A colleague and friend from the United States asked me
yesterday a simple question: “what happened to the momentum for equity,
transformation and change in Alberta education?”. Made me think. Here is my response.
First, we lost an
important champion. Hon Dave Hancock was the Minister of Education (now Deputy
Premier and Minister for Innovation and Advanced Education) who engendered
trust and spurred innovation and collaboration. Its his style. He sought labour
peace, developed a process to listen and understand the need for change and set
an agenda for change which teachers, principals and superintendents could buy
into. He was replaced by a Minister – Hon Thomas (“hit me”) Lucasuk – who made
no attempt to understand the opportunity left by his predecessor, alienated
teachers and school administrators and was generally a poor substitute for
leadership. Realizing this, the Premier moved him to the role of Deputy Premier
without portfolio as part of her “keep you enemies close” strategy. He is now
Minister for Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour. He was replaced by Hon. Jeff
Johnson, a former sales person for Xerox. He too has alienated teachers and
school administrators and is widely seen as a proponent of market based tools
and instruments for schooling.
These changes are more than symbolic – an activist Minister
like Johnson can do a great deal of harm to an emerging movement in a very
short period of time. It is widely understood
that this Government wishes to split the Alberta Teachers Association by
separating its negotiation/union function from its professional support and
development function. It is also rumoured that the Minister wants to remove
those with managerial roles (Principals and Superintendents) from the union.
Also under attack are public sector pensions, as can be seen from recent
announcement from the Minister of Finance, Hon Doug Horner (see here).
Transformative change depends on trust and collaboration.
Two successive Ministers appear not to understand this and have either
deliberately or unintentionally set out to damage trust between those who will
enable transformation (teachers) and those who will support transformation
(school and Board administrators) and those who will guide transformation (the
leadership of the ATA and the Government of Alberta and Superintendents). Until
trust is returned, transformation will be piecemeal, fraught and stalled.
Second, the key to
turning ideas into action is to create the right conditions of practice for
teachers – class size, time for professional development, engagement in
curriculum change, the right kind of preparation for teaching, support for the
inclusion of those with special needs. Almost all of these conditions are in
poor shape. Classes in many schools are large because Alberta is growing faster
than investment in physical capacity and teachers permits. In Calgary, classes average 30 when the
Province recommends 27 (see here)
– the highest they have ever been in modern times. Some have classes of 38-40
with 3-4 special needs students included. School Boards have requested portable
buildings to accommodate growth in student numbers, but the Government cannot
meet these demands (here).
School budgets are tight – with teachers being laid off (here)
or not hired, even though demand is growing. The forthcoming Provincial budget
will, it is rumoured, add to the austerity context in which schools are
operating. Some school Boards have to consider reducing the school week (here)
so as to balance budgets. Requests for replacement technology, for professional
development or funds for innovation are becoming less likely to be approved, especially
now that a major engine for innovation in schools – The Alberta Initiative for
School Improvement – has been abolished (here).
In these circumstances, the conditions of practice are
threatened not supported. But wait, it gets worse. The Hon Jeff Johnson initiated
a review of teacher excellence in 2013, which is due to report shortly. The
Task Force he established did not include any serving teachers (no wonder there
are trust issues) and its processes were very questionable. Hon. Jeff Johnson
has several times suggested that there should be merit pay for teachers – this despite
compelling evidence that this has no impact on the learning experiences of
learners or learning outcomes: it may work in Xerox, but not in schools (for a
review of the argument see here,
for evidence of consequence see here, here, here, and here).
Third, the
transformation journey remains unfocused. This may be about to change. The Hon
Jeff Johnson is about to announce some curriculum prototyping work across
Alberta which will “be the engine of transformation”. Without revealing too
much, the change in schools will be driven by changes to curriculum. In
particular, a shift from “content and process” based learning to “competencies”
and a focus on Provincial frameworks for competency with teachers having much
more freedom, in partnership with others, to create appropriate learning for
these competencies will be a major change. Teachers are nervous about these developments
for several reasons. First, there are the conditions of practice issues and
investment issues just mentioned. Second, parents have not been engaged in the
conversation about these changes since the broad consultations associated with
Inspiring Education, which took place in 2008-2010 and even then only a small
number were involved. Third, investments have not been made in appropriate
professional development to enable the transition to competencies by school
systems (see here).
The prototyping work will “surface” many of these issues, but they will also be
challenging politically at a time when austerity is about to become more
severe.
Finally, there is a strong sense that the present Government
may not be the next government. Amongst the literati and politerati the
conversation is not whether or not the Redford government will win the next
election, but rather what kind of Government will be in place after the next
election, due in 2016. It is clear that the Alberta Liberal Party and the NDP
are both unlikely to form the Government or a coalition. It is also clear that
the fledgling Alberta Party has yet to find the right kind of leadership to
position themselves as serious players in the 2016 election. The choice is
between the Wild Rose, led by Danielle Smith, or the current government either
led by Alison (“in wonderland”) Redford or someone else. Two scenarios are
emerging as bar talk favourites. A modest win for the Wild Rose or a minority government
continuing the current party in power.
Whichever scenario turns out to be the case – and a week,
never mind eighteen to twenty months is a long time in politics – it is leading to
the current government seeking to demonstrate its right wing credentials. Hence
its systematic pursuit of austerity and “no new taxes and no increase in taxes”,
despite a deficit. Hence its systematic persecution of public sector unions
through Bill 45 (bans public sector workers from striking, despite this being a
labour right) and Bill 46 (muzzles freedom of speech) and an assault on
pensions (see here).
Hence its unfettered support for employers, despite growing concerns over cumulative
environmental impacts of their activities. Hence the growing right wing nature of many of
the actions we currently see and anticipate, such as a pending assault on the
Alberta Teachers’ Association. What is happening is Alison Redford’s party is
trying to occupy the space they think the Wildrose Party occupies.
But all this misses the point: no one trusts Alison Redford
to do what she said she would do or her government to behave in a way that
engenders community support. She and her colleagues no longer have the trust of
the electorate. When this occurs, political parties become increasingly
desperate to “win back” the voter. The problem for teachers and educators is
that so few Albertan’s vote - 1,290,218 from a potential pool of 2,265,169
(57%), and so few vote for the party that wins.
These facts lead the parties to work to attract small sub-sets of the
electorate by appealing to what they suspect will appeal to them – no tax
increases, take on these “fat cat” public sector people and punish those who
challenge the status quo. The irony is
that many teachers voted for this government so as to keep out the Wildrose. It
is very doubtful that they will do this in 2016.
What might be a surprise in 2016 is that we could get a very
high turnout – say 80-85% - who want to see an end to this government. In 1935
some 82 per cent of eligible voters turned out and the electorate turfed the
United Farmers of Alberta from power in favour of Social Credit.
Transformation is not
dead in Alberta education. It will occur one school at a time because
courageous teachers, Principals and community leaders working together will
make it so. But the overarching conditions are not in place for a system wide
or Province wide transformation. It is a
real shame: they were, and not that long ago either.
1 comment:
There is a big difference between Hancock's Inspiring Education and Johnson's.
Hancock used Inspiring Education to create the conditions for transformation. Johnson is using Inspiring Education and the Teacher Task Force to give the impression that he is collaborating while he pursues his political agenda (merit pay).
Great post!
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