The Alberta Teachers’ Association

They’re coming after principals next. With Bill 15 now passed in the legislature, we should expect that the next attack on the profession will relate to removing principals from the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

One only needs to look at the experience in British Columbia and Ontario to see how this will likely play out.

In British Columbia, the year was 1987. The Social Credit government introduced two bills simultaneously. One bill established the B.C. College of Teachers, which would take over the professional functions of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF). The other bill removed principals and vice-principals from collective bargaining units and made them part of the management structures in schools.

Notably, the college was eventually dismantled as it failed to gain the respect and confidence of teachers, and in 2011, it was replaced by a commissioner model — the model chosen by the UCP to replicate in Alberta.

In 1988, the specialist council established under the BCTF to support administrators split off and became the autonomous B.C. Principals and Vice-Principals Association. From this point forward, teachers and principals were no longer seen as colleagues and the relationship between them was forever altered.

Brett Cooper, assistant superintendent for human resources in Pembina Hills School Division and a former BC principal, described the effect of that in a recent article.

“In this environment of ‘unions’ and ‘management,’ it was very difficult to build true collaboration and collegiality — not impossible, but there were distinct barriers,” writes Cooper in a recent ATA News article. “It does not create a culture of school improvement for students, and effecting real change in student learning becomes a significant challenge when ‘two sides’ are represented in the school.”

In Ontario, the moves were part of the so-called Common Sense Revolution, advanced by Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris in the 1990s. In 1996, the government established the Ontario College of Teachers, which removed the professional regulatory functions from the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (an umbrella organization established by the five separate teacher unions in Ontario).

The next year, principals were removed. In 1997, the government established the Ontario Principals’ Council, and principals were prohibited from belonging to a union and from collective bargaining.

Sam Hammond, former president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said these moves would “change the landscape of education in Ontario for decades.”

“Ontario’s publicly funded public education system has faced an uphill battle ever since, in search of common sense.”

This issue is very much alive in the mind of the premier here and now in Alberta.

When asked during the election campaign of 2019, the premier explicitly said he would not split the ATA. He said they tried it in B.C. and it didn’t work. Knowing full well that it didn’t work in B.C., he chose that option for regulating the teaching profession anyway. But when it came to removing principals, Kenney said “That is certainly something we’d be open to.”

“As far as I’m concerned, principals are management, and it seems to me they have responsibility to manage the teachers and to manage human resources in their schools,” he said. “So, to be part of the same union of the people they are managing does seem to be a conflict of interest.”

Kenney figured himself to be an expert on the topic.

“My dad was a principal, and so I think I know something about the importance of that role and I am concerned there is a conflict in that work,” he said.

What Kenney clearly is not an expert in is the concepts of collegiality and collaboration.

We must not allow this next step to happen. To do that we must be vigilant, and we must get ready for this challenge, now. ❚

I welcome your comments. Contact me at jonathan.teghtmeyer@ata.ab.ca.