The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Launched in March 2015, the Norway-Canadian (NORCAN) partnership brings together school teams in Norway, Ontario and Alberta to examine questions such as what does it mean to be good at math, is there such a thing as natural ability in math or, for a student, what does it mean to ask for help? The project involves principals, teachers and students working side by side to engage in these and other questions.

Eye-Opening Experience

Spending time in Norwegian schools offers an Alberta teacher a stark dose of a new reality about what we mean by conditions of practice. Full-time teachers in Norway teach about half the instructional load that we do in Alberta, with the rest of their time used for collaboration. Classes were smaller than classes in Alberta, and the teachers I met seemed content and healthy.

But Norway is not a nirvana built on oil money. I was reminded that teachers there had to go on strike a few years ago to maintain control of their professional time — pushing back government efforts to have them report to local school authorities what they were doing with their professional development time. Nor are Norwegian schools funded by the roller-coaster revenues of off-shore oil. As many know, until this past year their Sovereign Fund (now $810 billion U.S.) was not seen as a cash machine to fund public services. Instead, Norwegians, like many Nordic citizens, see public spending on health care and education not as an expense but as an investment.
—John Scammell is the president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s Mathematics Council.

Getting Engaged In Math

Every year we have Spirit Day at our school. The math leadership team is planning to help with an activity during the schoolwide event. The team will also be planning Pi Day this year and using what was learned from last year’s event to improve math awareness in the school. The students will also be working on peer tutoring this year to help others become re-engaged in their math studies. We also had a meeting with the teachers in our partner school and we are working on a project where the students from the math leadership team will be going into the junior high classrooms to teach math skills to the classes.

I am hoping to be involved in some of the projects that others were talking about at the gathering in Ontario and encouraging the students to make contact with the people they met at the last NORCAN gathering.
—Benita Greenwood, mathematics teacher, Westwind Community High School, Fort McMurray

Fulfilling Our Sacred Trust By Crossing Boundaries

Mathematics teachers at Olds High School have enjoyed enlightening discussions during our newly implemented Mathematicians’ Breakfast meetings (modelled on Simon Goodchild’s Mathematicians’ Lunches). The focus of our initial breakfast meetings was the NORCAN project development. We have chosen to talk only about math, what’s new in development, best practices that we can share with each other, NORCAN project ideas and wonderings. Wonderings … that is what we have rediscovered in our teaching and learning.

As mathematics teachers we have discovered value in our breakfast meetings because, unlike larger urban high schools, we do not have department heads, curriculum co-ordinators or common lunch times to meet and plan. With apologies to our vegan colleagues, when we ask ourselves at the breakfast meetings, “Where’s the bacon?” the answer is, “We are it, in the frying pan.” But isn’t that what all good teachers do—their best for their communities and immediate circumstances but always looking for ways to reach beyond the immediacy of what we can do to figure out news ways of doing what we should?

We are reminded by Dennis Shirley, a researcher with NORCAN, that the real work of teacher leadership is to move past the perniciousness of the present to embrace our shared vulnerabilities and aspire to a future where all students will do and be well in their schools and communities.

As we move forward with NORCAN, we would like to explore and implement what other schools in the project are doing to connect students to mathematics and the goal of equity. It truly is inspirational to witness the promising practices that emerge when ten schools from three educational governance bodies get together.
—Tom Christensen, principal; Kent Lorenz, vice-principal; Angie Dezall, math teacher, Olds High School

Eager And Purposeful

We are building a very strong connection and sense of purpose with our Molde friends in Norway. Both teams have indicated that our face-to-face meeting was very timely; we both share an eagerness to get started with a specific purpose. We have begun to truly appreciate one another as co-learners, and feel confident that, if we communicate regularly face-to-face via technology, that we can work through any challenges that present themselves.
—Leanne Oliver, Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic Secondary School, Oshawa, Ont.

Teachers Leading Change

Some years ago, when the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) undertook a campaign to attract mathematics and science majors to the teaching profession, we landed on the image of a match being lit and the accompanying slogan, “Be the spark; be a teacher!”

As I contemplate the impact of the NORCAN project to date, I am reminded of this same idea, this image teachers carry with us of a light going off in the eyes of our students as a new understanding forms in their minds. Except in this case, it is the teachers whose eyes are lighting up! Through our partnership with ATA and the Union of Education Norway (Utdanningsforbundet), two schools in Ontario are collaborating across jurisdictions, investigating diverse approaches to improving student learning in mathematics, and simultaneously developing teacher, principal and student leadership in their respective schools.

The spread of innovative ideas in this context has been absolutely astounding. We have several times observed practices that have been implemented in one jurisdiction being shared, explored, modified and then tried out in schools in other jurisdictions. The boundaries of common teaching practices have been pushed, and space made for entirely new approaches for attaining student success in math. The excitement among the NORCAN participants is both palpable and contagious, as they capture their work in blogs and other reflective pieces, posted to www.norcan.ning.com. NORCAN epitomizes mindful teaching and mindful learning at their best!

The reflections of two of our NORCAN teachers are worth exploring further. I encourage teachers to follow the link to the NORCAN site.
—Lindy Amato, Ontario Teachers’ Federation, member of NORCAN steering committee.

Ongoing Learning

Reflecting on our first week working with our Norwegian schools, I have realized that our learning is ongoing and will never stop unless we allow it to. The six weeks of planning meetings prior to welcoming the group to Tecumseh Vista Academy in the fall of 2015 really distracted me from the great work that is happening throughout this project. Coming together with teams across the project, it is clear that we are all making steps in the right direction towards creating an equitable experience for all students in mathematics.
—Kyle Pearce, secondary math department head, Tecumseh Vista Academy, Tecumseh, Ont.

Learner-Centred

What has been deeply moving about the project to date is witnessing how the students are leading us in the creation of an inclusive learning space and how all partners in the learning process (students, educators, parents and school community) are so open to listening to and learning from each other.

An example of the reciprocal learning that has been the hallmark of NORCAN is the powerful expression of student voice and agency in this brief video created by a team of NORCAN students at the conclusion of their visit to Ontario: http://norcan.ning.com/blog/voice.

We are deeply grateful to our Ontario schools (Tecumseh Vista Academy and Monsignor John Pereyma) for their willingness to “learn out loud” as we continue our NORCAN journey.
—Jim Strachan and Nick Zacharopoulos, Teaching Policy and Standards Branch, Ontario Ministry of Education

Norwegian Reflections

Currently there is an increased emphasis on the importance of a strong teaching profession in education policy and research in Norway. Being the largest union of teachers and educators in Norway, the Union of Education Norway (UEN) has consistently argued for the teaching professions’ ownership of its knowledge base and involvement by the profession in research and development in education. The Norway Canada Partnership (NORCAN) involving Norway, Alberta and Ontario is one of our strategic approaches to achieving this goal. The NORCAN partnership can be seen as a counterbalance to a top-down lead development of teaching practices in schools, as the initiative to the development of professional work is anchored within the teaching profession itself.

As we now are in the second year of the project, we already see a rich diversity of learning, at different levels, through networks of schools in Norway and Canada. A main strength of the partnership is the support and involvement of students, teachers and school leaders working towards common goals focused on equity in mathematics. In particular, including the student voice when discussing school and subject development has added a lot of learning and engagement to the partnership. As one of the Norwegian teachers commented: “We can learn together with the students, rather than just teaching them.” It has also been valuable to have access to such a large professional community, across national boundaries, to discuss mathematics and the challenges and opportunities we are facing today.
—Roar Grøttvik, Harald Skulberg and Bjørg Eva Aaslid, senior officials, Union of Education Norway. Mona Røsseland, fellow, department of mathematical sciences, University of Agder, Norway