The Yukon Native Teacher Education Program (YNTEP) is a four-year, Bachelor of Education degree delivered at Yukon College and granted by the University of Regina. Since its establishment in 1989, the program has graduated 121 students (as of 2010), 107 of whom are of First Nations heritage. Non-First Nations students were admitted to the program for the first time in 2004 on the condition that half of the available spaces were reserved for First Nations students.
For further information on the YNTEP program, see https://www.yukonu.ca/programs/yukon-native-teacher-education-program-degree
Looking Forward: Preparing Yukon Teachers for Yukon Schools is an exhaustive academic review of the YNTEP program prepared by Drs. Thomas Fleming and Colin Chasteauneuf. This review was requested by the President’s Advisory Council on First Nations Initiatives (PACFNI) on behalf of Yukon First Nations and was the first comprehensive academic review in the program’s 23-year history.
The full, 92-page report is available for download via the link to the right.
"Dr. Fleming and Dr. Chasteaunuef have done an outstanding job in helping us define the issues," said Deb Bartlette, the dean of Applied Arts. "We knew going into this process there were concerns about YNTEP. What they’ve done is take a snapshot of those concerns, and point the way to possible futures."
"But they’ve also left it up to us to decide where we want to go. We hope Yukoners concerned about education will use this report to move forward together."
Next Steps
Yukon College is immediately implementing one of the report recommendations – the creation of a review action committee to evaluate the report’s recommendations and determine next steps. The committee will be made up from representatives of the College’s academic staff, the President’s Advisory Council on First Nations Issues (PACFNI), the Department of Education, and Yukon Teachers Association.
The review action committee will begin meeting this summer and will roll out plans over the coming months. A review implementation committee will begin work later to execute proposed changes to the program.
2012 Intake
The 2012 intake to the YNTEP program was suspended in order to evaluate and implement any changes flowing from this academic review. Current YNTEP students will complete their Bachelor of Education in the existing program, they may however have the option to take any new course that may be offered as part of any changes to the Bachelor of Education program.
Academic Review Report overview
In July 2011 the Yukon College asked Dr. Thomas Fleming and Dr. Colin Chasteauneuf to conduct an external review of the Yukon Native Teacher Education Program (YNTEP) created in 1989. This follows a request from the College’s President’s Advisory Committee on First Nation’s Initiatives (PACFNI) to review the program.
The review was to focus on YNTEP’s pedagogical foundations, the program’s quality, and effectiveness in preparing First Nations and other teachers for Yukon public schools.
The prime original objective for YNTEP was to produce First Nations teachers who were sensitive to the educational needs of First Nations students and who could serve as models for both First Nations and non-First Nations students.
Findings
The authors presented 10 major findings, including:
- YNTEP has made progress in seeing more First Nations elementary teachers in the classroom. From one in 435 in 1989, today 10 per cent of the teaching population is First Nations. However, there is still a way to go to fully reflect the percentage of FN students in Yukon schools, which is currently at about 30 per cent.
- Yukon governments have consistently supported YNTEP since its establishment. YNTEP appears to have enjoyed all the resources it has required to carry out its program.
- A Yukon-situated teacher education program is a source of territorial pride to Yukoners, precisely because it is home-based.
- Two distinct educational worlds characterize the Yukon, the rural school and the Whitehorse school. There is real debate as to whether YNTEP prepares students properly for working in rural schools, and whether YNTEP grads are committed to working in rural communities. While the greatest need is in the rural communities, few grads apply to work there.
- Educational disruptions make teaching a vital and challenging career: A “landslide” of social problems frequently confounds Yukon educators and the educational system at all levels and undermines opportunities for youth to learn and to succeed at school. Yukon teachers have to be prepared to be effective instructors amid adverse social conditions and complex cultural pressures.
- The issue of YNTEP evolving from an aboriginal-students-only program has dissolved. A large body of sentiment was expressed that the program has benefited from a broader base of applicants in terms of enriching the knowledge, perspectives, and experiences of all students.
- Concerns about quality undermine YNTEP’s reputation: The issue of quality of graduates loomed large over the comments received by the researchers. Many criticisms of the program identify the inadequacy of teacher preparation in foundational areas of reading, writing, and arithmetic which creates challenges for the program’s reputation.
- Disagreement surrounds YNTEP’s cultural component: The authors heard calls for an extraordinarily ambitious cultural and linguistic agenda for teacher education in Yukon - an agenda that any teacher education program anywhere would have difficulty delivering. Although there was no explicit cultural programming component in the original conception of YNTEP, the idea and expectations have grown through the years.
- YNTEP has not produced a “built capacity”: There are no YNTEP grads currently teaching in the YNTEP program. Questions were also raised as to why YNTEP has remained an elementary school teacher’s program, and not sought to broaden its programming base to include secondary school or specialty teachers.
An analysis of the program contents suggests they are no better or worse than many found in institutions across; however, the dated character of YNTEP courses may generally be traced to the fact that the University of Regina’s faculty of education neither assessed YNTEP on a regular basis, nor ever commissioned an external academic review of the program since it began in 1989. - The theme of partnership: On numerous occasions, First Nations and non-First Nations individuals elaborated on the importance of partnerships in designing and operating an effective teacher education program.
Recommendations
The authors presented what they call `points of departure for future discussion` rather than directive recommendations for change.
- Yukon College should completely integrate teacher education into its governance, administrative, and academic structures: Since YNTEP for much of its history has remained a “free-standing” program, neither completely connected nor directly accountable to the College, this integration is long overdue and should include dismantling whatever coordination and governance supports remain.
- Yukon College should consider developing its own Yukon-designed teacher education program. The authors heard much support for developing a “home-grown” teacher education-program that would, in its contents, reflect the realities of Yukon life, the challenges teachers face in schools, along with the knowledge, competencies, and skills they require to be effective. There was also support for the College becoming a national leader in northern and First Nations education.
- Yukon College should gradually expand teacher program options: It makes sense for the College to consider also the possibility of expanding its program options in teacher education for secondary grades 9-12. Ideally, teachers should have an academic degree, especially in light of a twenty-first century economy based largely on knowledge and a well-credentialed Yukon workforce
- Yukon College should share responsibility for the cultural and linguistic component of the Yukon Bachelor of Education Program: The College should explore ways to empower First Nations peoples to design and deliver language, heritage and cultural programs that are relevant to their own needs, to the requirements of a teacher education program and to the preservation of Yukon`s heritage in general.
- Yukon College should campaign to raise teacher education’s profile: Vigorous efforts could be made to 1) induce degree-holders in teachable areas to consider a career in teaching and 2) identify academically talented young people in middle or high school and to provide support and career planning for them through generous scholarships, future-teacher clubs, and college access programs.
- Yukon College should establish a transition committee to consider the review’s recommendations. A broadly based transition committee should be tasked with reflecting on the findings and recommendations of this review, assessing their value, and considering the options for a teacher education program capable of addressing the Yukon’s complex educational, cultural, and social needs.
Options
The final section of the review looked at the programmatic foundations of the YNTEP program and outlined three flexible options that a transition committee might wish to explore when discussing the future character of teacher preparation in the Yukon.
The options include 1) a two-year post-degree Bachelor of Education program (for academic degree holders), 2) a five-year Bachelor of Education program (supporting 3 years of degree preparation + option 1), and 3) an incremental route to a Professional Teaching Certificate and a Bachelor of Education degree completion program in First Nations Language and Culture.
Review Authors
DR. THOMAS FLEMING studied at the University of Victoria, the London School of Economics, Stanford University, and the University of Oregon and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in intellectual and diplomatic history and a Ph.D. in the history of education. He has taught at the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia and served as Assistant to the President at the University of Victoria and at the University of British Columbia, as well as Executive Officer for the Council of Western Canadian University Presidents (and Vice-Presidents Academic) before becoming a faculty member at the University of Victoria.
In 1985, he authored the 1985 school reform initiative in British Columbia, Let’s Talk About Schools, and, in 1987, he was appointed editor-in-chief and a research director for the British Columbia Royal Commission on Education. He was responsible for writing A Legacy for Learners, the commission’s main report, along with editing nine volumes of the royal commission’s papers. In 2000, he received the University of Victoria Faculty of Education Inaugural Excellence in Teaching Award.
In 2001, he was appointed Visiting Professor, Graduate Department of Educational Leadership at the Universidad de Tres Febrero, Buenos Aires, Argentina. From 2000 to 2006, Dr. Fleming was the Canadian Director of the CIDA-sponsored Southern Cone Technology Transfer Program, a program that has trained 350 Argentine teachers, principals, and government officials in Canadian instructional technologies, assessment techniques and management information systems. In 2004, he was nominated for the Distinguished Research Professor Award in the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Education. In 2006, was the recipient of the Craigdarroch Research Award for Societal Service and was also made an honorary member of the Association of Canadian Studies in Argentina for his contributions to Argentine education.
Professor Fleming is well known for his co-authored volume on U.S. school management, A History of Educational Administration in Thought and Practice, and for his edited volume, School Leadership: Essays on the British Columbia Experience 1872-1995. He is also known for other volumes, including his co-edited volume Reformas Educativas en Argentina Y Canada: Trama Social, Gestion Y Agentes De Cambio. He has contributed more than 150 scholarly articles and reports to the educational literature. Dr. Fleming has also consulted with federal, provincial, district and international educational agencies in Canada and with various national, provincial and municipal governments in Latin America on governance and administration, teacher education, school reform, and system restructuring.
In 2010, Professor Fleming published a two-volume history, The Principal’s Office and Beyond: Public School Leadership in British Columbia, 1849-2005. In 2011, he published a documentary history of British Columbia schools since the mid-nineteenth century (Schooling in British Columbia: Voices from the Past, 1849-2005), and a monograph on the root causes of the current turbulence in British Columbia education (Worlds Apart: British Columbia Schools, Politics, and Labour Relations, Before and After 1972).
DR. COLIN CHASTEAUNEUF will be joining Dr. Fleming in this work. Dr. Chasteauneuf is former Dean of Education at the University of Northern British Columbia and has extensive expertise in developing and delivering aboriginal teacher education programs, particularly in northern contexts.