Reflections on Curriculum & Assessment in Alberta K-12 Schools

Today I had the privilege of attending the "Spring 2025 Invitational Curriculum Symposium" hosted by the Alberta Teachers' Association, where panel members discussed current issues regarding the province's new curriculum implementation and the state of assessment practices and policies in K-12 schools. I was particularly excited to listen to Dr. Dwayne Donald speak, as I remembered him from my Bachelor of Education (After Degree) days at the University of Alberta and how his lectures transformed my understanding of Indigenous worldviews and Treaty relations as a naturalized, immigrant Canadian. Today, I was not disappointed by the caliber of the thought-provoking discussions that not only involved Dr. Donald, but also various other great thinkers and academics. It was truly a scholarly treat to be in the same spaces as these educational experts.

Dr. Donald emphasized the kinship and relationality between all of us and how the Treaties between the Crown and the Indigenous communities include the duty to raise each others' children well, particularly in the context of public education. He spoke of the need to connect our youth to the real world, such as walking by the river valley (his famous instructional activity), recounting of how many children today have never stood next to the river, which provides so many of us with water and ecological connections that nourish us. With this example, I reflected on the last time I was in Edmonton's river valley: it was on a Saturday morning a few months ago in early Spring and I was with my spouse and Chihuahua. We were enjoying the crisp and dusky air on the paved trail (we were by Government House Park) and the frozen ice on the river was beginning to break and melt away. I remember seeing a pair of coyotes in the distance and feeling afraid for my tiny dog, but still appreciating the closeness to nature and the land. It felt energizing and invigorating to be next to the river, which appeared calm but also swift and ever-flowing with close examination. The stillness took over my thoughts as I remembered that moment and reflected on the gratitude for life and peace that these Indigenous lands provide so willingly without demands.

Reciprocity and relationality were also key themes that stood out to me today, as Stacy Fysh, the current Principal at Victoria School of the Performing Arts, spring-boarded her discussion of the need for creative and divergent thoughts that allow for multiple ways of problem solving and navigating the world, and how the arts encourage such possibilities in school. Then Peter Leclaire, the current Vice President Academic at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), added that youth and students today need meaningful connections between their education and the "real world" to be inspired. Together with Dr. Donald, the three panel members discussed the need for schools to align students' motivations with tangible and external outcomes. This means not relying on the modern liberal ideals in education that originated from colonialism, and instead reconnecting with the ancestral and the human-focused ways. I know many people say that they do not believe in coincidences and that everything happens for a reason. But just a few days ago, I remember discussing the differences between cultures and how one culture has developed differently despite it being a neighbour to another just because of its focus on humanity compared to order. The synchronicity of my attendance at this Symposium and my thoughts, discussion, and musings around this exact topic surprised me. In our school systems, there is an invisible push and pull between order/rule/organization, and grace/understanding/support. Contentions surrounding inclusion, assessment, curriculum, behaviour, and more can all be summarized by this interaction. As leaders in education seek to balance the two forces, issues arise and require adjustments along the way. However, there are critiques that pinpoint the reactive nature of such a process and its lack of proactive cohesion. From being in the classroom myself, I understand the value of structured and orderly routines and processes. But when such a prescriptive setting harms individuals in the system, how do we support them? And where do we draw the line of supporting the most vulnerable by creating exceptions to the rule, deciding which individuals are exempt and which ones are not? Do we train students to become more resilient? Why do we need students to become resilient when the system does not benefit the students and if the system is failing the students in the first place? Universal Designs for Learning (UDL) attempts to rectify this by proactively arranging differentiation of systems for diverse needs from the beginning, but eventually the end goal is the same, which is to guide the learner to the outcome that may or may not serve the learner, ultimately.

This leads me to the afternoon panel discussion between Dr. Yvonne Poitras Pratt from the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary and the Research Excellence Chair, and Dr. David Slomp, an Associate Dean at the University of Lethbridge, who were moderated by Dr. Philip McRae, an Associate Coordinator at the ATA. They discussed the banking model of assessment in education and how students have become "mark monsters," expecting rewards for putting in work. Even in Grade 6 with my preteen students, I experience this transactional attitude. Also with the looming Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs) each year, I am not alone in feeling the need to design my teaching to the test instead of the learners in my care. There were some big questions that I jotted down from this session, such as "what is the purpose of school today?" and "how do we help students thrive in life after school?" From the experienced voices in the room, we need more educators determining assessment designs and curriculum requirements, not government offices with no experience in the classroom. To make matters worse, the curriculum and assessment in Alberta have become politicized in recent years, as hurried and sweeping educational reforms have bloated and complicated learning with obscure and clinical data-centric approaches that fail to consider the whole child. Dr. Poitras Pratt explained that decolonizing education is about removing barriers that limit students' potential, their creative force. But increasingly, added procedures and requirements in schools have been doing the opposite by demoralizing students with more testing and monopolizing class time by mandating surface-level, outdated knowledge that hinder relationship building and deeper meaningful understandings. I wished to learn more about Dr. Poitras Pratt's mention of her Metis background and how the Metis peoples have understood and have practiced the ability to thrive between two seemingly opposing worlds, from partly Indigenous and European. This is very much my dissertation focus of existing in a Third Space, as someone who lives between cultures and languages, and thus thoughts, attitudes, and philosophies. I have found yet another academic "hero" in my journey and I am so happy and grateful to have had this experience.