Faculty of Education students entering the after-degree program this fall received a pin and recited a Socratic oath at a ceremony on August 26. This is the second year the Faculty of Education has held a pinning ceremony, which marks students’ transition into their teacher certification years and to becoming full-time education students.
Getting this pin and starting our certification years, it’s really becoming real.
Jake Bell
“Just like a white coat ceremony for doctors, we have a pinning ceremony for education,” said Dr. Laurie-Ann Hellsten, Dean of the Faculty of Education. “We know that beginning teachers with a stronger teacher identity tend to be more resilient, they tend to stay in the profession longer. So, we think that the pinning ceremony helps to start developing that teacher professional identity.”
“We wanted to impart that feeling that now you’re no longer a student doing academic work alone,” added Associate Dean of Education, Dr. Lesley Trudel. “Now you’re in a classroom, you’re a professional, and this is a significant shift in the thinking that you have to have to do this job.”
Education student, Jake Bell, has dreamed of being a teacher since the first grade. He received his pin at this year’s ceremony.
“Getting this pin and starting our certification years, it’s really becoming real,” Bell said. “I think it really is another symbolization that I’m just another step closer to my career. I think there are many emotions that come with that.”
Bell is entering certification year four in the education program. He said he chose UWinnipeg because of the five-year integrated program, which allows students to gain valuable experience in educational and community settings in their first three years as undergrads.
Students receive pins, then sign and recite a Socratic oath.
“One of the advantages is in the first three years, while you’re doing your first degree, you’re getting into the classrooms,” said Dr. Hellsten. “Year one, you’re in a community placement. Year two, you’re doing a student services placement with a resource or guidance counsellor, so you’re looking at how to support children in classrooms as opposed to being a classroom teacher. In the third year, you’re actually in a classroom.”
Bell said his first years of the integrated program helped him find his true calling.
“I’d really like to be an early years teacher,” he said, “and that’s funny because I came into the faculty absolutely destined to be a high school teacher. It wasn’t until a practicum that I had in an early years classroom that it felt like me, right in my element. This is where I feel like my heart is.”
As a future teacher, Bell aspires to provide a safe space for young people, encourage them to be better versions of themselves, and help them to be successful adults. The oath he recited with his peers at the pinning ceremony, he said, really reflects his values.
“It makes me feel proud that this is my profession,” he said. “I feel it’s very special, and reciting these things is just kind of a reminder that this is a position of responsibility that I am in. It’s a position of responsibility that we all are in, as future teachers.”
