Inside Education December 2000

Professional Development Activity, Kevin Wahl

Every year ACEA hosts a professional development opportunity for our members. We have had PD Days, Subject Councils, and of course last year, subsidy for the Literacy 2000 Conference and the Bus Tour.

As an executive board, we have received many comments about the various PD activities. PD Days take away from teaching and are costly to the centers and to the schools; subject councils were not well attended and did not appear to meet their objectives. This year, the executive has decided to put $1000.00 of PD money into the conference to host a speaker. Please watch for an announcement from the conference committee.

We hope that this is a reasonable solution to the never-ending question of PD activity. Please, if you have any suggestions let your regional representative know.

CECC Update, Randall Wright, Interim Vice-President of CECC

As most of you know, the CECC was formed through the efforts of the ACEA Board and Executive. The financial, moral and logistical support of the ACEA was crucial to its formation. At the last Marketing Meeting, the CECC reimbursed the ACEA for all the support dollars needed to develop the CECC constitution, cover the expenses pertaining to the committee meetings, etc. In other words, the CECC is now on its own, with a budget of approximately $10,000 from the International Symposium held in Ottawa, April 30 - May 3, to finance its operations over the next year or so.

As part of the obligation to the Literacy Secretariat and the Correctional Service of Canada (sponsors of the symposium), the co-chairs of the conference (Bea Fisher, Dr. Carolyn Eggleston, Randall Wright) are preparing a summary report based on the focus-group discussion. The following represents some of the guided themes/questions for the focus groups:

1. What is the social context of correctional education (the relationship of the prison and correctional education to society)?
2. What are the characteristics of the student? Or, who is the typical student?
3. What are the features of the school in prison? What, if anything, makes the prison school different from other schools?
4. What are the central ideas or personal philosophies of the educator/administrator working in prison?
5. What is the role of correctional education in a democracy - in the 21st century?

These questions are important ones, which enable us as teacher-practitioners or as administrators to begin to interrogate our values and actions. When the summary report is complete, ACEA will, of course, be receiving a copy, would, and could provide the foundation for future discussions and professional development activities.

In the meantime, we will be trying to organize the elections for the permanent officers of the CECC, perhaps at Banff? Stay tuned…