The Politics of Educational Reform in Alberta

373 Pages·2001·17.903 MB·English

by  Alison Taylor

The Politics of
Educational Reform in Alberta
The Politics of Educational Reform in Alberta presents a case study
of educational restructuring in Alberta during the 'Klein revo-
lution' - the period of dramatic political and economic change
introduced by Premier Ralph Klein's Conservative government
of the 1990s. The government's 1994 business plan introduced
funding cuts in education, the amalgamation of school boards,
the centralization of funding, charter school legislation, ex-
panded provincial testing, and mandatory school councils. The
buzzwords for education reform were efficiency, accountabil-
ity, and choice.
Alison Taylor rigorously examines Klein's 'three-year plan'
for school reform to unveil the ways in which the Alberta gov-
ernment has allied itself with corporate interests. She also
examines what happens to the voices of teachers, parents, and
labour groups who have a different idea what school should be.
The Politics of Educational Reform in Alberta is a timely and
much-needed book. This multifaceted view of corporate in-
volvement in schooling will be invaluable to policy makers,
educators, academics, journalists, and concerned parents.
Alison Taylor is Assistant Professor in the Department of
Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta.
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The Politics of
Educational Reform
in Alberta
ALISON TAYLOR
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2001
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-4813-7 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8020-8352-8 (paper)
Printed on acid-free paper
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Taylor, Alison, 1959-
The politics of educational reform in Alberta
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-4813-7 (bound) ISBN 0-8020-8352-8 (pbk.)
1. Educational change - Alberta. 2. Education and state - Alberta.
3. Education - Alberta - Aims and objectives. 4. Industry and
education - Alberta. I. Title.
LC1085.4.C3T39 2000 379.7123 COO-932121-7
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities
and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts
Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publish-
ing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
To my parents, Agnes and David
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Contents
List of Tables viii
Preface ix
Abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction 3
2 The Crisis in Public Education 15
3 The Hegemonic Work of the Conference Board 34
4 The Hegemonic Work of Governments 52
5 Restructuring Education: 1993-1995 73
6 The Corporate Alliance 97
7 Partnerships as Sites of Struggle 132
8 The Fragmentation of Labour 167
9 The Diversity of'Producers' 204
10 Students, Parents, and Community 242
11 Alberta and Beyond 285
Appendix A 313
Appendix B 315
Notes 321
References 337
Index 349
Tables
5.1 Selected Results of Angus Reid Education Polls,
1994 to 1999 82
6.1 Business Participants 99
8.1 Labour Participants 169
9.1 Public Education Participants 206
10.1 Students, Parents, and Community Participants 244
B:l Total Labour Force by Industry Division 315
B:2 Calgary's Major Private Sector Employers 316
B:3 Calgary's Major Public Sector Employers 317
B:4 Occupation by Sex in Calgary, Alberta, and Canada 318
B:5 Employment Income by Sex and Work Activity 319
Preface
This book presents a case study of educational restructuring in
Alberta, Canada, focusing on the period between 1993 and 1995.
My interest in this topic arose from a growing awareness of the
extent of involvement by business people in Canada's educa-
tional policy discussions at both national and provincial levels.
In the spring of 1991 I heard about a conference on business-
education conferences organized by the Conference Board of
Canada. I attended this event, as well as others held in 1992 and
1993, and became interested in further exploring the discourses
around educational reform that were promoted at such events.
Moving to Alberta from Ontario in the fall of 1993 and being
swept along in the New Right politics of the newly elected Pro-
gressive Conservative government of Ralph Klein enabled me
to see parallels between these national level discourses and dis-
cussions around educational reform in Alberta. The three-year
business plan for education released in 1994 reflected interests
in tightening links between education and work, increasing effi-
ciencies within the system while cutting costs, and increasing
parental choice. It became clear that certain groups had influ-
enced the policy process while others had resisted the vision for
education that resulted. This study thus came to concentrate on
hegemonic work in education as well as on the initial responses
of other stakeholders to this work. The Alberta government uses
the term stakeholder to refer to groups perceived to have a vested
interest in education. The term also reflects the corporate Ian-