Alberta And Its Place In Global Education
There is a global drive toward a central, elite-controlled education program that is progressive, constructivist and communitarian in worldview. Many signs point not only to co-ordination but acceleration.
When the Edmonton Model of education choice hit the Economics textbooks that was a signal. Alberta academic scores were consistently the highest in the nation. The tall poppy had to be cut down — and it was.
To show a correlation AND causation — Education Choice = Raised Performance — that’s bad news!
Now we read that social media, including the Australian Guardian (a decidedly left media) are paying attention to the Alberta Teacher Association’s recent motion to persuade the provincial government to drop participation in international education testing (PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS). The main reason given is that they are “distorting the education reform agenda”.
The first clue I had that something “global” was being imported into Canada was at a parent meeting with a BC Ministry of Education official. We were told about “deeper learning”, “emotional competencies”, “collaboration”, etc. We were given the impression that wide consultation had already been done and that this was unstoppable. We were a month away from the May 2013 election and were informed that “Regardless of the political party that gets in, the plan goes ahead. It’s global transformation!”
In January of 2015 BC held a forum for invited guests with a number of international speakers. This is what David Albury, a leading coordinator with Global Education Leadership Program (GELP UK) said on video: “This is a pivotal moment for BC . . . if we can continue to work together in this way we can build on how far we’ve got and really accelerate and sustain this — we’ll achieve what nobody else has yet achieved and that is to transform the system across the whole province… to enable all young people to have the skills and knowledge to be successful in the 21st Century.”
A very recent Podcast by Rod Allen, Superintendent of Cowichan School District (BC), said to be a leading architect of BC’s new curriculum had a lot to say about the process. He mentions names of international influencers over the last 6 years who have travelled in. He talks about “reframing the journey . . . not your typical implementation cycle” and about the “reculturing process” to the point where “it’s a rethinking of the DNA of learning” and how “we built our social license”.
We have Rick Hess, a senior education analyst with the American Enterprise Institute in his article — Making Sense of the Left-Right School Reform Divide — saying that “90% of ‘school reform’” is progressive and pleads for wider and more fair involvement.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2016/06/making_sense_of_left-right_school_reform_divide.html
He linked a story by Robert Pondiscio which showed the left’s drive to push conservatives out of education reform. https://edexcellence.net/articles/the-lefts-drive-to-push-conservatives-out-of-education-reform [Interesting to see this note at the end of the essay — Editor’s Note: Comment have been turned off for this essay because they were getting unnecessarily acrimonious and threatening. ]
What I’m trying to point out is the concerted takeover of education narrative, planning and even practice by a constituency which is not representative of the general public. Hess says the split is at least 50/50 between progressives and conservatives in education. His American view parallels Canada’s position, IMO.
[SQE 20160721 http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/index.php/blog/read/alberta-educators-have-had-their-hands-in-the-cookie-pot-but-want-to-hide-t ]