Donation will grow ATEP in urban setting

November 25, 2015.

Newly donated funding to the Aboriginal Teacher Education Program will mean new partnerships in the city of Edmonton.

Last week, the University of Alberta faculty of education received $300,000 from an anonymous donor. That donation came after “a wonderful face-to-face meeting” and a shared passion for education, says Angela Wolfe, associate director for ATEP.

With that new funding, ATEP will hire a recruiter, who will be tasked, in part, with developing urban cohorts.

“There are so many Aboriginal individuals who have been moving from those (northern) communities. They’re here, so we’re going to be making those commitments,” said Wolfe, who adds there isn’t a school in Edmonton that doesn’t have Aboriginal students. “That’s going to be an amazing opportunity for us to have that. The goal of this donation is to have ATEP double our numbers within four or five years.”

Edmonton boasts the second highest urban Aboriginal
population in the country, which is also a young population.

At this point, ATEP is an off-campus collaboration between the U of A and the northern community colleges of Northern Lakes, Portage, Blue Quills and Maskwacis. When an urban cohort is formed, Wolfe anticipates ATEP being delivered on the U of A campus.

ATEP was launched in 2003 and has graduated 180 students, who are “peppered throughout Alberta,” said Wolfe. The focus of ATEP is to develop elementary teachers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, in their home communities.

“The reason why we have ATEP is that there is an urgent need within Alberta to have educators that have the foundation and background of understanding of Aboriginal perspectives, world views and histories,” she said.  “Our students are getting an in-depth, real strong foundation, what they need to be effective educators within the classroom.”

Students do their first two years of education course work at a college before transferring to one of the four partnering colleges for their final two years. At the partnering college they become part of a U of A cohort. Students stay together for the full two years, studying together and taking their courses together. Wolfe says ATEP is able to “almost handpick” instructors, many of whom are Indigenous, to ensure they share a passion about Aboriginal learning. Students also get the benefit of Elders and community members. When students graduate, they have a teaching degree in elementary education from the U of A. Wolfe hopes ATEP can eventually expand to include degrees in secondary education.

One of the goals of the program is to put more First Nations, Métis and Inuit teachers in the classroom. The thought, says Wolfe, is that if Aboriginal people teach in their home communities, they are more likely to remain in the classroom compared to non-Indigenous teachers, who see northern placements as stepping stones to gain experience and move on to an urban setting.

Many of the students who receive their degree through ATEP are mature and have already spent time in the classroom in their community, usually as a teacher’s aide.

“They’re vested deeply within those communities,” said Wolfe. “So these communities are benefiting from having their own community members being teacher-educated.”

These community teachers act as role models, she says.

A portion of the donation will also go toward research, looking at what ATEP graduates have accomplished.

“To see where (our graduates) are at, how they are making those massive impacts within community and we know they are. We know our graduates are doing that, that they’re working within their communities and just moving mountains,” said Wolfe.