The Alberta Teachers’ Association

ATA President Carol Henderson takes part in the opening ceremony at CTF’s 90th annual general meeting in July 2010. Photo by Yuet Chan

The following article is part one of a two-part article about the Canadian Teachers’ Federation. Part two will appear in the March 8 issue of the ATA News.

The Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) is a unifying force for its provincial and territorial member organizations. It serves as a clearinghouse and repository for provincially developed positions and research, and provides a national profile that strengthens all of its parts. All teachers and all students benefit from the work of the CTF. Teachers have many reasons to be proud of their national federation.

Teachers in a changing society

Globalization has affected education in the same way it has affected every other aspect of our lives. Increasingly, offshore groups and individuals are pressing ideas and policies that will inevitably change views in Canada. Education researcher Andy Hargreaves argues that education is undergoing the greatest reform thrust in 200 years—and all of it is corporate driven. This agenda is affecting education across Canada and throughout the world.

Education in Canada has historically been influenced not just by teachers but also by provincial departments of education and provincial politicians, particularly the ministers of education. This collaboration has led us to develop one of the best education systems in the world.

In a relatively recent shift, education in Canada has become a focus of international powers that bring together leaders to influence their thinking on approaches to education. This includes corporations, such as Cisco and ­Microsoft; foundations, such as the Gates Foundation; philanthropists, such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg; and multinational organizations, such as McKinsey & Company, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Virtually all of these organizations focus on the value of education to the economy and the workplace. Virtually all see organized labour as harmful. Few respect the professional expertise of teachers as leaders in education, and most exclude teacher leaders from their meetings, even when they are discussing research findings that say that teacher activity in the classroom is the most important part of education.

When Gates tells Maclean’s magazine (September 21, 2010) that the way to improve public education is to fire the bottom 10 per cent of teachers, the average Canadian is led to believe that we need changes in teacher evaluation or that we should remove the due process guaranteed by your professional association in order to permit the speedy removal of those who don’t meet ­expectations.

When the OECD says that education systems must not be complacent but must become actively involved in changes to meet their goals, provincial governments listen. The reports are thoroughly discussed, and further consultations are held with the OECD—even in the top-performing provinces. Teachers are not included in all of these talks.

When the G20 leaders limit their discussions on education to training and jobs, they influence the values that drive public education decision making and they link public education to training for work.

When other countries respond to pressures with corporate-driven initiatives, they feed the agendas of corporate-sponsored Canadian pressure groups, such as the Fraser Institute, the Conference Board of Canada and the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies. These groups are funded by corporations who see education as a commodity and a potential source of revenue.

Hargreaves, Diane Ravitch, Ben Levin, and other respected researchers and writers have pointed out the conflict between the policies of the corporate agenda and their stated objectives. Practices such as standardized testing, merit pay, charter schools and common standards have been shown to be ineffective as tools of education reform, yet they continue to be popular. What they have in common is the shift of control of education away from the classroom teacher.

In a country with little truly independent media and strong corporate and policy group influences, teachers are at the core of progressive thinking. Provincial teachers’ organizations continue to be critical to maintaining humanistic values and bringing forward the voice of teachers.

However, unity at the provincial level may no longer be enough to combat national and international agendas. The CTF is a unifying force for its provincial member organizations in these changing times.

What does Canada need in education?

Canada has one of the strongest education systems in the world. Research tells us that

• Canadian teachers do a better job than almost all others in meeting the needs of students from diverse backgrounds and responding to parent and family needs;
• Canadian teachers work on average more than 50 hours a week to meet the needs of their students; and
• each year Canadian teachers collectively put over $100 million of their own money into classrooms to supplement government resources.

Test results are strong across the country. The small differences in results between the provinces can be explained by factors such as socioeconomic status ­differences.

One would think that there would be much satisfaction with the way our education system develops students to be leaders in our country and internationally. Unfortunately, education critics use international comparisons to show that while Canada outshines most of the world in education results, there is room for improvement.

Alberta continues to be one of the world’s strongest performers in education. This is due to numerous factors, including the province’s strong economy, health-care system and social supports and, most important, the contributions of highly qualified professional teachers and the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

Education reform has been approached differently by Alberta and other strong-performing provinces, such as Ontario. Alberta has for several years focused on the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) and the direct involvement of teachers. Ontario has focused on literacy, numeracy and the measurement of these by testing through the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO).

Each province must examine its particular circumstances before initiating reform. Provincial autonomy in education is a strength of our system. Unfortunately, many international players do not understand our system and do not look beyond their own experience when recommending reform. The role of the CTF is to help expand that picture. To do that effectively, we rely on the input of our provincial member organizations.

The CTF provides Alberta teacher leaders with opportunities to bring forward their values and beliefs at national and international meetings, including the following:

• Education International World Congress, where representatives from around the world debate policy and determine action directives for teachers internationally. Alberta will be part of the CTF delegation again in 2011.
• Meetings of teachers’ organizations from member countries of the OECD to broaden understanding, share approaches to countering pressures and create powerful networking. Alberta was heard at the 2010 meeting as part of the CTF delegation.
• Commonwealth Teachers’ Group meetings at the triennial Commonwealth Ministers’ Meetings, which influence ministers of education from around the world as they discuss education reform. In 2009, when 53 ministers met, the CTF was there to exert influence, and Alberta was a strong voice on the team.
• The CTF’s consultation and collaboration meetings at the national and international levels. When the OECD and the US government participated in the Ontario education reform discussions in fall 2010, the CTF invited representatives from the ATA and other provincial teachers’ organizations to show strength, consistency of beliefs, commitment to excellence and ability to lead. Ongoing discussions with our American education partners about increasing the influence of Canadian education decision making in the US (as opposed to the current negative reform initiatives) have included ­Alberta. Alberta has had much to add to these discussions.

When Alberta is part of the ­national voice of teachers, all teachers and all students benefit. The CTF is instrumental in providing opportunities for Alberta teachers to be heard.

Calvin Fraser, a former executive staff officer at the Alberta Teachers’ Association, is Secretary General of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation.

Read part 2 of this article.