The University of British Columbia’s Indigenous Teacher Education Program (NITEP) is excited to announce Lillooet Tribal Council (LTC) and Fraser Valley (FV) as the new hosts of the NITEP rotating field centres. The centres will open in Lillooet in September 2015 and Seabird Island in 2016. LTC, FV, and the UBC Faculty of Education’s NITEP will partner to offer arts/science and education courses for the next four years (2015-2019 for LTC, 2016-2020 for FV), allowing students to remain in their home communities for years 1-3. The students will transition to the UBC Vancouver campus for their final year in order to complete their Bachelor of Education Degree.
Jo-ann Archibald, NITEP Director, notes “We are excited that our revised program delivery model allows us to expand our program and allow more students in regional areas to access our program. We look forward to working with Lillooet Tribal Council and Fraser Valley over the next few years.”
LTC Director of Operations, Susan James, states, “We support the value of preparing Aboriginal people to become highly qualified and effective educators. We [want] to create the opportunity toward developing equitable representation of First Nations teachers in the classroom in order that our students may see a reflection of themselves within the public educational institutions.”
SD #78 Superintendent, Dr. Karen Nelson, shares, “I wish to congratulate Seabird Island Community School, School District No. 33 (Chilliwack), Sts’ailes Community School and School District No. 78 (Fraser-Cascade), for their vision of implementing a NITEP field center in the Fraser Valley. We strongly believe that this program will provide an opportunity to increase the number of qualified Aboriginal teachers in our area which will in turn provide effective role-models for our students.”
NITEP prides itself as a contemporary program with traditional values. It truly exemplifies how culture can be integrated within a mainstream post-secondary institution. NITEP is also offered at field centres on the UBC Vancouver Campus and Duncan. The field centres in Bella Bella and Kamloops will be closing at the end of June. NITEP would like to thank the communities, post-secondary partners, and school districts for contributing to the success of these centres over the years.
Read more about our field centres here: NITEP Field Centres