Strike aftermath leaves many Alberta teachers isolated, looking for new work

solitariness, a signified of closing off and that no 1 has her endorse — that’s what has Jesica Torres searching for a new teaching position outside of Alberta.

After going on strike to fight for better classroom conditions, she expected to feel support from the public.

“After the strike, I thought: ‘I’m going to walk into my class and see all my students in red.’ But there was only two,” said the Calgary-based Grade 5 teacher, referring to the colour that became a symbol of support for teachers during the weeks-long strike last fall. 

“It feels like we’re all alone,” she said. 

“I’m not feeling like people recognize the challenges we're going through, recognize how hard I'm working for the children of Alberta. It's not a good feeling.”

More than 5,000 said they were feeling pessimistic — that things are unlikely to get better before they get worse in the province's schools — despite the sacrifices during the strike and political reassurances afterward.

How are Alberta teachers feeling three months after striking?

Only 126 respondents said they feel hopeful.

And in response to another question, three in 10 said they are trying to leave — actively looking for work outside teaching or outside the province, or considering early retirement.

The provincial government has since promised a seven-per-cent increase to the education budget, but it’s not clear that will be enough to lift morale.

Torres said she’s already filled out her application for certification to teach in British Columbia. She just needs to pay the fee.

“I’m a fourth-generation Albertan,” she said. “A little part of me wants to hold out. [But] when you go home feeling like you fail your students every day, it just becomes morally exhausting.”

We asked how they’re doing, whether they still support the decision to fight for smaller class sizes, and for their thoughts on the policy of inclusion (placing students with highly complex needs in neighbourhood schools).

We also asked what they would report on if they were a journalist for a week, and heard about the growing mistrust between some parents and teachers, ineffective discipline policies at some schools, children with exceptionally high medical needs or behavioural challenges, and new elementary curriculum rolled out with few textbooks or other supplied resources.

There was a lot of anger — much of it directed at the government, some at union officials, and in a few cases, against school district leaders.

We’ll be following up on the ideas these responses sparked.

The questionnaire was a listening exercise sent to as many teachers and educational staff as possible. It is not a scientifically-validated random sample and was not locked with a password for teachers only. We’re not interpreting the results as having statistical certainty.

But with more than 6,000 responses, it gives a window into Alberta’s schools and a starting point for deeper understanding.

The biggest insight was how demoralized many teachers became.

We asked: how do you currently feel about working in a school setting? While about 400 teachers and principals told us their feelings toward school haven’t changed, many more wrote responses like:

Some said they feel ineffective because of the volume of demands they face. That’s not just the number of students they’re required to teach, but the fact that so many students require individual teaching plans — sometimes an entirely different lesson plan if they are operating several grades behind the rest of the class. 

Many teachers and principals worry about a looming staffing crisis as colleagues leave the system.

Last fall, 51,000 teachers across Alberta were on strike for more than three weeks, from Oct. 6 to 29. Teachers were asking for a cap on the size and complexity of classrooms, in addition to a salary increase. The strike ended when the UCP government imposed a contract and invoked the notwithstanding clause.

The provincial government also promised additional teachers, created a cabinet committee with a mandate to address challenges in Alberta’s public schools and started to collect data on classroom complexity.

While the vast majority of teachers who took our questionnaire were pessimistic, a few expressed hope for change.

Marni Kondor teaches Grade 4 in Edmonton and has a class of 26 kids, with about 30 per cent new to Canada and still learning English. There are other learning challenges, too. It’s one of the most complex classes she’s ever taught. 

But she’s learned to adjust expectations — she no longer aims to teach newcomer children about democracy in Alberta, as the curriculum suggests, but is simply happy to have them soak up the English language first.

And her colleagues build each other up in the lunchroom.

“She knows about the issues about the [English language learner] situation. She is fully aware and she was talking about it herself,” she said. “That's why I said, 'Maybe they're on the cusp of developing something where those new arrivals don't go right into a mainstream class.' They could get support to learn the language for a few months first.”

She’s giving Smith the benefit of the doubt and choosing to believe the government is working on solutions.

On the other hand, Red Deer high school math teacher Graham Langridge said he’s still feeling raw after the strike and struggles to see how teachers and schools ever recover from this.

“I feel a real despair,” he said. “I'm working hard, but I feel this pit in my stomach on a lot of days. [The experience] fundamentally damaged my trust in the institution.”

Langridge co-hosts a podcast called Harmonious Gentlemen, trying to find better ways to talk about contentious issues. He said he’s glad the strike gave him the chance to have “constructive conversations with skeptical friends” about how schools have changed.

But as for the provincial government, he emailed his MLA multiple times and invited him on the podcast with no luck. He’s cynical when he hears the government announcing new initiatives, such as collecting classroom complexity data, and notes that a seven-per-cent increase still leaves Alberta behind the national average for education funding.

“Can they actually hire and bring in that many teachers to a province that has shown disdain toward Albertan educators? How much of this will go toward our public schools, where the need is vast?” he said.

“I have an extremely hard time believing that this government truly cares for public education. I hope they prove me wrong.” 

What do you think about our reporting on Alberta schools? What would you like to see us report on next? Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.

Journalist

Elise Stolte has 20 years of experience telling the stories of her community and has been recognized for feature writing, social-impact and community-based journalism. Today she works as an editor and bridge to help communities tell their own stories with the newsroom. You can reach her at elise.stolte@cbc.ca.

---

---