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Across Canada, issues related to education are regularly making headlines. Ontario teachers\u00a0have been on rotating strikes<\/a>,\u00a0B.C. teachers have been without a contract since last June<\/a>\u00a0and both\u00a0Manitoba<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Alberta<\/a>\u00a0are reviewing their education systems.<\/p>\n In our research, we are examining the language, stories and messages that are being generated by governments, the media and the public at large about public education. In doing so, we have been documenting\u00a0governments\u2019 efforts to shift the responsibilities for education as a public good to that of an industry<\/a>\u00a0that needs to be more efficiently managed.<\/p>\n This shifting of responsibility relies on\u00a0rhetoric aimed at demeaning teachers and the teaching profession in an attempt to distract the public<\/a>\u00a0from the defunding of public education.<\/p>\n Many Canadians may be unaware\u00a0that public education in many provinces is no longer fully publicly funded<\/a>, and that as a result, school boards have been forced to form public-private partnerships, operate as for-profit businesses and raise money through exporting curriculum and importing students. Alberta has even removed\u00a0the word public from local school boards.<\/a><\/p>\n To justify reducing public funding, provincial governments criticize teachers, teachers\u2019 unions and the teaching profession. This persistent campaign against teachers relies on gendered projections that show \u201cpatriarchal ideologies of surveillance and control<\/a>,\u201d as argued by sociology of education scholar Heidi Pitzer.<\/p>\n Many researchers argue that teaching has long been considered women\u2019s work. Diana D’Amico, a historian of education reform and policy, explains that\u00a0teaching was a passable way to allow women into the workforce as it was seen as a \u201cnatural\u201d extension of the \u201cnurturing female.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n The teaching profession reflects these historic and societal perceptions, and\u00a0teaching is still largely populated by women<\/a>.<\/p>\n Today, policy makers are exploiting these long-standing cultural resonances of teaching as an extension of unpaid motherly nurturing to devalue teaching.<\/p>\n The British Columbia Teachers\u2019 Federation, reliant on financial contributions from teacher members, funded and fought a 15-year court battle ending in 2016 to ensure better learning environments for students.<\/p>\n Throughout the court battle, the government perpetuated\u00a0the narrative that the teachers were disrupting students\u2019 education for higher wages<\/a>.<\/p>\n After the Supreme Court sided with the union, many mainstream news sources positioned the decision as\u00a0a \u201cwin\u201d for teachers<\/a>.<\/p>\n While such language recognizes that the court ruling did favour the British Columbia Teachers\u2019 Federation, the win was for students, for their learning conditions and for public education as a whole. The \u201cwin\u201d did not translate into higher salaries for teachers.<\/p>\n This \u201cfeminization of teaching impacts the ability of teachers\u2019 moral concerns to be heard as ethical claims, rather than simply self-interested forms of resistance<\/a>,\u201d as education scholar Doris Santoro explains.<\/p>\n Because teaching is considered women\u2019s work, teachers\u2019 concerns and political engagement are more easily ignored, dismissed or labelled as self-serving.<\/p>\n In Ontario, the provincial government is relying on the same distraction strategy.<\/p>\n Despite the Ontario Teachers\u2019 Federation repeatedly expressing concern about cuts to education,\u00a0manifesting in increased class sizes and moves towards mandatory e-learning<\/a>, the minister of education claims that the contract disputes are an issue of teachers\u2019 compensation.<\/p>\n Minister Stephen Lecce has used his platform to remind the public just how much of the education budget is spent on compensation: He tweeted that \u201cwith 80 cents on every dollar spent on compensation in education, it\u2019s about time we stand up for investment in our students<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Lecce\u2019s statement may obscure the fact that what the province spends on \u201ccompensation\u201d\u00a0covers not only teachers<\/a>\u00a0but also\u00a0educational and teachers\u2019 assistants<\/a>,\u00a0principals, vice principals, co-ordinators or consultants and technical or paraprofessional staff.<\/a><\/p>\n Particularly coupled with the hashtag \u201c#strikeshurtkids,\u201d Lecce\u2019s potentially misleading statistic directs the public\u2019s attention to teachers who he positions as self-interested. He relies on an\u00a0underlying gendered implication that when teachers expect appropriate remuneration, they are guilty of so-called \u201clow standards of womanhood\u201d<\/a>\u00a0insofar as they betray what should be a selfless devotion to children\u2019s welfare. Governments employ this logic to fuel acceptance of defunding public education.<\/p>\n The provincial education reviews in Alberta and Manitoba also rely on regressive gendered ideas about teachers in order to undermine and underfund public education.<\/p>\n In Manitoba, our analysis of the language and narrative strategies used by the education review commission reveals that the province positions itself as a manager overseeing technicians whose output is inefficient. For example, the review document describes the\u00a0work of teaching as being about \u201cachievement\u201d and \u201caccountability,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0requiring \u201cimprovement.\u201d<\/p>\n Constructing teachers as technicians conveniently negates teachers\u2019 professionalism and in turn, their concerns about these managerial impositions on education.<\/p>\n In keeping with this managerial and patriarchal view, rather than turning to current educators for input, the governments in both provinces disregard current teachers\u2019 perspectives by excluding them from the review teams.<\/p>\n The Alberta government is similarly disregarding teachers in turning to the business community for input on education, advocating for \u201copportunities to bring the needs of Alberta\u2019s employers into the curriculum-development process<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The review process and subsequent recommendations reveal a distrust in the professionalism of teachers, their educational expertise and their experiences.<\/p>\n This distrust was echoed in a highly publicized tweet\u00a0from Alberta\u2019s minister of education<\/a>\u00a0in which she posted a segment of a teacher\u2019s test, declared the test questions inappropriate, and vowed to \u201cget politics out of the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n It is concerning that anybody would think that these were appropriate questions for a Gr. 10 Social Studies test. Alberta has a great story to tell about our responsible energy sector, and educators should not be attacking it. We’ll get politics out of the classroom. #abed<\/a> #ableg<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/GXFMNBxnXO<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Adriana LaGrange (@AdrianaLaGrange) November 28, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nTeaching as women\u2019s work<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Discrediting teachers\u2019 ethical concerns<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\u2018Compensation\u2019 claims<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Undermine and underfund<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Alberta seeks business input<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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