BY MICHAEL JAMES
Graduating university students hoping to attend English teacher?s college in Sudbury this fall may be disappointed
to learn the program at Laurentian University won?t be able to accommodate them.
According to Patricia Falter, consulting director of the School of Education at Laurentian, the university is phasing in a ?concurrent? Bachelor of Education program over the next four years.
In April 2003, the Ontario College of Teachers accredited the new teachers? education program at LU.
As Falter explains it, students who enrol in the four or five-year concurrent Bachelor of Education program at LU
will be working toward their bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, or bachelor of physical health and education
degrees at the same time.
Most teacher?s colleges in the province offer a ?consecutive? Bachelor of Education program. In a consecutive B. Ed program, those who have a degree attend one year of teacher?s college.
However, when Falter and her colleagues at the university were applying for accreditation, they had something different in mind.
?When we were putting together our application, I noticed there were no teachers? education programs being offered in Northern Ontario geared to First Nations people,? she said.
Because there is a growing number of First Nations students, Falter said a twofold need was identified: the need to train more First Nations teachers; and the need to train a new generation of committed and competent educators who are sensitive to cultural diversity and the special needs of the Aboriginal community.
The program will be offered in two areas of concentration: primary/junior (junior kindergarten to Grade 6); and junior/intermediate (Grades 4-10) in the disciplines of science, history, geography, native studies, physical and health education, English and mathematics.
Students who wish to teach in the intermediate/senior division (Grades 7-12) will have to take one additional course during the summer.
To be admitted into the program, high school graduates must have an overall average of 75 per cent, while teachers-in-training must maintain a 75 per cent overall average to be admitted into the final year.
Laurentian is developing a national reputation for being a trilingual and tri-cultural post-secondary institution.
As a result, approximately one-third of the faculty in the new concurrent Bachelor of Education program at the university will be made up of individuals with related expertise.
Falter said the university has already hired its first faculty member for the new program.
?Her name is Pamela Toulouse, and she is a First Nations (individual) with a B. Ed from Nipissing and a PhD from UBC (the University of British Columbia),? Falter said.
Toulouse begins her new job this month.
?She?s going to go through the curriculum and suggest ways it can be improved,? Falter said.
?She will also visit First Nation communities to get a better sense of the community?s needs.?
