The Alberta Teachers’ Association

How have Alberta’s rural schools changed over time?

The history of Alberta schools begins with the establishment of rural one-room school districts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Few people now appreciate how long this model persisted. In 1950 there were still 1,545 one-room schools in operation. By 1959 there were only 275 one-room schools left.

There is a lot of nostalgia surrounding experiences of one-room schooling. Most of us have heard or read the accounts of young, mostly female teachers managing multiaged and multigraded classrooms in isolated communities. These tend to be heroic tales of long and difficult travel by foot or horse, drafty schoolrooms warmed by wood-burning stoves, inadequate teaching resources, children’s hijinks, warm memories of school Christmas pageants and strong community connections. 

The reality, of course, is that in some rural communities, teaching conditions were extremely difficult, and for some teachers, potentially harrowing. The ATA archives houses hundreds of letters teachers sent to the Alberta Teachers’ Alliance (later Association) asking for help and practical support in navigating hostile community members, inadequate conditions and unrealistic expectations. 

But in many communities, there was tremendous support for education even in hard times, and the schools were valued as the hub of their communities. Rural communities went to enormous lengths to ensure that their children had access to education. 

The history of rural schooling since the 1950s has essentially been one dominated by concerns about efficiency and modernization, with the assumption that urban schools are modern, progressive and future oriented, and rural schools are archaic, resistant to change and inefficient. 

Rural education researchers often say that the single most implemented educational reform in rural areas of Canada is school closure. This is because the criteria that defined “successful” schools and school districts was not the quality of students’ learning experiences, but the efficient use of financial resources. School consolidation has been synonymous with school improvement, though there is limited empirical research to support this.

There is no question that historically, there has been an urban–rural achievement gap, and that school completion rates for rural students have been lower than their urban counterparts. Much of this can be attributed to an urban bias in the curriculum, or at least a privileging of academic educational pathways into university programs. For many rural students, doing well at school meant having to leave their communities. Many did not need to complete high school to find relatively well-paying employment in resource industries that kept them in their communities.

Rural schools today are diverse because they reflect the diversity of Alberta’s rural communities. Many have culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The schools in the rural, agricultural communities of southern and central Alberta differ from schools in northern communities that might be dominated by other resource-based industries.

In many ways, they embody the same traits that characterized the best of rural schools in the past: they are still the social hub of their communities, and they benefit from local expertise and connection. The schools are smaller than those in urban or suburban centres, and many classrooms are inclusive, multiage and multigrade. School cultures are positive: students feel a sense of belonging, and sometimes they have access to extracurricular activities, like sports teams, that they wouldn’t have in more competitive urban settings. 

What does contemporary ­research say about successful strategies for rural schools related to issues of poverty, equity and retention of ­teachers and school leaders?

Research in some Canadian jurisdictions has confirmed the importance of offering preschool programs in rural schools with a strong early-years development focus and full-time kindergarten to help ease students’ transition into schooling. Other studies demonstrate that liaison workers from local linguistic or cultural communities can facilitate the relationship between school and community. Career counsellors or career development workers have been found to be key to establishing programs that facilitate students’ experiential learning and vocational opportunities in their communities.

Small-scale qualitative studies in rural school settings have demonstrated the effectiveness of instructional approaches such as looping, culturally sensitive teaching, early literacy initiatives, subject-integrated curriculum, experiential learning and individualized learning in improving students’ academic achievement.

Studies have also demonstrated the importance of reliable information and communication technologies infrastructure in providing access and equity in terms of courses for students, but also professional learning for teachers. Co-operation and collaboration among rural jurisdictions have also enhanced professional learning for teachers, as have partnerships with universities that have included on-site local cohorts for graduate programs. These have demonstrated value in retention and leadership capacity building in rural school districts.