A response “to the needs of today’s classrooms and learners”
Mt.A launched its returning bachelor of education program (BEd) on Oct. 21 after its 30-year absence from the University. Mt.A president and vice-chancellor Ian Sutherland said that the BEd is “especially designed for the needs of today’s classrooms and learners.” Sutherland said it is being launched with a “deep desire [and] deep commitment to help” with “the challenges faced in education systems in Canada.” The 16-month, four-term post-baccalaureate consecutive degree will be open for applications in October 2027, and will be welcoming its first cohort of 70-90 students in May 2028.
Graduates from the program will have undergone three teaching practicums, the longest of which being a fully immersive 12-week practicum, and will receive a level 5 New Brunswick teaching certification. The differentiation between a level 4 and level 5 teaching certification is on the basis of 30 additional university credit hours. A level 5 teaching certification allows for the pursuit of a level 6 certification through a masters degree (Higher-Level Teachers Certificate).
In an interview with The Argosy, extended learning officer and BEd curriculum developer Ryan Gamm explained the decision to offer a 16-month program rather than a 10-month program like other New Brunswick BEd programs at the University of New Brunswick and Saint Thomas University. Gamm explained that the 16-month program “provides time for rigorous coursework.” Gamm added that “The goal is not simply to help students earn a credential quickly, but to prepare them well for the complexity and responsibility of contemporary teaching.”
Sutherland also called the program “purpose-built, results-oriented, and locally rooted.” The program was developed through the partnership between Mt.A faculty, alumni, students, the Anglophone East School District, Indigenous education leaders, and teachers. Sutherland emphasized the integration of “inclusive education, social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practice, digital literacy and education
technology” into the program.
The program takes a comprehensive and uniquely creative attitude to exploring experiential approaches to teaching and learning. Primarily, it underlines the importance of
Indigenous education and truth and reconciliation. Consultation with Indigenous educators has allowed the BEd to incorporate Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing. In particular, Gamm explained the program’s land-based component, which targets “learning with and from the land and engagement with Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing.”
The program especially builds on the “exceptional strengths” of Mt.A’s liberal arts and sciences education. In reflecting on her Mt.A BSc, 2020 Mt.A graduate, master of education holder, and educator Sara McConnell, articulated “The hands-on learning experiences I had as a student continue to influence how I design my learning experiences for my own students.”
Furthermore, the program builds on existing community partnerships between Mt.A and regional schools. Partnerships like the Together Time intergenerational literacies program with Dorchester Consolidated School and the Engage! program with Marshview Middle School.
In underlining the value of the University’s current community-engaged learning course, McConnell said they “showed [her] how meaningful partnerships between schools and universities can be.”
When asked why aspiring educators should choose Mt.A’s BEd, Gamm said, “We aren’t trying to prepare teachers for the classrooms of the past. Mount Allison’s BEd has been built around the realities of today’s schools and the needs of the students who will be sitting in our graduates’ classrooms.”
“We want our graduates to leave Mount Allison prepared not only to begin teaching, but to grow into thoughtful, adaptable and effective educational leaders,” said Gamm.
The program comes about in the current climate of New Brunswick literacy and numeracy decline. The recent 2026 auditor general of New Brunswick’s report stated that Anglophone provincial literacy tests had targeted achievement shortfalls between 7.8 per cent and -34.4 per cent. Additionally, in 2025, 38.5 per cent of New Brunswick 15-year-olds fell below United Nations numeracy standards, an exponential increase from 14 per cent in 2003.
Provost Richard Isnor asserted “This degree represents investment in [New Brunswick’s] future.”