Internationally educated teachers and teacher education programs in Canada: Current practices (original) (raw)

Abstract

Résumé: Keywords/Mots-clefs: 2007 Working Papers Series Atlantic Metropolis Centre Série de documents de recherche 2007 Centre Métropolis Atlantique Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration, Integration and Cultural Diversity Le Centre d’excellence pour la recherche sur l’immigration, l’intégration et la diversité culturelle 2007 Working Papers Series Atlantic Metropolis Centre Série de documents de recherche 2007 Centre Métropolis Atlantique Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration, Integration and Cultural Diversity Le Centre d’excellence pour la recherche sur l’immigration, l’intégration et la diversité culturelle INTRODUCTION Current Canadian demographics indicate an increasingly aged population and a low birth rate; immigration is a crucial source of current and future population and economic growth. The influx of people from countries worldwide is a rich source of linguistic, religious, ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity, and also a challenge to Canada’s claims of being a welcoming multicultural society. While the student population in Canadian schools is increasingly diverse, 1 particularly in large urban centres, the overall Canadian teaching profession is relatively homogeneous in terms of race (White) and class (middle class). A largely untapped source of ‘diverse’ teachers is people who have immigrated to Canada and who have teaching qualifications from their countries of origin. Professionals who have immigrated to Canada, including those who were teachers, are on average more highly educated and skilled than ever before. Many times, however, they encounter numerous challenges as they seek work in Canada commensurate with their qualifications. This research report, Internationally educated teachers and teacher education programs in Canada: Current practices, is phase two of a three-part research project. 2 The main purpose of phase two is to document current practices in Canadian teacher education programs that are relevant to internationally educated teachers. A major aspect of this phase of the research was to distribute a questionnaire to the director/chair/dean of 41 teacher education programs across Canada. Of 41 questionnaires sent, we received 27 responses. In this report, we describe our research method and present our major findings. We also provide a brief review of the literature, primarily in relation to immigration, changing demographics, and current research about internationally educated teachers in Canada. Finally, we present recommendations pertinent to teacher education. The information and findings in this report will be of specific interest to faculty in teacher education programs and other stakeholders (such as government departments of education, teachers’ associations/unions, provincial associations for internationally educated teachers) who are developing initiatives for internationally educated teachers. It 1 The words “diverse” and “diversity” in educational literature include, but are not limited to, discussions about teachers and students in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, religion, sexuality, able-bodiedness, language, and intellectual, emotional, psychological and/or physical exceptionalities. Inevitably, words that stand for such a wide range of experiences become increasingly ineffectual. In this report, we focus primarily on issues of “diversity” that refer to race, ethnicity, culture, language, and sometimes religion because these are the primary issues that we have encountered thus far in our own research. 2 Phase one of our research with internationally educated teachers (2005-2006) involved an arts-informed research inquiry entitled, Re-symbolizing the experiences of immigrant women who have been involved with teaching, funded by the Atlantic Metropolis Centre of Excellence (AMA) (Brigham & Walsh, in press; Walsh & Brigham, 2005, 2007a). We are currently working on phase three (2006-2009), the purpose of which is to further investigate the experiences of internationally educated female teachers. Phase three, funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, is an arts-informed study entitled, Experiences of female teachers who are immigrants to Atlantic Canada: Implications for Canadian teacher education programs (Walsh & Brigham, 2007b). 2007 Working Papers Series Atlantic Metropolis Centre Série de documents de recherche 2007 Centre Métropolis Atlantique Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration, Integration and Cultural Diversity Le Centre d’excellence pour la recherche sur l’immigration, l’intégration et la diversité culturelle will also be of interest more generally to policy-makers involved with the immigration, integration, and recertification of immigrants who were professionals in their countries of origin. We also believe that the report will be of significance to those concerned with issues of difference, diversity, and marginality in teacher education. We recognize that practices relevant to…