New curriculum coming for Alberta francophone schools

Students and teachers in francophone schools across the province of Alberta will be receiving a new curriculum in September.

Alberta’s Education Minister Adriana LaGrange made the announcement Friday morning, noting that the province “remains committed to ensuring francophone perspectives, cultures and identity.”

In the new curriculum, K-3 students will learn a new French first language and literature curriculum. Whereas schools will have the option to implement the new curriculum in grades 4-6.

French cultures and perspectives will also be covered from K-6, which aligns with education already being seen in Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Quebec.

Four schools within the province began to pilot the new curriculum this school year, and have been providing the province with feedback since September.

“Many of our teachers had the opportunity to participate in the revision and the piloting of the new French First Language curriculum. They told us that this curriculum clearly establishes the content to be taught and supports the cultural and identity journey of our students,” said Marco Bergeron, board chair of Conseil Scolaire FrancoSud.

Between now and September, the Alberta government will be providing teachers with supports and resources to prepare for the change. Those resources include:

• The final K-6 French First Language and Literature curriculum;
• The Provincial Resource Review Guide, with guidelines for selecting learning and teaching resources aligned with the new curriculums;
• Bridging resources to assist with transitioning from the current curriculum to the new curriculum;
• Videos and support documents with an overview and orientation to the new curriculum;
• Tools that support teacher planning, collaborating and sharing;
• Information about flexible professional learning opportunities;

Added stress

Despite the provincial supports, the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) says teachers and students are going to be “overwhelmed” by the new curriculum.

“This government’s insistence on moving forward with additional curriculum rollouts indicates that the ministry is putting political expediency ahead of the real needs of our students and teachers. The curriculum implementation currently under way has been rushed and, as a result, is not going well. Rather than addressing those needs, the government wants to further increase the burden on our schools by introducing new curriculum to even more grades and subject areas in an already stressed environment,” said Jason Schilling, ATA president in a statement.

Schilling adds the province is already struggling with current subjects, such as math, physical education, and language arts within the existing curriculum, before stating teachers would rather see an update to the decades-old curriculum, instead of this new approach.

“Everything, everywhere, all at once might be an Oscar-winning concept for a movie, but it’s a lousy way to implement new curriculum. In the face of inadequate funding supports and nation-leading class sizes, our teachers need time to help students with their mental health and pandemic-exacerbated learning gaps. The last thing we need is additional unsupported curriculum to implement,” he said.

A recent survey also conducted by the ATA found, 80 per cent of teachers felt like they didn’t get proper support during curriculum changes last year.

Of those teachers surveyed, 37 per cent felt the language arts curriculum was successful. That percentage dropped to 30 per cent for physical education and 26 for math.