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Dean ’ s Message
Highlighting some of the many activities of the Faculty of Education over the spring and summer , this edition of Education News appears in the fall when the Faculty is again deeply immersed in teaching , research , and community service and welcoming more than 350 new 1st-year students and preparing another 300 for their 4-month internship in schools .
It is common to talk about teaching and learning as a journey of growth and discovery . Our stylized logo is a butterfly transitioning through complex stages of a metamorphosis .
This fall , I am keenly aware of this transition because my grandson from Radville has started university , enrolled in Justice Studies and is staying in residence . I am seeing the undergraduate university experience through his eyes . It is gratifying to see his universe expanding when he speaks of the classes and teachers he has encountered for the first time .
My grandson reminds me of the tremendous responsibility that all teachers have as professionals endowed , ethically and through legislation , with a sense of public trust . Teachers in public education are held to a higher standard and scrutiny than other citizens because they work so closely with our most valuable resource – children and youth . In the Faculty of Education , the education of teachers at both the undergraduate and graduate level is framed by a strong sense of social justice and grounded in purposeful reflective practice .
I was one of the coauthors of a recently completed research project by the Saskatchewan Instructional Development Unit ( SIDRU ) that looked at “ The Challenges of Intensification Confronting Saskatchewan Teachers ’ Professional Time .” Nearly 1,000 teachers participated in an online survey and open-ended questionnaire .
In the context of teaching , work intensification refers to the ways in which teachers are subjected to increasing external pressures , such as demands from policymakers at the school , division , and provincial level . This results in an increase in duties for which a teacher is responsible , without the accompaniment of additional resources or time . As the work of teachers is increasingly reduced to executing the decisions made by others , intensification thus carries an implicit threat of deprofessionalization .
From the data of this study , three themes have emerged .
1 . A Strong Sense of Teachers ’ Professionalism . This includes the aspirations teachers have , their idealism , and their concern for their students and those aspects of their work in which they experience efficacy , autonomy , and agency .
Left : Dr . James McNinch , Dean Photo credit : Trevor Hopkins continued on page 3