Welcome to your future in education. The Faculty of Education is committed to helping you learn and develop as a professional educator in a broad spectrum of educational settings that focus on lifelong learning. Our faculty advances educational thought and research, models exemplary practice, seeks, generates and disseminates knowledge and provides professional educational service. We also seek to strengthen our leadership position by delivering programs and research at the provincial, national and international levels.

The faculty is home to the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies as well as the School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education. Our undergraduate programs focus on teacher education, kinesiology, and recreation and health education.

We also have a large and diverse set of graduate programs including: early childhood education, counselling psychology, leadership in community and school settings, coaching studies, educational studies, and educational psychology.

Our faculty members are active scholars with impressive national and international reputations and an outstanding track record for attracting research funding. Among our distinguished and funded scholars are two Michael Smith Foundation Career Research Scholars (Ryan Rhodes and Paul Zehr), a Lansdowne Professor (Michael Roth), two Tier II Canada Research Chairs (Health and Society -Joan Wharf Higgins) and (Indigenous Knowledge and Learning – Lorna Williams). We are also the home of the first University of Victoria Distinguished University Professor (Larry Yore).

Teaching is one of the most important and the most challenging professional roles that our society offers.  It has been claimed, with some justice, that the quality of a society is directly linked to the quality of its teachers.  At the University of Victoria we take very seriously our commitment to offer educators - whatever their professional role, context or stage of career - richly meaningful opportunities to expand their learning, hone their skills, critically refine and reflect on their practice, and deepen their understanding of all that teaching entails and makes possible.  We are proud of the close connections we have forged with school districts throughout the province, with our partnership program at the College of the Rockies, and of the broad array of opportunities our students have to work in ‘alternate’ and international settings as part of their programs. We value our close collaborations with the various and diverse communities we serve, and strive to ensure our programs reflect and respond to the values and differing needs of those communities.  Our programs are research informed and balance theoretical understandings with supported classroom experiences.  We see learning and teaching as inextricably entwined, and treasure the many ways we all can learn alongside, with and from each other.  Central to our programs’ effectiveness is the active and vital role our students play in informing us of what is working well, and what can be made to work better.

As the Associate Dean of Teacher Education I am mindful of the long and strong tradition of, and contribution to, teacher preparation made by the faculty, in BC, across Canada, and internationally.  I am proud, too, of the reputation for leadership and innovation the faculty has earned, and for its ongoing commitment to Indigenous Education and to curriculum that supports and embodies issues of social justice and democratic principles and practice.  Most acutely, it is the children, adolescents, and adults in the classes and programs that will be led by “our” teachers that shape and drive the way we approach teacher education… and the goals and aspirations we set and share.  At the University of Victoria teaching matters – teachers matter – and learning about teaching is key to our mission.    Welcome.

Dr. Alison Preece
Associate Dean, Teacher Education