The Alberta Teachers’ Association

J-C Couture

We are the ones we have been waiting for.
—Hopi Indian saying

This theme issue of The ATA Magazine focuses on how Alberta teachers have developed a culture of professional inquiry that uses teacher research to improve teaching practice and student learning.

Andy Hargreaves (2003, 10) says that teachers exist in a paradoxical position between the promise of living in the knowledge economy on the one hand and the stark realities of underfunded schools, and the tendency of policy makers on the other to default to “standardized solutions” to address complex educational issues (p. 10). Hargreaves points to the key role of teacher inquiry and research in determining whether or not professional learning communities will become a reality or an empty slogan in Alberta schools. He goes on to emphasize the importance of collaborative inquiry to build capacity in a system that attempts to diminish professional efficacy.

We need to trust in the capacity of teachers to respond to students’ learning needs. Unfortunately, a major issue facing our society is the collapse of the public’s trust in institutions. As communities grow, we’ve replaced community accountability through a shared culture—the things we believe we agree upon—with contracts defined and imposed by outsiders. Trust has been replaced with written performance standards, standardized tests, managerial supervision, and government requirements and legislation (p. 50).

Give Our Schools Back to Our Teachers

Stephen Murgatroyd (2006), a keen observer of the Alberta education scene and an internationally recognized policy analyst, writes:

We can all agree that education is one of the keys to the future of Alberta. We need to secure higher high school graduation rates, more high school students going into postsecondary, more postsecondary completions and affordable access for university, polytechnic and college education. We need to make sure that we educate for the key competencies we need for the economy—creativity, flexibility and risk taking . . .

Trust teachers. Our teachers are highly skilled professionals, many of them with master’s degrees and a great deal of teaching experience. They know how to stimulate, encourage, mentor, coach, guide and teach learners. Let them design the learning challenges for learners, create strong links with the community and engage them in the work of the school. Put the teachers back in charge of learning in their own schools. (A14)

While society calls for economic competitiveness, creativity and ingenuity, governments have pushed an education policy agenda that emphasizes top-down solutions focused on standardization and narrowly defined outcomes. The result is predictable—a disconnection between what is measured and what is valued in the system.

In 2006, Hargreaves collaborated with Dean Fink and published Sustainable Leadership, in which teachers delineate a framework of seven principles for sustainable leadership: promote teacher inquiry and research, depth, endurance, breadth, justice, resourcefulness, diversity and conservation. In the pages that follow, we will see how these principles play out in the professional inquiry and research carried out by Alberta teachers as they work to foster a culture of ingenuity in schools.

The Role of Teacher Organizations in Supporting Teacher Research

Professional commitment to public education and rigorous standards of professional practice require teachers and their organizations to take the lead in generating and disseminating knowledge.

Teacher organizations across Canada have increasingly used collaborative inquiry and research to build the capacity of the profession to respond to the growing complexity of classrooms and school communities. Naylor (2005) has been a leader in advancing the possibilities for teacher research and has helped to position the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation as a leader in this respect. His leadership on a variety of collaborative projects with universities and school jurisdiction partnerships has included projects focused on special education and parent partnerships. The Ontario Elementary Teachers’ Federation is another leader advocating teacher inquiry through its numerous programs and publications, including Teaching for Deep Understanding: Towards the Ontario Curriculum We Need, a collaboration with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (Leithwood et al 2004).

In Alberta, the Alberta Teachers' Association’s (ATA) commitment to creating and disseminating educational research is shown in the organization’s support for the ATA library, the funding initiatives of graduate scholarships and large-scale studies related to provincial educational policy. In 2006, the ATA’s specialist councils published 22 journals and 40 newsletters that contributed considerably to the dissemination of practitioner-based research. The ATA’s commitment to teacher inquiry and professional inquiry is evident in the scope of its financial commitment to the professional development of its members and ATA support has resulted in numerous collaborative projects.

Fishing for Male Elementary Teachers

J.C. Charyk School, Hanna, Prairie Land Regional Division No. 25

This project, initiated by teacher Kelly Lewis, involves surveying Grade 11 students, first-year faculty of education students and practicing teachers about their positive and negative impressions of male elementary teachers and obtaining their ideas on how to attract more males to elementary teaching. The study will be supervised by faculty in the master’s of education program at the University of Alberta.

Is Teacher Research Real Research?

Kenneth Zeichner (2006), in his recent studies of teacher research activities in the U.S., concludes that teacher researchers gain a new sense of confidence from conducting research, see themselves as learners and develop closer relationships with their students and colleagues.

The debate over whether the status of teacher professional inquiry and action research refuses to go away for reasons related to power and economic interest (Maxwell 2004; Lincoln and Cannella 2004). In their view, which goes against the growing neo-liberal focus on best practices and narrowly defined limits of what works, teacher research is increasingly marginalized by so-called scientific critiques that have nothing to do with science (Popkewitz 2004, p. 63). Typically, the criticisms levelled against teacher research focus on the lack of scalability (can this be replicated?) and validity (did you consider other factors that may have influenced the outcome?).

As Canadian universities grow increasingly dependent on grants from institutions like the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and provincial governments, a risk exists that the culture of academic capitalism will drive research into forms of knowing that lead to “discourses that marginalize and demonize” less powerful individuals and groups (Lincoln and Cannella 2004, p. 184).

Levin (2003) notes that the reward structures for university researchers is focused not on building capacity in the field and society, but on generating more opportunities for the academic community itself. Across Canada, the result has been the diminishment of less powerful voices to generate and disseminate knowledge amongst professional practitioner groups, such as teachers and nurses. (Naylor, 2004). However, examples abound of the power of teacher research to effect positive change. Consider the Literacy Bag Book, a project funded by the ATA and administered by its Diversity, Equity and Human Rights Committee.

Teachers on Chestermere’s Prairie Waters Elementary School Council noted that parents of English as second language (ESL) students had limited involvement in their children’s education. Teachers asked: How can increasing parental involvement enhance student literary in K–3? The question led to the literacy bag project. Students created 26 literacy bags containing books, materials and instructions written in different languages, that ESL students took home to their parents. Parents became involved in the education of their children and helped to develop relationships with the school and community.

The ATA’s scholarship and awards programs for teacher graduate research demonstrate the power of practitioner research in addressing immediate classroom realities and critiquing and analyzing the political and social contexts of teachers’ practice. The Nadene M. Thomas Graduate Research Bursary is one example of support for this kind of research. Below, bursary winner Henri Regimbald’s research illuminates the context of teachers’ work.

Teacher Working Conditions in Alberta during the Klein Regime

Master of Education, University of Lethbridge, 2002

The research project examined how education reform under Premier Ralph Klein affected teacher workloads and morale. Research showed that educational reform in Alberta was more about balancing budgets and eliminating deficits than improving the quality of education, and that the alleged crisis in public education was artificially created to orchestrate a massive and unprecedented restructuring of public education in Alberta.

Teachers realize that local problems are inextricably connected to larger societal challenges (Kerr and Anderson 2005, p. 67). From early literacy and numeracy development to improving high school completion rates, teacher research is inevitably pulled between traditional patterns of practice and the need to innovate and push frontiers (Schön 1983).

Addressing Complex and Diverse Classrooms

Cecil Swanson Elementary School, Calgary

The following example of an early literacy research project in northeast Calgary underscores the tensions between working within the realities of the classroom and taken-for-granted assumptions of government-mandated programs, such as Grade Level of Achievement (GLA).

The following journal entry by Naleem Mal is from an action research project on the question: Amidst the complexity and diversity of our students, what does it mean to diagnose and respond in ways that honour and enhance the knowledge of teachers and students?

Cecil Swanson Elementary School has high immigrant and ESL populations. Students of Indian, Pakistani, Lebanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Afghani backgrounds all meet in its classrooms. We are a diverse group of teachers with a range of teaching experience but a shared sense of commitment to our students.

Unsure of what this project would entail, I was intrigued when asked to meet with colleagues to discuss ideas and issues surrounding the diversity of our student population. I have always felt strongly that a major goal of public education is to teach children to value and welcome diversity and difference—to honour the principles of democracy.

As we discussed our ideas for the project, we talked about difficulties faced by students due to their “ESLness.” Often, our students are seen as lacking English proficiency, background experience and cultural understanding. Whether it’s GLA, provincial achievement tests or diagnostic assessments, the tests see only where students are deficient and what they can’t do. We need to find ways of teaching, learning and assessing students that honours and respects their unique experiences and ways of knowing.

A core belief that motivates and informs support for collaborative inquiry centres on the belief that teachers create knowledge and use it for purposes that matter for students. In the case of Cecil Swanson Elementary School, professional inquiry focusing on improving student learning outcomes is the highest form of professional accountability, because teachers become accountable to their students.

A corollary of this assumption is that investing in human capacity is crucial. Yet as Herr and Anderson (2005) point out, action research is subjugated knowledge that competes with established institutions, such as universities and departments of education. Teachers like Mal are attempting to be professionally accountable for their practice. Unfortunately, they will likely never receive the funding and resources necessary to critique current government accountability measures such as GLA and a new layer of provincial surveillance of teachers’ work that will receive provincial funding while other priorities go unmet.

The support for collaborative professional inquiry provided in the new social studies curriculum program illustrates once again the influence of teacher research on program development. The Southern Alberta Professional Development Consortium’s ongoing funding of collaborative inquiry projects facilitates the “development/refinement/innovation in implementation of instructional pedagogy and strategies consistent with the core program foundations and intent in the new social studies program” (Interim Report 2006). Twenty-one projects were funded in 2005/06 and the program will continue in the coming year. Teacher research in this context is most successful when facilitated and supported by an external facilitator who keeps the projects focused on the professional inquiry question. Lorna Adrian, the social studies coordinator in Livingstone Range School Division, explains the context of her work.

Teacher as Researcher

Lorna Adrian, Livingstone Range School Division

Teachers possess an innate curiosity. We continuously seek opportunities to foster positive change. We chose our profession to help others and make a difference in the world. As beginning teachers, we are curious, and our curiosity leads us to a deeper understanding of our students as we watch them blossom into confident readers and writers under our careful guidance. As seasoned teachers, we need change to drive our pedagogy as we explore new methods and practices that have a positive influence on student learning. To achieve the changes we desire, we engage in our own form of inquiry, sometimes alone in our classroom and sometimes with like-minded colleagues.

This past year, in Livingstone Range School Division, we took advantage of an opportunity offered by the Southern Alberta Professional Development Consortium to explore the foundations and pedagogy of the new social studies curriculum through collaborative inquiry projects.

Our project began with professional conversations about the new curriculum. One idea led to another and, before we knew it, teachers across the school division became excited about seeing their ideas come to fruition. We used a model of action research to ensure project progress. The project teams met every 35–40 days. At each meeting, we asked three questions to guide our research: What have we done? What did we learn? What will we do before the next meeting?

As in all research, we experienced success and frustration. At the project’s culmination, we experienced the social studies curriculum in greater depth than we ever could have anticipated.

Can storytelling enhance social studies?

This project will allow students in Livingstone Range to tell each other stories about their communities and themselves. They will participate in a pen-pal program using student-led language experiences based on Kellie Buis’s Writing Every Day—Reading, Writing and Conferencing Using Student-Led Language Experiences (2004). Buis comments that “teachers have to understand the value of sharing stories to effectively teach what is important in the language arts curriculum—many have not necessarily known ‘how’ to nurture a story-sharing community.” The project will enhance teachers’ ability to use storytelling to strengthen their writing programs. Participating classes will develop a set of questions to help them learn about another community. A culminating event will see participating classes sharing their stories collected over the year.

The Way the World Could Be

Hillhurst Community School, Calgary, and Westridge Primary School, Zimbabwe

In 2000, Grades 5 and 6 students at Calgary’s Hillhurst Community School, and students attending Westridge Primary School, in Zimbabwe, began exchanging letters. After getting to know each other, the children decided they would pursue a goal that would help them understand each other’s values, societies, cultures and ways of seeing the world. The resulting project involved literacy-rich activities created by students. Students explored what it means to be a child in the 21st century, to be Canadian and Zimbabwean and live in a global community. Students learned about economics, democratic conventions, human rights and HIV/AIDS. The two years of working together culminated with students reading and discussing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Students wrote responses and drew illustrations of what each article of the Convention meant to them. The results were published in The Way the World Could Be.

It is important to remember that teacher professional inquiry and action research originated from a concern for social justice and equity (McNiff, Lomax and Whitehead 2003). Working with community agencies is an excellent way to build networks of support for teacher research, as we saw with the projects carried out by Hillhurst Community and Westridge Primary schools.

Necessary Conditions for Sustaining Teacher Research and Professional Inquiry

All research—no matter in what sector—is made possible for political reasons. (Herr and Anderson 2005, p. 68). Teachers must be prepared to acknowledge this and to advocate for the resources and professional development opportunities to build capacity and create opportunity. For example, funding and support for the practitioner research projects mentioned above came from outside the school. The same is true for the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI), often touted as the lighthouse innovation of Alberta’s education partners.

Certainly AISI has been a powerful source of support for teacher research. However, though high-profile school improvement efforts such as AISI are important, we must keep the $71 million committed to AISI for the 2006/07 school year in perspective. This $71 million represents $128 per student, which is 2.4 per cent of the total base instructional funding of $5,240 per student, or what it would take to run Alberta schools for fewer than five days. Systemic underfunding remains a reality in Alberta schools. Collaborative planning time and problem solving are essential to supporting professional inquiry, but they take time—something which is in short supply in most schools.

Without a collaborative, coordinated and systemic approach to support teacher research and professional inquiry, the small incubator projects scattered across Alberta fostered by AISI can only have a limited effect on the overall K–12 system.

Future Prospects for Teacher Research in the Next Alberta

Increasingly, educational research is developing unique approaches to knowledge creation and dissemination and is recognizing that unlike medicine and other classical models of scientific control and value-neutrality, educational research focuses on generating progress in the context of extremely complex social environments—classrooms.

Popular notions associated with clinical practice, medical research, fact-collecting and working with control groups and isolating variables do not apply simplistically in educational research. The closest practice to such an approach is basic research, which draws on the cognitive and social sciences, focuses on collecting data and information and attempts to apply findings to broader contexts, rather than specific classroom or school situations.

Basic research

Basic research is important to the Association. Recent research projects include the following:

• Teacher Welfare: statistical databases related to collective agreements and working conditions
• Member Opinion Survey: annual tracking of member perceptions of emerging issues in education and teaching practice, tracking of teaching and learning conditions, and demographic trends
• Professional Development Survey: annual tracking of access to and evaluation of professional development programs
• Dissemination of information: publications related to the conditions of learning (children in poverty, and the social contexts of education in Alberta).

While basic research plays an important role in policy-making, the contextual variables and complexity of classrooms remind us that basic research must always be informed by teachers’ skills, technical and pedagogical know-how, and lived experience.

The emerging research on the power of networks (Zeichner 2006) in promoting teacher inquiry affirms the need to build capacity for teacher research. The Calgary Public Board of Education’s Many Faces of Poverty and Homelessness project is an excellent example of networking. Eighteen Calgary schools have joined schools in Cameroon, Latvia, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Uganda and the United States in a collaborative inquiry-based Web project on homelessness. Overarching questions were as follows. What does responsible citizenship mean? How can we promote and develop global citizenship? Find out more about the project.

Design Research

Design research focuses on immediate influences on teaching and learning to make something better happen in classrooms and schools and to inform policy development. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative approaches to gathering evidence, design research involves close collaboration between researchers and practitioners.

Design research is currently enacted in Association programs on a number of fronts:

1. supporting professional inquiry and reflection through leadership and publications (Action Research Guide 2000; Trying to Learn 2003);
2. supporting AISI;
3. publishing case studies and action research related to diversity, equity and human rights (ATA’s work related to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Two-Spirited (GLBT) issues;
4. responding to government initiatives with publications (Trying to Teach 1994: Necessary Conditions and Falling Through the Cracks 2003);
5. supporting the ATA Educational Research Award, graduate scholarships, Educational Trust Awards and Alberta Advisory Committee for Educational Studies; and
6. disseminating educational research through the ATA’s publications and Web based Teacher Network (TNET).

The Association continues to respond to research requirements. For example, the Association is currently working on administrator leadership development in collaboration with the University of Alberta, the Medicine Hat School District and Prairie Land Regional Division.

Reflections on Practice
An institute for school principals

Jacqueline Skytt, PD Coordinator, ATA

The institute provides an opportunity for school principals to engage in an intensive learning experience focused on the principal quality practice standard which incorporates reflective practice, collective inquiry and action research.

School administrators learn to engage in effective, personal, collaborative and professional reflection that includes critically examining theory, making effective use of multiple sources of data and enhancing leadership practice. Participants will reflect on their professional practice as school principals, question their assumptions and practices, share with their colleagues and grow professionally as school principals.

Creating Schools for the Next Alberta

Teaching as an intellectual and theoretical pursuit can no longer be discounted (Darling-Hammond and Sykes 1999). Certainly, the pressure to meet the provincial government’s narrowly focused indicators of student learning has not helped create learning cultures where ingenuity and risk taking are valued in professional learning communities.

Hargreaves and Fink (2006) remind us that professional inquiry thrives only if it’s supported by a comprehensive set of supports, such as depth and conservation strategies. Depth strategies consider the need for deep learning in schools by recognizing that inventiveness and ingenuity are fostered through attention to conservation through slow learning focused on locally determined priorities and needs. In this approach, real learning is connected to the emotional engagement as well as the intellectual growth of teachers. Despite the government’s insistence on pouring millions of dollars into high-stakes testing programs and more intense accountability mechanisms, such as GLA reporting, Alberta teachers will continue to find ways to focus on student learning.

The literature on organizational improvement underscores time and again that “it is about learning as a community” (Stoll, Fink and Earl 2003, p.132). Collaborative-practitioner research in a learning community is more than a clever turn of phrase—in order for schools to learn, community must come first. We need to remind ourselves that we must think of the many possibilities of learning and community if we are to succeed in our goal of “learning of community; learning from community; learning with community’ learning for community; and learning as community” (p. 134).

If learning of/from/with and for community is the fulcrum for school development, teacher research must be about responding to the immediate realities of students’ learning needs. But just as important, teacher research must include opportunities to influence and shape the contexts of teachers’ work. Reflection and critique about the conditions that create the learning conditions for students (for example, social contexts and misplaced government priorities) are necessary.

A surgeon friend of mine recently reminded me that early on in her practice; she learned “that we cannot skill our way out of limitation.” She described her own frustrations with initial “ham-handed attempts” to tie off veins and arteries—impossibly difficult until one decides, as she described, to “just like a dog, pick up this bone and not let it go.” Social philosopher Robert Borgmann describes this kind of professional commitment to improve one’s practice as “patient vigour in a focal practice.” For Borgmann, the practice of professional work in uncertain times calls for a combination of a deep emotional engagement in the seemingly invisible things that a skilled professional does well, and a commitment to make a positive difference in the life of someone else.

Teacher research provides an opportunity for teachers to become “focally real” in ways that will help them make a real difference in their students’ lives.

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