Subject Librarian: Peggy Warren
Programmes Supported The Faculty of Education at York University offers degree programs in education at three levels - undergraduate, master's, and doctoral.
Undergraduate
The undergraduate program enrolls approximately 1000 students and offers two distinct pre-service teacher education streams - concurrent and consecutive - both leading to the Bachelor of Education degree. The 'concurrent' program, which candidates enter in their second year of studies, allows students to work simultaneously towards an academic degree from another Faculty while enrolled in the professional education program, and adds one year to their undergraduate studies. The 'consecutive' program encompasses a single, extended academic year, which teacher candidates enter upon completion of a three- or four-year undergraduate degree. Both concurrent and consecutive streams of the pre-service teacher education program lead to a recommendation for the Ontario Teacher's Certificate, awarded by the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, qualifying teachers to teach at the primary, junior, intermediate, or senior levels in Ontario elementary or secondary schools. Instruction for the concurrent p rogram takes place primarily at York University's Keele campus, while instruction for the consecutive stream takes place at a number of off-campus sites. Education courses taught at Glendon College are being phased out; while students currently enrolled in the concurrent program at Glendon will finish their program, no new education students are accepted at Glendon. Teacher practicum work for both streams takes place in the schools.
The Faculty of Education also offers a teacher preparation program in the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing students, the only program of its kind in Ontario. Needed to support this program are materials on deaf culture, sign language, and deaf education, as well as a limited selection of materials on basic audiology. Recent ly restructured, York's program in deaf and hard-of-hearing education is growing.
This collection also supports education foundation courses taught at other Faculties at York. The Faculty of Arts offers such courses as History of Education, Educational Psychology, Philosophy of Education, Sociology of Education, American Sign Language, as does the Division of Social Science. Although higher education per se is not a research specialty at York, the education bibliographer seeks to include a limited selection of core materials in higher education, including administration and general pedagogy. However, the teaching of specific disciplines at a post-secondary level is the responsibility of the subject bibliographer collecting in that discipline. Finally, the W omen's Studies Program and the York-Seneca Joint Program in Psychology and Early Childhood Education are supported, in part, by the education collection.
Graduate
The Faculty of Education reaches over 200 graduate students. The master's degree program specializes in the general area of language, culture and teaching. With its philosophy and curriculum grounded in critical thought, the Masters of Education program focusses on the cultural constructs of education and pedagogy and, in particular, on social differences. Thus, many courses emphasize socio-cultural issues such as gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and the impact of differing abilities on learning. Core graduate courses include world views in the social sciences, research methodologies, and critical pedagogy, while elective courses span a broad range of topics, including race and schooling, feminist pedagogy, school reform, urban education, the computer as a research tool, reading/literacy, assessment, second-language instruction, the inclusion of persons with disabilities in schools, children's literature, native groups and the environment, science education, play, and deaf education. These graduate courses reflect the multicultural focus of the entire Faculty of Education, as well as the present research interests of its faculty members.
The doctoral program was implemented in September 1996. Compulsory work for a Doctor of Philosophy degree includes a research seminar in language, culture, and teaching, and an advanced research methods course. Doctoral students choose elective courses from among the graduate courses listed above, or from courses offered through allied faculties.
Field Development
In addition to its pre-service and graduate programs, the Faculty of Education runs an extensive professional development program, reaching some 2000 in-service teachers. Courses are taught at several off-campus sites by outside instructors, in cooperation with area school boards. These 'Added Qualifications' courses lead to professional credentials and take the form of a one-week summer institute, a year-long seminar series, and an independent research project. These courses emphasize current teaching practices in applied disciplines and emphasize action research.
Research Centres and Groups
The Centre for the Study of Computers in Education is attached to the Faculty of Education, and is mainly supported by this collection.
A 'Science Education Group' at York University's Faculty of Education undertakes work in research, field development, and teacher education in the area of science education.
A 'Whole Language Umbrella' Group, in support of holistic literacy teaching, is hosted in the Faculty of Education.
The Writers in Electronic Residence (WIER) project, in which students submit writing samples electronically for comment by Canadian authors, is supported by the Faculty of Education.
Description of Current Collection
Historically, the education collection at York University Libraries emphasized special education materials, echoing an earlier orientation of the Faculty of Education. However, as the Faculty has redirected its primary focus to social differences and education (class, race, gender, ethnicity), the collection has followed suit. While the Library continues to purchase materials on the education of persons with disabilities, the collection's former strength in special education is gradually being supplanted by a growing focus on materials dealing with critical pedagogy and multicultural education, areas of study not only within the Faculty of Education but also in the Social Science Division of the Faculty of Arts. Nevertheless, the Library continues to collect heavily in the areas of the education of the deaf and deaf culture, because of the uniqueness of York's deaf and hard-of-hearing teacher program in Ontario. Further, materials dealing with instructional technology and computer applications in school settings are collected. These materials are also used by students in other other social science and computer courses.
Related Collections at York
Education, by its nature, is interdisciplinary and draws from other disciplines for foundation material. These related areas include psychology, sociology, computer science, languages, and linguistics. Materials selected by bibliographers in these other disciplines provide foundation materials for students and researchers in education.
Languages
English is the predominant language of the collection, although French-language materials, especially those published in Canada, are also acquired.
Geographical Coverage
English- and French-Canad ian, American, and British imprints are emphasized. Materials from other countries are collected on a more selective basis. Imprints from countries other than North America and Britain are acquired if the topic is of particular interest to the York community - for example, the education of girls in developing countries.
Chronological Coverage
The emphasis of the collection is upon contemporary materials; historical works are collected primarily for the history of education.
Date of Publications
The collection concentrates on current monographs. However, some retrospective titles are added, if available, as needed for history of education courses and for the graduate program.
Duplication
Multiple copies are obtained for high-use titles.
Types of Materials
- Monographs -- Books are usually bought in paper copy, where available. Paper copies of important works only are bound. The Library does not normally purchase textbooks, although graduate textbooks devoted to specific issues of educational research may be purchased on a selective basis.
- Journals -- Journals are subscribed to selectively, and journal subscriptions are periodically reviewed. Priority is given to the major research journals in education, especially those which are peer-reviewed and covered by the education indexes held by the Library.
- Microforms -- The ERIC document collection on microfiche is part of the Education collection. Second copies of heavily used journals, backruns, and titles unavailable in any other form are also acquired in microform.
- Electronic -- The Library collects materials in education in a variety of formats, including in electronic form (CD-ROM, networked bibliographic databases, full-text journals). The education bibliographer maintains an awareness of relevant electronic materials in education and, as these mediums develop, Library collections and policies evolve. Electronic materials of all sorts are becoming freely available to students and faculty on the Internet. Of particular interest are the provincial curriculum documents, available on the Web in full-text. The Library provides full Internet access from all its workstations.
- Theses and Dissertations -- Theses and dissertations are purchased very selectively. The Library automatically acquires microform versions of all masters theses and doctoral dissertations produced by York University students.
- Films and Videos -- Films and videos are acquired by the Film and Video Librarian, in consultation with faculty. The Film and Video librarian recognizes their importance to the instructional program in education.
- Government Documents -- The Government Documents Bibliographer acquires government publications on topics in education, and these are housed in the Business and Government Publications Library. Ontario government publications in education are acquired through the Library's status as a full deposit library. Documents from other provinces are acquired selectively. The Canadian Research Index (Microlog) collection also contains an extensive collection of provincial documents on microfiche. Standing orders for education documents are maintained with the government of the United Kingdom and with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Government documents from other international organizations and other countries, especially the United States, are acquired on a selective basis.
- Exclusions -- Instructional materials produced for elementary and secondary students are not acquired by the York University Libraries. Textbooks, instructional kits, activity books, lesson planning materials, programming aids and other applied materials are acquired by the Education Resource Centre maintained by the Faculty of Education. Standardized tests are not acquired by the York University Libraries. Both the Centre for the Study of Computers in the Faculty of Education and the Educational Resource Centre acquire instructional software for use in elementary and secondary schools.
Resources Elsewhere in the Toronto Region
York University The Education Resource Centre, under the auspices of the Faculty of Education, supports education students in their practicum work by providing a networked computer lab, a small children's fiction and non-fiction book collection, activity books, kits, manipulables, textbooks, filmstrips, audio tapes, videos, CD-ROMs, a few periodicals, curriculum guides, and instructional software licensed by the Ministry of Education for use in schools. Other smaller resource centres at York University, such as that in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, collect in specialized areas of interest to some researchers in education.
Toronto Region
The library at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education can be utilized by graduate students and faculty as a supplement to York's collection. O.I.S.E. has a base textbook collection of books approved between 1846 and 1970, extended by a collection of post-1970 Ministry of Education Circular 14 textbooks. The Faculty of Education of the University of Toronto and O.I.S.E. merged in 1997, making this the richest education resource in the province.
The professional libraries of Boards of Education in the Greater Metropolitan Toronto area can also provide supplementary support for both the graduate and in-service students of the Faculty of Education.
The Toronto Public Library has specific collections of interest to educators in specialized subject areas. For example, the Native Collection of the Spadina Road branch, with its collection of First Nations materials, both historical and contemporary, is an important resource. Likewise, the Osborne Colle ction at the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library has a prime collection of children's literature.
Finally, electronic materials of all sorts - some, of interest to the scholarly community - are becoming freely available to students and faculty on the Internet. Education researchers have access to the Internet from many points, including the Library, the Education Resource Centre, the Faculty of Education's computer lab, and other points on campus.
Collecting Levels
Last updated 1998