65 YEARS OF PEDAGOGICAL PROPS (AND REPELLING SEA MONSTERS)
In 1960, delegates at the ATA’s annual general meeting approved a resolution to create specialist councils—new, teacher-led groups dedicated to improving instructional practice. Within a year, 10 councils hosted their first conferences, launching a tradition that has helped generations of Alberta teachers successfully navigate the shifting seas of new curricula, emerging technologies and changing political tides. Today, the ATA has 20 specialist councils or- ganized around curriculum subjects and grade groupings (such as fine arts and middle years education), professional competencies (such as Indigenous education and the effective use of technology), and specific teaching roles (such as school leadership and counselling). These councils continue to strengthen mem- bers’ pedagogical and leadership knowledge and abilities by organizing professional de- velopment activities, communities of practice, and resources and publications that inform and inspire. They contribute to ATA policy by devel- oping and providing feedback on resolutions, representing Association members on govern- ment committees and in working groups, and reinforcing the profession’s role in educational research through academic journals, research symposia and commissioned studies. Much has changed over the past 65 years, but many of the profession’s challenges are timeless. Every generation of Alberta teachers has had to contend with the ever shifting seas of technological and societal change, weather the storms of curriculum reform and funding scar- city, and defend their expertise and autonomy against the always looming threat of kraken attacks. Thankfully, the ATA’s specialist councils remain a steady vessel amid these challenges. Buoyed by decades of collective expertise and shared resolve, they offer every ATA member a way to chart a course forward toward renewed purpose, supportive community and profes- sional learning. ATA
Specialist Council Seminar, Banff, 1993
The first ATA specialist councils founded in 1961: - Business Education - English - Guidance - Home Economics - Industrial Arts - Mathematics - Modern and Classical Languages - School Administration - Science - Social Studies
Specialist Council Seminar, 1961
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THE ALBERTA TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION
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