Voice Heard at First-Ever CTF International Summit on the Teaching Profession (CTF Report)
On March 16, I attended the first-ever International Summit on the Teaching Profession in New York City. The summit was organized by the U.S. Department of Education, together with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Education International (EI), to help spread effective policies and practices and to strengthen and elevate the teaching profession in ways that improve educational outcomes for children in all societies.
The event marked the first time education ministers, union leaders, and policymakers from around the world convened in the United States to discuss challenges and opportunities in building a world-class teaching force. I was joined at the table by the Honourable Doug Currie, minister of education for Prince Edward Island, who represented the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC). Along with Canada, foreign delegations from high-performing and rapidly improving educational systems, including Belgium, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom held sessions focused on teacher recruitment and preparation; development, support, and retention of teachers; teacher evaluation and compensation; and teacher engagement in education reform.
Throughout the summit, common themes emerged around successful practices. Participants voiced shared interest in elevating the professional status of teachers, partnering with teachers in education reform to produce successful outcomes, and building collaboration between unions and education leaders to ensure overall progress.
“To achieve a high-quality education system, education and union leaders must join together to debate the different roads and draw a consensus around how we achieve our shared goals,” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen.
The summit provided the opportunity to learn from one another how to support teachers in ways that strengthen a nation’s education system and to share our current strategies and practices with neighbouring nations. The discussions were frank and open, with a sense of collaboration among the participants. Common threads were that increasing teacher participation is vital to educational reform and that it is important for education ministries and teacher organizations to work together to improve education. It was recognized that education unions are important pillars of democracy and guardians of the teaching profes- sion, and that there needs to be a joint effort to advance the quality of education worldwide.
Through the remarks of many participants, Canada emerged as having one of the most successful education systems in the world. Comments from the Canadian delegation spoke to our highly educated teaching force, the importance of professional development, the ongoing relations between ministries of education, and the importance of public education in Canada.
In the closing session entitled Where Do We Go from Here? it was agreed that the summit had been an important step and starting point to international co-operation on the teaching profession and education. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan committed to hosting the summit in 2012, and the Netherlands made a commitment to hosting in 2013. EI members will further discuss the impact and follow-up of the Summit at the Education International World Congress in Cape Town, South Africa in July of this year.
To see an interview with PEI Education Minister Doug Currie and CTF President Mary-Lou Donnelly go to neatoday.blip.tv/file/4923629.