Educhatter:

Teacher qualifications and shifts in Faculty of Education admissions policies once attracted little public attention. That all changed in November 2024 when the Canadian province of Manitoba made a fateful decision to remove minimum subject knowledge requirements from its admissions process. Leading Mathematics professors and subject specialists saw it as a ‘declaration of war’ against what remained of subject specialization in the preparation and certification of teachers.

Recent amendments to the Teaching Certificates and Qualifications Regulation by the Wab Kinew Government under The Education Administration Actstirred considerable public opposition.  University of Winnipeg Mathematics professor Anna Stokke and a vocal group mathematics professors objected to amendments which lifted subject-specific admissions qualifications and significantly reduced the subject-area expertise required for teacher certification.

Research Battleground – Mathematicians Shred Math Education Research Claims 

The educational controversy exploded into a firestorm when Mathematics Education professors came out in favour of relaxing subject knowledge requirements.  Dr. Martha Koch, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, claimed that teachers’ college admissions should be based upon “research” in a field known as the “Pedagogy of Math Knowledge.” Her brief in defense of the changes buttressed her claims with the familiar line “research shows” repeated 15 times in a commentary.