Structure of new regulatory agency limits role of teachers on disciplinary panels
Tension between the union representing teachers in British Columbia and the provincial government intensified in January with the implementation of a new agency responsible for investigating complaints and meting out discipline.
The Teacher Regulation Branch replaces the former B.C. College of Teachers, which had been accused of being too cozy with the B.C. Teacher’s Federation (BCTF).
A report commissioned by the provincial government in 2010 raised concerns about the college’s credibility and independence, and recommended the creation of a new branch of the education ministry.
Although union members will numerically dominate the new council that sets standards for teachers, the union will no longer hold majority seats on the disciplinary board and hearing panels.
BCTF president Susan Lambert is concerned by what the union sees as a “much diminished” role for teachers in regulating their profession.
“It’s a mostly bureaucratic structure,” she says. “It’s operating like a bull in a china shop without consultation of the profession. If you don’t have teachers involved in the regulation of the profession, you don’t make informed decisions.”
Two decisions have already been made without teacher consultation, Lambert says.
Retired teachers will no longer be allowed to keep their certification, and members on long-term disability will now have to maintain their certification fees while on leave, or lose their position.
“I’m concerned this is an indicator of how the structure will work in future,” she says.
The regulation of teachers in Canada falls under a patchwork of agencies and ministries.
Next door, in Alberta, certification falls under the provincial jurisdiction while it’s up to the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) to decide competency, and up to local school authorities to manage complaints.
“That allows us to define the kinds of teachers we want teaching in our system and assures parents that their needs are being understood at a school, ATA and government level,” says Marc Prefontaine, registrar and director of teacher development and certification with Alberta Education, adding over time the ATA has actually taken on more responsibility, not less, for regulating its members.
There are also practical reasons for this arrangement, he says.
For example, Alberta negotiated a labour mobility agreement with several provinces that allows for teacher credential recognition from province to province.
Following the change in B.C., Ontario is now the only province with a separate college of teachers.
The college and affiliates have found a comfortable distance from each other, says Francine LeBlanc-Lebel, president of the Ontario Teachers Federation (OTF), the umbrella organization for the province’s four teacher affiliates.
While teachers do sit on college committees, they must be elected by their peers and cannot hold full-time positions within the union.
“There is a clear line in Ontario between the regulatory body for the profession — the Ontario College of Teachers — and the professional organization which advocates for the profession — the Ontario Teachers’ Federation,” she says.
All parties also take an oath that says they will put their work with the college above all other affiliations, says Philip Carter, manager of communications.
While that may work in Ontario, the line was less clear in B.C., according to Ken Thornicroft, a labour studies expert at the University of Victoria.
“The BCTF tried to arrange for its loyal foot soldiers to be on the committees,” he says.
He adds that professions that regulate themselves require full transparency, something he says the BCTF didn’t achieve because hearings were held in private.
By contrast, the Ontario College of Teachers recently started posting the results of disciplinary hearings online.
But even with increased transparency, Thornicroft says there’s more room for conflict when the professional body also acts as a bargaining agent.
“The union’s job is to protect its members,” he says. “Their job is to advance the profit and working conditions of their members, not to protect them in a regulatory environment.”
Meanwhile, the BCTF has expressed concern that teachers’ privacy could be compromised under the structure of the new agency.
Thornicroft says as public servants, teachers have to accept public scrutiny.
“The public has a right to know because they’re public funds and they’re public jobs,” he says.
