14 BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2016 I recently attended the Tri-National Conference in Defence of Public Education in May, and the weekend was definitely an “aha” moment for me in regard to social justice. Since I began teaching and engaging with our union, the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF), the link between social justice activism and what I interpreted to be our union’s mandate hadn’t been personally clear. I’ve spent four years teaching now, teaching on call in different schools in two districts in the greater Vancouver region, and—although lunchtime conversation rarely gives a comprehensive picture of how members feel—I have generally come to the conclusion that many of us BCTF members don’t fully understand the “why” behind much of what’s perceived as the BCTF’s social justice work. It’s taken me four years of questioning, reading, and conversing for me to even begin to wrap my head around it. The Tri- National Conference allowed me to finally begin to “get it.” This was the 12th Tri-National Conference and was held at UBC’s Student Union Centre. The room was full of new and experienced BCTF activists, as well as teachers from Mexico, Los Angeles, Nova Scotia, Québec, Ontario, Chicago, and more. This event offered an intimate setting for voices to be heard and questions to be answered, all with immediate relevancy and a roll-up-our-sleeves- and-get-going attitude from all. The commonalities among us were astonishing: frustration with irresponsible use of data from standardized testing, occupation of brick-and-mortar public schools by quasi-private charter schools... some of the teachers I spoke with Tri-National Conference for Public Education Defense by Nicole Jarvis, Vice-President, Early Career Teachers’ Association, and teacher teaching on call in Surrey are paid raises in accordance with student test performance. It’s deeply disturbing. Can you imagine the state releasing a standardized test, and telling you your pay will be based on how your 130 students perform on it, regardless of each child’s individual learning path or subjective skills and weaknesses? Jobs get cut, and the staff left behind have to take up the additional workload. That includes clerks, education assistants, administrative jobs, janitorial staff, and more. We’re all being told to do more with less, and I found it extremely powerful to look at Chicago and Mexico in order to reflect on what’s going on here at home, not only in terms of being able to identify common problems, but also in being able to share methods and strategies for lobbying government with clear campaigns, for training new teachers when they begin their career so they fully understand their collective agreement rights, and for informing parents about what’s going on and about what role they can play in pushing back against austerity and public education funding cuts. I had dinner with the very same Chicago teachers featured in a documentary I saw years ago, Schoolidarity , and I was able to speak with the president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, Heather Smith, about plans for the BC Early Career Teachers’ Association; she pointed me toward some other good models for new-teacher union engagement. I was able to give her some social media ideas in return. Frankly, teachers don’t get to come together like this often enough. All professionals need opportunities to bond, to share, to network, to work together, and this was a prime example of how good it feels to all be together working for a common purpose. During breakout sessions and presentations, the translators did a fantastic job. We all wore radio sets so we could hear the translators overtop of the presenters speaking, and I was able to laugh at my horrible attempts at speaking Spanish (being a French teacher means I get my languages all mixed up). Mexican teachers, too, are concerned with the loss of place-based learning, with local teachers not being able to live off of a teacher’s salary, and with the significant loss of Indigenous culture due to the lack of community schools and native teachers. As a white, Jewish woman living in urban Canada, sometimes I struggle with understanding my privilege. But when I look at the horror stories coming from Mexico, like retired Oaxacan teachers being told there is no money to give them their pension payments, I’m reminded just how vulnerable middle-class workers can be in the face of neo-liberal austerity governments that are reckless with social services and public accountability, when the masses are demobilized and apathetic. I live paycheck to paycheck, but I have a car, a (relatively) stable career, food, a pension, and a roof over my head. This experience reminded me not to have unrealistic expectations of myself; to be truly thankful to have been born in a place where I can have a voice against political austerity without feeling scared for my safety, for the safety of my home, for the safety of my family. I live in
Transcript
14 BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2016
I recently attended the Tri-National
Conference in Defence of Public
Education in May, and the weekend
was de�nitely an “aha” moment for
me in regard to social justice. Since
I began teaching and engaging
with our union, the BC Teachers’
Federation (BCTF), the link between
social justice activism and what
I interpreted to be our union’s
mandate hadn’t been personally
clear. I’ve spent four years teaching
now, teaching on call in di�erent
schools in two districts in the greater
Vancouver region, and—although
lunchtime conversation rarely gives
a comprehensive picture of how
members feel—I have generally
come to the conclusion that many
of us BCTF members don’t fully
understand the “why” behind much
of what’s perceived as the BCTF’s
social justice work. It’s taken me four
years of questioning, reading, and
conversing for me to even begin to
wrap my head around it. The Tri-
National Conference allowed me to
�nally begin to “get it.” This was the
12th Tri-National Conference and
was held at UBC’s Student Union
Centre. The room was full of new
and experienced BCTF activists,
as well as teachers from Mexico,
Los Angeles, Nova Scotia, Québec,
Ontario, Chicago, and more. This
event o�ered an intimate setting for
voices to be heard and questions
to be answered, all with immediate
relevancy and a roll-up-our-sleeves-
and-get-going attitude from all.
The commonalities among us
were astonishing: frustration with
irresponsible use of data from
standardized testing, occupation
of brick-and-mortar public schools
by quasi-private charter schools...
some of the teachers I spoke with
Tri-National Conference for Public Education Defenseby Nicole Jarvis, Vice-President, Early Career Teachers’ Association, and teacher teaching on call in Surrey
are paid raises in accordance
with student test performance.
It’s deeply disturbing. Can you
imagine the state releasing a
standardized test, and telling you
your pay will be based on how
your 130 students perform on it,
regardless of each child’s individual
learning path or subjective skills
and weaknesses? Jobs get cut,
and the sta� left behind have to
take up the additional workload.
That includes clerks, education
assistants, administrative jobs,
janitorial sta�, and more. We’re all
being told to do more with less,
and I found it extremely powerful
to look at Chicago and Mexico in
order to re!ect on what’s going
on here at home, not only in terms
of being able to identify common
problems, but also in being able
to share methods and strategies
for lobbying government with
clear campaigns, for training new
teachers when they begin their
career so they fully understand their
collective agreement rights, and
for informing parents about what’s
going on and about what role they
can play in pushing back against
austerity and public education
funding cuts. I had dinner with the
very same Chicago teachers featured
in a documentary I saw years ago,
Schoolidarity, and I was able to speak
with the president of the Canadian
Teachers’ Federation, Heather
Smith, about plans for the BC Early
Career Teachers’ Association; she
pointed me toward some other
good models for new-teacher union
engagement. I was able to give her
some social media ideas in return.
Frankly, teachers don’t get to come
together like this often enough. All
professionals need opportunities
to bond, to share, to network, to
work together, and this was a prime
example of how good it feels to all
be together working for a common
purpose.
During breakout sessions and
presentations, the translators did a
fantastic job. We all wore radio sets
so we could hear the translators
overtop of the presenters speaking,
and I was able to laugh at my
horrible attempts at speaking
Spanish (being a French teacher
means I get my languages all
mixed up). Mexican teachers, too,
are concerned with the loss of
place-based learning, with local
teachers not being able to live
o� of a teacher’s salary, and with
the signi�cant loss of Indigenous
culture due to the lack of community
schools and native teachers.
As a white, Jewish woman living in
urban Canada, sometimes I struggle
with understanding my privilege.
But when I look at the horror stories
coming from Mexico, like retired
Oaxacan teachers being told there is
no money to give them their pension
payments, I’m reminded just how
vulnerable middle-class workers can
be in the face of neo-liberal austerity
governments that are reckless
with social services and public
accountability, when the masses are
demobilized and apathetic. I live
paycheck to paycheck, but I have a
car, a (relatively) stable career, food,
a pension, and a roof over my head.
This experience reminded me not
to have unrealistic expectations
of myself; to be truly thankful to
have been born in a place where
I can have a voice against political
austerity without feeling scared for
my safety, for the safety of my home,
for the safety of my family. I live in
BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2016 15
a place where I can go on national
television and invite parents to come
talk with us on picket lines to �nd
out the truth of what we need and
want in our contract negotiations.
I can do that and still wake up safe
and sound in my bed the next day.
If families choose to stay with our
public schools, it’s often because,
economically, they have no other
choice. Therefore, the continual
basis for our student population
will be those who cannot a�ord
private school, who are socio-
economically marginalized, who
don’t “�t in” with the upper echelon
of capitalist society. Our schools
are their schools. Our schools are
the ones that welcome all students:
tall or short; rich or poor; athletic or
intellectual; creative or shy; black or
white; Muslim or Christian; English or
English language learning; girl, boy,
or trans*. Our schools are beautiful,
complex, messy, proud. When our
union �ghts for LGBTQ policies
and for gender-neutral bathrooms,
our union is �ghting for our schools
to stay relevant, to evolve with the
changing needs of our student body.
This is an age of enlightenment. We
have access to information at the
touch of a button, and, while it takes
time to change systems,
we have the
incredible
gift of being able
to push our pedagogy
further than it has
ever gone before. I
am passionate about
sharing best practices
via Twitter and via
professional specialist
association newsletters
and in face-to-face
sharing sessions.
Teachers can learn
from each other and
engage in powerful
facilitation for student
learning, and yet here
we are facing tactics
for privatization, as
if society somehow
bene�ts from separating people
instead of by bringing us all together.
It hurts me to think of raising children
in a society where black students
have to go to one school while white
students attend another. We think
we’ve gotten past segregation, but in
fact what the civil rights movement
fought back against in the 20th
century is not so di�erent from what
we face now in 21st century BC,
Chicago, Mexico: what we face now
is an increase in socio-economic
segregation. What we face is neo-
liberal rhetoric that cuts down to our
very core. We need to be better at
delivering the arguments against
austerity. Drawing parallels between
Oaxaca, Chicago, Burnaby, Comox is
an e�ective method for opening the
public’s eyes to what’s going on.
During our strikes, we have asked
society to lift their eyes to meet ours,
to acknowledge political tyranny
and to take action to reinforce what
is right and what is best for the long-
term health of public education.
Private school teachers have quietly
donated to strike relief funds,
knowing that we’re swallowing a
bitter pill for the big picture. If we
are not engaging in social justice
work on an ongoing basis, it would
mean we’re e�ectively keeping our
heads down and ignoring problems
around us that could be alleviated
by our collective voice and attention.
Our union leaders have a keen sense
of what we’re up against, and every
single time we engage in a social
justice project we are bringing back
hugely valuable contacts, allies,
methods, and more.
It’s important for us to know how
to respond when people ask
questions—or make assumptions—
about the stability of public
education funding in our respective
societies. The more people who
ask about budget cuts, the more
we need them to understand how
education is funded, and where
the education has fallen short, so
they can better understand the
importance of full and equitable
funding. Sometimes it takes
stepping back to look at other
models of austerity governments
and their impacts on their societies
in order to turn a newly critical lens
on our own situation here in BC. As
educators, we often use analogy as
a technique for helping our students
come to new understandings. We
can look to Finland as a positive
example for education, and we
can look to the United States as a
16 BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2016
Non-sexist and inclusive pedagogy: A weekend of solidarityby Steven Lloyd, President, Sea to Sky Teachers’ Association. Originally printed in Howe It Sounds: bit.ly/1XXcab8
If you take something from me, that’s not right.
Even if it doesn’t matter much. Nobody just takes stu�.
It’s worse if you take something important. I’ll want it
back. Even if getting it back is impossible, I won’t let you
take more. I’ll try hard to make you stop.
That’s what I should do—isn’t it? If you take from my
whole community, we all might try to stop it. Really try.
Still, you might keep taking. If you do, we’ll have
problems…
Daysi Marquez was in BC with her friend and colleague
Esperanza Tasies to teach BC Teachers’ Federation
(BCTF) members and others how to deconstruct sexism
in its various forms, using methods they developed in
Honduras and Costa Rica, respectively, for classroom
teachers. Both Daysi and Esperanza are classroom
teachers, though Esperanza has gone on to a doctorate
and other teaching challenges. They taught the May 6–7,
2016, workshop in Surrey with the support of the BCTF
and our partner CoDev Canada.
Daysi and Esperanza teach about changing reality. Since
reality—what we understand to be true—is socially
constructed (i.e., what we all decide it is), we can decide
to change what reality is in our lives and culture. (Think
of Mad Men and smoking over breakfast and the deeply
imbued sexism, racism, etc., of the 1950s and 1960s,
for example.) The workshop infused 30 participants
with deeper understanding and provided highly useful
tools—cognitive tools—to e�ect social change, a mind
at a time.
Of course, sexism isn’t just wrong. It’s illegal. It
contravenes the BC Human Rights Code, the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the UN Declaration of
Human Rights, and on the list goes. But it’s also just
wrong. So are many other kinds, tools, and “realities” of
oppression. Most are illegal too; but most importantly,
none are immutable. None are “just how it is”—at least,
