The Alberta Teachers’ Association

J.-C. Couture

An Alberta Teachers’ Association survey found that only 25.8 per cent of Alberta’s teachers saw themselves in the same teaching position and in the same school in five years’ time, and 25.1 per cent said they planned to retire by 2011. Further, 10 per cent of respondents anticipated moving to another occupation by 2012, and 20.3 per cent saw themselves in a different school within five years’ time. Only 55 per cent indicated that they would still be teaching in 2013.

While the survey’s findings point to the growing uncertainty of what it means to be a teacher in Alberta, the uncertainties facing substitute teachers are even more pronounced. Like substitute teachers across Canada, this province’s substitute teachers work in increasingly uncertain situations that are characterized by informal arrangements and loosely defined access to benefits and professional development opportunities.

To address some of these growing concerns, in the fall of 2008, the Association, with the assistance of two University of Alberta researchers, conducted an online survey to assess the current teaching and learning conditions of substitute teachers in Alberta and to solicit suggestions on how those conditions might be improved. A total of 560 substitute teachers responded to the survey.

With respect to demographics, 75.4 per cent of the respondents were female, and respondents tended toward the older end of the age spectrum: 38 per cent were 55 years of age or older, compared with the 25 per cent who were 35 or younger. About 37 per cent of respondents were seeking full-time teaching positions. Respondents tended to be generalists: 48 per cent reported teaching all grades or a combination of grades, while 35 per cent worked mainly in elementary schools, 7 per cent worked mainly in junior high and 8 per cent worked mainly in senior high.

Although substitute teachers are a diverse group and bring a wide range of experiences, needs and expectations to their work, most match one of three basic profiles. The first consists of young, beginning teachers whose goal is to obtain a permanent position and who are substitute teaching to gain experience and to become better known to the school board. The second consists of somewhat older teachers who, to supplement their family income, are returning to the profession after having taken a number of years off, typically to raise a family. They may or may not be seeking a permanent position. The third consists of retired teachers who are substituting partly to supplement their pension but also to stay active in the profession.

Most respondents reported that they found their work generally satisfying and that they enjoyed positive relationships with students. However, respondents’ career stage and their life circumstances tended to affect the degree to which they derived satisfaction from substitute teaching. Teachers with 20 or more years of teaching experience, for example, reported deriving more satisfaction from substitute teaching than did their younger counterparts. Likewise, respondents who were substituting out of choice rather than economic necessity tended to derive more satisfaction from the job than those for whom substitute teaching was the sole source of family income.

Although working conditions for substitute teachers vary markedly from board to board and from school to school, the following issues were raised by a substantial number of respondents.

1. Income

• Most respondents believe that they should be paid according to the grid after having worked two days. On average, substitute teachers do not receive grid status until they have worked at least three days. Some boards require teachers to work five days.

• Many respondents reported that their board does not sufficiently recognize their teaching experience for salary purposes.

• Income from substitute teaching tends to be unstable. Although school boards demand that substitute teachers be available, they do not guarantee them work.

2. Benefits

• Only 38 per cent of respondents receive medical and dental benefits. Many of those who receive such benefits want them improved or made more affordable.

• Most substitute teachers have no disability coverage in the event that they are injured.

• Substitute teachers rarely enjoy such other benefits as paid professional development days, sick days and holidays.

• Some substitutes believe that they should be compensated for expenses unique to their employment, such as travel time, mileage and cellphone fees.

3. Pension

• Substitute teachers would like their day-to-day teaching to qualify as pensionable service.

• Retired teachers would like to see either removed or extended the 111-day limit on the amount of service they can provide before their pension is reduced.

4. Relations with the school board

• Substitute teachers sometimes receive inaccurate information about the nature of teaching assignments. In some cases, the problem is with the automated systems that boards use to notify substitute teachers. In others cases, school staff call substitutes directly and provide incomplete or inaccurate information.

• Board hiring practices are not always perceived as fair. Some respondents believe that boards give a disproportionate number of the longer, grid-based assignments to retired teachers rather than to younger teachers. Others believe that boards tend to stigmatize certain teachers as substitutes and, as a result, refuse to consider them for permanent employment. Still others believe that, to save money, boards prefer to give assignments to new graduates rather than to teachers with more experience.

• In some cases, substitute teachers have difficulty maximizing their hours because they are given unrealistic back-to-back assignments (such as a morning assignment at one school and an afternoon assignment at another school a considerable distance from the first).

The study concluded that there is no better indicator of the quality of work life in an Alberta school jurisdiction than how it treats and assists its substitute teachers.

The final report, The Experience of Substitute Teaching in Alberta Schools, will be available this spring as part of the ATA Research Update series.

J.-C. Couture is an ATA executive staff officer in the Government program area.