Contested Classrooms

by Harrison, Trevor W.; Kachur, Jerrold L.

• ISBN13: 9780888643155
• ISBN10: 0888643152
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-01
• Publisher: Univ Ff Alberta Pr

Summary

Education has become a battlefield, the classroom the arena where the contest is fought. The 1997 Ontario teachers' strike, the federal government's Millennium Scholarship, and a wave of protests across the country are among the signals that the war is heating up. Alberta stands as a Canadian model of radical education reform, propelled by economic necessity. But is all reform necessarily right or good?-and who decides? A range of commentators-teachers, scholars, parents, and others-discuss the conflict in Alberta's schools.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Contributors	x
Introduction: Public Education, Globalization, and Democracy: Whither Alberta?	xiii
Globalization and Educational Change
1 Passing Fancies: Educational Changes in Alberta	3	(18)
Kas Mazurek
2 Constructing the Perpetual Learner: Education, Technology, and the New Economy	21	(12)
Lee Easton
3 The "Alberta Advantage": For Whom?	33	(12)
Trevor W. Harrison
4 The Marketing of the University	45	(14)
Tom Pocklington
The Politics of Educational Restructuring in Alberta
5 Orchestrating Delusions: Ideology and Consent in Alberta	59	(16)
Jerrold L. Kachur
6 Re-Investment Fables: Educational Finances in Alberta	75	(10)
Dean Neu
7 Deep and Brutal: Funding Cuts to Education in Alberta	85	(14)
Frank Peters
8 From Boardroom to Classroom: School Reformers in Alberta	99	(8)
Alison Taylor
9 Privatizing Public Choice: The Rise of Charter Schooling in Alberta	107	(16)
Jerrold L. Kachur
10 Challenging Restructuring: The Alberta Teachers' Association	123	(16)
D.J. Flower and H.L. Booi
Re-organizing Schools: Scenes from the Classrooms
11 Is it Just a Matter of Time? Part-Time Teaching Employment in Alberta	139	(12)
Beth Young
12 Board Games: The New (But Old) Rules	151	(14)
Judith Evans
13 The Principalship at the Crossroads	165	(12)
Norm Yanitski and David Pysyk
Conclusion	177	(6)
Appendices	183