The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Standards Reflect Values Of Albertans

There are often insights in the meanings and origins of words. This issue of the ATA Magazine is all about standards and is written in response to the issuance by the Alberta Government of three new practice standards, one for teachers, one for school and system leaders, and one for superintendents. When considered in this context, the word “standard” is conventionally taken to mean a required level of quality or attainment, or a common measure used for evaluation.

But there is a much older sense of the word, that is still with us today: a standard is a flag or a banner, originally used in a military or religious context. A standard, in this meaning, provided a rallying point and means of identifying and distinguishing one group from another. On the battlefield, standards were essential in organizing and co-ordinating the movement of soldiers in what were often chaotic and frightening circumstances. The annual “Trooping of the Colours” was originally intended to ensure that every soldier knew which standard was theirs.

In this role, standards soon took on a symbolic quality. They became, quite literally, consecrated objects and there was no greater disgrace than to have one’s standard captured by an enemy. The standards themselves were honoured, and even today visitors to the Alberta legislature will note the retired regimental standards or colours that are displayed around the rotunda.

Consider then the symbolic weight of the new quality standards for teachers, leaders and superintendents. Which collectively communicate broad messages about what Albertans value and stand for.

The first of these is inclusion, which is identified as one of the six enumerated competencies for teachers. As Mark Swanson demonstrates in his article, the expectation now explicitly contained in the teaching quality standard, that the goal of a teacher’s professional practice is to insure “optimum learning for all students,” establishes the centrality of inclusion. The significance of this should not be diminished: inclusion generally and in schooling particularly, is culturally and politically the greatest challenge of our time and a manifestation of a broad civil/social movement that began in the last century to eliminate barriers to individual participation in all aspects of life in the community. The struggle to establish equitable opportunity for every person is now established in the teaching quality standard as central to the role of the teacher, the school and the school system.

The second value that defines the new standards is professional collegiality. As the standards were being developed, there was some question whether principals and central office teachers should have separate standards. The government wisely determined that the creation of a single leadership standard would firmly anchor leadership in the school context.

As a result, the leadership and, for that matter, the superintendent standard are philosophically an extension of the teaching standard, all three reinforcing the importance of fostering effective relationships, professional learning, visionary leadership and community. Ultimately, the leadership standard together with the teaching and superintendent standards, establishes an expectation that the relationship between teachers in schools, principals, certificated jurisdiction staff and superintendents will be one of respectful collaboration. This is a significant departure from more traditional models of management and leadership that emphasize command, control and top-down communication. Instead, the new standards require all participants to create a community of learning and professional governance.

Emerging from the darkest history of our country is the value and expectation shared across the three standards that teachers and schools will actively promote reconciliation. It is a profoundly sad fact that our education system, and not just the residential schools, has been an instrument of oppression for Indigenous peoples. All three of the quality standards recognize the critical role that teachers, and schools, must play in righting this historical wrong and its ongoing consequences. This begins with understanding foundational knowledge of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples but goes far beyond this to require active development of processes, programs and institutional culture that will welcome, respect and help raise up the Indigenous community and its children.

The three quality standards are the legislated administrative criteria against which teachers in their various roles will be measured, and every teacher has the responsibility to understand and meet the standards that apply to their work. In this context, the mission of the Alberta Teachers’ Association will be to ensure that teachers in all their roles are properly supported directly through Association programming and services, but also by holding school authorities and the government responsible for doing their part. Furthermore, the Association is charged with enforcing the teaching practice standard and it has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that member teachers demonstrate competent practice in compliance with that standard.

But beyond this, think about that older sense of the word “standard.” As a profession, we are called upon collectively to carry these standards forward in the hope that doing so will create a better education system for students and a better society for all.