A provocative and insightful article in the September 2013 issue of Our Schools/Ourselves paints a now familiar but largely mythical picture of the so-called “neo-liberal assault” on Canadian as well as American public education. Written by Westmount High School teacher Robert Green, founder of MontrealTeachers4Chanage.org, it sought to explain why thousands of U.S. teachers were flocking to a “Badass Teacher” movement and suggested that Canadian teachers, facing similar threats, might consider doing the same.
American public education, much like U.S. foreign policy, continues to be a fiercely contested ideological battleground. American-style school reformers claim to “put students first” and support raising achievement standards, school choice, and student testing, seeking to “turnaround” failing or under-performing schools and campaigning to improve Teacher Quality (TQ) in the classroom. Supporting that agenda with political clout and massive resources are education publishing giants like Pearson International and major private foundations, led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Defenders of the American public school system are fighting school reforms they label and condemn as hoary intrusions driven by “corporate education reform,” best exemplified by OECD PISA Testing, and its step-child, Barack Obama’s Race to the Top national education agenda. Education historian -turned- advocate Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Rise of the Great American School System (2010), has emerged as their patron saint and leading public warrior. A more recent, militant offshoot of the American teacher unions, the Badass Teachers Association, surfaced in 2013 to lead mass actions, including a phone-in campaign calling for the removal of Arne Duncan as U.S. secretary of education.
A copycat “Badass Teacher” movement has sprouted up in a few Canadian provincial systems, but it has, so far, failed to catch fire or spread from one province to another. A small band of teacher union militants, such as Green of the Montreal Teachers Association, Ben Sichel of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, and Tobey Steeves of the BC Teachers Federation, have been churning out commentaries, tweeting-up a storm, and appealing to their base of followers. Out in Red Deer, Alberta, Special Ed teacher Joe Bower, host of for the love of learning Blog, is famous for his serial retweets of Alfie Kohn pronouncements. It hasn’t worked because the school system they imagine and the corporate reform they fear don’t really exist here in Canada.
In the upside down world of Canadian education, the real “Badasses” are populist reformers of a completely different stripe attempting to penetrate and re-engineer a reasonably well-funded, mostly unaccountable liberal bureaucratic education state. It’s next -to-impossible to whip up Canadian teachers when the system is so well preserved and protected by “Guardian Angels” and “Pussycats” — and “Fortress Education” serves so well in safeguarding teachers’ rights, prerogatives, and entitlements. After all, look what happens to “Bad Ass” policy advocates like economist Don Drummond, PC Leader Tim Hudak, and BC Education Minister Peter Fastbender who dare to propose structural reforms.
Today’s Canadian teachers’ union advocates profess to be true education reformers but they have little in common with ordinary blue collar workers, Arab Spring freedom fighters, or “Idle No More” activists. Drawn from what Karl Marx would have termed the 21st century bourgeoisie, they see the education world with a somewhat false sense of class consciousness. Like fellow members of the public sector, white collar professions, secure and comfortable with teacher tenure, step salary increases, and guaranteed retirement benefits, they certainly have a lot to defend in a changing global and fiercely competitive world. The three major policy preoccupations, identified by Green — defending collective bargaining rights, curtailing and ending student and teacher assessments, and fighting (non-union) charter schools — reflect that siege mentality and a protective impulse rather than a desire to “change the world.”
Transplanting American panaceas and political linguistics into Canadian education simply does not work, whether it’s parental “freedom of choice” or “badass teacherism.” None of Canada’s provinces, including British Columbia and Alberta, have really adopted the full “corporate education reform” agenda. Provincial testing regimes like the Ontario Education Quality and Accountablity (EQAO) program are focused on student improvement at school level and bear little resemblance (in intent or form) to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) or Race to the Top initiatives in the United States. Here all public schools are treated as “equally good” and none are publicly labelled “failing” enterprises. Protesting salary freezes or back-to-work legislation is a far cry from fighting massive layoffs and the imposition of student results- based teacher evaluation systems.
Most of Canada’s educational austerity and school choice initiatives turn out to be paper tigers. Nova Scotia’s Back to Balance public policy from 2009 to 2012 hit a major educational roadblock: the NSTU’s well-financed KidsNotCuts/Cut to the Core counter insurgency. Embracing Don Drummond’s February 2012 Ontario Austerity program and teacher salary freezes cost “Education Premier” Dalton McGuinty his job and proved disastrous as the foundation for former Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak’s June 2014 election campaign. Only two Canadian provinces, Quebec and BC, provide any significant funding for independent, alternative schools and Alberta’s legislative commitment to charter schools imposes strict limits on the numbers of schools and then student enrollments.
The Canadian educational kingdom is inhabited by a completely different variety of tribes. The “Guardian Angels”, epitomized by Michael Fullan, Nina Bascia, Penny Milton, Charles Pascal and Charles Ungerleider, are unabashed public school promoters with an unshakable faith in universal programs and spending more to educate fewer. They provide the visionary ideas, champion the holy grail of educational equity, and enjoy the, at times, fawning support of an influential band of “Pussycats” ( aka “teacher’s pets’) based at OISE and the faculties of education and avidly supported by Annie Kidder and her People for Education political action committee. Recently, the Vancouver Board of Education Chair Patti Bacchus has joined the cheerleading section in support of teachers, waving placards at BCTF protests.
If Canada has a truly “Badass” reform movement, it’s not to be found inside the teachers’ unions but rather spearheaded by a pesky band of populist school reformers, best exemplified by Malkin Dare, Doretta Wilson and the Society for Quality Education. Operating in collaboration with autonomous parent reform groups such as WISE Math and the Nova Scotia Small Schools Initiative, they are the ones carrying the torch for better schools, structural innovation, higher teaching standards, and significant curriculum reform. School reform is not driven by education school research, but instead by policy studies produced by the C.D. Howe Institute and three independent think tanks in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Halifax. Most of Canada’s true education reformers are not educators at all, but rather “crossovers” with a fierce commitment to raising standards, restoring fundamental student skills, and securing (without excuses) the best possible education for our children.
Who’s Who in the upside down world of Canadian education reform? Why are the Canadian and American school systems so different when it comes to educational tribes and their commitment to genuine school reform? Would a “Badass Teachers” movement gain any traction, between labour contract disruptions, in Canada’s provincial education systems? In short, with apologies to the old TV Quiz Show, will the real school reformers please stand up and be counted?
Educhatter 
YooHoo Dr.Bennett its @edubeat…so you better check your class attendance list…its the Peel Region badboy …www.twitter.com/edubeat
Over the years I have been intrigued by the staying power of the theory of “grass roots” educational reform. There is a myth perpetuated by (Michael)Fullan, (Andy)Hargreaves,(Ken)Robinson, et al. that the only real change in improving schooling will come from teacher activism and innovation. With the proper money and resources, and unrestricted by bureaucratic administrators – the theory goes – they could revolutionize schools and learning for generations to come.
Unfortunately, in my experience, teachers – no matter how bright, educated and talented – tend to be small “c” conservatives when it comes to educational change. The immediate reaction to any new research or initiative is suspicion and ridicule. They are the great proponents of incremental change (which usually means doing the same old thing with new tools e.g. technology) and rejecting any wholesale rethinking of what teaching and learning could look like. Only recently I was told earnestly by a young teacher that “inquiry” was the latest trend – who knew?! Our old OISE professor Evan Cruikshank – Mr. Socratic Method – must be turning over in his grave!
Until educators, including faculties of education, open themselves up to considering that there might be some excellent new ideas for educating kids being generated outside of their ivy-covered walls, I am afraid that we are condemned to perpetuating old ideas and past failures.
You were pretty ‘badass’ yourself back in Ontario. I suspect you are having a great time bringing some education reform yourself in Atlantic Canada. Thanks for this from all your badass old friends!
JIm, I do believe you are right.
The difference in Canada is based on the fact that Canada is a world leader in education with world leading graduation rates and post secondary grad rates. We have one of the lowest rich poor gaps.
The USA is the opposite in all of these areas. USA also has far deeper ideological splits, a clamor for religious education and a corporate sector that sees massive profits from privatization.
The local parents looking for education for their children are pawns in a very big high stakes political war.
Today’s post at Quora (June 15, 2014) by American education reformer, Grant Wiggins, founder of Understanding By Design, tends to suggest that philosophical confusion reigns and that this aids and abets mediocrity in the schools:
“Having spent time in hundreds of schools, public and private, all over the country, I would say unequivocally that NO theoretical perspective describes this highly isolated and ungoverned collection. If I had to summarize what I see and hear most I would call it delayed-gratification-humane-utilitarianism: “You will need content x in the future, and I’ll try to make this as interesting as I know how.”
For the rest of the discussion, click on: http://www.quora.com/Which-theoretical-perspective-best-describes-the-education-system-in-the-U-S
A great commentary: the only thing I’d like to add is that the other viable badass reformers are various parents across the country. Groups such as SQE and WISE Math provide valuable research and information which have given parents the confidence to speak out against a system which they believe, is not working effectively. Trailblazers such as Tunya Audain out here in BC, have helped pave the way to allow other parents to realize that our concerns are valid, and that we can make a difference. Look at what is happening in Alberta. One small town doctor, Dr. Tran-Davies, is taking on the rigid Discovery Based Learning establishment and making them blink. It’s her tenacity and perspective as a parent, which has struck a chord with so many Albertans and which is making her grassroots movement of putting common sense math back into schools, a reality.
So please, keep providing forums and information on these topics coming. We all want what is best for our kids, and more parents need to realize their voice might be one of the most important ones out there. Thanks for this.
What is the term for “everyone is a leader?”
I attended Ed Camp once and saw a community without borders where every individual had the right to design and rule.
Isn`t that the same thing that happens in school boards?
That`s why,if you can use research to guide,many of us are perplexed why it`s completely ignored in schools.
I am thinking perhaps too negatively now when I see John Mighton`s Jump Math getting an in depth longitudinal research study to prove how well it works,will it sway the education establishment?
I hope I`m wrong in my pessimistic thinking.
Keith Stanovich referred to educators as individuals suffering from the authority syndrome.He said,science on the other hand is publicly verifiable.
What I enjoy about education reform movements is they provide an opportunity for improvement by adding stress to the schools.Why change if there is none?
In my view,there is no “stress” on the Canadian system.
I agree. I am in communication with American progressives including DR and LDH. There is a seething rage directed at the American education system from BOTH the left and the right.
We are not in the same universe in Canada. We are a world leader. They are a world laggard notwithstanding the amount they spend.
You can see in their Obamacare debate how retrograde their entire approach to the poor really is.
They just cannot get it through their heads that SES determines all since it has far reaching implications for the entire structure of American society.
Europeans understand it. Mexicans understand it. Americans are in denial so they keep applying one reform after another testing charters vouchers as if the schools are the problem.
How About Badass Students?
On June 10, 2014 the judgment came down — Vergara vs State of California — a case brought forth by 9 students, a group called Students Matter.
The students’ case was essentially that children in California have a right to “a basically equal opportunity to achieve a quality education”. That quality, it was said, was denied when “grossly incompetent teachers” were in the system and that this impacted disproportionately in the case of minority and lower SES students.
This case is also being called the Teacher Protection Case because it was 5 legislative statutes that were at issue and which prevent ineffective teachers from being removed — statutes related to tenure, procedures for dismissal, and LIFO (Last In First Out).
One of the key pieces of testimony was given by David Berliner — whose book “The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, And The Attack On America’s Public Schools” — is frequently referred to on this blog by teacher unionists. He “testified that 1-3% of teachers in California are grossly ineffective”. The judgment goes on “Given that the evidence showed roughly 175,000 active teachers in this state, the extrapolated number” would amount to 2,750 to 8,250 who would have a “direct, real, appreciable, and negative impact” on students.
http://dianeravitch.net/2014/06/10/the-text-of-the-vergara-decision/#comments – 16 pages
The judge went on in his judgment to say: “The evidence is compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience.”
He found the 5 statutes unconstitutional.
Apparently the Students Matter movement is set to bring similar suits to New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico, Idaho and Kansas.
You will find it makes very little difference.
Oh Dougie maybe its the unions that are in denial b/c their rhetoric (see BCTF) is so poorly thought out. They express it in polemical screeds not peer reviewed research. Robert Green at WHS is a prime example of the QC Milli Vanilli faction – all he does is lipsync standard union drivel- he doesnt add anything original to the debate.
That is so crude and unsphisticated that I do believe edubeat is actually a liability to his/her own cause.
BCTF paid substantially less than both Alberta and Ontario. Do parents want huge classes with too many SE and ELL kids? I guess we will see.
The school boards join the union in demanding the $300 M presently spent on private education be used to solve public board underfunding.
It is a very unpopular policy.
Teacher labour disruptions like that in BC can lead to “cannibalism.” Are you suggesting that teachers should eat their own in a struggle for survival? That sounds almost, unCanadian, Doug.
I suggest the BC government move the $300 million from private where the privledged are educated to public where the average people are educated.
Most people support this. Even with a subsidy most people cannot afford the private education.
Teachers have been unionized since the 1920’s. They have learned through long experience that their best results come from from a “full speed ahead, damn the consequences” approach.
Every single new contract the employer tables ‘take aways” they are used to it. It only makes the members more militant.
Paul can you ask edubeat to be more respectful. I think Malkin has and it seems to have worked over there. His style breeds equal and opposite responses.
The unions have to balance.There absolutely needs to be a balance between a teacher and a student`s right.
Doug,a B.ED.doesn`t prepare teacher well enough for her to be all things to her/his students.
Therefore,in many cases,if the school doesn`t offer what`s needed,the student should be able to go elsewhere and have a system that is supposed to educate a child and not succeeding,get the job done.That alternative site should be paid for by public education dollars.
That`s the kind of pressure schools need.
Bad Ass teachers be #$%@ ,it`s about the students and the taxpayer,not the union.
I have no objection to people getting paid even more than they are now.
The SES excuse is a problem,as is learning disability.
It`s appalling what schools get away with.
Is it out of ignorance?Most of the time yes.They follow the wrong guru and everybody suffers.
I wish I could put my finger on it,I`ll look.
Recently,there was a statement that the Automotive labour union was something this individual was proud to belong to because of the way they behaved and conducted their business.
He mentioned that the teacher`s union was uncharacteristically crass.I agree.
We never hear from the nurses,their jobs are just as difficult.
Where`s the class in the teacher`s union conduct,where`s the balance?
SES IS the problem. Can it be mitigated? Somewhat. Denial saps at the cred of the whole reform movement.
Teachers across Canada are angry, the Toronto Globe and Mail reports. BCTF president Jim Iker is certainly on fire, doing a great imitation of a BAT. Perhaps I was too quick to dismiss rival claims to being “badass” in the contested terrain of public education.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/why-teachers-across-canada-are-so-angry/article19273676/#dashboard/follows/
Reformers should read the whole article. Excellent OECD results. 15% in BC think teachers are overpaid. CD Howe repeat CD Howe shows like higher pay = better results.
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/why-teachers-across-canada-are-so-angry/article19273676/?service=mobile&page=2
BTW reminder BCTF paid far less than Alberta and Ontario.