SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
History of Teacher Education in Peterborough
Teacher education first began in Peterborough in 1906 when a city delegation, including every member of the Board of Education and various members of City Council, met with the Minister of Education to advocate for the establishment of a normal school in Peterborough. This group was successful in being granted one of four normal schools in the province and in 1908 the newly constructed Peterborough Normal School opened its doors to its first class of 159 students: 22 males and 137 females.
When elementary teacher education became the responsibility of universities in the 1970's, Peterborough area educators once again pressed to maintain a teacher education presence in the community. Through their initiative and in collaboration with Trent University, the Queen's-Trent Concurrent Teacher Education Program was created in 1973 as a partnership between Trent and Queen's Universities. The program began as a deeply cooperative venture, involving not only the two Universities, but also the two Peterborough area school boards who, from the beginning, structured the partnership to include ongoing professional development for teachers and annual program feedback.
Trent University's School of Education and Professional Learning, including the Consecutive B.Ed. program, thus expands upon something that has been part of the composition of Trent University for what was thirty years as the first year class of the consecutive teacher education program entered in the fall of 2003. The B.Ed. program structure used this historical partnership and collaborative way of conducting teacher education as its foundation. The consecutive B.Ed. program was constructed collaboratively with representatives from Senior Administration in the three partnership District School Boards, Principals at both elementary and secondary schools, Teacher Federation representatives at the local and provincial levels, representatives from the Ministry of Education, and recent B.Ed. graduates. Frequent and intensive working meetings ensured that all perspectives were brought to bear on constructing programming that would provide a strong foundation for beginning teachers and ensure program integrity and accessibility for both the full time and the first part time B.Ed. program of its kind in the history of Ontario. As one Associate Teacher put it not long ago, the School of Education plans to maintain, "The Magic Formula: Partnership in Teacher Education."