On Discernment: The Wisdom of Practice and the Practice of Wisdom in Teacher Education

Abstract

The Master of Teaching (MT) Program at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada is the focus of this chapter. The program is delivered over two academic years and culminates in a Bachelor of Education Degree. Students in the program have already completed a four-year degree program in a discipline. The MT Program is inquiry-based, learner-focused and field-oriented. Grounded in the Aristotelian notion of phronesis or practical wisdom, the program makes the relationship between discernment, imagination and wise practice central to teacher education. The MT Program emerged in the mid-1990s in the midst of a changing educational landscape in the province of Alberta. Fiscal restraints imposed on all provincial universities by the Alberta Government meant that the teacher education program at the University of Calgary could no longer be the shared responsibility of Education, Fine Arts and Kinesiology; it became the exclusive pursuit of the Faculty of Education. Additionally, a new memorandum of agreement between universities in Alberta and the provincial ministry of education (Alberta Learning) meant that all teacher education programs had to apply the new “Integrated Framework for Quality Teaching” (Province of Alberta, 1997). The framework provided a list of competencies, or Knowledge, Skills and Attributes, required for interim/initial teacher certification. Moreover, a new Dean of Education had been hired and he seemed determined to take student feedback seriously: very caring instructors but a very ineffective program. Importantly, the University of Calgary itself was undergoing a change process with a growing emphasis on inquiry-based educational experiences for all its students.