The Eighth International Literacy & Education Research Network Conference on

SPETSES, GREECE
4-8 July 2001

Dr John Lundy
Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Nipissing University, Ontario, Canada

Dr Alan Sparkes
Faculty of Arts, Nipissing University, Ontario, Canada

Denis Lawrence
Registrar, Nipissing University, Ontario, Canada

Equitable Access to Teacher Education for Aboriginals and Visible Minorities:
A Canadian Case Study

Abstract

This paper highlights important challenges to Ontario teacher education, especially in the area of equity of access. It looks especially at the socio-economic background of eight years of teacher education registrants (N =2,958) at an Ontario Faculty of Education. In order to understand further the dynamics of equity of access for visible minority and Aboriginal candidates to teacher education, a comparative analysis of a survey sent to the applicants from 1992 to 2000 (N=25,374) was completed along with an analysis of Ontario Universities Application Centre (1992-2001) data. The socio-economic variable looked specifically at parental education, general family configuration, and family connection with schooling as a career. The analysis of registrant and candidate data will help researchers and policy makers understand some of the social dynamics surrounding teacher candidates and determine what elements facilitate or detract from equity of access especially for subordinate culture and working class teacher education candidates.

Bionote

The authors work at Nipissing University. Aside from publications on equity of access to teacher education the authors also have publications in the use of Statistics Canada computer programs (Dr. Lundy) and in the area of sociology of health care (Dr. Sparkes). Mr. Denis Lawrence is the Registrar at Nipissing.

Presentation Type
30 min. Paper

Presentation Equipment and Other Requests
OHP

Speaking Date/Time Restrictions

Country
Canada