It may come as a surprise to many of you, but the Canadian Education Association celebrates its 125th Anniversary this year. Established in 1891 as an organization dedicated to connecting educators, policy thinkers and those interested in the growth and flourishing of public education systems across the country, the CEA has been a trusted convenor, connector and provocateur on the Canadian education landscape.
If you were to look for those catalytic moments in the story of the CEA—those plot points when new energy and focus was realized—your attention would eventually be drawn to those times when the organization’s leaders sought to “put their ear to the ground” in an effort to get a sense of what issues, challenges and opportunities that were keeping them awake at night. This process of listening has always enabled the CEA to mobilize its resources, research and initiatives to respond in a meaningful way and in a timely manner.
I’m thrilled to be part of the team of listeners that will be moving out across Canada this fall to engage in the establishment of 5 Regional Exchanges designed to enable the CEA to hear from shareholders at all levels of the system around what is important in their particular contexts.
It may be tempting to talk about Canadian education as if it were a single national system that looked and felt the same right across the country. We know, however, that this is not the case and that, even within provincial and local jurisdictions, diverse social, economic and political contexts have a great effect on how our visions for public education are brought to life. The EdCan Network Regional Exchanges are designed to explore the common values that inspire our work in education as well as the complex contexts in which that work takes place.
Each Regional Exchange will be comprised of 15-20 participants and will meet twice during the year—first to become more aware of the issues and opportunities at work in their particular region and, second, to explore more deeply how the most pressing of these are playing out in the day to day of our students, educators, parents and wider communities. The commitment to both depth and perspective make this a unique initiative and one that, we believe, will hold value for all of us.
So, this is an invitation to you, the groups and individuals who are working throughout Canada’s public education systems. You know who you are. You are thinking deeply about the quality of these systems. You are immersed in your own context, but are aware of and open to what is happening in other parts of the system. You have definite ideas and perspectives, but are willing to hold them lightly while listening to the perspectives of others. You get energized by the conversations, but see them as a started point for committed action.
And you sometimes feel like noone is listening. Well, the CEA is listening and would invite you to take a closer look at the EdCan Network Regional Exhange initiative, because we’re coming to your region this Fall:
Monday, October 24th: Western Canada and NWT—Regina, Saskatchewan
Wednesday, October 26th: Ontario—Mississauga, Ontario
Friday, October 28th: BC and Yukon—Vancouver, British Columbia
Friday, October 28th: Francophone—Montréal, Quebec
Wednesday, November 2nd: East Coast—Halifax, Nova Scotia
Take a look at the initiative page, fill out the application form and let your voice be heard!
For more information contact Stephen Hurley (English Exchanges) or Yoland Nantel (Francophone Exchange)
A CEA Selection Jury chose the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB) out of 35 School District applicants from across Canada to participate in the 2015 ‘Innovation that Sticks’ Case Study Program. From September to December 2015 – through an Appreciative Inquiry interview process – the CEA researched how the OCSB has transformed its classrooms into 21st century environments that meet the needs of all learners.
The OCSB currently serves approximately 40,000 students in 83 schools across the City of Ottawa; a staff of more than 2,400 teachers and administrators, and 1,500 support staff, guide quality Catholic education.
With the conversion of libraries to Learning Commons, increasing broadband, universal Wi-Fi availability and equitable Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies, the OCSB has created a digital learning ecosystem focusing on collaboration, creativity and critical thinking among all of its 83 schools.
The CEA Selection Jury of Canadian innovation leaders was most impressed with how the OCSB leads with a focus on learning and teacher support first, followed by the technology. This School Board has been implementing their innovative strategy over a number of years, incorporated all partners – including teacher unions and support staff – and built a budget in support of this collective vision, with ongoing parent and student voice that continue to inform these changes.
The OCSB’s comprehensive Blueprint for Change — Towards 2020, Connecting with our Students provides a laptop to every teacher and principal. This 1:1 technology investment is complemented by a major professional learning focus that represents an important cultural shift across the Board to enable teachers to shift their practice to differentiated instruction, which has resulted in increased student achievement. Restrictive policies were removed to allow teachers to model digital citizenship by actively participating in social media. Every student in the Board receives yearly instruction on digital citizenship, integrated into the curriculum.
The OCSB’s leadership is very proud of how their staff has embraced technology to support student learning. They use social media and a variety of apps to share effective practice professionally and are connecting learning to students’ real lives, ensuring relevance to their interests and needs.
The OCSB received a $10,000 contribution courtesy of initiative sponsors State Farm Canada to grow its promising programs and practice. Board representatives shared “lessons learned” with CEA researchers about the conditions and processes that led to the beginning of this expandable innovation throughout their classrooms and schools.
This case study report provides concrete guidance and information resources to support other School District leaders faced with the challenge of determining how they can get their own ‘innovations to stick’ and achieve their goals.
The School Calendar provides all opening and closing dates, statutory holidays, PA/PD days and spring breaks for mid to large school boards across Canada. This free resource, compiled annually, is an essential tool for conference, event and vacation planners. The School Calendar is published in late August.
Research analysis of what over 700 educators felt was standing in the way of change in education.
Fredericton parent Jeannine St. Amand explains the value of gathering education stakeholders to discuss change.
Winnipeg teacher Chris Harbeck explains how student-teacher communications could be improved with technology.
NB innovation leader David Alston shares his vision for what schools should become.
This report shares the anecdotal research based on feedback collected from over 700 educators, students, and education stakeholders – from across Canada – on their visions for what school should be, the barriers that stand in the way of achieving those visions, and some actions that could overcome these barriers.
Close to 1,000 individual vision statements, over 3,500 Post-it® notes and references to almost 100 change projects were collected between October 2013 and August of 2014, representing an excellent opportunity to develop themes, trends and a strong sense of where Canadians stand with regard to the process of change in our schools.
Using a qualitative approach, practically every word written in each of the workshops was entered, coded and analyzed. The following report presents some of the major results from the What’s Standing in the Way of Change in Education? initiative. It is not intended to provide detailed analysis of regional results but, instead, offers a way of feeding back the viewpoints of Canadian shareholders right across the country; and to use what has been heard to help frame a strategy for moving forward in local settings, regional levels and, indeed, on a pan-Canadian scale.
A variety of education stakeholders share their visions for what school could be like.
Teachers, students, administrators and other stakeholders share what they think is standing in the way of change.
A CEA Symposium that gets to “the how” of education systems change
The School Calendar provides all opening and closing dates, statutory holidays, and spring breaks for elementary and secondary schools across Canada. This free resource, compiled annually, is an essential tool for conference, event and vacation planners. The School Calendar is published in mid-August.
The Challenge to Change
The Discussion Guide Version 2.0
August 2014
Published by:
The Canadian Education Association (CEA)
119 Spadina Avenue, Suite 705, Toronto, ON M5V 2L1
www.cea-ace.ca
A Conversation About Change is Developing…
On October 23, 2013 over 300 teachers, students, parents, policy-makers, education leaders and community groups gathered in Calgary to join the Canadian Education Association (CEA) in a conversation around the question, What’s Standing in the Way of Change in Education? It’s a provocative question, to be sure, and one that continues to draw interest and attention from individual citizens and stakeholder groups right across the country. For this reason, CEA has designed several ways for you to contribute to the conversation.
The following three paragraphs, I would like to point out, were not written by me.
“… I’m not saying that teaching isn’t something to aspire to, but …, I think it is a backup plan for many. Perhaps it was something to aspire to at one time, but now the profession seems to be saturated with mediocrity. There are very few people who would choose to teach if they had superior (or even above average) abilities in their chosen discipline or specialty… And why would someone settle with being a grade school teacher if they had the abilities for something greater…?
I have come to the conclusion that “[teachers] are often individuals who couldn’t make it in the real world, so they got a B.Ed.” through my own personal experiences in grade school, and even more so by looking back on them. I know teachers and people that are currently becoming teachers… They aren’t people who were top in their class, and many of them took a mindless BA for an undergrad… There are also a few professionals I know who were formerly teachers, and they often mention that teaching was the cushiest and least demanding job they have ever had.
When you work in an artificial market, a sheltered world, you become accustomed to it. What might seem like a large amount of work to a teacher would probably seem quite insignificant to [a] business professional. Grading 30 tests or marking 30 assignments? I was a grader in grad school, and it’s not that tough of a job… Don’t even try to talk about the difficulties and struggles of being a teacher when many other [people] work harder and longer for similar or less pay.”
No, those words are not mine. They were part of a longer comment I was sent recently by a business analyst who calls himself Will.
Now, I have never met Will, but I’ve certainly heard him before. Wherever there is an educational issue being brought forward, for better or worse, Will is there, usually dominating the online comment section of articles or, occasionally, writing an article himself. Sometimes his name is Paul. Sometimes his name is Bill. Sometimes he even goes by Margaret. Sometimes he appears in The Chronicle Herald, sometimes in The Globe and Mail, and sometimes in The Vancouver Sun. But regardless of the size of the paper, size of the reading audience, or region of the country, Will is there.
And let me tell you, Will knows a thing or two about education.
For example, Will knows that only “those who can’t do, teach”. Why else would anyone who had any sort of ability in another area, such as business (or perhaps, writing) not aspire to those particular professions? Obviously, it is the inability to “do” that causes the “teach”. Why, would someone settle for working in a grade school if they could achieve more?
Will also knows all about the system because he actually went to school. He remembers all those grade school teachers he had that were sub par. He went to University to study business, so knows a bit about “mindless BA’s” as well. I mean, philosophy and religion are good to know, sure, but who is going to hire someone with a degree in English? Really, what choice did those poor folks have besides teaching?
Finally, let’s not forget that Will understands the teachers’ artificial market, where the task marking 30 assignments seems daunting because it is a sheltered world. Such a task would seem minor to someone in the corporate world, especially when that someone, like Will, knows what it means to mark papers.
Will is certainly not unique in his opinions, and the voice he represents seems to have become a bit of a national phenomenon. It has been ringing loud and clear across this country for a few years now, and has been leading the charge to discredit teachers and undermine the profession. It has been chiming in on Tim Hudak’s plan to cut teaching jobs in Ontario, and has been particularly critical of recent job action by teachers in BC. These days, it seems there is a certain sector of the Canadian public that has, to use a local colloquialism, “an awful hate on” for teachers.
It is this small sector, this vocal minority, that is at the heart of so much of what is so plaguing education today. It seems that, lately, more media outlets, more policy makers, and more politicians are listening to the babble of outlandish and endlessly perpetuated myths coming from the Wills of the world than are actually listening to educators about flaws in the system.
And that should have everyone concerned.
You see, folks like Will have a hard time realizing some core truths about education in general. For one thing, their own experiences in school do not make them in any way qualified to pass judgment on the profession. When Will was in high school, he was probably, like many of us, a long way from being a particularly good judge of anything. To think that perceptions formed about education as a grade schooler are a valid basis for criticizing the system as an adult makes one wonder if Will is still sporting acid washed jeans and a mullet.
Will also fails to realize that for many of us, teaching is not a job, but a passion. Why else, indeed, would anyone decide to be a grade school teacher, considering the amount of public ridicule the profession is currently enduring? Not all of us had the same reasons for getting into teaching, granted, but very few remain because we couldn’t do anything else. Most remain, I believe, because we simply wouldn’t do anything else.
But it is in his final paragraph, where he states that my market is artificial and that he understand the job because he has graded papers, where Will truly misses the mark. As a teacher, I don’t actually grade papers; I assess students. I assess them to help them learn and grow as individuals, to help them broaden their minds and to help them to think critically, much as I was helped to think critically while taking my own “mindless BA”.
I do this in a market where my customers are sometimes coming to me hungry, unable to even comprehend the idea of a hot breakfast each morning. I do this in a market where my customers are sometimes coming to me angry, unable to see that I am not the one who is hurting them. And I do this in a market where my customers are sometimes coming to me out of desperation, because in their world of drugs and suicide and depression and bullying and violence, I am the one adult they trust.
I can assure you, there is nothing artificial about that.
At the end of the day, I don’t really care what Will thinks of teachers. Even if I were to write a million words, I could not change his mind. But if I were to propose what I think is “wrong” with education, it would be that when I do get home at the end of the day, after dealing with the hunger and the anger and the bullying and the violence, as well as the joy and the fun and the learning and the excitement, I can not open a paper, or turn on the radio, or watch the news, without having to endure yet another bout of Willisms.
I also have to deal with the fear that somewhere there is a politician absorbing those same words as gospel who may very well make a decision based on them. A decision that is likely to make my job tougher, and take more of my energy away from the kids.
All in the name of placating Will.
We should never be satisfied with our education system in this country, should never stop looking for better ways of teaching, should never stop asking the tough questions. But the questions need to be framed by those who actually understand the system, not those who simply believe that they do.
Better education will result when we realize, as a nation, that those who can teach, should teach.
And I hope to eventually see the day when all those critics who currently “Will”, simply won’t anymore.
This content has been re-posted from https://storify.com/
For more information and to get involved in CEA’s ongoing What’s standing in the way of change in education? national conversation, please visit http://standingintheway.ca and follow @cea_ace and #CanEdChange on Twitter.
This content has been re-posted from Johnny Bevacqua’s blog at: http://figuringitouted.blogspot.ca/2014/05/the-this-too-shall-passstall-in.html
I recently attended a Canadian Education Association regional workshop (facilitated by Stephen Hurley and Ron Canuel) at the University of British Columbia. It was a gathering of passionate and talented people tasked with answering one question:
What’s standing in the way of change in education?
This was one of a series of events, held across Canada, to study and explore answers to the aforementioned question (for more information on this exciting research click here).
The day began by exploring some of the barriers to change in education. Participants shared many insights and ideas – identifying barriers such as: funding models, policy decisions (school, organizational and government) , institutional memory (by all stakeholders), societal expectations, assessment models (and many more).
As we shared the many barriers to change I couldn’t help but think about the long history of (failed?) education reform in Canada and British Columbia.
On a personal level, I can think of the many conversations I’ve had regarding BC’s latest education transformation initiative (The BC Education Plan, Curriculum Transformation) and the inevitable “conversation stopping” sentiment:
This too shall pass.
The proverbial “we tried that back in..(insert year)” can be a little demoralizing when in comes to school improvement and change in education.
And yet these sentiments do cause me to pause and think about some “recent” failed reform initiatives here in BC. For example:
These examples can teach us a tremendous amount about reform and change in education. Bottom line – it is not easy.
And yet I am hopeful that we can we learn from the past. This is why I am excited to hear about the work that the CEA is undertaking in understanding the barriers in education reform and change.
Despite any “mistakes” made in the education reform past, I will suggest that there may be different forces at play today that are providing a different type of momentum to the school reform movement:
Mobile, Web-Based, Social Technology
The proliferation of mobile, web based, social technology is giving us access to an abundance of diverse information and people. Accessing the information is not solely dependent on “school” or the educators that work in them.
Neuroscience
There is a growing amount of brain research that is dispelling myths about how the human brain learns best. This article does a nice job summarizing some of the recent research: Neuroscience: Brain Based Learning Myth Busting
Shrinking, Shifting, Connected World
Many have written about how world has changed -economically, strategically and socially. In a compelling and informative TED talk, Paddy Ashdown talks about the Global Power Shift. One of his more compelling arguments is that:
In the modern age where everything is connected to everything, the most important thing you can do….is what you can do with others.
Ashdown emphatically states that the paradigm structure of our time is the network. If we buy Ashdown’s argument, then as educators we need to ask ourselves how equipped our students are to navigate this shifting world.
Some enduring constants….
Yet, despite these momentum generating forces, I would argue that there are some enduring constants in education and school that will continue to positively serve our students.
Namely that teachers, working in relationships (with students and colleagues) matter immensely and that learning is personal (individual) and social and it needs to be shared and made visible.
So moving forward I have a few questions for reflection:
I am still figuring it out. Your thoughts and comments are welcome……
For more information and to get involved in CEA’s ongoing What’s standing in the way of change in education? national conversation, please visit http://standingintheway.ca and follow @cea_ace and #CanEdChange on Twitter.
This content has been reposted from Scott Slater’s personal blog at http://scottslater.org/2014/05/17/culture-of-change/ and does not necessarily represent the opinions of his employer.
The CEA’s What’s Standing in the Way of Change in Education workshop series across Canada brings together a variety of stakeholders and innovators including students, parents, university deans, teachers, trustees, K-12 and university administrators, superintendents, and Ministry of Education administrators, and tasks them with determining what is standing in the way of change in education, and how to work around or eliminate the barriers.
In the Vancouver session, which I had the privilege of attending on Wednesday May 14th, it seemed most participants agreed on three challenges in particular. Below, I share what I took from these discussions.
1. Mindset
Those who are in positions that can implement change may not have the mindset to do so. They may be married to what they currently do, either to maintain tradition, to please parents who might resist change, out of fear of the unknown of might lay ahead, or fear that adopting new practice will make “old” practice and the practitioner look bad. The idea of “best practice” is not helpful. It suggests that there is one best way of doing things and switching the term “best practice” to “effective practice,” is perhaps a small but important step in inviting change. Bruce Beairsto noted this Mindset is not so much a barrier or roadblock in the present or future, but an anchor dug into the past that slows or halts change.
2. Process
The BC Education Plan articulates many important goals for education: personalized learning, flexibility and choice, learning supported by digital access, etc. Even if the goals of change were understood to mean the same thing and agreed upon by all 40 000 teachers in BC, as well as administrators, School Board Office staff and Trustees, there is no clear process to implement change, and the process might look different depending on what form of change it is. One of the strengths of education in BC is that teachers, schools, and districts, have a high degree of autonomy to personalize and contextualize learning experiences to best meet the needs of unique students and communities; needs that might be different elsewhere. Interestingly, this strength is a weakness in implementing change rapidly. This decentralized system is thus designed to satisfy context-specific needs, but also makes implementing systematic change difficult.
Further, innovators have relatively small spheres of influence. An innovative teacher in a classroom has a huge impact on the many students they teach, and a district with a culture of innovation has a major impact both on students and educators, but classrooms, schools, school districts, and even universities, are relatively small spheres compared with the system as a whole. For systemic change, who is to bridge these spheres? The Ministry of Education’s Education Plan makes no connections, that I am aware of at least, between K-12 education and university, and coordination, particularly with respect to changing assessment practices, must occur between grades 11 and 12 and university entrance requirements. There is a separate ministry, the Ministry of Advanced Education, responsible for Universities. Who is responsible for bridging the gap between K-12 and University?
While there are great benefits to a decentralized, diffusion model of change (described by Chris Kennedy here), it does not promote the quick implementation of systematic change. In my opinion, it is better to do things well than do things quickly, so if speed is the cost for well-implemented, personalized and contextual change, perhaps it is worth it.
Peter Drucker noted that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” and Jordan Tinney has written on this topic in relation to the hit television show Downton Abbey, explaining culture’s inescapable role causing change. The show shares the change of the place of the aristocracy in the UK, including how an aristocratic family interacts with each other and with servants and other “commoners.” There are some major events like World War One that accelerate change, but for the most part, change happens in small decisions: a daughter’s decision to wear certain clothing or disagree with her father, a butler’s tolerance of certain behaviour, a decision to marry a commoner, and for the family to slowly accept that commoner into their circles. Occasionally, important laws such as female suffrage cause major changes, but it is for the most part, small decisions happening among relatively small actors that slowly shift and are then shifted by culture. In a decentralized system, culture, more than process, shapes change.
3. Support
A third inhibitor of change is that many believe there is not sufficient support for educators to develop their skillsets, perhaps in inquiry, assessment, and self-regulation. This support might include time for professional learning, support from collaborators or mentors/coaches, or learning resources such as books or technology tools that support professional learning or student learning. Further, if class composition is becoming more challenging, even if an educator hones their skillset, there is, or might be the perception, that educators cannot make full use of their skillsets because they simply do not have enough time to offer their skills to such diverse learning needs. If educators do not feel supported, financially and with sufficient human resources to meet the needs of learners, this third inhibitor of change – Support – can lead to the development of a mindset resistant to change.
Culture
It seems clear to me that if mindsets, process and support are identified as challenges to change, it is absolutely vital that classrooms, schools, districts and the Ministry of Education in general, must support a culture of innovation, written about by Chris Kennedyhere. Culture shapes mindsets, it permeates all spheres of influence, and it inspires educators to overcome limitations of support. In a Downton Abbey model of change, which we seem to have, all innovators with influence must develop their convictions and take action if they wish to be leaders. And as this work cannot be done alone; educators must work together to develop shared convictions and take shared action to implement change.
For more information and to get involved in CEA’s ongoing What’s standing in the way of change in education? national conversation, please visit http://standingintheway.ca and follow @cea_ace and #CanEdChange on Twitter.
This content has been re-posted from Barry Dyck’s blog at: http://blogs.hsd.ca/barrydyck/2014/05/06/a-change-mindset-requires-curiosity/
This past week I attended a CEA workshop entitled, “What’s standing in the way of change in education?” We shared our experiences of schools at their best, what we see as barriers to change, how we’ve moved around some of those barriers, and then designed some ways to tackle those barriers to achieve the kinds of school that we envision. (More here.)
Participants included students, teachers, administrators, superintendents, parents, trustees, MTS staff, MSIP (Manitoba Schools for Improvement) staff, and curriculum support teachers. I enjoyed the conversations and multiple perspectives. Clearly, at the end of the day, there wasn’t going to be some great here’s-how-to-do-it plan to make change happen. What is clear though, is that we have to involve many different voices. And that’s where it gets interesting.
We all come at “school” with different notions of what learning is. We have different perspectives on what we value as important. The cliques and clubs and communities and tribes and religions and denominations and political affiliations and…that we belong to, show that we tend to group ourselves together with people who think like we do. We end up in the echo chambers of confirmation bias as Grant Wiggins recently wrote.
I belong to many different groups, virtual and in person, with people who share some of my views. It roots me. But I also know that roots connect and share with other roots, giving and taking nutrients for mutual survival. The groups I belong to are nodes in the network. I must connect with others, be willing to listen, to consider others’ ideas, to understand and yes, to change my previously held views.
One way to bring about change is to be curious. Ask others not only what they think, but why. This can be threatening, but only if one expects to have a conversation and not be changed by it.
If exchanging ideas with others doesn’t alter or evolve you or have you at least reconsider your position, then perhaps you were engaged in monologuing rather than dialoguing.
Change requires risk and uncertainty and a view of failure as growth.
To disentangle the good and the bad parts of failure, we have to recognize both the reality of the pain and the benefit of the resulting growth. Ed Catmull
I furthered my discussions of education last Thursday when I attended my first EdCamp. An edcamp is a user-generated unconference, where participants decide both the content of what they would like to share and what they would like to learn more about. The morning starts with a sharing of potential topics, which are then grouped into sessions. One is free to leave a session and move to another one or to join with one or more others to explore another topic. There are some natural organizing principles at work here.
As this was an education leaders edcamp, the space was populated with individuals whose roles were to assist teachers with their practice. While there were good exchanges of valuable ideas for how to work with teachers and principals in planning and organizing professional development, there was much echoing.
The best part of the day was the after-lunch “things that suck” session. One of the organizers, Darren Kuropatwa, posted topics such as grades, textbooks, BYOD, report cards while participants moved to the “it sucks” or “it’s awesome” side of the room and then stated why they supported their view as a 5 minute timer ticked down. Interestingly, many stayed in the middle. Context matters. Repeatedly after sharing positions, the conclusion was that it was “the user” that made something suck or be awesome. One brave soul, Rennie, often took on the role of the single opposing voice to the crowd, which was a valuable role.
So at the end of the week, it looks like it’s both the what and the who that’s standing in the way of change. The who, is me, and I can’t use the barriers as an excuse not to do what I can to create change.
For more information and to get involved in CEA’s ongoing What’s standing in the way of change in education? national conversation, please visit http://standingintheway.ca and follow @cea_ace and #CanEdChange on Twitter.
Dr. Steve Masson, Co-Winner of the 2013 Pat Clifford Award for Early Career Research in Education. (Bilingual video)
What’s standing in the way of change in education? It might be the physical space of schooling.