Question: How should teachers respond to Bill 25?
Answer: The editorial in this issue of the ATA News speaks to the fundamentally misguided premises and agenda that underlie Bill 25, the most recent unnecessary and unwelcome foray of this government into the classroom. Disingenuously titled An Act to Remove Politics and Ideology from the Classroom, the bill is a grab-bag of incoherent provisions, a few potentially good, most bad and some downright ugly. So, what should teachers do now?
How about nothing?
Let’s start with not doing the government’s job for it. We have received calls from teachers who are asking very specific questions about how they should adjust everything from teaching practice to the posters and decorations in their classrooms in response to Bill 25. However, as I am writing this, the bill has not passed through the legislature, received royal assent or been proclaimed. It is not yet law. Now, I am not so naive as to expect that government will experience some eleventh-hour enlightenment and significantly amend the bill, but even after it is passed, much of bill’s practical effect will depend on specific regulations that still need to be written.
Once those regulations are in place, a process that might take months and in which the Association might be able to exert some influence, we will have a much better understanding of the actual impact of the changes in legislation and practice resulting from the bill. Until then, teachers are under no obligation to be proactive.
Teachers are under no obligation to be proactive.
Even then, any new directions entailed by the bill and regulations will be imposed upon the school boards and will be up to those school boards to administer. Teachers should, therefore, refrain from changing their practice until they receive clear and specific written direction from their employer board. If at all in doubt, a teacher is always free to request additional written clarification from their employer regarding the specific application of a regulation or board policy to their particular situation. Absent such specific, clear and documented direction, the teacher is free to act professionally as they see fit.
Doing nothing, or rather, continuing as usual to teach in an effective, pedagogically sound, professional and principled way is the best approach to mitigating the potential damage that Bill 25 may cause and preventing the legislation from having a chilling effect that exceeds its actual reach. I’ll note that for years the “Teaching Controversial Issues” policy embedded in the Alberta Education Guide to Education (https://open.alberta.ca/publications/1496-7359) effectively addressed management of political and ideological issues in the classroom. That policy, unfortunately scrubbed from the current iteration of the Guide, provided thoughtful guidance for teachers in developing students’ critical inquiry and thinking skills, thus preparing them to participate responsibly in a democratic and pluralistic society.
Teachers also have the unique ability by virtue of the circumstances in which they work to ignore or rise above some of the problematic aspects of Bill 25. For example, the bill amends the preamble of Alberta’s Education Act by removing language that mandates schools to be “welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environments that respect diversity and nurture a sense of belonging and a positive sense of self” and scrubs other similar references elsewhere in the act. It seems to me that teachers and school leaders would want to continue to reflect these values in their relationships with students and community, regardless of what the government might choose to prioritize.
Finally, there is the possibility of creative noncompliance. Having taught Grade 8 students, I became familiar with this strategy. It’s not about disobeying, but rather obeying in a creative, technical, limited or unhelpful way. For example, the city of Boise, Idaho, circumvented a state ban on displaying pride flags by wrapping the city hall flagpoles in rainbow-striped colors and installing additional, permanent, multicolored artwork. Depending on what subjects they teach, I can imagine some teachers who wish to create a safe space for gender and relationship-diverse students taking a sudden interest in displaying posters depicting the story of Noah’s Ark, Newton’s experiments in optics, the colour wheel and perhaps, Pink Floyd’s 1973 studio album, The Dark Side of the Moon.
In the face of bad legislation, teachers’ obligation is to exercise their professional judgment rather than being unquestioningly compliant or complicit.
Questions for consideration in this column are welcome. Please address them to Dennis Theobald at dennis.theobald@ata.ab.ca.
ATA Executive Secretary
