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Since the inception of the Alberta Teachers’ Alliance (which became the Alberta Teachers’ Association with the passage of the Teaching Profession Act in 1935), Alberta’s teaching profession has sought full responsibility for its own governance. In its early years the Alliance established a Code of Honour, which was a set of non-binding conduct standards for members. Since 1935, the Association has been responsible for policing the professional conduct of active members. The Code of Ethics and the Standards of Professional Conduct (later established as the Code of Professional Conduct) were recommended to the minister of Education by a representative assembly for government approval. With revisions to the Teaching Profession Act in 1996, the Association was granted the right to establish professional conduct standards for active members of the Association and was given the legislated responsibility to protect the public interest (and the interest of the profession) in assuring that conduct standards were met. Since that time, the Code of Professional Conduct has been approved by a representative assembly (not the minister) and is binding on active members. The act and ATA bylaws set out how to maintain and enforce the code.
The Association has long sought the responsibility to establish professional practice standards for the profession. Ultimately, this means the responsibility for teacher certification. In 1972, the Annual Representative Assembly approved a comprehensive set of what was then referred to as competence bylaws, subject to ministerial approval and legislative amendments. To encourage a way forward with the new Progressive Conservative government led by Premier Peter Lougheed and Minister of Education Lou Hyndman (well-known and respected by the Association and a partner with the Association’s law firm), the Association’s executive secretary Bernie Keeler prepared a set of proposed amendments to the Teaching Profession Act that would achieve the longstanding Association goal of taking on responsibility for professional practice, i.e., setting the standards to become and to remain a teacher and the practice review process itself.
While the government was prepared to grant self-governance to Alberta’s teachers, to do so there would have to be a clear separation between the Association’s union functions and the proposed professional self-regulatory functions. On two occasions, the government even proposed to break up the Association—a college of teachers would take over professional regulatory functions and the Association would be transformed into a pure trade union. The Association strongly objected to this unwelcome solution and the government decided not to proceed in that direction.
Discussions continued, but in the spring of 1985 then minister of education David King established the Council on Alberta Teaching Standards (COATS) and announced plans for the government, not the profession, to take on practice review through COATS — there had been enough discussion and it was time for action. Teachers saw the establishment of COATS as a slap in the face and there was action, all right—King lost his seat in the 1986 general election.
With the provincial debt growing, the election of Ralph Klein as the new leader of the Progressive Conservative party in 1992 signaled some very major restructuring across government, as Klein sought to slash spending (Alberta had a “spending problem” not a “revenue problem”). Klein won the 1993 general election and very quickly the public sector was expected to take a voluntary salary reduction of five per cent, as government sought to reduce government expenditures in the order of 25 per cent.
The new minister of education (and a former and very respected president of the Association) Halvar Jonson had his marching orders for significant education reform (e.g., reduction in number of school boards, effective loss of local taxation authority, increased choice in education, expansion of standardized testing). The government required every department to table a three-year business plan, and the first plan, developed for the 1994–1997 cycle, captured the Association’s full attention. The education ministry’s business plan included Goal 4, which consisted of just two words: improve teaching. Key strategies listed under the goal included “update teacher preparation and certification requirements” and “establish competencies for beginning and experienced teachers.” However, a paper prepared by department officials for the consideration of COATS revealed a key element of the proposal. A teacher’s permanent professional certificate would have a five-year life (not much permanency) and the teacher would need to prove competence. The Association’s executive secretary, Julius Buski, was so concerned about the paper that he asked Provincial Executive Council to fund a series of Member Information Meetings (MIMs) across the province.
Teachers were not happy with what they saw. There would be no security of employment; boards would find ways to get rid of expensive teachers, activists or troublemakers. At every MIM, teachers were encouraged to write to senior officials in order to quash the proposal, and there was a substantial reaction against the paper from all across the province. As a result, the release of a discussion paper on Goal 4 in September 1995 was seen as a critical event for the profession.
It became immediately clear that teachers’ lobbying had produced some very important results. For starters, the discussion paper, entitled Quality Teaching: Quality Education for Alberta Students, made clear there would be no term certification. There would be new agreements between the minister and Alberta’s teacher preparation institutions and deans of faculties of education would attest that their graduates meet the knowledge, skills and attributes expected of beginning teachers. Teacher certification would reflect a professional model of teaching, with an expectation that teachers meet professional standards to be eligible to teach, not simply possess certain qualifications. In addition, a new provincial teacher evaluation policy would be established to focus on professional growth and lifelong development. The Association supported the conceptual initiatives proposed in the discussion paper.
Work proceeded very quickly. My colleague, Michael Podlosky, represented the Association on the committee established to work on the professional practice standard and the knowledge, skills and attributes (KSAs). I joined him later as attention turned to the development of the standard itself. I was the Association’s representative on the committee established to work on a new provincial teacher evaluation policy, also an initiative based on a professional model of teaching.
In June 1996, Minister of Education Gary Mar tabled a policy position paper on teacher preparation, certification and evaluation: An Integrated Framework to Enhance the Quality of Teaching in Alberta. Faculties of education would be required to review their teacher education programs to ensure they helped achieve the basic KSAs required by beginning teachers for certification. There would be a professional practice standard (initially referred to as the Quality Teaching Standard) supported by KSAs. The standard would be the basis for teacher evaluation practices, and teachers would be required to develop and submit annual professional growth plans. And school board teacher evaluation policies would need to be consistent with the provincial policy. Teachers new to the profession or the employer would be evaluated for competence; after that, the emphasis would be professional growth unless concerns were raised about a teacher’s teaching. Work to complete the Teaching Quality Standard was a government priority, with the new Teacher Growth, Supervision and Evaluation Policy right behind.
Alberta became the first jurisdiction to establish a practice standard for the profession. In order to ensure the standard would have the most impact, teacher preparation programs were tied to the standard and the KSAs, and the provincial teacher growth, supervision and evaluation policy was based entirely on the standard. In no respect did the standard attempt to quantify teaching or to diminish the work of teachers. A teacher’s professional practice involves meeting student learning needs by applying professional knowledge to their unique learning situations. It is all contextual and a teacher’s reality includes many such variables. The teacher’s reasoned professional judgment ultimately produces optimum student learning.
In 2004, the Teaching Profession Act was amended to transfer responsibility for policing professional practice standards for active members to the Association. While the profession does not set the professional practice standard (the education minister continues to retain that responsibility), the Association established Practice Review Bylaws to fulfill its responsibility and is required to initiate a practice review hearing when a superintendent of schools refers a matter to the Association.
Given the clear success of the Teaching Quality Standard, the department updated the standard for classroom teachers and expanded the concept to include a professional practice standard for school and central office leaders and a professional practice standard for superintendents and deputy superintendents, with full implementation set for September 2019. Similar expansion of the Teacher Growth, Supervision and Evaluation Policy is also underway.
The Association continues to seek full self governance of the profession and continues to support a professional and collegial model of teaching, a unified profession and professional standards that give priority to reasoned professional judgment. Together, these initiatives ensure high-quality teaching and school and system leadership, in the interests of the students and communities we serve.
A former high school teacher, Dr. Gordon Thomas became a staff officer of the Alberta Teachers’ Association in 1984 and served as executive secretary from 2003 to 2018.
