In an effort to bring more exposure to the projects, achievements and passions of our staff, the editorial team is pursuing a new story format: short articles focused on a profession, a department or even a location so that our readers can develop a better understanding of certain concepts.
This article is about pedagogical counsellors!
Pedagogical counsellors at a glance
The pedagogical counsellor position, or “ped counsellor” for the cool kids in the room, is a position that is quite unique to Quebec:
“Historically, in Quebec, ped counsellors are not there to implement directives from the Ministry. In Quebec, teachers have a lot of professional autonomy and ped counsellors are there to support teachers.”
Joanna Rowe – the person we have chosen to help us clarify things – started working with Kativik Ilisarniliriniq as a Secondary IV and V homeroom teacher in Kuujjuaq three years ago. Prior to that, she worked in the Northwest Territories, in the small community of Paulatuk. She’s now an education consultant for English and Social Studies for secondary students in Nunavik.
Now, back to the matter at hand: how do ped counsellors support teachers? To start, from Joanna’s point of view, it’s important to see the teacher in the classroom environment in order to understand what kind of students are present and what they are interested in. Only then can she work with the teacher to see where their strengths lie.
Every teacher has their own unique qualities, instruments, experiences and professional ideas that they want to realize. My job is to help teachers recognize and build on their own strengths and offer strategies on how they can leverage their own strengths to reach their goals and full potential even more effectively.
In other words, it’s often about taking a step back with the teacher, when they are in the heat of the action.
“At my school, I’m the only Secondary English teacher. So, I don’t have other coworkers to discuss certain things with”, explains Caroline Wilson, a Secondary English teacher who recently worked with Joanna. “To be able to speaks with someone who talks with other English teachers, other Social Studies teachers, is really helpful because she can relate the experiences of other teachers and give suggestions that they found helpful”.
That is to say, ped counsellors not only build bridges between teachers and their students, but also relationships between teachers and other staff within the school board.
There are random things [the ped counselor] can help with. Like connecting teachers to other teachers, providing extra resources, deeper explanations, strategies that other people have used that have worked for them… It’s nice to know that there’s someone we can always reach out to with our questions.
At Kativik Ilisarniliriniq, a ped counsellor, like Joanna, will visit each community at least once a year to work with the schools. She also collaborates with other ped counsellors to develop the curriculum.
On special occasions, she meets with her colleagues in the Inuktitut and French sector to discuss a wide range of hot topics including the language policy, which will set the framework in which school personnel will operate in the near future.
But let’s not spoil anything on the subject. Let’s save that topic for another article, shall we?