Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to today's episode of Red Eye. I'm Jane Williams. On the podcast today, Laurentism speaks with Barbara Silver about an opportunity for people to engage in a discussion about public education in BC.
Speaker: Education in public schools are often a hot -button issue. Parents, teachers, and governments sometimes have criticisms about our schools, but most people agree that public education should be supported and preserved as an important part of a democratic society. BC's Institute for Public Education is a think tank that does analysis, research, and advocacy for public education.
Speaker: And today I'm joined by Barbara Silva, who teaches in Victoria and is a member of the board of IPEBC. She'll tell us about their new project called Our Hopes and Dreams for Public Education. Hello, Barbara. Hi there. Nice to be talking to you today. Thank you for having me. The Hopes and Dreams project that the Institute for Public Education is pursuing sounds interesting. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Speaker: Sure. I mean, the Institute for Public Education is an organization, as you've already alluded to, that is focused on promoting and advocating for a strong public education system. Somewhere around 20 years ago, the organization built a charter around the beliefs and fundamentals of what a strong public education system would look like. And the goal is to revisit that idea 20 years later now as a way to focus and guide our advocacy.
Speaker: to get sort of a collective consensus around what it is the general public, we want to hear from them about what they want in a public education system, what they need out of a public education system, and how we as an organization can advocate around those issues. What kinds of questions are you asking BC residents to answer?
Speaker: It's actually very simple and it's very broad. It's what are your hopes and what are your dreams for public education? And it's a way of getting away from sort of a negative critical lens. It's very easy to say all of the things that we don't have, all the things that are missing from public education. But in order to understand where you're going, you need a focal point. And so what we are trying to do is to say, what can we dream of? What is our vision board? What ideas can we collectively
Speaker: agree upon so that when our advocacy takes shape, it does so in a way that meets those collective needs. That sounds like a great idea. But as I alluded to in the introduction, people often have criticisms of our public schools and the public education system. So where does that fit into where you're going here?
Speaker: Sure. I mean, we're hoping that the criticisms are sort of just a jumping off point because it's very easy to see the glass is half full. It's very easy to say that, you know, perhaps the classrooms are overcrowded. So what is your hope? What is the solution to that? How do we take that negative? How do we take that teacher shortage or that underfunding or any other issue that parents might be thinking about? How can we turn that around and say,
Speaker: Well, what's the solution? Is the solution so that we educate more teachers through the system? Is it better teaching conditions? Is it smaller class sizes? Those criticisms can be turned around in a way that allows us to address the issues and create an idea of what public education should be. And it gives us a roadmap for what we want to advocate for and the vision that we want to have.
Speaker: You know, I heard a statement one time that any kind of criticism is actually a gift and it sounds like that's the approach that you're taking.
Speaker: Sure, I think the criticism, it can be a gift as long as we don't stay immobilized in the criticism. And so part of this project is to give people an idea and give anyone who's interested because it should actually go beyond parents and teachers and students. Every citizen should be concerned with the state of public education and gives them an avenue to say, this is a criticism, but I'm not going to stay immobilized in that idea of what's wrong. And I'm going to start creating a vision board.
Speaker: an idea of where we want to go and that collectively through our advocacy, we can make those dreams come true. We can make sure that students have not just accessibility in terms of physical accessibility, but accessibility, financial accessibility, physical accessibility, accessibility to education assistance, to class size, to all of those things that make public education the great equalizer and as you mentioned, an important part of our democracy.
Speaker: What kinds of answers are you expecting to get? What have you heard from people already? We've had a varied response. Again, some of the things that I had already mentioned, class sizes, the implication that fundraising has that some schools become have and have not schools as a result of disproportionate access to fundraising.
Speaker: the accessibility to teachers, the teacher shortage is a huge component of where people are with regards to class sizes and class complexity. So we're hearing things from across the board and we are more than happy to take in any and all hopes and dreams because that is the goal of ours is to find that collective response.
Speaker: BC is a very diverse place with very big demographic differences, cultural and ethnic. How are you going to try and approach that to get a broad view? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we know that definitely within the public school system, there is a great divide between urban and rural schools and settings. And so we are hoping to travel. We are hoping to travel. I mean, social media really helps
Speaker: bring people from all corners of the province in without having to make actual geographic traveling a part of the equation. But IPE has members across the province. And so we're attending conferences, we're going to different cities, we're using the resources that we have to do as much outreach as possible. And of course, social media is always a part of the solution.
Speaker: Now, your institute is committed to supporting and advocating for public education. What happens if the answers you get don't agree with the institute's perspective? Well, that's what we're trying to do is to see how do we guide what our founding principles are based with the general public. And I would say that by and large, you know, over 90 percent of the population in most provinces is committed to public education. And I think the average Canadian believes in the promise and the premise of public education as the institute does.
Speaker: And so we are interested, I think the broad swath of the population believes in this premise, and our goal is really to see where we can improve what we can advocate for. And I think that that's basically the goal here, is to see what everyone's consensus is. And when we get that information, we collect that data, I think we will take it from that point.
Speaker: So you're asking people for their positive vision of our schools, and that's a bit different from the way we often have our conversations around public education. What will you do with the results of this discussion, what you hear from British Columbians? So we will definitely make a report that will be available to the public from this. We're not sure what form that will be. We are a very fluid board. And so whether that is a book or a report or could be a video,
Speaker: I think it all will depend and be fluid based on the responses that we get. And so we're open to presenting that in multiple forms, but it will be available to the public. And then for the people who have the power to change education, government, the opposition parties, what are you thinking there in terms of the kind of input you want to have? Well, I think it does inform the Institute for Public Education's position when it comes to
Speaker: having discussions with the Ministry of Education, with MLAs, with MPs, even with school boards and trustees. But more importantly, I think the conversation and the drive of all advocacy and activism is to engage the general public so that when they go to the polls, when they involve their elected officials, that they understand the issues that are at hand and they understand how to advocate for
Speaker: something as important to them as public education. And so the goal isn't always just to advocate to elected officials, but to inform and represent the general public so that they are also supported in their own advocacy. So it sounds to me like you're asking for input and for people's hopes and dreams, as you're calling them, but that you intend it to be a dynamic process as well. Absolutely. I think that we can all get
Speaker: static in our criticisms, but we're hoping to engage people into the discussion and start that vision, start envisioning what is possible. We know that changing systems like public education is possible. If we look around to other countries and other systems, we know that Finland was able to do this complete shift in the way that they approach public education, but it takes will and it takes vision. And so you have to know where you're going
Speaker: You have to know where it is you want to be. You have to know what you want out of public education, not just for your own children, but for all children. And so engaging in that discussion is what hopes and dreams is about. And it is the starting point. It is where we start these discussions and these visions and is the root of the advocacy. So obviously getting a wide and representative set of responses is really vital. How can people submit their hopes and dreams for public educations to your project?
Speaker: Yeah, it's, you know, social media, as I mentioned, is a wonderful thing. You can always go to instituteforpubliceducation .org and there will be prompts on our webpage in order to submit your answer. You can always email info at publicedbc .ca or you can go to Facebook and just search up Institute for Public Education BC and submit any of your hopes and dreams through any one of those channels.
Speaker: Well, it's been great talking with you today, Barbara, and I hope we'll be able to follow up once you've done the visioning and can come back to us with some of what you've heard. That would be wonderful. I'd love to.
Speaker: I've been speaking with Barbara Silva. Barbara teaches in Victoria and is a member of the board of the Institute for Public Education BC. Their new project is called Our Hopes and Dreams for Public Education. And to submit your ideas to that project, as Barbara said, go to instituteforpubliceducation .org.
Speaker: You can email them at info at publicedbc .ca or go to Facebook and look for Institute for Public Education BC. The Red Eye Collective is based in Vancouver. You can check us out at coopradio .org slash redeye.
