Monday, April 22, 2013

Chapter 4: Categorizing the Data -- Late 20th Century Documents -- Alberta's 1993 Toward 2000 Together


4.4e

Categorizing the Data -- Late 20th Century Documents -- Alberta's 1993 Toward 2000 Together


   Alberta’s 1993 document is not a report per se – the main document is a “discussion paper.” It is a “report” that covers public education policy in context of “economic strategy” for Alberta in the 21st century. Suffice it to say that there could be some debate concerning the inclusion of this “discussion paper” as a primary document in this set. Perhaps it should be reviewed as a tertiary public education policy document, but when one considers that Alberta’s last public education commission report dates to 1971, technically a commission report on education was long overdue. There is, therefore, a political aspect to such a gap in public education commission reports. As Dye said, public policy is what government both do and don’t do. In the years following “Toward 2000 Together” Albertans began to observe to its government that a report of education was overdue and a report was produced in 2004, but that is outside the purview of this project.
   At this time I have two points to make in support of the inclusion of “Toward 2000 Together” as a valid contributor in the chain of reports produced in Alberta in the 20th century.  Regardless of the emphasis it places on public education, it is a “report” that closes out Alberta’s 20th century public education policy history. First of all, the report has been a particular focus of public education policy analysts at the University of Alberta. Secondly, the main document, the “discussion paper” appears to be somewhat modelled on Alberta’s 1971 “Worth Report” suggesting that the Worth Report was studied by the contributors to the 1993 “report” with an integration of some features. Because the government hasn’t changed since 1971 in Alberta it is also likely that civil servants contributed to the discussion paper of 1993 that had also been around and also contributed to the Worth Report.  Both reports have exactly seven chapters with the final chapter entitled “Next Steps.” Both have the condition of being “future oriented” in such a fashion that is argued by Jerrold Lyne Kachur in his doctoral dissertation as bordering on crystal ball divining. I interpret this problem as functioning as a counterpoint to what a public education policy document should do for the “public,” where British Columbia’s Sullivan Report, would, for example, be a preferred model. A genuine public inquiry considers changes that have taken place since the last commission report -- such an inquiry takes a long look at the history and records the changes occurring since such time and requiring policy responses. For example, Sullivan notes that women are making greater contributions in the labour force and playing an equal role in administration, therefore, he reallocates funding to educating girls and young women. Sullivan notes the ability of the medical community to support premature babies and the related conditions arising in public education as a consequence of special needs support. Sullivan recommends that special needs resulting from a rise in medical advances not shift to the public education system but be addressed by private and other public services. Alberta’s “Toward 2000 Together” is completely different. It isn’t possible to write a thorough royal commission report on public education without access to data and certain kinds of crucial information. Writing a report without factual supports and information results in future forecasting. When Worth wrote “A Future of Choices, A Choice of Futures” he even made predictions about what the future would hold for society! The text contains high usage of two future tense verbs “shall” and “will.” The thing about the Worth report is that it was a product of a one-time Liberal government that quite possibly as a consequence of its short tenure never actually penetrated to the civil layer required to cooperate to produce a policy report that was thorough. Further, the Worth report was not in the tradition of royal commissions that ideally work outside the frame of party politics. In overview it seems that the tradition of writing Alberta policy in a future-forecasting orientation took hold, and that tradition maintained right up to the end of the century.  
   By 1993, the tradition of public education policy review evident in Alberta’s 1959 Cameron Report and modelled excellently by British Columbia’s Sullivan Commission, had been undermined. It had been undermined in Alberta by policy-making carried out through a series of tiered public overtures. Toward 2000 Together was preceded by a user-friendly pamphlet that summarized the “discussion paper.” The actual “discussion” followed the “discussion paper” and was carried out at the well-appointed Kanaskis conference centre. The pamphlet asserted the policy without discussion. Participants were selected.  At this conference, a presentation was given by Faith Popcorn, a futurist who addresses conventions. The implications of this fore-ordaining was a point of critique in Jerrold Lyne Kachur’s “Hegemony and Anonymous Intellectual Practice.” Although Kachur did not refer to the earlier policy, the Worth Report, and its future-oriented title and writing style, certainly the Worth Report played a role in Kachur’s critique. Kachur wrote at length about Faith Popcorn in his doctoral dissertation. The appearance of this futurist at the Kanaskis Conference Centre is suggested to be a practice derived from a policy of hegemony. But in terms of policy production, this is only an anomaly when considered in comparative, considered against British Columbia's Sullivan Commission, for example. It looks as if what we’re seeing in Alberta is a reversal of the traditional process of appointing royal commissions to review educational issues every 20 to 25 years, a traditional feature of democracy and public government practice. By the time the Worth Report was completed, it was the year 1971, and the Conservatives were returned to power. There has been no change in Alberta government for 40 years at the time of this writing in this year 2011. My research on the education/learning history in the Northwest Territories/Nunavut showed that public education commission reports are much more likely to take place following political changes of government.   


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