Orientation Week:
The 2026/27 academic year is officially underway with more than 1,000 teacher candidates enrolled in UBC Vancouver’s teacher education programs. To set the stage for the year ahead, the Teacher Education Office (TEO) hosted a series of events for our annual orientation week, welcoming incoming students, staff, faculty members, faculty advisors and instructors.
The week began on September 1 with the BEd Faculty Orientation, featuring speakers Dr. Lee Airton (Queen’s University) and Dr. Nadena Doharty (EDST). On September 2 and 3, 11-month BEd candidates alit on the Point Grey campus, for an in-person overview of the program and expectations. The week wrapped up on Friday, September 4, with a virtual BEd alumni panel, where seven recent graduates fielded questions and offered real-world advice to the incoming class.
New Programming Initiatives:
This year at UBC Vancouver, the 11-month BEd program launched the Inclusion through Disability Justice (IDJ) option for Secondary teacher candidates across all teachable subjects. The IDJ option engages in a transformative exploration of disability, inclusion, and equity through the lens of Disability Justice. Grounded in anti-ableist, anti-racist and decolonial values, the IDJ option prioritizes relational and experiential learning centring the leadership and lived experiences of disabled people, including intersectionality as priority. Drawing from frameworks such as Universal Design for Learning, Social and Emotional Learning and Trauma-Informed Pedagogy, TCs will critically examine barriers to access within BC schools. They will be supported to ask bold questions such as: Who designed our schools, and for whom? IDJ supports TCs in reimagining classrooms as spaces of belonging, resistance, and possibility. By embracing multiple ways of knowing, being, and communicating, the IDJ option fosters a justice-oriented approach to teaching that actively challenges ableism and systemic exclusion.
With the demand for certified teachers rising in rural communities, the Faculty of Education is responding with expanded opportunities and programs. In 2026, the Rural and Remote Teacher Education Program (RRED) launched a new cohort in Vanderhoof to accommodate the demand for teachers in northern BC. With 24 enrolled teacher candidates, the new Vanderhoof hub operates in tandem with the southern RRED hub in Nelson, where there are currently 35 teacher candidates in the hybrid rural program. In RRED, online learning takes place September to June in Year 1, with practicum placements and online courses taking place in the second year. Program completion is in July 2028. Applications for the next RRED cohort (2028–2030) will open in October 2027.
Together, these initiatives highlight the Faculty’s ongoing commitment to addressing the province-wide demand for teachers while adapting programs to meet the evolving needs of today’s classrooms. By expanding pathways and forging community partnerships, UBC’s Faculty of Education continues to prepare the next generation of educators to make a lasting impact in schools across British Columbia. We welcome this year’s group of teacher candidates and are enlivened by the enthusiasm and dedication seen in these first weeks of the 2026/27 program year.