The Alberta Teachers’ Association

First Executive of Newly-Formed Canadian Teachers’ Federation
This organization, which was brought into being in Calgary on Monday [July 27, 1920], represents 14,000 Canadian school teachers. Reading from left to right (standing), the members of the first executive are T.E.A. Stanley, Calgary; G.B. Stillwell, Moose Jaw; J.G. Lister, Vancouver; H.C. Newland, Edmonton; C.F. Fraser, Toronto, and Charles E. Peasley, Medicine Hat. Sitting: W.H. Huntley (vice-president), Winnipeg; Miss Arbuthnot (secretary-treasurer), Toronto; Harry Charlesworth (president), Victoria; Miss J.V. Miners, Saskatoon, and J.W. Barnett, Edmonton.
Calgary Daily Herald, Tuesday, July 27, 1920
—Archives of the Alberta Teachers’ Association

 

Building and Advancing the Profession and the Association

In January 2014, I begin my twelfth year as the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s seventh executive secretary (also sometimes known as general secretary—the chief executive officer of the teachers’ organization). Every day, I think of the important work of John Walker Barnett, the first executive secretary (or general secretary-treasurer, as the position was first known). Barnett held the position from the inception of the organization in 1918 (it was initially a part-time job) and full-time from 1920 until his retirement in 1946. So many things we take for granted today were achieved through the insistence and skill of John Barnett. He built the teaching profession in our province and was the architect of our organization.

With experience as a local president in the National Union of Teachers in the United Kingdom, Barnett came to Alberta in 1911, teaching high school commercial subjects at Strathcona High School before his appointment as supervisor of music in Edmonton Public. Barnett and other Edmonton and Calgary teachers were aware that organizations focused on the interests of members of the teaching profession were springing up across the country. A small group, including Barnett, managed to hijack the 1917 meeting of the Alberta Education Association (AEA) to pass three resolutions that set the stage for the formation of the Alberta Teachers’ Alliance, the forerunner to the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

Teachers wanted a teachers’ organization, not a general educational structure dominated by the inspector and other officials from the department of education. The AEA also forked over some funding for the fledgling organization. The president and vice-president were authorized to select a general secretary-treasurer of the new organization and they convinced Barnett to take it on.

The first annual general meeting of the Alberta Teachers’ Alliance was held as a session at the April 2, 1918, meeting of the Alberta Education Association, and the fundamental structure of the organization was established. There would be a structure of “local alliances” (local associations today) that would elect delegates to the annual meeting and play a pivotal role in local communities. The president and vice-president would be elected on a vote of all members.  There would be the establishment of geographic districts, with representatives elected to the provincial executive from regions across Alberta. The annual general meeting would be the organization’s “parliament” and the executive council would manage the affairs of the organization through the year. This core structure remains intact today, and it was developed and proposed by Barnett. The first AGM also focused on professional and union functions, along with advocacy. A constitution of the Alliance was approved (including qualifications required for membership), and its executive council was to meet with the education minister to seek a standard teachers’ contract of employment, employment security and a pension scheme for teachers; in addition, a process was established to develop a code of professional conduct for approval at the second AGM.

From its inception, the Alberta Teachers’ Alliance, through Barnett, called for automatic membership, higher standards for teacher certification, additional funding for schools and larger units of administration, a pension scheme for teachers and the transfer of teacher preparation from normal schools to the university setting. By 1921, the Alberta legislature passed a minimum salary rate for teachers (then $840 a year; the Alliance sought $1,200). The 1920s included major efforts to improve salary rates and also security of tenure. In 1926, after many efforts, Barnett convinced the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) government to establish a board of reference, structured to make decisions in disputes between teachers and school boards. However, the board of reference could not enforce its decisions. This power, and more, was granted in 1934—the board of reference would consist of district court judges and a school board could not fill a disputed position until the board of reference’s finding had been relayed to the parties in the dispute. This was hard won, and although it did not achieve the Alliance’s goal for security of tenure, it was a huge step forward and Barnett had been a key advocate. The following year, the government stripped the authority of the board of reference to enforce its decisions, outraging teachers. The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) took advantage of that, too, and dismissed all teachers, obligating them to reapply in writing for a position with lower salary rates. One of the teachers fired by CBE was the principal of Crescent Heights High School, William Aberhart, who in a few short months became Alberta’s new premier.

It was a full court press on Premier Aberhart, who also served as minister of education, and Barnett was relentless. In the dying days of the UFA administration, the government introduced the Teaching Profession Act, establishing the Alberta Teachers’ Association (a new name for the Alliance, but the same well-recognized initials), recognizing the Association as the voice of the teaching profession and establishing both union and professional objects. This in itself was a remarkable accomplishment, but the UFA was not prepared to make membership in the Association automatic upon accepting a teaching position. Aberhart told Barnett he would do so, but wanted proof that Alberta’s teachers wanted to belong to the organization. A vote was held across the province and 96 per cent of teachers wanted automatic membership. Not only did Aberhart amend the Teaching Profession Act in 1936 to provide for automatic membership, he also rewrote the legislation to allow the department of education to deduct membership fees from school board grants and remit the fees directly to the Association, requiring boards to recover the fees from teachers. With professional status and legislated objects, the Association now had the ability to address professional ethics and work began to protect the public interest and ensure high conduct standards. Barnett no longer had to travel the province every fall to rebuild the organization from the ground up, once again selling professional solidarity and collecting membership fees.

The period following the election of the Aberhart government was a particularly important time for the Association. With Aberhart as premier and minister of education and a cabinet that included a significant number of teachers, progress was made on some important initiatives. As already noted, automatic membership was implemented in 1936. The Social Credit government, following Barnett’s advocacy, required school boards to offer teachers contracts of employment.  The binding authority of the Board of Reference was restored. In addition, legislation was amended to allow teachers security of tenure in 1937. Barnett worked long and hard on this goal and its implementation may also have been the product of Aberhart’s treatment by the Calgary Board of Education in 1935. Barnett supported the government’s initiative to consolidate school districts, which provided new opportunities for teacher advancement and mobility. In 1939, Aberhart announced a pension scheme for teachers (the last jurisdiction in the British Commonwealth to do so), but it was basic and efforts continued to improve the plan so it would be on par with other plans. (In 1948, the Manning government announced pension plan improvements that were based on Barnett’s efforts.)

From its inception, the Association sought the closure of Alberta’s normal schools and the transfer of teacher preparation to the university setting. Barnett’s leadership on this was important and was assisted by the election of M.E. LaZerte, director of the School of Education, University of Alberta, to the presidency of the Association. The principal of the Calgary Normal School, Clarence Sansom, served as vice-president with LaZerte (and completed his term as president as the Second World War came to a close). Through the efforts of Barnett, LaZerte and others, the first faculty of education in Canada was established at the University of Alberta in 1942 (LaZerte was named dean). Beginning in 1943, normal schools transferred their teacher preparation programs to the University of Alberta. Teacher preparation stood side by side with preparation programs for other learned professions.

Collective bargaining also continued to take shape. The first teacher strike took place in 1942 in Mundare when a school board refused to accept an arbitration award and announced that it intended to implement a lower salary scale in the fall. Teachers commenced strike action and after three days the board accepted the arbitration award unconditionally. A much more serious strike in Vegreville in the fall of 1942 was not resolved until early 1943, and provided further proof of the need to consolidate labour legislation and clarify bargaining protocols. Led by Barnett, the consolidation was completed shortly after his retirement. It should also be noted that Barnett helped to establish the Association’s first strike fund, which guaranteed teachers the full income of their settlement, funded by a voluntary contribution of $1 per month for the period of the strike and one month beyond. Vegreville teachers were fully compensated through this fund for their 33-day strike, and the pattern of member solidarity was thoroughly established.

Teachers’ conventions were effectively a structure of the department of education, with a few speakers brought in to provide suggestions to improve practice, but were really an opportunity for the inspector to meet with teachers in each region of the province. Increasingly, teachers wanted more control of these meetings and a protocol was established between the Association and the government in the early 1940s, allowing the Association to plan and deliver teachers’ conventions as long as department officials could have access to the meetings. Again, it was Barnett who led the way.

Barnett’s work graced the national stage, too. He was instrumental in the formation of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF). At its inaugural meeting in Calgary in 1920, Barnett took on the additional work of serving as CTF secretary-general.

The list of Barnett’s achievements is long: improved economic welfare, security of tenure, contracts of employment, the board of reference, closure of the normal schools and the development of university teacher preparation, collective bargaining rights (including the right to strike), automatic membership, consolidation of school districts, higher standards for the teaching profession, improved teacher preparation programs, professional discipline, a pension scheme, control of teachers’ conventions, effective teacher governance locally and provincially, and a national teachers’ organization. The economic welfare and the professional status of today’s teachers owe much to John Walker Barnett. Literally, he built the Alberta Teachers’ Association. For almost three decades, he worked for teachers day and night.

The University of Alberta named Barnett to receive an honourary doctorate, but he died before the degree was awarded in 1947. In his tribute to Barnett, University Chancellor Fred McNally (who served as deputy minister of education, 1935–1946, and worked closely with Barnett), referred to Barnett “as an able teacher, as a man of great courage and singleness of purpose, as a fearless fighter, as a champion of the weak and defenceless, as a matchless leader and as a gallant and upright gentleman” (citation, University of Alberta fall convocation, October 18, 1947).

We are in his debt.

Dr. Gordon Thomas is the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s seventh executive secretary.