In 2019, the Ontario Ministry of Education announced a mandatory mathematics examination for all newly licensed teachers in the province. The following winter, after a brief pilot and a few months during COVID of testing, a court case declared the mathematics examination unconstitutional, and it has been paused since January 2021. This paper…

Teacher educators are an occupational group who appear to suffer from an identity crisis. They do not seem to be able to agree on what their role or professional learning needs are. This situation has dire consequences for the next generation of teacher educators who enter the field in the same rather haphazard and ad hoc way as the ones before.…

Becoming effective teachers is dependent upon a variety of factors intersecting with early career teachers' beginning teaching experiences. This paper provides a glimpse into ways in which four early career secondary school teachers began to embed literacies into their teaching practices in content areas and how their approaches shifted between…

The Ontario Ministry of Education established the New Teacher Induction Program in 2006, ensuring that new teachers in the province receive orientation, mentoring, and continuous professional learning in their first year. Through this program, districts receive funding and opportunities to support mentors and respond to the needs of novice…

New teachers require specific and targeted support, as witnessed by alarming rates of attrition in their first years in the profession. Research shows they often struggle to bridge the gap between their university study and effective practice, especially with issues such as assessment, classroom management and diversity. New teachers should have…

This article describes an equity education program established in 2009 by Ontario's (Canada) Ministry of Education to improve outcomes for students at risk and create the conditions needed for student success. Beginning teachers were crucial partners and emerging leaders of equity education. Some of the equity concerns these teachers faced were…

This report illustrates how four high-performing systems--British Columbia (Canada), Hong Kong, Shanghai (China) and Singapore--developed their teacher professional learning. The report and accompanying materials are designed as a resource for teachers, school leaders and policymakers wanting to improve teacher professional learning in their…

A student's education is as good as the teacher who provides it. People are insane to put students into the care of teachers who are not cared for themselves; in doing this they drive quality teachers away from the profession, and those who stay shudder to remember those dark Novembers. In this article, the author recounts her first year of…

This paper provides an account of the processes leading to the report "Transforming teacher education. Redefined professionals for 21st century schools" undertaken by the International Alliance of Leading Education Institutes. The report is a unique document, neither a series of country studies nor one based on an extensive review of the…

This paper describes an initiative, Becoming Teacher Educators (BTE), which is a group for doctoral students who want to become teacher educators. The group is composed of two professors and 12 doctoral students. The various activities in which the group has engaged over the past three years are described. This article brings to light a few key…

Teacher education programmes within Canada are markedly different in structure and duration across the provinces, which affects programme delivery for teacher candidates and their opportunities for clinical practice. This paper provides a brief overview of Canadian pre-service teacher education, a summary of new teacher induction and mentoring…

This article explores two beginning Canadian teachers' experiences of professional development in literacy education. Differences and parallel tensions between the Canadian teachers' and my own experiences as a teacher and teacher educator in Pakistan were identified through narrative inquiry. The significance of this article is found in the…

This article is a recollection of events as the author began her teaching career. Her first experience was an "alternative route" she claims, since it involved her joining the Peace Corps and accepting a teaching position in Uganda. In the article, she discusses that although the breadth and depth of induction programs vary widely both…

This report describes the Beginning Teacher Induction Program (BTIP) in 12 New Brunswick anglophone school districts during 1996-1997. Data come from beginning teachers, mentors, principals and district coordinators who participated in the BTIP and completed a survey. Half of the mentors attended a mentor training workshop, an increase from the…

Changes in the training and certification of teachers in Quebec alter the dynamics of the induction process. New certificate-in-hand teachers are more readily perceived by their experienced peers as full-fledged teachers, and through preparation of support measures, veteran teachers participate in a collective process of professional…