[Spring and soliloquies seem to go together, with apologies to the Bard for the following.]
Is it PD* or is it not PD, that is the question Whether ‘tis nobler in mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous managers, Or to defend your rights against a sea of violations, And, by opposing, end them? To stand, to grieve— No more—and by grievance to say we end The bullying and the thousand improper assigns That Chairs force upon us—‘tis not PD Devoutly we served! Now done Our three, now to do our fourth—ay, there’s the rub, For in that fourth, our spring dreams of PD When we have earned this professional time Our managers take pause. There’s no respect Just unreasonable withheld consent, calamity. For who should bear the whips and scorns of managers, Th’ oppressor’s wrong, their behaviour contumely, The pains of dialog, false pretense and direction The contempt of office, and spurn of our CA** Of patience and merit we lack none, Wisdom and discipline abound in us Yet in place of our learned proposals Assigned to grunt and sweat under their yoke Saying nothing for the dread of something more fierce to come, The undiscovered country whose shores we have not tread Where employers respect our agreement, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills put upon us Than grieve to advantage those rights we actually have. Thus amenity does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of solidarity Is sicklied o’er with the pale case of segregation, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this administrative disregard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. – Soft you now, Our Chair dictates again! – No more PD In its place, course development and the shadow Of PEQAB*** documentation and recertification Developing modules and rewriting coursework Lost is our professional development *PD is Professional Development **CA is our Collective Agreeement ***PEQAB is the Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board (PEQAB),an advisory agency of the Government of Ontario
You know the drill, but is the College complying with our Collective Agreement? It seems often not. When you have PD time, you cannot be assigned “work”. Work is not professional development. Course development is not professional development. Preparing documentation or any other kind of preparation for PEQB is not professional development. Grading is not professional development. Do we really have to say this? It appears so. Let’s not forget there are two different occasions for PD during any given year, but the principles around how one does PD are the same; our Collective Agreement states:
11.08 In keeping with the professional responsibility of the teacher, non-teaching periods are used for activities initiated by the teacher and by the College as part of the parties’ mutual commitment to professionalism, the quality of education and professional development.
Such activities will be undertaken by mutual consent and agreement will not be unreasonably withheld.
No SWF will be issued but such activities may be documented. Where mutually agreed activities can be appropriately performed outside the College, scheduling shall be at the discretion of the teacher, subject to the requirement to meet appropriate deadlines.
[boldface added]
This means, in plain English:
- One cannot be arbitrarily assigned work, be conscribed to do work, be designated with responsibility for, or otherwise dictated to with respect to what one pursues during any of one’s non-SWF periods during the academic year – this includes what you do for PD.
- The demands that one meets during non-SWF periods are actually dictated by the responsible professional judgement of the member. One may be grading, or updating courses, or working on PEQAB related material, but only when this is in one’s professional judgement what should or needs to be done. Certainly the College would have little reason to withhold consent under normal circumstances; this is not to say that these activities are forced upon one, but rather than they are performed without consent being withheld.
- Even apart from PD, if one determines in their professional judgement that they need to be grading, and not developing PEQAB documentation, during the non-SWF’ed reading week, as example, it would be unreasonable for the College to withhold consent for one to be grading.
- With PD, either the College or oneself can substantially propose activity, and “agreement will not be unreasonably withheld”.
- If agreement from one’s manager is not forthcoming, when one has a proposal that in one’s professional judgement is better than whatever (if anything) is proposed by the College, it is not unreasonable to withhold consent (to their proposal) and to continue to propose pursuit of one’s own proposal.
- If your manager (or any representative of the College) impedes, prevents, or prohibits your pursuit of the PD you are proposing, comply in protest, and grieve this violation of the CA. Speak with your steward immediately, and if they are not available, speak with any steward or officer of the Local, including (of course) the Chief Steward. Your steward will help you prepare and file your grievance. Find them all at https://opseu560.org/stewards
- If the College tries to assign one duties, responsibilities, or work, during a non-teaching period (i.e. non-SWF’ed period, including PD) every member has the right to withhold consent if in their professional judgement they do not represent a commitment to one’s professional development or the quality of the education one provides.
- specifically regarding PD, pedantics aside, PD is PD, course development, departmental work, etcetera, are not, and consent can be reasonably withheld from this work in preference for one’s own proposal
- Think broadly about your PD needs; they don’t necessarily need to be narrowly tied to your specific discipline, though they may well be. What benefits you as a professional, whether developing a skill set that broadens one’s understanding of the world, sparks one’s creativity, or pushes one to think in new ways, such PD can make one a better teacher and can be “fair game”.
Your PD matters, and you have a right to it. If you are being “robbed” of this time, especially during your May/June non-SWF period as part of one’s three-over-four rotation (sequentially 2 x May/June teaching, one July/August teaching, and then the next May/June non-SWF’ed PD – because the CA prohibits teaching 12 months consecutively), you need to file a grievance to ensure your rights are defended. Just for your reference:
11.03 The academic year shall be ten months in duration and shall…in [the] event [of] year-round operation…the scheduling of a teacher in one or both of the months of July and August shall be on a consent or rotational basis.
15.01 B A teacher assigned to teach for an additional month (11th month) over the normal teaching schedule of the equivalent to ten months…shall also receive a bonus of ten percent of the employee’s annual regular salary…[and] shall not be required to teach for more than 12 consecutive months without a scheduled vacation of at least one month.
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While we are on the subject of PD, when was the last time you used any portion of your annual two weeks of PD that you have rights to?
11.04 B 1 The College shall allow each Counsellor and Librarian at least ten working days of professional development in each academic year.
11.04 B 2 Unless otherwise agreed between the Counsellor or Librarian and the supervisor, the allowance of ten days shall include one period of at least five consecutive working days for professional development.
11.04 B 3 The arrangements for such professional development shall be made following discussion between the supervisor and the Counsellor or Librarian subject to agreement between the supervisor and the Counsellor or Librarian, and such agreement shall not be unreasonably withheld.
11.04 B 4 The employee may be reimbursed for costs associated with such professional development, as approved by his/her supervisor or other body established by the College to deal with allocating resources made available for this purpose.
[ boldface added ]