On Thursday, October 20, 2005, panelists for a special Faculty Forum helped kick off an insightful and meaningful discussion among students, faculty members, and staff regarding the teachers’ dispute in B.C. Entitled “Illegal Strike or Civil Disobedience?: Reflections on BC Education Today,” the event included dialogue on the effects of the job action for students, parents and teachers currently and the impact it may have in the future. The complete audio and video from the Faculty Forum will be available on the Faculty of Education website shortly.
Earlier in the week, the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Education released a statement regarding the teachers’ strike:
The Executive Committee of the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University supports the right to teachers to negotiate a fair and comprehensive contract that includes teaching and learning conditions in our classrooms.
We urge the government and the BCTF to move quickly to arrive at a resolution and one that will enable teachers to return to British Columbia’s classrooms with confidence that the challenges of their work will be recognized and that educational concerns will be addressed.
We call attention to the necessity that negotiations and dialogue about education draw upon credible research and scholarship, in order to facilitate constructive discussions in the public, professional and political domain.