Province finalizing teacher competency standards

WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s independent education commissioner will have new powers to field and probe complaints about teacher performance in time for back-to-school season.

Following a mid-summer consultation process that critics are calling “hurried,” the Education Department is finalizing teacher competency standards for Sept. 2.

A draft version suggests teachers must be knowledgeable about the curriculum, committed to student success and positive collegiality, foster a safe and inclusive environment and respect Indigenous people, languages and cultures.

The approved list will replace a patchwork of expectations currently released by unions and employers.

“If I was a new teacher starting out, I think it would be reassuring to me to know what the standard is across the province,” said Bobbi Taillefer, who oversees the new teacher disciplinary process that came online in January.

Taillefer said a soon-to-be-released regulation will make it easier for teachers to transition between schools and better align Manitoba with the rest of the country.

People for Public Education is urging government officials to reconsider the decision to follow the lead of other jurisdictions.

Members of the group, which is made up of academics, parents and other supporters of equitable, accessible and well-funded public schools, are accusing the province of rushing consultations over the summer break.

Melanie Janzen, one of its founding members, has asked the province to call off the project in its entirety, citing her research on the “teacher competence movement.”

Competence may sound like a “common-sense notion,” but it is often motivated by efforts to deprofessionalize teachers and privatize public education, said Janzen, an education professor at the University of Manitoba.

“Imposing teacher competences undermines teacher professional judgment and autonomy, constitutes teaching as a simplistic and technical endeavour, and therefore engenders a narrative that ‘anyone can teach,’” she wrote in an Aug. 13 submission to the province.

Janzen later told the Free Press it is all but impossible to capture “the intellectual, relational and ethical work that is teaching” in a written document.

Education Minister Tracy Schmidt defended the initiative as one that will provide more transparency to parents.

Schmidt noted that superintendents and other stakeholders, as well as members of the public, had an opportunity to weigh in on the draft.

An online survey was up on EngageMB between July 16 and Saturday.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society has requested the province eliminate redundancies and broaden language to demand its members be engaged in reconciliation rather than explicit relationship-building with Indigenous families, because not all teachers will have students who are First Nations, Métis or Inuit.

President Lillian Klausen said the union will support the standards “if they’re done right” and address teachers’ needs, such as the time and funding required to complete professional development.

“Teachers aren’t, on their own, responsible for all the competences when it comes to things like professional development,” said Klausen, who represents 16,600 public school teachers.

She said she’s hopeful that provincial standards will ensure school divisions fulfil their obligations to keep teachers up to date with best practices.

Some teachers have reported their employers dialing back training opportunities in response to budget constraints and substitute shortages, Klausen noted.

As Manitoba’s inaugural commissioner of teacher professional conduct, Taillefer has been investigating allegations of misconduct since Jan. 6.

In two weeks’ time, her office will also look into concerns about teachers’ ability to carry out their professional duties.

“It allows students, parents, others, the ability — if they feel its necessary — to make a complaint if they’re not satisfied with the standards that a teacher is meeting,” Taillefer said.

While noting some teachers are concerned about the possibility of facing vexatious or frivolous complaints, she said it will be fairly easy to dismiss cases that do not have merit.

She cited the ability to quickly scan a teacher’s résumé, including their participation in professional development, and access their employer’s performance evaluations.

The introduction of standards won’t “shock” the system, but rather formalize existing practices, Taillefer added.

Her 30-year career in education includes overseeing the operational side of the MTS. The union has long-established standards of conduct via its code of professional practice.

The first of 11 clauses in that document states a public school teacher’s first professional responsibility is to their students.

Among the others, MTS members are bound to principles of acting with integrity and diligence, avoiding conflicts of interest and respecting the confidential nature of information concerning students.

» Winnipeg Free Press