OISE's Concurrent Teacher Education Program graduates historic first class

June 31, 2012

by Tamara Jones

^{Antoinette Gagné, director, Concurrent Teacher Education Program (centre) with first cohort granduands Amanda Fiume, Shereen Abdou, Danielle Cummer, and Kaitlin Brock (photo by Caz Zyvatkauskas)}

June 21 marks an historic first for OISE and the University of Toronto – the convocation of the first cohort of the Concurrent Teacher Education Program – U of T’s largest collaborative program.

“We have learned so much from and with this first ‘pioneering’ group of teacher candidates. They have brought rich and diverse backgrounds, disciplinary knowledge and experiences to the program and to our learning community. We look forward to the many ways in which they will contribute to the profession and know that they will make a difference in the lives, opportunities and outcomes of their students, the families of those students and their communities,” says Kathy Broad, academic director of OISE’s Initial Teacher Education programs.

The Concurrent Program, introduced in 2007, is a collaborative endeavour that is offered through a partnership of OISE and the Faculty of Music, the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, the University of Toronto Mississauga, the University of Toronto Scarborough, and St. Michael’s College and Victoria College in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Graduating students will receive a Bachelor of Education degree in conjunction with the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Music, or Bachelor of Physical Health and Education degree that they receive from their undergraduate unit. “These graduates bring a wide variety of in-school experiences over their five-year program that will benefit the students in Ontario schools and around the world,” says Greg Boudreau, an instructor in the Concurrent Bachelor of Education program. “They are caring, enthusiastic professionals.”

Many graduates, who are certified to teach in either the elementary or secondary level, have received academic, leadership, and athletic awards, including awards from OISE, along with offers to teach in the Greater Toronto Area, Alberta, and Korea.

“From the very beginning, I was impressed by these young people,” Ero Siouga, an instructor in the Concurrent Bachelor of Education program, says of the graduating Music teacher candidates whom she has taught for three years. “They are professional, focused, disciplined, hard-working, eager to learn, and apply what they have learned from us here at OISE.”

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