Aboriginal Teacher Education (ATE)
This unique program track provides an opportunity for candidates to specialize in Aboriginal education, and is intended for Aboriginal candidates.
Upon completion, candidates holding a previous university degree receive the Bachelor of Education degree and the Certificate of Qualification as a teacher, allowing them to teach in the Primary and Junior or Intermediate and Senior divisions, depending upon their program option. Candidates of Aboriginal ancestry who hold a secondary school diploma, or equivalent, are eligible to receive the Diploma in Education and the Certificate of Qualification, allowing them to teach in the Primary and Junior divisions.
The Aboriginal Teacher Education (ATE) program track is constituted as both community-based part-time and campus-based full-time. Community-based courses are adapted to local contexts and needs, and include Aboriginal perspectives, balancing Aboriginal-specific and student-centred learning with knowledge of the teaching/learning process and research on Aboriginal education. Campus and community-based components include a course specific to Aboriginal education (
FOCI 201), and practicum placements in First Nations schools. At the present time, the Diploma program is available only in the community-based option.
Holders of the Diploma in Education who submit to the Education Registrar proof of having been granted an acceptable degree, will be awarded a Bachelor of Education. The degree considered for the awarding of a BEd degree must have no transfer credit that was counted toward the program requirements for the DipEd.
Admission
Application for full-time campus-based study in Aboriginal Teacher Education is made through OUAC/TEAS. The on-campus program is especially suited to Aboriginal students with a university degree who are interested in Aboriginal education. It may be of particular interest to mature students and those with experience in Aboriginal Education. Non-Aboriginal students are also invited to apply. Required supplementary admissions materials and deadlines for the campus-based program can be found at
educ.queensu.ca/admission/bachelor/consecutive/criteria/index.shtml
Application for part-time, community-based study is made through the Aboriginal Teacher Education Office, Faculty of Education, Queen's University. The community-based program is intended for Aboriginal candidates. Complete information including required supplementary admissions materials and deadlines for the community-based program can be found at
educ.queensu.ca/atep/community/apply/index.shtml.
Concurrent Education candidates are also eligible to apply to the ATE campus-based program track in the year immediately preceding their final BEd year. Interested applicants should refer to the above link for details outlining the required supplemental documents and deadlines. The deadline for submitting program track supplemental documents is the same as Consecutive Education program track applicants. Concurrent Education candidates do not apply through OUAC for the program track, but rather they submit supplemental materials directly to the Education Registrar's Office. Concurrent Education candidates will use their Queen's student number in place of the OUAC application number on all supplemental materials.
ATE has an admission policy which incorporates the following special features:
a candidates may complete some prerequisites to admission as exit requirements rather than entrance requirements;
b applicants of Aboriginal ancestry who hold a secondary school diploma, or equivalent, are eligible for admission to the Primary-Junior program option leading to the Diploma in Education (community-based option only);
c ATE candidates may be granted prerequisite equivalencies for skills such as fluency or functionality in an Aboriginal language;
d affirmative action is employed in the provision that candidates for the DipEd must be of Aboriginal ancestry, and candidates for the BEd will ordinarily be of Aboriginal ancestry;
e Aboriginal community representatives are participants in the application screening process in recommending candidates to the program through letters of community support.