Episode Abstract: This episode explores teacher competency discourses. Teacher competencies are frameworks that define the knowledge, skills, practices, and behaviours expected of teachers, often translating the complex work of teaching into observable and measurable standards, suggesting a uniform and best way to teach, and ignoring the varied contexts in which teachers work. These discourses make teachers the problem and the solution, impose definitions of the “good teacher,” and ignore the multitude of factors that impact student learning. Their emergence has been motivated by neoliberal education reforms and the growing influence of organizations such as the OECD. Manitoba, recently formalized teacher competencies through Bill 35—The Education Administration Amendment Act (Teacher Certification and Professional Conduct), The Alberta government also introduced legislation governing the discipline of teachers in 2022. Guest Bios: Melanie Janzen (she/her) is a professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. She is a settler living and working in Winnipeg, Canada, on Treaty One Territory and the homeland of the Red River Métis. Melanie’s research uses critical perspectives to explore the inter-related workings of power and discourses and how these affect the experiences of classroom teachers, the ongoing marginalization of children, and the undermining of public education. Prior to working at the University, she was a teacher for 15 years. She currently serves on the boards of the Canadian Association for Young Children and People for Public Education. Jill Morris is a curriculum scholar and an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Winnipeg. With over 20 years of experience working in K-12 classrooms in Ontario and BC, her research is grounded in phenomenology and critical theory as a means of provoking “second thoughts” about classroom, teacher, and educational experience. Specifically, her research explores teacher authority, the discursive implications of Canadian and international educational policies, the educational potential of the everyday in the classroom, and the metaphors that shape an understanding of the possibilities for schooling and teacher education. Christie Petersen (BFA, B.Ed., PBDE, M.Ed., PhD) is an instructor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. She has over 20 years of experience in the public school system as a classroom teacher, visual arts specialist, resource teacher, and acting principal, teaching students across EY, MY, and SY. Christie’s research focuses on early career teachers and the transition into the profession, including critical consideration of induction practices, mentoring, and the gendered expectations of teachers. Her work engages with ecofeminist thought, feminist poststructuralism, and critical theory to consider what it means to learn and become teacher within the contemporary educational landscapes that are intensified by the shifting complexities and subsequent manifestations of inequity, neoliberal reform, climate crisis, and the ongoing impacts of colonization. References/Resources: Janzen, M., Petersen, C., & Tosi, R. (2025). Teacher competence discourses: Exposing, controlling, and punishing the ‘bad’ teacher. Journal of Education Policy, 41, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2025.2600315 Morris, J., Couture, J.-C., & Phelan, A. (2023). Riding Fences: Anticipatory Governance, Curriculum Policy, and Teacher Subjectivity. Canadian Journal of Education/Revue Canadienne de l’éducation, 46(3), 517–544. https://doi.org/10.53967/cje-rce.5833 Credits The show's producers are Melanie Janzen & Shannon D.M. Moore. The co-hosts are Shannon D.M. Moore & Justin Fraser. The technical producer is Devin King. The cover art is by political cartoonist, Chris Chuckry. The songs 26 Ghosts III, 16 Ghosts II, and 35 Ghosts IV by Nine Inch Nails are used through a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/.
