 Hi, so this is an interview with Gloria Olochi from the Nunavut Teacher Education Program. Our first question is, please describe your program. What is it called and what would you cover? I will talk about the Education Programs Division at Nunavut Arctic College, which offers a four-year degree program called the Nunavut Teacher Education Program and a two-year after-degree program called the Bachelor of Education Degree Program, known as the BEED Program, which is in partnership with the University of Regina. The N-TEP program began in 1979 as the Eastern Arctic Teacher Education Program, known as E-TEP. It is in partnership, it was in a partnership with McGill University at the time it was established in 1981. The program was a two-year education program. The graduates received a certificate of native and northern education from McGill University and a certification to teach in the Northwest Territories. In 2007, N-TEP established an affiliation with the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina. The focus of the N-TEP program is on the practice of teaching. The design of the N-TEP emphasizes the application of content and theoretical knowledge to the classroom through various field experiences and educational professional studies courses in Nunavut schools. In the fourth year of the N-TEP program, there is a 14-week field internship placement experience in a chosen school. Students at N-TEP are required to complete 120 credits to earn the Bachelor of Education degree. The program curriculum is informed by Inuit worldview, Inuit societal and cultural values and principles. The courses are delivered in Inuktitut when possible, but majority of the time the instruction is in English. The B program allows for students who have previously earned an undergraduate degree to earn a Bachelor of Education degree in two years. Students are required to complete 60 credits consisting of content and theoretical knowledge courses, educational professional studies courses and a field internship placement. B students complete the requirements of the program by joining the third and fourth year course offerings of the Nunavut teacher education program. So the B program is going to be offered in the coming years? It's always been offered, but this past year we did not offer the B program. The second question, what are age groups or target audiences? We accept applications from individuals who are interested in becoming classroom teachers in Nunavut. In saying that, applicants must meet the University of Regina academic requirements. Students applying directly from high school must at minimum have a grade 12 high school diploma with an overall average of 65 with courses such as English, Math or Science and or Language in Social Science or Fine Performing Arts courses. Applicants who have completed 24 or more university level credits and have overall cumulative average of 65 or more are eligible for admission on the basis of their university level courses. So it all depends on how many courses they've acquired from other universities. Mature status applicants, meaning 21 years or over, are eligible for admission on the basis that a 130 level Inuit English and Math score is obtained or obtained on NAC Nunavut Arctic College assessment test. What is the aim of the program? The Nunavut teacher education program prepares graduates to become qualified classroom teachers in Nunavut schools. Based on a strong foundation of Inuit culture and language, the ENTA program is committed to developing critical, confident, thoughtful Inuit teachers with the personal academic and professional skills to provide the children of Nunavut with the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to equip them for life in the classroom. So tell me a little more about what happens in the ENTA program. The program is delivered primarily using a face-to-face delivery format. The education program's division is exploring other program delivery models such as blended hybrid online distance, dis-online distance education models. The program courses are delivered in a variety of formats, which is through a module or block courses, deliveries and semester format courses, deliveries. So how do you measure the success of your program? Most of the graduates of the program end up finding employment in the teaching profession or even in the education sector as well as the public and private service sectors. In terms of Inuit education, I guess in general, indigenous education is a concept of how the different indigenous groups such as Inuit First Nations and Métis learn knowledge from their elders, parents, family members. It could be learning from the land and animals. Indigenous knowledge content is passed down through various ways, so different ways and methods through formal and informal educational settings. Indigenous education is holistic. Inuit education, I say this because, for example, in Inuit society, family as well as extended family members help in some way to take care and teach children when it comes to raising a child. Indigenous education is beautiful because it allows individuals to feel welcome, safe and wanted in a learning space environment. For the last, I would say, three years, we haven't really had any bead students because the bead program is geared towards any individuals who are interested in becoming a teacher. Say for example, if you were going to school in Winnipeg and you were taking other university level courses and you say you wanted to become a teacher, you could apply to our program and we have this program where it allows you to specifically take courses so that it can prepare you to become a teacher. So I think because I'm relatively new to the college, having just started this year, I think it's a great opportunity to work with our staff and our faculty to look at what our vision is for education and to work with our partners within the territory who also have our stakeholders in education. I think for me personally, my vision is to have Inuit teaching in Inuit with that being our language of instruction and teaching from an Inuit way of knowing and understanding our world and being able to pass on our culture and our language, but also to ensure that we have students that are graduating that are competent, are confident in who they are and have the academic skills necessary to continue on to whatever it is that might interest them, whether that's attending a new art college, coming to the NTF program, or going into other fields of study in post-secondary education, or to pursue a lifestyle that is, I guess, based in Inuit culture, whether that's hunting or sewing or teaching others about Inuit history and culture through other mediums other than just through our schools. And I think there's a great opportunity here at NTF to be part of that and to encourage our instructors and our learners to be part of that as well. One thing we forgot to mention is the introduction. Tell me who you are and what you oversee and your focus on NUNA book teaching or education, I guess. My name is Becky Murns. I'm Dean of Education, Inuit and University Studies at NUNA Boarte College. I started just back in August of 2018 and so I oversee our education program. So NTF and early childhood education, as well as our cultural language programs, and also looking at university programs such as the law program and how those fit within the college as well. And so my background, I did my master's in geography at Carleton University and I finished that just over a year ago now. And I taught at NUNA for three years in Ottawa and taught the Inuit history courses and some YouTube as well. So any more comments, Kaduita and NUNA a little bit more? I think this is a broad question. Yeah. So I'm just thinking of ways to incorporate our area. So over the next time years, I hope that we can, and I think we're at a stage where we're looking to work more between the different stakeholders. And I think within NUNA what we're in, I guess we're in this position that there's many stakeholders that are focused on whether it's Inuit employment or Inuit training and Inuit skills development. And I think the college is very much tied into what everybody's doing and we're trying to be that center for excellence in Inuit language and culture and to be able to provide that support to whether it's other government departments, our schools, the Department of Education, NUNA and our regional Inuit organizations. I think many different, the different levels of government and our Inuit organizations, we have the shared vision of what we want to see happen. And I think that vision has been there for a very long time with NUNA being created in 1999. And I think we're sort of at this point now where I feel being sort of part of all of this and creating that next step of our vision. So there was the vision of NUNA and that came to be we have our territory. I mean, we're still looking at issues of low Inuit employment and attainment at school and post-secondary education. But what can we do as the college to help support not only our learners that are here at the college but those that are interested in coming to the college. And I think for that to be achieved, we do need to work together with everyone else who's looking at training opportunities and educational opportunities in NUNA. And to work together to identify pathways for learners to come through whether there's pre-employment training or pre-college training that needs to take place for skills development or even diversifying the programs that we have available to us. And I think within the education programs, looking at how we can address the needs within our schools for different supports that are available at the schools. What role does the Arctic College play in addressing the needs for say student support assistance or how can we better train our student support assistance to be able to address the needs of our students in our schools that often is discussed at different levels. And so I think really it's about kind of like keeping up with everything that's going on and being able to identify those needs and working to address those needs. And obviously the NTAB programs at a time of change as well. We have a new university partnership that we're starting up. But I think that opens up opportunities for sort of revisioning what the program is and allowing our faculty and our staff to be involved in that change. And I think also the colleges at that point too where there is, they are currently working to develop a 10 year strategic plan. What do they envision for the college over the next 10 years as a whole? And then what part do all of our other programs plan that? So I think we're at this point where we're looking to sort of set that new 10 year vision. And I think we have a really great group of our leadership and then also our staff, our faculty, like everyone's so engaged in what's going on. And I think that we'll be able to bring all of those ideas together to really come up with the vision for education in the next 10 years. And I think we play one piece in that. And I think for myself, like that's my overall wanting to achieve is that we are like, we have more Inuktitut speaking teachers who are taught to teach in Inuktitut. But what does a program look like that actually allows for our learners to have access to that, right? And I haven't been through the Inuktitut program so I don't know what it's been like over the past number of years. I've heard stories from others like I have many friends that have been through Inuktitut. But I think there's always room to improve programs and to progress and to be innovative with what it is that we're doing and how we're teaching. And the one other hope for me is to see more, I guess, land-based education and having that opportunity, but really making links between the teachings on the land and what's underlying all of those lessons when people are out on the land. Because you're learning, not just to be on the land, but you're learning about being prepared. You're learning about being observant. You're learning about the environment. There's so much that you can bring in and you can tie in the different ways of knowing. And I think figuring out how we do that and how we prepare people to think that way as they're teaching as well is a really big piece of what I see for the coming years.