band appeared in a series of concerts in the province of Holguin in Cuba in 2009.  Dr. Bouchard also performed regularly in local venues in Montreal and gave television, radio and newspaper interviews related to practicing his adult education profession through music.  With teacher certification from the Ministry of Education in Quebec, perfectly trilingual, a sharp wit and prolific writing and composing skills, Dr. Bouchard made an important contribution through creative professional work within and beyond academic circles.

Among his many awards, Dr. Bouchard received an Award for creative work in the Arts (Musical composition) Concordia University 1982. 

Hear some of Dr. Bouchard’s recordings at:  http://www.facebook.com/paulbouchardsax/

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