REWRITING THE CURRICULUM
The nuts and bolts of a major overhaul
Alberta’s ambitious plan to overhaul its K-12 school curriculum got political in 2017.
United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney accused the NDP of “socially engineering” children with the curriculum, and claimed social studies lessons will be bereft of military history. Former UCP leadership candidate Brian Jean said he would cancel the $64-million, six-year curriculum rewrite, saying it was a waste of money.
Critics called for the government to release the names of lead curriculum writers, and others called the process “secretive,” demanding government release the list of 400 people working on the curriculum, most of whom are volunteers.
The politicization of the process — announced by the Notley government in 2016 — made some volunteers fearful and anxious.
The rhetoric peeved curriculum writer and social studies teacher Nicola Ramsey so much it prompted her to pen a widely shared blog post in October about the process. Department head of social studies for the Alberta Distance Learning Centre, the Slave Lake teacher serves on the current social studies curriculum working group, and was also involved with the previous social studies curriculum development from 1999 to 2007 when the Progressive Conservatives were in power.
Ramsey, who began her career in the 1980s, says she can’t think of another time the public or politicians took so much interest in curriculum construction.
“I don’t like being told that everybody sitting in this room is going in there to socially engineer children,” Ramsey said. “It’s extremely insulting. It’s insulting to our professionalism. We’re not political operatives who are trying to encourage kids to all vote NDP in the next provincial election.”
Lindsay Gibson, an assistant professor of social studies education at the University of Alberta, is working on both the Alberta and B.C. curricula. The criticisms of the process have been hit-andrun “click bait” from politicians unwilling to engage in in-depth dialogue on the issue, he said.
The aim of the new social studies curriculum is to develop informed, critically thinking citizens who try to improve their world, Ramsey said. Striving to shape responsible people is hardly a new approach, she said in an earlier blog post that examined Alberta curricula reaching back as far as 1947.
The current social studies curriculum, written during the Ralph Klein era, “develops the key values and attitudes, knowledge and understanding, and skills and processes necessary for students to become active and responsible citizens, engaged in the democratic process and aware of their capacity to affect change in their communities, societies and world,” she quoted.
But there is one unique aspect of the current curriculum overhaul: it marks the first time the Alberta government has required curriculum writers to review and co-ordinate all subjects at all grade levels at once.
How will the curriculum rewrite actually work? Here’s a primer on the process, and how it compares to previous Alberta iterations:
WHAT’S THE PROCESS?
The current intention to rewrite the K-12 curriculum came from the former Alison Redford-led Progressive Conservative government in 2014. The aim at the time was to revamp all grades within two years. Some work began developing prototypes for programs of study. Redford resigned, and her successor, Jim Prentice, appointed a new cabinet with different priorities.
In June 2016, slightly more than a year after the NDP won office, Education Minister David Eggen announced a six-year plan to simultaneously review and rewrite all subjects for all grades in both English and French.
The work kicked off that summer with a review of the existing curriculum, a review of research and a look at curricula in use by other education systems, including B.C., New Zealand and the United States.
The government then created “curriculum working group” teams of experts in eight subjects. Those eight groups are made up of education ministry staff, teachers working in public, Catholic, private, charter and francophone schools, Indigenous teachers, university professors, and others, including representatives from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. (The territories use large segments of Alberta’s curriculum, and are giving direct development input for the first time).
Last winter and spring, government staff and the working groups met face-to-face in an undisclosed building at the U of A to write an introduction and “scope and sequence” for each subject area. If curriculum were a book, it would be like writing the preface and table of contents, said an Alberta Education senior manager.
Meanwhile, the government held focus group discussions around the province, and posted an online survey, which found Albertans wanted the curriculum to have an increased focus on basic math and literacy skills, financial literacy, the environment and career preparation.
Organizations and groups with an interest in curriculum were also invited to present ideas and concerns to the working groups.
In May 2017, the education ministry released the “scope and sequence” for each grade and subject area to solicit more feedback online and from focus groups. In fall 2017, officials said, the working groups began meeting again to draft “outcomes” in all subjects — particularly focusing on kindergarten to Grade 4. An outcome is a description of what a student is expected to know, or a skill they can demonstrate.
For the next five years, curriculum writers will be drafting, testing, discussing and reworking those outcomes, starting with the early grades and moving up through high school courses. Although much of the discussion happens in person, the writers also assemble the material using a web-based tool called the Curriculum Development Management Application, which was developed in-house by government.
WHAT IS THE TIMELINE FOR CURRICULUM WRITING, AND WHEN WILL IT BE IN CLASSROOMS?
The ministry’s goal is to have the K-4 curriculum written in all subjects and approved by the minister by December 2018.
Work on the Grade 5-8 curriculum will begin in 2018, and the ministry hopes the minister will approve the new outcomes by December 2019.
Beginning in fall 2019, writers will focus on Grade 9 and 10 curriculum in language arts (in French and English), social studies and wellness, with an approval goal of December 2020.
Development of the other three Grade 9 and 10 subjects — math, sciences and arts — is to begin in early 2020, with ministerial approval in December 2021.
In fall 2020, writers will work on Grade 11 and 12 language arts (in French and English), social studies and wellness, with approval by fall 2021. They aim to have Grade 11 and 12 curriculum in math, sciences and arts approved by December 2022.
The government has yet to decide when any of the new curriculum will be tested or mandated for use in Alberta classrooms.
WHO IS WRITING THE CURRICULUM?
As of September 2017, there were 409 people working on the Alberta curriculum, including 81 Alberta Education staff.
Albertans wanted the curriculum to have an increased focus on basic math and literacy skills, financial literacy, the environment and career preparation.
In comparison, B.C. has one director and seven education ministry staff working on its similar K-12 curriculum overhaul, along with about 200 other educators.
The other Alberta writers are:
Public school teachers, including ■
Indigenous representatives: 163
Catholic school teachers, including ■ Indigenous representatives: 68
Francophone teachers: 19
■
First Nations, Métis and Inuit ■ teachers: 12
Charter and private school ■ teachers: eight
University and college professors: ■ 32
Northwest Territories representatives: ■ 13
Nunavut representatives: 3
■
Others: 10
■
Regardless of whether they are trained as elementary or secondary teachers, all working group members will be involved in development of curriculum for all grades, to ensure continuity throughout the subject, said Lindsay Harvey, press secretary for the education minister.
Although government will not release a list of curriculum writers, citing privacy concerns, some professors and teachers have publicly stated they are involved. Ministry employees who work on curriculum are listed online in the government directory.
The government has not released curriculum writers’ or volunteers’ names during previous iterations of the process. For each program of studies currently posted on the ministry’s website, contact names are listed at the bottom of the page.
WHY REWRITE ALL SUBJECTS AND GRADES AT ONCE?
For consistency, Alberta Education said. Subjects in the current curriculum were written at different times, when different educational philosophies and lingo were in vogue, creating a patchwork of approaches between subjects. The government wants the new curriculum to use the same organization, themes and terminology throughout, and make it easy for teachers to see how they can plan lessons that touch on more than one subject area.
The government would also like to see schools aim for students to achieve common skills across all subjects, referred to as “competencies.” The eight priorities listed in Alberta’s guiding framework for writing the curriculum are critical thinking, problem solving, managing information, creativity and innovation, communication, collaboration, cultural and global citizenship, and personal growth and well-being.
Current curricula in some subjects are also outdated, and written before the internet was in general public use. For instance, the 30-year-old high school art curriculum makes no mention of digital media.
HOW DOES THIS PROCESS COMPARE TO THE PREVIOUS WRITING OF ALBERTA’S SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM?
The social studies curriculum was one of the subjects most recently revamped. That process, from initial discussions to deployment in all schools, took more than a decade. Work began in 1999, and it was in all classrooms by 2009.
Previously, Alberta was a partner in the Western and Northern Canadian Protocol, which was a group of education ministry staff from the four western provinces and three territories that developed a common social studies curriculum framework together, then later refined it for their local needs. In 2000, Alberta’s education ministry decided the province should build its own social studies curriculum, as provinces wanted more local focus.
Alberta Education staff and some teachers on loan for the project wrote the curriculum, then sent it out to an advisory committee consisting of about 30 teachers, school trustees, superintendents, university professors and people with francophone, First Nations, and Métis organizations.
Ramsey, the Slave Lake-based distance learning teacher, said the last round of curriculum work found her reviewing, but not writing, the program. Last time, the committee met less frequently, and the overall structure of the curriculum stayed similar, she said. Only the revamp of high school courses had teachers involved in the writing process, according to the ministry.
“It’s quite different than this process,” Ramsey said. “We are starting at the beginning.”
The new social studies curriculum will have a new structure, and new outcomes based on new themes.
Between 1999 and 2003, the government held public consultations separately into the K-9 and high school social studies curriculum, including 22 in-person meetings, one of which was in the Northwest Territories. People sent feedback by mail, email and fax. Drafts of the existing curriculum were posted online for a few years before they were introduced.
Different grades were done at different times, with kindergarten to Grade 3 receiving the minister’s signature in 2005, Grades 4 and 7 in 2006, and Grades 5, 6, and 8 through 12 in 2007.
The curriculum was phased into classrooms over a five-year period, starting with K-3 in 2005, and finishing with Grades 6, 9, and 12 in 2009.
The government also worked with contracted publishers to develop new resources, which select teachers tested in classrooms while trying out the new curriculum.
HOW DOES THIS PROCESS COMPARE TO THE RECENT REWRITING OF ALBERTA’S MATH CURRICULUM?
Alberta’s current K-9 math curriculum is based on a framework developed by the Western and Northern Canadian Protocol — a group of representatives from the seven jurisdictions who agreed on common educational goals in math. Six Alberta Education employees were involved.
Likewise, Alberta’s high school math curriculum is based on a similar Western and Northern Canadian Protocol document for Grades 10-12. Seven Alberta Education employees were involved.
The grunt work on those shared curricula began in 2003 with expansive reviews of research, and surveys of teachers, parents, professors and post-secondary instructors.
Alberta teachers, post-secondary institutions, parents and administrators all gave input via an online survey, focus groups, round tables, advisory committees and at presentations to teachers’ conventions. The documents were made public for feedback between one and three years before the curriculum was in use, depending on the grade level.
The education minister approved the K-9 math curriculum in 2007, and the high school curriculum in 2008. In fall 2008, kindergarten, Grade 1, 4 and 7 were the first students to use the new curriculum. The rollout took another four years, with the Grade 12 math curriculum the last to be adopted in 2012.
As of 2015, Alberta is no longer part of the interprovincial curriculum group. In 2009, British Columbia was the first province to move away from the partnership.
The eight priorities listed in Alberta’s ... framework for writing the curriculum are critical thinking, problem solving, managing information, creativity and innovation, communication, collaboration, cultural and global citizenship, and personal growth and well-being.