Program aims to add aboriginal teachers

Trent university will offer a new program next fall that it hopes will help boost aboriginal numbers among teachers.

Cathy Bruce, interim dean of education at Trent, says the school will offer an indigenous bachelor of education degree program.

The program is partly in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report last summer that called on governments to change policies to repair problems caused by residential schools.

The report also recommended that students be taught about the history and plight of First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

Bruce said the school is still accepting applications and hopes to have 15 students, all who self-identify as aboriginal, start the first year of the program in September.

She says the program is working closely with the Peterborough, Ont., university’s indigenous studies program and will offer courses such as an Ojibwa language course and math course specifically related to indigenous culture.

“We need to increase the actual number of indigenous teachers in Ontario schools so that students see those role models and students see that they too can become a teacher,” Bruce said.

Some of the professors in the program will be aboriginal, she said.

“And if this program grows as we hope and believe it will, we can hire more aboriginal instructors.”

A report released last summer said public school teachers in Ontario didn’t receive enough training on aboriginal issues.

Only 29 per cent of elementary schools and 47 per cent of secondary schools offer training on aboriginal issues to teachers, said a report by People for Education, a research and advocacy group.