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Amid growing public disapproval of its draft K-6 curriculum, the UCP government is defending the document and its consultation process but won’t guarantee feedback will be shared publicly.
Since its release last week, the draft document has drawn criticism from curriculum experts, concern from school boards, protests around the province and rejections from the Métis Nation of Alberta and Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations.
On Tuesday, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange defended the curriculum in question period in the legislature, saying it had input from hundreds of people in a transparent process that included educational leaders, subject experts, education deans, academics and teachers.
“I can assure everyone here that the curriculum has been created over a very, very long detailed process that lasted well over 19 months,” said LaGrange.
Earlier in the day, the Alberta Association of Deans released a public letter saying that although they had been consulted, that did not mean that they endorsed the draft curriculum.
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Sheldon Kennedy, co-founder of Respect Group Inc., which provides training to help prevent bullying, abuse, harassment, took to Twitter Monday to clarify his public endorsement of the curriculum was specific only to education on consent.
While the curriculum is set to be rolled out across Alberta in fall 2022, LaGrange’s office has not committed to publicly releasing feedback gathered from consultations and classroom piloting.
Justin Marshall, LaGrange’s press secretary, wrote in an email last week the the regular freedom of information and privacy (FOIP) rules would apply.

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley said the draft has lit a firestorm of concern from parents and may discourage families from moving to Alberta. She added that it could jeopardize the economy by not providing children with the critical-thinking skills they need to succeed.
“This is a completely organic outcry from Albertans who are very concerned about what (Premier) Jason Kenney is planning to do to their kids’ education,” said Notley.
Notley promised to scrap the UCP’s work on the curriculum and start new consultations within 100 days if elected in 2023.
The Opposition also said it would share any feedback solicited during public consultations on a draft curriculum developed under an NDP government. Notley said the best way to depoliticize a process that is never going to be completely apolitical is to ensure broad consultation with parents, kids, teachers, and experts.
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“We can find no evidence that Jason Kenney engaged with the public on the curriculum that we now have before us,” she said.
She added the UCP’s views on education did not represent those of a majority of Albertans.
Nicole Sparrow, spokeswoman for LaGrange’s office, in a statement called the NDP’s attack politically motivated, but said the government is pleased Albertans are reviewing and discussing the draft curriculum.
“We are delivering on our promise of keeping politics out of the classroom with unprecedented transparency and by opening up consultations to include a truly diverse range of perspectives and expert opinions,” Sparrow said.
Meanwhile, protestors in Red Deer were invited to leave a message about education policies in chalk at LaGrange’s office in Red Deer, and organizers held a virtual protest Tuesday because of the surge in COVID-19 variant cases.
Last week, Edmonton-area school divisions, including Edmonton Public, Elk Island Public and St. Albert Public Schools, announced they would not pilot the draft curriculum in their classrooms.
Draft ‘rife with plagiarism’
Professor Sarah Elaine Eaton, an expert in academic integrity at the University of Calgary, said Tuesday the draft curriculum can be salvaged, but it would take a lot of work and an acknowledgement there are credibility problems that need to be fixed.
In an analysis, Eaton alleges that the draft is “rife with plagiarism,” including examples of word-for-word copying and reworded texts without attribution to source material. Eaton began her inquiry into three specific passages that appeared to be lifted without credit after receiving at least 100 messages citing suspected plagiarism.
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“I don’t really care which party is in power, but if there are that many problems with the curriculum, acknowledge the problem,” she said.
“Cite the source material. Problem solved,” said Eaton.
After accusations surfaced on social media last week noting a segment on the Silk Road appeared to be similar to a Wikipedia entry, Marshall said in an email both texts used similar phrases, but were “hardly a match.”
Eaton said regardless of the authors’ intentions, the government is evading the issue by splitting hairs about whether or not examples qualify as plagiarism.
LaGrange said in the legislature Tuesday she was surprised to hear the allegations, and suggested critics were disrespecting the work of those who contributed to the curriculum.
“Curriculum documents in Alberta are not footnoted with citations,” she said.
Eaton said kids should be taught ethical concepts early in elementary and secondary school, noting the draft English language arts curriculum outlines expectations for properly citing source material.
“But we also have to lead by example. If the educators and those working at a policy level are not modelling the behaviour they want to see in children, then children are not going to behave in those ways we would like them to behave,” she said.