EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
TELLING THE STORY OF
TRANSFORMATION IN B.C.:
A NOTE ON LANGUAGE
While this case describes a specific curriculum
reform and refers to key actors who have promoted
its creation and spread, it is important to note at the
outset that the language of reform would be rejected
by those involved. A typical way of understanding
reform is as a process instigated and led by key
actors, who find ways to scale or spread their vision to
change a system. In contrast, in B.C. diverse leaders
both within and outside government have worked to
enable a bottom-up change: While the ministry holds
formal authority to prescribe the curriculum standards
and provincial assessments, ministry and district
administrators understand that pedagogical change
has to be led by teachers.2 Rather than an orchestrated
reform, it may be useful to think of Donella Meadows'
model of transformation, whereby a system change
emerges from the connection of different communities,
as a mental model for how change is occurring in B.C.
| The reform journey
In 2010, B.C.'s Ministry of Education formally initiated
a curriculum review, in line with a 10-year cycle. From
the start, however, it was intended to be different from
previous curriculum updates, which had resulted in
"binders being sent to schools and sitting on shelves."
Spearheading an alternative approach were the deputy
minister, James Gorman, and two former district
superintendents who had been previously seconded into
the ministry, Rod Allen and Maureen Dockendorf. Allen's
role in particular evolved from being a "superintendent
of achievement"-responsible for improvement of
standards across districts -to a new, more open-ended
concept of "superintendent of learning." In this role,
Allen had been given scope to break down silos in the
"learning division," the floor of the ministry responsible
for curriculum and assessment, and to foster a more
collaborative way of working.
2
While the reform marked a departure in the ministry's
approach, in terms of its pedagogical philosophy, it
built on previous efforts. In the 1990s, the ministry
briefly promoted an agenda known as "Curriculum
2000," which was intended to allow more self-directed
learning and use of information technology in schools.
Officially, the agenda was soon dropped in a change
of government, but it meant that some schools had
already started to experiment with more student-
centered practices and some in the ministry were
primed to think more expansively about the potential
of curriculum change. Over the decade from 2000 to
2010, the emerging consensus was that the curriculum
required fewer standards and more scope for holistic
outcomes. Some key influences during the 2000s
included a ministry visit from John Abbott, a former
principal in England and founder of the 21st Century
Learning Initiative; from Dylan Williams, one of the
proponents of Assessment for Learning; and Valerie
Hannon, co-founder of the U.K.'s Innovation Unit.
In October 2011, the ministry put out a public
website announcing the intention to create a "B.C.
Ed Plan." Rather than presenting a finished plan, they
invited public response to a short, lively animation
accompanied by thought pieces. In addition to the
website, they sought responses through public
consultations held across the province.
A COLLABORATIVE PROCESS
While the Ministry of Education instigated the "Learning
Plan," the vision and content of the curriculum
developed in partnership with system stakeholders.
George Abbott, minister of education from 2011-13,
was particularly intentional about attempting to mend
relations with the provincial union-the BCTF-and the
curriculum became a key point of collaboration and
consensus, even in a period of teacher strikes.
During the first stage of the curriculum reform in 2012,
the government re-introduced legislation, first passed in
2002 but then ruled unconstitutional, which limited the
BCTF's ability to strike over class size and composition.
This notion of "bottom-up" change has been framed in different ways at different points in time. An early advisor to the ministry, David
Albury, compared the necessary approach to that of social movements. Others now use the language of "emergence," derived from
complexity theory, to describe how a new approach to education in the province is arising through the overlapping and intersecting work
of many teachers, districts, and networks.
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