Nurturing Spirituality and Vocation: A Catholic Approach to New Teacher Induction

Abstract

The Catholic school system in Ontario, Canada, is fully funded by the govern-ment. Recently, Ontario's Ministry of Education mandated an induction year, the New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP), for all new teachers. This legislation provides an opportunity for Catholic school boards to take the lead and shape creative and effective programs for new teacher induction. The mission of the Catholic school and the vocation of a Catholic teacher give meaning and di-rection to the new teacher's professional educational practice. This article first explores some of the pastoral theological concerns that those charged with devel-oping a Catholic approach to NTIP need to consider and integrate into the pro-grams they develop and lead. It then proposes a model for new teacher induction that builds on the insights from pastoral theology and adult learning theory. T he largest government-funded system of Catholic education in North America is in the Canadian province of Ontario. That system edu-cates more than 600,000 students and is administered and governed regionally by elected Catholic Boards of Education. In a large, publicly fund-ed system, the demographics in Catholic schools often reflect a cross section not only of the Catholic population, but also of the larger community, many of whom are eager to attend Catholic schools. Within this system. Catholic schools fulfill a double mandate: to educate in the faith and to educate in-spired by faith (Congregation for Catholic Education [CCE], 1988). Yet, be-cause they are state funded. Catholic schools are immediately subject to the regulations, policies, and new programs emerging from the provincial gov-ernment and its Ministry (Department) of Education. Recently, the Ontario government revised the accreditation process for new teachers. Instead of writing a qualifying examination at the completion of their professional education, a transition year has been implemented to sup-port and to train new teachers in the passage from being education students to professional teachers. Called the New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP), it