The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Question: I heard that the minister of education has just announced the composition of TDPAC. What in heaven’s name is a TDPAC and why should I care about it?

Answer: You can add TDPAC to the Ever-Expanding List of Association Acronyms (or the EELAA, as we like to call it). The acronym actually stands for Teacher Development and Practice Advisory Committee; the function of the committee is to provide policy advice to the minister of education on issues relating to the teaching profession and continuing improvement of teaching in Alberta.

TDPAC was established under the Assurance for Students Act (2013), which subsumed the offer made in the late spring of 2013 by the Government of Alberta to the Association for a four-year collective bargaining framework. Reference to TDPAC is also contained in the letter of comfort that was provided to teachers by the minister following the passage of the act.

By including TDPAC in the framework, the government was attempting to address the Association’s longstanding objective to obtain a formal mechanism for the profession to have a voice in policy and decision making that directly affect teachers and, indeed, when teachers were asked to accept the government’s offer for a provincial framework in the spring, a big selling point was the inclusion of this advisory committee. As stated in the comfort letter, "The ATA will have strong representation on the Teacher Development and Practice Advisory Committee, and any major legislative, regulatory or policy shifts regarding the profession and teaching will be vetted at that committee prior to Government consideration."

The committee consists of eight teachers selected by the minister of education (from a list submitted to him by the Association) and eight additional members representing various stakeholders, again appointed by the minister. The minister also chose to appoint, as a nonvoting member, a recent high school graduate, now ­attending university, to provide a student voice. The chair of the committee is Association President Mark Ramsankar; Paul ­MacLeod, ­Alberta Education registrar, is cochair.

Recommendations of the committee that receive the support of a two-thirds majority of the voting members will be passed on to the minister of education for formal consideration; however, the minister is not bound to accept these recommendations.

It is anticipated that once the committee gets under way, it will review all major policy initiatives concerning teachers, including potential recommendations of the Task Force on Teaching Excellence, and potential proposals for changing the structure of teacher certification. These could have a significant and enduring impact on the profession, so the work of TDPAC will be of great practical relevance to Alberta’s teachers.

The list of committee members and their biographies are posted under News Room>Web Extras on the Association’s website (www.teachers.ab.ca).

Questions for consideration in this column are welcome. Please address them to Gordon Thomas at Barnett House (gordon.thomas@ata.ab.ca).