The Faculty of Education provides a range of courses which examine theory, research, and practice in many different areas of Education.

Undergraduate courses and professional programs

Undergraduate courses lead to a Bachelor of Education as a first degree or as a second degree.  The Professional Development Program (a one-year teacher education programme) is an integral part of the B.Ed. requirements.  The B.Ed. degree may include a Mathematical Sciences or Early Learning Specialization, or Minors in Physical Education, Educational Psychology, Early Learning, Environmental Education, Learning and Developmental Disabilities, Curriculum and Instruction, Counselling and Human Development, French Education, Mathematics Education, and International and Global Education.

Through Field Programs, graduate diploma courses are offered at sites throughout British Columbia in collaboration with other educational agencies.

The faculty also offers a Certificate in Literacy Instruction and a number of Post Baccalaureate Diplomas.

Graduate programs

• Graduate programs of study lead to the following degrees:
• Master of Arts (Counselling Psychology, Educational Psychology, Curriculum and Instruction Foundations, Teaching English as an Additional Language, Educational Technology and Learning Design).
• Master of Education (Arts Education, Educational Psychology, Curriculum and Instruction Foundations, Educational Technology and Learning Design).  Also, a number of Professional Graduate Programs are offered in Educational Leadership and theme-based Curriculum and Instruction.
• Master of Science (Secondary Mathematics Education)
• Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership)
• Ph.D. (Arts Education, Curriculum Theory and Implementation, Curriculum Theory and Implementation: Philosophy of Education, Educational Psycholoy, Educational Technology and Learning Design, Languages, Cultures and Literacies, and Mathematics Education)

Faculty research areas

Administration and governance:
community, cost-effectiveness, district-school relations, educational policy, finance,  higher education, management, program and personnel supervision, school reform

Counselling:
counselling psychology,  counselling and psychotherapy, career development, close relationships,  family and couple counselling, multicultural counselling, philosophy and history of applied psychology, school counselling,  therapeutic relationships

Curriculum studies:
development and assessment, integration, evaluation and implementation, phenomenological curriculum research,  program development, theory

Curriculum development and teaching in specific subject areas:
aesthetic education, including music, drama, visual arts;
citizenship, law-related education, social studies;
environmental education, outdoor education;
global and developmental education;
health education;
language arts; reading and writing—intervention research;  reading and language development;  vocabulary and instruction;  the writing process; writing for children;  literature, including children’s literature; literature for secondary school students; storytelling;
language teaching: philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics; acquisition of additional languages:  French language education, French immersion, bilingualism,
multilingualism, minority language education literary criticism;
mathematics and science;
physical education;

Education and technology: 
computer-based learning, computing systems for guiding learning and teaching, educational technology

Education of specific groups:
First Nations students, gifted children, minority group students, multicultural education

Educational anthropology: 
ethnography

History of education, history of childhood

Leadership:
specifically educational leadership, and change

Pedagogical theory:
critical thinking, instructional strategies,  learning styles, metacognition and self-regulated learning, teaching by the case method,

Philosophy of education:
epistemology, ethics and moral education, the ethics of care, phenomenological inquiry, professional ethics, Weberian studies

Psychology:
attributional processes, cognition, intellectual development, metacognition and motivation,  optimal conditions in learning for children and adolescents, philosophical psychology,  psychology of education, psychology of self, depression and gender

Research:
Research methods, qualitative research and phenomenological research

Social context of education:
cultural studies, education and the state, educational play, ethnography, educational equity, language and social context, peer relationships and school adjustment, sexuality and gender studies,  social problems in learning disabled students, sociocultural theory

Teacher education:
Teacher education in general, inservice education, preservice education, career development

Collection development responsibilities

Collection development is the responsibility of the Education  Liaison Librarian. Liaison with the Faculty of Education is maintained through the Departmental Representative as well as with other faculty members when required. Regular contact with other liaison librarians and teaching departments is nurtured through the sharing of relevant information.

SFU Resources

The WAC Bennett  Library is the major location for the University's Education collection with a growing collection at SFU Surrey.

The Centre for Educational Technology in the Faculty of Education holds a collection of videos and films for use by Education students.

Regional Resources

The University of British Columbia has a large Education Library which includes a complete set of the ERIC Documents on microfiche. Links from the ERIC database allow SFU students and faculty to make online requests to borrow ERIC Documents from UBC.

Consortia and Document Delivery

SFU belongs to three consortia (Electronic Library Network; Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries; and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries). Document delivery agreements exist with all three of these consortia which allow delivery of journal articles and books from these libraries in a timely manner. Holdings and direct requesting from over 40 libraries are accessible through the Interlibrary Loan web page and from many databases, including ERIC, the major database in the field of Education.

General Collection Guidelines

Languages: the emphasis is on the acquisition of materials in English and French.
Chronological guidelines: not applicable.
Geographical guidelines:  primarily Canadian, British and American.
Treatment of subject:  academic or professional educator
Types of materials: Collecting is split between books and journals. There is a growing demand for e-books as well as e-journals.
Date of Publication: Emphasis is on current publications. Retrospective acquisitions are normally only for the replacement of important titles which have deteriorated or disappeared.
Coordination and cooperation with other campus resources: The Centre for Educational Technology in the Faculty of Education holds films and videos which support this programme.
Other factors for consideration:   The Curriculum Collection is a special collection of books at elementary and secondary school level housed within the Bennett Library.  The English Department frequently offers a course in the study of children’s literature which could draw on materials in this collection.

Subjects and Levels of Collecting

Definitions of collection levels are derived from the American Library Association's Guide for Developing Collection Policy Statements, 1989.

Intermediate level (supports undergraduate studies only):

Curriculum studies: Religion, Social studies, Technology
Physical education
Penmanship and calligraphy
Foreign language teaching

Advanced level (supports research at the Master’s level and undergraduate courses): private schools

Research level (supports faculty research, dissertation research, research at the Master’s level, and undergraduate studies):

Teachers in general (including minority and First Nations teachers), teacher education (includes teacher certification), teacher evaluation (includes performance contracts), teachers’ aides

Academic freedom

Intellectual freedom

Pedagogy (includes Andragogy)

Educational philosophy (aims and goals of education, theories of individual educational philosophers, moral education, cultural literacy, social justice)

Alternative education, foreign study (i.e. study in another country, student exchange, cooperative education)

Educational psychology (including assessment, testing and grading)

Educational research (including surveys, and including reading and writing research)

Child study (Study of children and childhood as related to education), exceptional children (both advanced and retarded), child language (vocabulary, verbal communication skills, language ability), learning disabilities, learning and memory, adolescence, sociology of youth, child play

Educational technology, computers in education, educational media centres, audio-visual education, school books (as a subject), programmed instruction (not actual programmed texts)

Economics of education, educational costs (including tuition, fees, fellowships, scholarships)

Education in developing countries

Comparative education

Educational sociology, multiculturalism, multicultural education, education and state (including public education and schools, compulsory education), educational law, community and schools, educationally deprived (including illiteracy), discrimination in education (including racism and antiracism), school attendance (including dropouts), social justice

Educational administration, leadership, educational accountability (including school evaluation and rating, educational records, classroom  management (including discipline)

Administrative theory, administrative ethics, Max Weber

Pre-college education (curriculum and methods), pre-school education (including kindergarten), elementary education, junior high education, secondary education

Curriculum studies, humanities (including the arts in general), literature, drama (including theater arts) music, dance, art, sex education, environmental studies, science, mathematics, other special school curricula including multiculturalism and First Nations

College and university education (including change and crisis in education), administration, graduate education (including professional education in general), college students, college graduates (including benefits of education), community colleges, private colleges

Special education, adult education, education of the learning disabled, education of the physically disabled, education of the mentally retarded, education of the culturally deprived, education of the talented and gifted, education of ethnic minorities, bilingual education, foreign students, education of other specific classes (e.g. prisoners, mainstream)

Language arts, reading (Elementary) including reading aloud, composition (Elementary) i.e. literary composition as a course of study for school children, college level language arts (including college composition), English as a second language, storytelling

Remedial language arts (works on remedial reading and writing at the college level)

Student riots and protest (including change and crisis in universities)

Student life

Vocational education (vocational instruction within the educational system)

Educational counselling, academic counselling, occupational guidance)

Methods of study, distance education, open learning, other methods of study including co-op education

Subject research (systematic investigation of a subject field)

Education as career (including perceptions of minority and First Nations people)

Curriculum Collection

Juvenile literature (children’s literature).  Emphasis is on collecting award-winning titles and Canadian titles.

Selected textbooks, including teachers’ guides,  and non-fiction publications included in Integrated Resource Package lists of materials suggested for use in British Columbia schools

Selected works used for teaching English as a Second Language.  (There is no Integrated Resource Package list for this subject area.)