Learning Through Struggle: How the Alberta Teachers' Association Maintains an Even Keel

Abstract

Teachers’ organizations (associations, federations and unions) have been part of the fabric of public educational life in Canada for many decades. While local ad hoc groups sprang up at various times in response to their members’ particular occupational needs, their presence was formalized by the major provincial Education Acts passed during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s (Young and Levin, 1998) which established their right to legal representation of teachers. While their purview varies from province to province, most have been able to claim the compulsory membership of all public educators (and sometimes school administrators); to play some part in shaping provincial educational policy and negotiating the conditions of educators’ work locally; and to have a role in educators’ career development by providing formal and informal opportunities for leadership and professional development. At the same time, teachers’ organizations often have not fit easily into the educational landscape. Their engagement in educational decision making is, to a large degree, determined by provincial governments which possess formal constitutional authority over educational policy; their involvement in local and provincial decision making can be legislatively redefined at any time. In many provinces, their purview is restricted to an advisory role with respect to substantive policy issues; the concerns in which they could claim some involvement have been salary, benefits and working conditions, but their ability to negotiate even in these areas can be and are restricted to a shrinking range of issues both by available monies and by provincial legislation (Bascia, 1994, 1998a). Teachers and administrators are largely ignorant about their potential value; only a small minority engages in teachers’ organization activities and their work is largely invisible to others (Bascia, 1997). In many places, the news media and public hold images of teachers’ organizations as militant, unprofessional, simplistic and selfish in their priorities (Bascia, 1998b). The tensions surrounding teachers’ organizations are particularly significant now. Recent changes in educational policy across Canada have sharply reduced their ability to represent educators as well as having a serious impact on educators’