The Alberta Teachers’ Association

The Alberta Teachers’ Alliance was formed with 700 members in Edmonton during Easter week 1918. At that first meeting, members endorsed resolutions relating to salaries, teachers’ contracts, full citizenship rights for teachers, a draft code of ethics, teachers’ pensions, publication of The ATA Magazine and the creation of a Canadian Teachers’ Federation. In 1920, John Walker Barnett was appointed the Alliance’s first general secretary–treasurer. Barnett worked tirelessly to raise the status of the teaching profession until his retirement in 1946. In 1934, a plebiscite renamed the Alberta Teachers’ Alliance the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA). Teachers in Alberta received professional status when the provincial government passed the Teaching Profession Act in 1935. In 2006, the Association marks its 88th year as the professional voice of Alberta’s teachers.

General characteristics of a profession are as follows:

1. A profession has an organized body of knowledge that separates it from other groups. Teachers’ body of knowledge includes child development and learning theories, teaching pedagogy and educational practice. Teachers contribute to the development of professional knowledge through classroom and school research, development of curriculum and assessment, and school improvement and post-graduate research.

2. A profession serves a greater social purpose. Teachers work to develop the abilities of students so that students can fulfill their personal aspirations while making positive contributions to society. Franklin D. Roosevelt once said: "We cannot always build the future of our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."

3. A profession promotes cooperation. The ATA speaks for and represents the teaching profession in Alberta. Members of the profession band together to achieve commonly desired goals. ATA membership requires strict adherence to the Code of Professional Conduct, and teachers must act in a manner befitting their profession.

4. A profession has a formal period of preparation and a requirement for continual professional growth. Alberta’s teachers must have four years of university preparation, a two-year period of internship and a professional evaluation for permanent certification, followed by annual professional growth plans.

5. A profession accords its members a degree of autonomy. Teaching requires reasoned judgment and professional decision-making. Teachers diagnose educational needs, prescribe and implement instructional programs and evaluate the progress of students.

Membership matters and benefits everyone

Teachers are the Alberta Teachers’ Association. Teachers who are actively involved in their profession have positive experiences. The ATA operates as a democracy, receiving its directions from its members. It depends on an active and involved membership to survive.

Active members of the ATA have the right to

• participate in Association meetings and discussions at the local level,

• vote in local and provincial Association elections,

• hold office at the local or provincial levels and

• be treated in a professional and ethical manner by all other members.

The Teaching Profession Act makes membership in the Association automatic upon employment as a teacher in Alberta’s public education system. More than 33,000 active members form the backbone of the Association and are eligible to participate every year in hundreds of professional development institutes and workshops, conferences, seminars and symposia and 10 major teachers’ conventions. There are also 21 ATA specialist councils that organize conferences and workshops and produce publications. Specialist councils ensure that the Association addresses the interests and needs of the speciality when planning its operations and advocating for the profession. The ATA News and The ATA Magazine keep members informed and up to date on professional, legal and political issues. ATA members have access to one of the best professional libraries in the province. As well as these services, the Association protects the individual rights, the collective rights and the jobs of active members to the fullest reasonable extent of the law.

Protecting and enhancing the image of teachers

It is up to every member to protect and enhance the image of teachers and the Alberta Teachers’ Association. Teachers practice professionalism by using the language of their profession—referring to educational research and diagnosing, designing, implementing and evaluating. Professionalism is evident when teachers speak up on issues that affect students. Demonstrating pride in the profession, listening to teachers talk about their work and encouraging excellent students to become teachers enhance the image of teachers and the teaching profession. This can only be accomplished by teachers and their Association working collectively to promote the profession of teaching.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association has a responsibility to protect the public from unprofessional practices and to protect its members from unscrupulous practices. Through the Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities for Teachers, Code of Professional Conduct and Professional Conduct Committee, the profession controls and influences professional standards for teachers.

What does membership mean to you?

The ATA News asked the following teachers what it means to be a member of a professional organization.

Does it benefit you in any way when the ATA promotes teaching as a profession?

Yes. Parents and the public gain a better understanding of the nature of teaching. It is important that teachers be seen as professionals who are experts in the fields of teaching and learning.

Do you consider teaching a professional activity?

I do consider teaching a professional activity; otherwise, I would probably be tempted to leave the school as soon as the bell rings. Teachers are well educated; I take pride in expanding my area of expertise through continual professional development and dialogue with other professionals in my field.

Why are you involved in supporting local ATA activities? What’s in it for you?

The ATA supports teachers as professionals and provides professional development so we can gain awareness of new trends in the field of education. The other components, of course, are the Teacher Welfare and Member Services arms of the Association that give us the protection and security needed in the high-profile occupation of teaching.

Jonathan Teghtmeyer
Local communications officer and teacher at Breton High School, Breton

Does it benefit you in any way when the ATA promotes teaching as a profession?

I am proud to be a teacher. It is an honourable profession although there is a segment of society that does not share this value. Through the ATA’s promotion of teaching, people become more aware of the profession and the dedicated people in it. It is a boost to my confidence and adds to my own personal level of satisfaction knowing that what I am doing is important to society.

Do you consider teaching a professional activity?

Definitely. In my view, a professional activity is one that requires a significant and continually developing knowledge base. Furthermore, a professional needs to make decisions based on his knowledge and best practices and to maintain the dignity of the profession by adhering to a particular code of conduct. These are all important descriptors that apply to the practice of teaching. Teachers are as much professionals as doctors, lawyers and engineers.

Why are you involved in supporting local ATA activities? What’s in it for you?

I want to have a positive impact on education in Alberta. I believe that improving the teaching profession improves the education system. I was a second-year teacher in 2001/02, and the events of that year [provincewide teacher labour dispute] had a profound influence on my outlook as a teacher. The one stakeholder that was most concerned about the best interests of education was the Alberta Teachers’ Association. I knew that if I cared about the education system, then I must become involved in initiating change, and the best place to start was with the profession and the ATA.

Paul Leighton
Vice-principal of Foremost School, Foremost
Teaches high school computer career and technology studies and Grade 9 computer studies and social studies

Does it benefit you in anyway when ATA promotes teaching as a profession?

The teachers of Alberta benefit whenever the ATA promotes the teaching profession. In the past decade, teachers have become less and less respected and are not given much credit for the contributions they make to society. The current Conservative government under Premier Ralph Klein has made it abundantly clear that teachers are overvalued and overpaid for their contributions to Alberta. The more we promote our contributions to society, the better. Parents who are involved in their children’s education and who work with our schools also appreciate the promotion of teachers, since they also want to have trained and knowledgeable people teaching their children.

Do you consider teaching a professional activity?

Teaching is a professional activity. Teachers put a great deal of time into obtaining a university degree and then getting special training on how to instruct, work with curriculum, evaluate students and a host of other things before being allowed into a classroom. Once they are in schools in front of students, they are required to create professional growth plans and lesson plans and to demonstrate to peers, school administrators and central office personnel that they can teach and keep control of a classroom.

Why are you involved in supporting local ATA activities? What’s in it for you?

One day in September 1981, my principal took me to an ATA meeting. Being a new teacher to Alberta, I had no idea what the ATA was. That evening, I returned home as the local’s secretary. Since then, I have been involved in the local in all offices except treasurer. After 25 years, I still actively support my local. I believe teachers should be involved with the organization that represents them. As members, we receive benefits from the organization, and we also contribute financially to that organization. As members, we should ensure that the benefits and services offered by our organization meet our needs. I am involved to make sure someone is listening to my opinion and the opinions of my local members. An effective teachers’ organization should be tuned in to what the grassroots members are saying.

Claudine Dessens
Teaches math at Henry Wise Wood High School, Calgary

Does it benefit you when the ATA promotes teaching as a profession?

Absolutely! Unfortunately, because teachers belong to a union—a bargaining agent—the general public does not consider us to be profession. In most peoples’ minds, a profession involves being responsible to a documented code of standards that can be enforced by members of the profession. Although the ATA does have the ability to enforce a code of standards, the general public sees the ATA as a bargaining agent only.

Do you consider teaching to be a professional activity?

According to dictionary.com, a profession is defined as the following:

• A profession is an occupation (such as law, medicine, teaching or engineering) that requires considerable training and specialized study.

• A profession is the body of qualified persons in an occupation or field (in this case, members of the teaching profession).

I certainly agree that teaching is a profession based on the statements above.

What would you consider to be one of the advantages of being a member of the ATA?

There are several advantages to belonging the Alberta Teachers’ Association: Collective bargaining, teacher’s conventions, advocacy for teachers and support for teachers in legal situations, to name only a few.