Back-to-school Culture of Fear: Research Report on the Implementation of Alberta’s Bill 27, Bill 29 and Ministerial Order 030/2025
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The start of a new school year is typically a time full of anticipation and great preparation while teachers refine long range plans, purchase resources, and prepare their classrooms for new groups of students. Usually, educators have two to three operational days when they participate in staff meetings meant to inspire an engaging and successful school year, where administrators aim to share focused educational goals and invigorate their staff for the year ahead. In late August of 2025, however, the return to school was instead met with the solemn weight of the implementation of new legislation that directly impacted the autonomy of queer and trans youth. Instead of focusing on new ideas that would improve student learning and prioritizing student-centred objectives, teachers were met with the request to silence anti-bullying discussions, police young girls’ bodies, remove resources from their rooms, and participate in harming students.
This research report is the result of an intensive study conducted in September of 2025, where 30 educators from across Alberta participated in semi-structured interviews to share what they had been asked to do in order to implement Bills 27, 29, and Ministerial Order 030/2025. All of the educators interviewed spoke to the specific ways in which they were instructed by administrators to catalogue and remove resources, to change affirming practices, to censor topics and present obstacles to girls’ sports. Teachers spoke to the multiple ways in which they felt that educators were being attacked as a strike countdown loomed. They were frustrated that their school boards were enforcing the implementation of policy that was contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Alberta Bill of Rights, Section 33 of the Education Act, and their own professional understanding of best practices. Although all school boards represented were found to have interpreted and implemented the policy in ways that are discriminatory, there was some nuance with which tasks fell on educators versus their administrators or school counsellors, and when student consent was considered. The research team therefore recommends that if school boards will be mandating these discriminatory policies, that they intensely engage in several harm reduction strategies to limit theirdamage.
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http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_93fc
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Language
en
Location
Alberta
Time Period
2025