The Alberta Teachers’ Association has always maintained that teachers, who bring the curriculum to life everyday in their classrooms, should be at the forefront of curriculum development. While the Association, and some teachers, have been consulted on this curriculum draft, we believe that our involvement must go beyond consultation by involving teachers more directly.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association continues to review and analyse the draft K–6 social studies curriculum and encourages teachers to provide their feedback.
Given the busy nature of this time year and upcoming spring breaks in many school divisions, the ATA has asked for an extension of the draft consultation period. The Alberta Government has agreed to extend the deadline to April 2.
The new draft social studies curriculum is better than the 2021 draft; however, further improvement is still required. Teachers may want to consider the following, as well as public statements from others (here and here), when reviewing the draft and providing feedback.
Good curriculum should

• be age and grade appropriate with high academic standards;
• be logically sequenced and use clear and concise wording;
• engage higher-level thinking without overloading surface-level content;
• develop critical-thinking skills and integrate them throughout all grade levels;
• respectfully include Indigenous and francophone histories, contributions and perspectives; and
• examine a rich variety of ideas and viewpoints, while respecting a variety of beliefs in our pluralistic society.

The Association believes that teachers have the expertise and experience to provide valuable insights that can help improve the draft. We are working to support bringing those voices to the table.

• We are organizing a focus group with K–6 teachers in April to gather more detailed analysis directly from teachers.
• Department officials will be presenting a session on the new social studies curriculum at the Early Childhood Education Council conference on April 19.
• We are arranging a curriculum circle with curriculum experts on May 14 to review the latest drafts and determine how to prepare teachers for implementation.
• Association experts will summarize observations from teachers’ convention sessions and conduct further analysis, turning this information into submissions for government.

We will continue to keep members informed once the information is gathered and the analysis is complete. The Association will provide recommendations on changes needed to this draft and on how the government should move forward to engage with the profession on curriculum development.

WORTH KNOWING

The Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) and the Association have recently agreed on changes to the list of all matters (LAM) that came out of bargaining dates held in January and February. The final version of the LAM is available here. This completes the first phase of the central bargaining process.
 
The 2024 central table matters survey closed on March 1, 2024. The mandate creation process is now under way. It will culminate with Provincial Executive Council (PEC) creating and approving the initial proposal. The survey received 19,799 responses (14,679 complete, 4,893 partial and 227 disqualified responses). This is a significant increase in the response rate from the 2020 round of central table bargaining, where we saw about 16,000 responses between the two surveys. The Central Table Bargaining Committee (CTBC) has been hard at work analyzing the data from the responses. The main report from the survey tool generated a document of over 3,100 pages.
 
The next step in the mandate creation process is for the CTBC to review the information and determine whether what teachers said in the survey has been accurately articulated in the reports. This will be completed using several engagement opportunities. Below is a list of the initial opportunities.
 
1.   Telephone town hall (TTH) (Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 7:00 PM, for approximately one hour)—At this session, the draft goals and priorities gleaned from the survey will be shared with members in attendance. Members will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. More information about the TTH will be shared with members as soon as possible. Please save the date and the time.
 
2.   District representatives (DRs) and table officers—Once the draft goals and priorities are shared, members should provide feedback to their elected officials. PEC decides what is included in the initial proposal.
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3.   Teacher Welfare Committees (TWCs)—Once the draft is out next week, TWCs are welcome to use the document at their meetings to gather feedback. That feedback should be shared with the DRs and the Teacher Employment Services (TES) staff officer assigned to the bargaining unit.
 
4.   Focus groups—Respondents to the survey were asked if they wished to be included in a focus group to provide further feedback. Over 3,000 respondents indicated that they were interested in participating. While that number is too large to have a functioning group, we will connect with members who expressed interest to ensure that the group is as diverse and representative of Alberta’s teachers as possible. Those who did not previously sign up for focus groups through the survey will be given another opportunity to express interest during the TTH.
 
5.   Bargaining Advisory Committee (BAC)—The BAC, while not a decision-making body, comprises TWC chairs from each of the 61 bargaining units across the province and is used to provide feedback to the CTBC. At the Collective Bargaining Conference in April, the BAC will meet to review the feedback they have received and view potential draft language to be included in the initial proposal. The BAC is a direct link back to the CTBC from the field and provides the necessary context and perspectives from members.
 
6.   Webcasts—Using the feedback from previous engagement opportunities, the CTBC will hone and fine-tune potential initial proposal language and present it in webcasts, planned for later in April or early May. Members will have an opportunity to share their feedback on the draft language with their TWC chairs and members of PEC in advance of final approval of the initial proposal.
 
Members are encouraged to take advantage of the engagement opportunities that best meet their needs to ensure that their opinions are heard. Below is a timeline for the next steps in the central table negotiations.

WORTH SHARING
 
The list of all matters (LAM) is now finalized and is available here. Almost 20,000 members completed the central bargaining survey, and work is ongoing to analyze the results. Many engagement opportunities will be provided in the coming weeks and months to allow members to provide feedback. The first is a telephone town hall, scheduled for Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at 7:30 pm. More access information is coming soon, but members are encouraged to save the date. #WEAREAT