University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada 10 January 1997

First two students graduate from Faculté Saint Jean's Master's of Education program

Students already have jobs, one in Alberta and one in British Columbia

By David Holehouse

The Master's in Education program at Faculté Saint-Jean, introduced in 1993, has produced its first two graduates.

Michelle Tardif and Denise Leduc received their degrees at fall convocation. Leduc is now vice principal at a school in Victoria, while Tardif is coordinator for the special needs program for the Francophone Central Region, which has schools in Edmonton, Red Deer and Lethbridge. She also works for Alberta Education, and teaches a course at Faculté Saint-Jean.

Tardif earned her BEd in Chicoutimi, Quebec, and worked for Edmonton Public School Board for 17 years. Being able to stay in Edmonton and earn her Master's in a French-speaking school was a real plus for her.

She said FSJ's program will help develop French-speaking educators with advanced research and leadership skills to benefit the academic and broader community. "It has helped give me a more objective view of education, and a closer link with current research," she said.

Yvette Mahe, graduate program coordinator, said Faculté administrators pressed to have the Master's program introduced when they saw a need to develop people with the advanced skills required to work in programming and research related to French language and French immersion schools.

"It will add strength to the people working in that area," she said. "There is really a need for administrative people, researchers and consultants."

She said the program is comprehensive and interdisciplinary, and has attracted several students from outside Alberta. One flies in from British Columbia to take weekend courses towards his Master's.

"Students come to us with different backgrounds and needs," said Dr Mahe. "We can draw on the skills of our psychology, philosophy or history teachers to tailor-make a program for each student. We are quite thrilled with this program. It's good for us, too, because these students bring back what is going on in practice and we can integrate it with the theoretical part."

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