No Apologies: A Graduate Program in Teacher Education and Teacher Development

Abstract

Within the province of British Columbia, certification colleges will soon require large numbers of qualified scholars with backgrounds in teacher education and teacher development. Independent teacher certification institutions would be programmatically linked to graduate institutions in universities and would require teacher educators with graduate degrees. Potential graduate students have made inquires in this regard for some time. Many viewed Simon Fraser University as an appropriate location for graduate study in Teacher Education and Teacher Development. Apart from the graduate program in Teacher Development at the Ontario Institute in Education (OISE) and the emphasis on Teacher Education in the program at the University of British Columbia (UBC), no graduate programs in Teacher Education and Teacher Development exist in Canadian universities.Here, we describe four particular emphases within a broader graduate program intended to serve the educational needs of British Columbia residents. The faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University collaborated in the design of this program which we coordinated. First, we describe the rationale and content of the Master's/PhD program in teacher education and teacher development; we then summarize the four topical areas of focus. Program Rationale and ContentThe faculty hoped prospective students would study perspectives of teaching as a profession as well as develop approaches for collaboratively working with education institutions of higher learning, policy agencies, and schools in provincial and Canadian contexts. Many recent union contracts between teachers and provincial districts include initiatives for professional development, and districts increasingly carry mandates to plan for and administer professional development programs with teachers. Innovative and adaptive programs for scholarly research and study were thus called for to meet these needs which arose independently of our faculty's efforts.Our program was designed, in response, for persons interested in

Perspektiven der Praxisforschung: Partnerschaften beim Wissensaufbau und lebenslange berufliche Entwicklung von Lehrpersonen

“…In coordinating our professional positioning and subsequent actions we looked to literature in teacher education and professional development. A persistent presence in 227 Partners in Knowledge Construction and Teacher Development teacher education and professional development literature is that of refl ective practice (Dana, Thomas & Boynton, 2011;Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 1999;Neufeld & Grimmett, 1994;Zeichner & Liston, 1996). Working from the conception of an «inquiry stance toward teaching» (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999, 2001, 2009Snow-Gerono, 2005), our professional inquiries have largely focused on beginning experiences with teacher inquiry supporting the cultivation of an inquiry stance toward teaching, based in critical, refl ective practice.…”