As University of Alberta education students celebrate their graduation, school boards are preparing to hire new teachers. The province is also considering other ways to fill those roles, including hiring people without education degrees. “Currently this year, we expect to graduate more than 2,300 graduated teachers with degrees and many other education assistants,” said advanced education minister Myles McDougall. Expedited post-secondary programs will be part of getting new teachers in schools across Alberta. The dean of the U of A’s education faculty says her department has recently completed a program renewal that gives students more hands-on experience in the field, with a focus on inclusive education, child development and other complexities. “I think that the Ministry of Education, understandably, is looking at expedited pathways to get folks into classrooms more quickly,” said Jennifer Tupper.”But of course, as the Dean of the Faculty of Education, (I’m) very aware of the complexities of classrooms in the province, we want to make sure that everyone who goes into schools is well-prepared to do that.” Tupper says many student teachers are nervous about taking over their own classrooms. “If a student with a four-year BEd is feeling trepidation about the realities of current classrooms, I would be thoughtful about how I would want to expedite folks into teaching,” she said. One such path would see people without education degrees filling some teacher roles. “Let’s say shop classes and things like that where we can get somebody very experienced in the trades and we can have an expedited pathway system for people like that to be able to get into education as teachers faster than the four-year degree program,” said McDougall. But the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) doesn’t think the province can save on “cutting corners.” “There are certain things that you just can’t cut corners when it comes to teacher preparation work,” said ATA president Jason Schilling. “For example, practicums, or certain courses around curriculum instruction, classroom management.” The ATA wants to see attention paid to supporting new hires to make sure they are set up for success, something the faculty of education agrees with. “I always talk about supporting teachers not just as a responsibility of faculties of education, but it’s also a shared responsibility with school divisions and governments as well to make sure that we are putting strategies in place that enable teachers to flourish early on, and then choose to stay,” said Tupper. “Because retention is another factor that’s on everyone’s minds as well.” McDougall says we can expect to see teachers from its expedited pathways program in place by the end of the year. “We think that we’ve established pathways that make sure they have the education, the background they need,” said the minister. “Don’t forget, they come to this with other, practical experience that is relevant.”
