CSSE 2013 - Voracious Appetite of Online Teaching: Examining Labour Issues Related to K-12 Online Learning
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Barbour, M. K., Kuehn, L., & Adelstein, D. (2013, June). Voracious appetite of online teaching: Examining labour issues related to K-12 online learning. A paper presented at the annual Canadian Society for the Study of Education conference, Waterloo, ON.
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CSSE 2013 - Voracious Appetite of Online Teaching: Examining Labour Issues Related to K-12 Online Learning
- 1. Michael Barbour Wayne State University Larry Kuehn British Columbia Teachers Federation David Adelstein Wayne State University
- 3. 1. How does teaching in a distance or online environment compare with teaching in a traditional classroom environment? 2. What is the relationship of teachers’ unions with K-12 online learning in Canada, the United States and other countries within the context of each jurisdiction?
- 4. 1. How does teaching in a distance or online environment compare with teaching in a traditional classroom environment? 2. What is the relationship of teachers’ unions with K-12 online learning in Canada, the United States and other countries within the context of each jurisdiction?
- 5. distance and online learning generally occurs within the traditional public school system o exceptions include online private schools in Ontario and British Columbia • generally speaking, unions have been supportive o but cautious as unions try to understand what teaching in these environments means for their members
- 6. Newfoundland and Labrador union partners with K-12 online learning program to provide online professional development center Ontario Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation passes multiple resolutions supporting online learning prepares brief about online teacher working conditions for locals to use in collective bargaining Alberta commissioned several studies examining online teacher support, preparation, and workload conditions
- 7. Nova Scotia eleven provisions related to distance teaching in collective agreement focused on: o ensuring that distance education teachers have comparable workloads to their face-to-face counterparts o adequate and regular training to teach in the distance education environment o input on the future development of K-12 distance education in the province British Columbia have commissioned numerous studies and research briefs into distance education (beginning in 2002) established an Educators for Distributed Learning Provincial Specialist Association
- 8. supplemental online programs are district or state-based and funded o teachers contracted to teach • full-time programs are generally created under charter school legislation o teachers are not unionized, paid less than traditional public school teachers, and – in certain jurisdictions – do not have to be certified
- 9. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Learners Online is the only unionized cyber charter school in the United States contract similar to brick-and-mortar contracts, with some differences in appropriate areas (e.g., required hours and work site) Wisconsin Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) led a court battle to close cyber charter schools for violating state law for enrolling non- residential students, taking money away from other school districts, and utilizing uncertified teachers WEAC won, forcing changes to state’s cyber charter legislation California California division of the American Teachers Federation initially called for an outright ban of online courses union later reached a compromise that would see the two sides meet if there were any changes made to the employment conditions
- 10. Brazil teachers’ unions believes that distance learning leads to anti-social behavior, as face-to-face interaction was removed from the education experience took the position that all education should be delivered in traditional, face-to-face formats New Zealand Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) active in providing input into a variety of e-learning initiatives from the Government supportive of potential opportunities offered by distance education, but concerned about issues of access and teacher workload
- 11. Michael K. Barbour mkbarbour@gmail.com Larry Kuehn lkuehn@bctf.ca David Adelstein dave.adelstein@gmail.com Report available at: http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Issues/Techn ology/VoraciousAppetite.pdf
Editor's Notes
- This study was funded by the British Columbia Teachers Federation
- The study that was funded by the BCTF focused on two areas.
- This presentation focuses on the second of those two areas.
- The vast majority of distance education programs are housed within the public school system, and as such they are subject to the same rules as classroom-based education. The main exceptions to this are online private schools in Ontario (where students have to pay full tuition) and British Columbia (where the Ministry pays a significant percentage of the FTE).Unions in Canada have been cautiously supportive. They recognize that this medium can provide a quality education and opportunity for students that may not otherwise have access to it, but are still unsure what equivalent workloads and quality of life issues look like for distance teachers.
- In the supplemental environment, teachers are hired on contract and, depending on the particular program, teachers may have some benefits (but are considered contract and not full-time employees). Teachers unions have been generally favourably towards these supplemental programs, as the teachers are generally union members - although not necessarily unionized (i.e., a unionized classroom teacher accepts a contract to teach an online course in addition to their regular classroom job); and the working conditions are often similar to the face-to-face environment.In the full-time model, teachers are hired under conditions that we would expect to find in private schools in Canada. Few have benefits or job security or union representation. In some states, charter school teachers do not even have to be certified by the state. Charter schools and, in particular, online charter schools are seen by many in the United States – specifically those pursuing a neo-liberal agenda of educational reform – as a way to removing union influence from the public education system (i.e., union busting). It is the full-time model that is growing the most rapidly, often due to favourable legislative changes made by neo-liberal and conservative allies of the corporations profiting from this free market model of public education (generally following intense lobbying).