Teachers’ organizations (associations, federations and unions) have been part of the fabric of public educational life in Canada for many decades. While local ad hoc groups sprang up at various times in response to their members’ particular occupational needs, their presence was formalized by the major provincial Education Acts passed during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s (Young and Levin, 1998) which established their right to legal representation of teachers. While their purview varies from province to province, most have been able to claim the compulsory membership of all public educators (and sometimes school administrators); to play some part in shaping provincial educational policy and negotiating the conditions of educators’ work locally; and to have a role in educators’ career development by providing formal and informal opportunities for leadership and professional development.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bailey, B., 2000, The impact of mandated change on teachers, in N. Bascia & A. Hargreaves (Eds.), The Sharp Edge of Educational Change: Teaching, Leading and the Realities of Reform, Falmer Press, London.
Ball, S., 1987, The Micropolitics of the School, Methuen Press, London.
Ball, S., 1990, Politics and Policy Making in Education: Explorations in Policy Sociology. London: Routledge.
Bascia, N., 1990, Teachers’ evaluations of unions, Journal of Educational Policy, 5(4): 301–313.
Bascia, N., 1994a, Unions in Teachers’ Professional Lives: Social, Practical, and Intellectual Concerns, Teachers College Press, New York.
Bascia, N., 1994b, Creating a Culture of Change Initiative, Evaluation Report prepared for Ontario Ministry of Education and Training and the Ontario Teachers’ Federation, Toronto, Canada.
Bascia, N., 1996, Caught in the crossfire: restructuring, collaboration, and the “problem” school, Urban Education, 31(2): 177–198.
Bascia, N., 1997, Invisible leadership: teachers’ union activity in schools, Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 43(2): 151–165.
Bascia, N., 1998a, Changing roles for teachers’ federations, Orbit (From Reform to Renewal: Beyond Bill 160), 29(1): 37–40.
Bascia, N., 1998b, Women teachers, union affiliation, and the future of North American teacher unionism, Teaching and Teacher Education, 14(5): 551–563.
Bascia, N., 1998c, The next steps in teacher union research and reform, Contemporary Education, 69(4): 210–213.
Bascia, N., 1998d, Teacher unions and educational reform, in A. Hargreaves, A. Lieberman, M. Fullan & D. Hopkins (Eds.), The International Handbook of Educational Change, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Bascia, N., 2000, The other side of the equation: professional development and the organizational capacity of teachers’ organizations, Education Policy, 14(3): 385–404.
Bascia, N. & Hargreaves, A., 2000, Teaching and leading on the sharp edge of change, in N. Bascia & A. Hargreaves (Eds.), The Sharp Edge of Educational Change: Teaching, Leading and the Realities of Reform, Falmer Press, London.
Bascia, N., Stiegelbauer, S., Jacka, N., Watson, N. & Fullan, M., November 1997, Teacher Associations and School Reform: Building Stronger Connections, an external review of the NCI Learning Laboratories Initiative, prepared for the National Education Association, Washington, DC.
Blackmore, J., 1999, Troubling Women: Feminism, Leadership and Educational Change, Open University Press, Philadelphia.
Carlson, D., 1992, Teachers and Crisis. Urban School Reform and Teachers’ Work Culture, Routledge Chapman & Hall, New York.
Cochran-Smith, M. & Lytle, S., 1992, Communities for teacher research: fringe or forefront? American Journal of Education, May (11): 298–324.
Corson, D., 1995, Discursive power in educational organizations: an introduction, in D. Corson (Ed.), Discourse and Power in Educational Organizations, OISE Press, Toronto.
Earl, L., Bascia, N., Hargreaves, A. & Jacka, N., 1998, Teachers and Teaching in Changing Times: A Glimpse of Canadian Teachers in 1998, prepared for the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, International Centre for Educational Change (OISE/UT), Toronto, Canada.
Flower, D. &. Booi, H., 1999, Challenging restructuring: the Alberta Teachers’ Association, in T. Harrison & J. Kachur (Eds.), Contested Classrooms: Education, Globalization, and Democracy in Alberta, University of Alberta Press, Edmonton.
Foley, G., 1999, Learning and Social Action: A Contribution of Understanding Informal Education, Zed Books, London.
Fraser, C., 1998, Teacher activism in the 1990s (Book Review), Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 44(4): 265–268.
Hargreaves, A., 1994, Changing Teachers, Changing Times: Teachers’ Work and Culture in the Postmodern Age, Cassell, London.
Hargreaves, A. & Fullan, M., 1998, What’s Worth Fighting for Out There? Ontario Public School Teachers’ Federation, 2nd edn., Toronto.
Harrison, T., 1999, The “Alberta Advantage”: for whom? In T. Harrison & J. Kachur (Eds.) Contested Classrooms: Education, Globalization, and Democracy in Alberta, University of Alberta Press, Edmonton.
Harrison, T. & Kachur, J., 1999, Contested Classrooms: Education, Globalization, and Democracy. University of Alberta Press, Edmonton.
Jung, R. & Kirst, M., 1986, Beyond Mutual Adaptation: Into the Bully Pulpit: Recent research on the federal role in education, Stanford Educational Policy Institute, Stanford, CA.
Kachur, J., 1999, Orchestrating delusions: ideology and consent in Alberta, in T. Harrison & J. Kachur (Eds.), Contested Classrooms: Education, Globalization, and Democracy in Alberta, University of Alberta Press, Edmonton.
Lawton, S., Bedard, G., MacLellan, D. & Li, X., 1999, Teachers’ Unions in Canada, Detselig, Calgary.
Lieberman, A. & Bascia, N., 1990, Assessment of the California Policy Trust Agreement Project, prepared for PACE (Policy Analysis for California Education) and the Stuart Foundation, Centre for Research on the Context of Secondary School Teaching, Stanford University School of Education, Stanford, CA.
Lieberman, M., 1997, The Teacher Unions: How the NEA and AFT Sabotage Reform and Hold Students, Parents, Teachers, and Taxpayers Hostage to Bureaucracy, Free Press, New York.
Little, J.W., 1993, Teachers’ professional development in a climate of educational reform, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15(2): 129–151.
McDonnell, L.M. &. Pascal, A.H., April 1988, Teacher Unions and Educational Reform, RAND Corporation Publication JRE-02, Washington, DC.
Metz, M., 1989, Real school: a universal drama amid disparate experience, in D. Mitchell & M. Goertz (Eds.), Education Politics for the New Century: The Twentieth Anniversary Yearbook of the Politics of Education Association, Falmer Press, London.
Meyer, J. & Rowan, B., 1977, Institutionalized organizations: formal structure as myth and ceremony, American Journal of Sociology, 83: 340–363.
Mitchell, D.E. & Kerchner, C.T., 1983, Labor relations and teacher policy, in L.S. Shulman & G. Sykes (Eds.), Handbook of Teaching and Policy, Washington, DC.
Nespor, J. 1997. Tangled up in School: Politics, Space, Bodies and Signs in the Educational Process. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Portelli, J. & Solomon, P. (Eds.), 2001, The Erosion of the Democratic Tradition in Education: From Critique to Possibilities, Detselig, Calgary.
Robertson, S. & Smaller, H. (Eds.), 1996, Teacher Activism in the 1990s. James Lorimer, Toronto.
Siskin, L.S. 1994. Realms of Knowledge: Academic departments in Secondary Schools. London: The Falmer Press.
Soucek, V. & Pannu, R., 1996, Globalizing education in Alberta: teachers’ work and the options to fight back, in S. Robertson & H. Smaller (Eds.), Teacher Activism in the 1990s, James Lorimer & Company, Toronto.
Thomas, G., Meyer, J., Ramirez, F. & Boli, J. (Eds.) 1987, Institutional Structure: Constituting State, Society, and the Individual, Sage, Newbury Park, CA.
Whitty, G., Powers, S., & Halpin, D., 1998, Devolution and Choice in Education: The State, the School and the Market, Open University Press, Buckingham.
Wodak, R., 1995, Power, discourse, and styles of female leadership in school committee meetings, in D. Corson (Ed.), Discourse and Power in Educational Organizations, OISE Press, Toronto.
Young, J. & Levin, B., 1998, Understanding Canadian Schools: An Introduction to Educational Administration, 2nd edn., Harcourt Brace, Toronto.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media, B.V
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bascia, N. (2008). Learning Through Struggle: How the Alberta Teachers' Association Maintains an Even Keel. In: Church, K., Bascia, N., Shragge, E. (eds) Learning through Community. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6654-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6654-2_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6653-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6654-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)