150 Years from Normal
Â鶹AV's Faculty of Education marks milestone in teacher education
When the Â鶹AV Normal School opened its doors in 1857 to educate Quebec's public elementary and secondary school teachers, the 35 women and five men who comprised that first class could never have imagined the ways in which the definitions of both education and teaching would be transformed over the next century and beyond.
Today, studying education at Â鶹AV can involve a range of innovations and disciplines from research on cyber-bullying in schools to youth AIDS outreach in South Africa to cognitive neuroscience and educational psychology to new media pedagogies. It can lead to a future in First Nations and Inuit education in Canada's North or a life in one of the 70 countries in which the Faculty's alumni live and work.
On Saturday, October 20, the Â鶹AV Faculty of Education will celebrate its 150th anniversary with a three-part open house exhibition titled 150 Years from Normal: Education; Past, Present and Future. The lobby of the Education Building will be transformed into a museum detailing the 150-year progression from Normal School to today's Faculty of Education. The exhibit will showcase historical facts, pictures and artifacts dating back to the days of the Â鶹AV Normal School's inauguration. Moving into the present, 18 professors will demonstrate the latest developments in education research at the Gateway to the 21st Century exhibit. Current graduate and undergraduate students will exhibit their vision of what the future holds for the field of education with Education in a New Era. The open house will be held in the Faculty of Education Building at 3700 McTavish St. (above Dr. Penfield), from 2:00-4:00 pm.
Â鶹AV's Faculty of Education has 2,875 students, including 1,563 in full-time programs of initial teacher education, 480 in part-time programs of professional development and 832 graduate students enrolled in the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research.