ENHANCE PROFESSIONALISM AMONG TEACHERS?

Canada. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors alone. The authors also wish to thank John R. Wiens and one anonymous reviewer for their valuable and insightful input into this paper. Beginning with the Sullivan Royal Commission on Education in 1988, British Columbia (BC) teachers experienced a policy context that led to a decade of intense professional learning around innovative instructional strategies and curriculum. From 2001 on, the policy context changed considerably. There has been a flurry of changes designed to bring about both a cultural and economic re-structuring of the school system and significant changes to the professional side of teaching. This study reports on teachers’ perceptions of these policy changes to ascertain the extent to which the changes have impacted on the opportunities available to teachers to engage in professional collaboration. It was found that teachers still reported some satisfaction with work structures conducive to collaboration but that the kinds of activities they engaged in were largely done around the edges of the school day. Teachers reported infrequent engagement in those tasks that require teachers to be committed to the kind of joint instructional tas