Alberta’s education curriculum review is underway.
A few months ago the Eagle spoke to educators about the need for a review and both teachers and administrators said updating the way education is delivered in the province was long overdue.
Part of the catalyst for that story was a comment made by Jason Kenny, who is running for the leadership of the Alberta PC Party and an advocate for the province’s unite the right movement.
During a public event in Cochrane over the summer Kenny called the curriculum review NDP “social engineering,” a statement dismissed by the educators we spoke to.
At the time, Dave Morris, associate superintendent of learning with Rocky View Schools, expressed disappointment with Kenney’s comments and added,“ Alberta Education is predominantly, at a working level, educators.”
With the idea that educators in the department would be handling the curriculum review Morris emphatically stated, “Politicians should stay out of the classroom,” a statement we whole-heartedly agree with.
Earlier this month, Alberta Education rolled out two public surveys to help inform the curriculum review and gauge what teachers, parents and students think are priorities in education.
The questions on the long form survey are what one would expect for a curriculum review, asking respondents to weight learning goals across grade levels in every subject and direct the types of learning that should be emphasized.
It’s the short form survey that raises eyebrows and leads one to wonder about the possible politicization of the answers and what, if anything, they actually have to do with educating Alberta children.
The short form survey is a series of questions that amount to no more than obtuse and ridiculous value statements.
For example question 1: Kindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum should open up pathways to careers, the world of work, and post-secondary opportunities, which helps build a positive future for Alberta and prepares students for a more diversified economy.
If ever there was a leading question with only one possible answer, that is it. Obviously schools should prepare students for post secondary schooling and the work force.
The second part of the question is where the concern lies: “which helps build a positive future for Alberta and prepares students for a more diversified economy.”
While that also might seem an obvious yes, the underlying value statement, that reads like it came right out of NDP campaign literature, poses some concerns about how the answers might be used.
Could it be construed as support for the NDP’s diversified economy plans? If so, posed the way it has been, it could lead to an out-of-context emphatic yes.
Another question: “Students should have opportunities to learn about and practice the values of integrity and respect,” also come across like an obvious yes. Look deeper and the question is who is defining those values and how will they be applied.
While schools have some responsibility to ensure young people adhere to certain codes of respect and integrity, there is a fine line between the values schools should be teaching and the values that should be taught at home. With the vagueness of the question posed in the survey, we can’t help but worry which values the government might mean.
Of the 12 questions, only three have any academic relevance. The rest are obviously political in nature and lead to genuine concerns about why they are being posed and how they might be used in the future.
