West Kootenay Rural Teacher Education Program (WKTEP)

Special Features

• Small cohort size encourages a personalized learning environment with a focus on developing a strong community of learners.
• Host school placements are individualized and support the unique strengths and areas of interest of each teacher candidate.
• WKTEP offers a variety of secondary teachable subjects including, but not limited to, Math, English, Social Studies, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Home Economics, French, Physical Education, Theatre, and Visual Art.
• Elementary and secondary candidates will experience a wide array of learning environments including multi-age and alternate settings with a strong focus on rural education.
• Many WKTEP instructors are practicing educators who bring practical experience and current pedagogy to their courses.
• Strong links with our four local school districts allow for shared professional learning opportunities along side practicing teachers.
• A focus on place-conscious learning encourages a strong connection to the local communities and provides learning opportunities in the areas of social justice, outdoor education, and environmental education.

Philosophy

Nurturing Communities of Learners

WKTEP’s school-based approach is aligned with Ministry of Education goals, grounded in current research in teacher education, and focused on the particulars of the setting and its relationship to broader contexts, especially rural communities.

The argument for a school-based model is based on three reasons:

1. enhanced educational opportunities for teacher candidates,
2. enriched community connections,
3. and embedded professional growth.

What underpins these is the belief that teachers are most effective when they have a deep and nuanced understanding of the communities where their students live.

Clustering teacher candidates in host schools for most of the year allows for the fuller realization of WKTEP’s goals as a place-conscious, progressive, and evidence-based teacher education program. Immersion in a community context can yield important insights about the relationships between a place and the character, aspirations, and experiences of those who live there. Since cultivating place-consciousness is a well-publicized education goal, locating teacher education within communities makes good sense. This is where one’s students come from, where relationships between adults and children and youth are cultivated, and where a sense of identity beyond one’s immediate family is formed.

The History of WKTEP

During the fall of 1989, in response to an anticipated teacher shortage, the BC provincial government made available funding to initiate teacher education programs in the regions of British Columbia that were distant from the degree granting universities in Vancouver and Victoria.

Following consultations with the three main BC universities, Selkirk College faculty member and Open Learning Agency manager Gerry Ehman determined that UBC was in the best position to offer such a program in the West Kootenays. UBC’s Dean of Education, Dr. Nancy M. Sheehan, visited the West Kootenays and met with Selkirk College representatives and adjacent school district superintendents to explore the feasibility of forming a consortium to sponsor a teacher education program.

After establishing that there was a need for the program, the consortium was established. It applied for and received Ministry funding for one year. For its first year, the program was restricted to elementary and secondary post–degree candidates who met UBC’s Faculty of Education admission criteria. From 1991 to 1996 WKTEP also offered a 24-Month Elementary program.

UBC, Selkirk College, the Open Learning Agency, and School Districts #7 (Nelson), #9 (Castlegar), #10 (Arrow Lakes), #11 (Trail), #12 (Grand Forks) and #13 (Kettle Valley) formed the initial program consortium. Following amalgamation, the consortium school districts included #8 (Kootenay Lake), #10 (Arrow Lakes), #20 (Kootenay-Columbia) and #51 (Boundary). The school districts provide the school advisors and the practicum facilities. The Open Learning Agency initially provided some of the pre–admission and some of the post certification course work.

The 1990/91 program was initially based at the Ootischenia Elementary School in Castlegar. Some of the instruction was delivered in other schools in Castlegar, Nelson, Trail, and Grand Forks, and the summer courses were offered on the Selkirk College campus. In 1995 the entire program moved to Selkirk College campus, with some courses still being offered in local schools.

Beginning in 2014, WKTEP implemented its school-based model with teacher candidates spending two or three days per week throughout the school year in their practicum schools and, effective August 2015, the program relocated to the UBC Learning Centre in Nelson. Over WKTEP’s history, more than 650 students have graduated from the program and received their Bachelor of Education degree from the University of British Columbia. These graduates have found employment in over 80 different communities within BC, as well as in many other provinces and countries. The program maintains a high employment record, with an average of 80% of all graduates having attained full or part-time work as teachers. Many of these can be found in the local school districts as both teachers and administrators.

WKTEP Academic Calendar

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