The Alberta Teachers’ Association

In addition to winters that last up to seven months, Alberta and Finland now have something else in common.

An international partnership initiated  by the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) that involves educators in Alberta and Finland was launched at the ATA’s Invitational Symposium on Educational Futures—International Perspectives on Innovation from the Inside Out, held in Edmonton on March 18 and 19. 

The symposium featured an international panel of experts responding to the symposium’s theme question: What makes a great school? Panel participants were Jorma Kauppinen, director, Finnish National Board of Education; Fern Snart, dean, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta; and Dennis Shirley, Boston College, Lynch School of Education.

Symposium moderator Stephen Murgatroyd told the more than 280 symposium participants that research shows that significant educational development flows not from external system-level reform and bureaucrat mandates but from schools working together to encourage innovation. “The school, not the system, is the locus of control in shaping ­educational development,” ­Murgatroyd said.

The two days of presentations and roundtable discussions saw Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley, coauthors of The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change, debate the importance of creating networks among schools that share similar opportunities and challenges. These schools support mindful teaching that emphasizes process over content and passion over compliance. On personalized learning and 21st-century skills, Hargreaves and Shirley argued that public education and the ideals of personalization should focus on developing the gifts and talents of young people and showing how these talents foster community and democracy. Yong Zhao, presidential chair and associate dean for global education, College of Education, University of Oregon, said that today, more than ever, teachers must help students identify and build on their unique talents and abilities, rather than pushing them toward achieving on standardized tests.

Learning from the strengths of Finnish and Alberta schools was the message conveyed by Sakari Karjalainen, director general, Department of Education and ­Science Policy, Ministry of Education and Culture Finland, who headed the 13-member Finnish delegation attending the ­symposium.

Karjalainen said the success of Finland’s education system lies with that country’s focus on developing competence at the school level and creating conditions of teaching practice that enhance professional responsibility and ability. He reported seeing similar teaching and learning ­conditions in Alberta. Karjalainen and ­officials from Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, the Finnish National Board of Education and principals from schools across Finland visited five schools in Edmonton, Calgary, Grande Prairie and the Crowsnest Pass.

Pasi Sahlberg, director of Finland’s Centre for International Mobility, gave the global education reform movement, which he referred to by its acronym GERM, a thumbs down and called for schools and communities to explore global partnerships that spread what we “know to be the best of the best ways to help students learn.”

ATA President Carol Henderson, commenting on the symposium and the Finland-Alberta partnership, said, “High-performing jurisdictions, like Finland and Alberta, have much to learn from each other’s strengths. The international partnership will help our students succeed.” The partnership has won the support of Education Minister Dave Hancock, who joined Henderson in extending the formal invitation to Finland’s Ministry of Education and Science and to Finland’s teachers’ organization to build on the partnership. 

Henderson commented that it’s time to look beyond the United States, whose education policy emphasizes all the wrong things: standardized testing, ranking schools and merit pay for teachers. She added, “We can and will do better as we support international partnerships with jurisdictions that encourage school development based on proven evidence and a commitment to public education.”