Teachers for the North need particular training

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Teachers working in Aboriginal communities across the province of Quebec are learning the skills they require, thanks to an ongoing partnership between their communities and the Office of First Nations and Inuit Education.

The Office of First Nations and Inuit Education has been providing community-based teacher education for Aboriginal teachers since its creation in the mid-1970s. The office operates out of the McGill University's Faculty of Education in Montreal.

The program began as a joint venture between McGill and the Kativik School Board to help address a growing demand for Inuttitut-speaking elementary school teachers.

Following the success of the McGill-Kativik collaboration, the Eastern Arctic Teacher Education Program (now the Nunavut Teacher Education Program) based in what is now Iqaluit, approached the university to develop a similar community-based literacy program for communities in the eastern Arctic. The program is now offered as a full-time, campus-based three-year program at the Nunatta Campus of Arctic College in Iqaluit, as well as through field-based programs in Keewatin, Kitikmeot and Baffin.

Since its inception, the Office of First Nations and Inuit Education has been expanding its programs. It now offers community-based teacher education in several different areas, and in several different Aboriginal languages. In addition to training Inuit teachers in Nunavut and Nunavik, training is also provided in Cree communities in the James Bay area, in Algonquin communities in western Quebec, and in Mohawk communities in the south-western part of the province.

Susann Allnutt is programs administrator with the Office of First Nations and Inuit Education. She said the programs offered by the Office of First Nations and Inuit Education started out as teacher training programs, but after 20 years of activity, have grown into much more.

Allnutt said the base programs offered by her office are the pre-service programs - those that train people to become teachers. Once a person has become certified as a teacher, in-service programs are available to them, allowing them to continue training.

One of the programs offered by the office is designed for non-Aboriginal teachers who work in the north, or who are interested in working in the north.

"They need more training in a formatted package about the environment they will be working in," Allnutt explained.

The office also offers a Certificate in Aboriginal Literacy Education, which is designed to help people improve their reading and writing skills in their Indigenous language. According to Allnutt, this program is so far only being offered in conjunction with the Cree School Board.

Allnutt said the literacy education program has a broader scope than simply teacher education.

"The Aboriginal Literacy Education program is there not only for teachers, but for anybody who needs to increase their knowledge of their own language... the oral language is very strong, but sometimes the reading and writing literacy isn't very strong," she said.

Another new program being offered by the Office of First Nations and Inuit Education is Middle School Teaching in Aboriginal Communities.

According to Allnutt, the middle school program, designed for teachers of Grade 7 and 8 programs, can be included as part of completion of a Bachelor of Education, or can be taken following completion of teacher training.

Allnutt said talks have begun about the possibility of implementing the Middle School Teaching in Aboriginal Communities program in Iqaluit, where a new middle-school will be opening.

Allnutt indicated initiation of all the various programs offered by her department has been community-led, with the community involved seeing a need, then approaching the university about meeting that need. The programs are developed in partnership, with staff from the Office of First Nations and Inuit Education working with the community to "work out with them what should be in particular certificate program" then working with the university to put in all together.

She said that, whenever possible, her office also tries to hire instructors from the community involved in the program.