Teacher Education Symposium

Each year, OTF and the Affiliates co-sponsor a by-invitation-only conference on teacher education, which brings together the Liaison Officers who sit on our Teacher Education Liaison Committees (TELCs) at the 14 Faculties of Education across the province, along with faculty members and teacher candidates from those institutions, to discuss current trends and issues in pre-service teacher education.

For the fifth consecutive year, members of the OTF Curriculum Forum, a network of some 50 subject/division associations that operate in Ontario, also participated in the program this year.

The 2024 Symposium took place on February 9 – 10, 2024. The theme of this year’s event was Partnering for Innovative Teacher Preparation | En partenariat pour une formation à l’enseignement innovatrice. The Symposium provided a forum for exploring re-imagined visions for teacher preparation in Ontario. More specifically, the Symposium offered opportunities to have rich conversations that act as mirrors of current principles and practices, offered windows into new possibilities and open doorways to partnering on innovative teacher preparation.

The 2024 program included an engaging panel discussion on Associate Teaching on the Friday evening, followed by an exciting process of Appreciative Inquiry on the Saturday morning, led by Jim Strachan, which enabled us to explore together diverse, innovative practices and ideas pertaining to Initial Teacher Education. On Saturday afternoon, Symposium participants were treated to a carousel of presentations facilitated by members of OTF’s Curriculum Forum. Finally, to close off our learning journey, Dr Kathy Gould Lundy led a consolidation and debriefing exercise, helping us consider what we had learned from our time together and how we can leverage our collective knowledge.

For additional context and to view the full program for the symposium click here.