If B.C.’s education minister wants to improve professional growth among teachers, he should adopt the Burnaby school district’s model instead of turning to legislation, according to a local teacher.
Burnaby North science teacher Donna Morgan wrote a letter to the NOWlast week, saying she was “affronted” by Bill 11– a proposed amendment to the Teachers Act that would give the ministry power to set professional standards for teachers.
The veteran educator, who has worked in the district for 25 years, said the move casts doubt on existing professional development and the use teachers currently make of their Pro-D days.
“The way this is framed is that there’s some need to control [professional development] because we’re all off getting massages or something during those days,” Morgan said in an interview. “It really couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Morgan said the majority of teachers put much more into professional growth than the five mandated Pro-D days: buying books, taking online course and attending conferences – often on their own dime.
There may be slackers, but Morgan said the Burnaby district has a good process in place to keep them accountable.
Every November, teachers are required to give their school administrators a professional growth plan that outlines how they aim to improve their teaching over the coming year.
“How we do it is that the teacher, himself or herself, gets to determine the direction they want this growth to go,” Morgan said. “We all will do the growth, but what exactly it is will depend on what we teach and who we teach and where we teach.”
For Morgan, the key is collaboration – something she says is missing in the province’s approach.
“Burnaby has been a model for years of how to do it in a collaborative fashion,” she said. “And I just think this government is doing things in a conflict-developing kind of way. Every time they make an announcement, instead of making us feel better as teachers, that we want to go on and do a great job educating British Columbia’s students, it develops conflict and bad feelings, and I don’t think it has to be that way.”
Bill 11 was introduced Thursday, with Education Minister Peter Fassbender saying it was time to put teachers on the same footing as lawyers, accountants and nurses, whose professions have detailed standards for ongoing learning.
There are currently no detailed requirements for certified teachers to maintain currency of practice, and the proposed legislation would give the minister the authority to “establish a more robust framework” for professional development.
B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker, meanwhile, said the biggest problem facing public education is underfunding and called the proposed legislation a diversion.
Burnaby Teachers’ Association president Rae Figursky echoed his sentiments.
“If government concern is really about improving public education, the funding cuts announced in February would be reversed,” she told the NOW. “…Mandating the constant professional development already done by teachers does not improve anything.”
