EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
Ministry of Advanced Education, Jan Unwin, was
tasked with getting agreement from the province's
universities on new graduation requirements. There
has been ongoing effort to negotiate a model with the
selective research universities that would provide them
with the information they needed for fair selection,
without letting those needs drive the design of the
graduation program. Since the introduction of a grade
12 literacy assessment in place of the former provincial
exams, universities have adopted "proficiency" in these
assessments as a key benchmark for entry.
Capacity building
and infrastructures
for change
To move from "paper to practice," the ministry has
relied on districts and informal networks to promote a
shift in pedagogy in line with the new curriculum.
DISTRICTS
Proactive districts have used several levers of change.
These include:
•
•
•
Use of funds: creating savings and repurposing
parts of budgets to cover the higher costs of new
models of cross-curricular, multi-age, or place-
based education pedagogical innovations, e.g.
transportation, staffing, and resource costs.
New professional development opportunities:
through international collaborations and
participation in province-wide networks, as well as
networking within and across districts.
Thought leadership and media communication:
creating videos and presentations to elevate
desirable practices in the district; creating new
opportunities to talk differently about curriculum,
teaching, and learning, including public forums and
"dinner series."
While increasing numbers of districts are taking
such actions and more, not all are so proactive. The
reliance on districts to influence a change in practice
represents a limit on spread: Collaboration between
districts is minimal, and some of the meetings and
programs that used to promote exchange of learning
have fallen to budget cuts. Provincial leaders also
believe that the fragility of the superintendent position
makes them cautious: If school boards do not like the
direction, they can fire the superintendent at any time,
and turnover can be high. Consequently, during the key
reform period, two-thirds of the members of the B.C.
Superintendent Association had been in their roles for
less than four years.
NETWORKS
While school districts structure provides the
predominant infrastructure for change, in terms of
spreading practice across the province, longstanding
teacher networks have played the key role. Among
the province's range of different teacher networks,
some are dedicated to specialist roles like teacher
librarians or information technologists, while others
support particular school types, like small or rural
schools. There are many branches of the Canadian
Assessment for Learning network that have been
hubs for developing new formative assessment
practices. In addition, the province's Networks of
Inquiry and Indigenous Education (NOIIE) have been
growing and developing since 2000, when they started
to spread the new literacy, numeracy, and social
responsibility standards. Both those standards and
the inquiry approach have provided a shared language
and mindset for teachers that was bedding down
long before this wave of curriculum reform. It is an
important foundation that has oriented teachers toward
close observation of their students' learning and
development (Kaser & Halbert, 2017).
RESOURCES
Core reform efforts have been funded by the ministry,
but the cost-in time and material resources-to develop
new pedagogical approaches has been borne by
districts and often individual teachers. There is an ethic
amongst B.C. educators to avoid funding from corporate
social responsibility, although Apple and Google have
played a noticeably larger role as more districts have
joined in partnerships to provide students with devices
EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
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