Ahead of the upcoming academic year, Dr. Lara Ragpot, who begins her term as dean of the School of Education on August 16, highlights her vision for a renewed focus on broadening Indigenous education, preparing teachers to teach global learners, and expanding graduate programs and certificates.
Dr. Lara Ragpot believes that education happens best through social relationships.
“You are an educator with your heart,” she says, “more than you are an educator with your title.” In a self-reflective question she captures her philosophy of teaching: “What can I teach you with just my life and in the way that I interact with you?”
As the incoming dean of the School of Education, Dr. Lara Ragpot brings not only a relational perspective on education but also a wealth of higher education leadership and teaching experience, research accolades, a broad global perspective, and a background in educational psychology.
Throughout her career as an academic, Dr. Ragpot’s focus of research has been investigating young children’s executive functioning and cognition—specifically math cognition, seeking to understand how children develop math skills and how to support their development.
Her work has led her to believe that relationship is key to fostering students’ success, and this is the ethos she seeks to advance in the School of Education. She intends to further encourage an environment at TWU where community, social interactions, and relationships among professors and students are core to the educational experience.
Training for a relationally-focused educator
Dr. Ragpot believes that a relationally-focused educator is the kind of teacher that is needed in the classroom, and the kind of educator TWU seeks to train.
“Relationship is the most important thing to me,” she says, returning to her philosophy of education.
“It is in that space between you as an educator and a student in your class that you really build community and rapport and can set an example for students.”
“Relationship is the most important thing to me,” Dr. Ragpot says, returning to her philosophy of education. “It is in that space between you as an educator and a student in your class that you really build community and rapport and can set an example for students.”
“There are many opportunities for teacher training to address Indigenous education. ...We will look at ways we can adjust and bring new ideas into the way that we train teachers,
so that they in turn can bring those to the classroom.”
Focus on Indigenous education
As a scholar from South Africa, a big part of Dr. Ragpot’s work has been on indigeneity and decolonization. Drawing on her experiences, she hopes to promote a greater focus on Indigenous knowledge systems within the School of Education’s curriculum.
“There are many opportunities for teacher training to address Indigenous education,” she comments. “We will look at ways we can adjust and bring new ideas into the way that we train teachers, so that they in turn can bring those to the classroom.”
This includes training teachers on how to address Indigenous integration in the curriculum, and how to instruct using Indigenous principles like First Peoples Principles of Learning. She is also interested in increasing support to Indigenous students, for example, through scholarships and a supportive community.
Prioritizing faith integration
As faith integration is a distinctive of TWU’s educational experience, Dr. Ragpot highlights how TWU seeks to amalgamate general teacher knowledge together with biblical worldview. This includes helping students gain an understanding of a person’s identity in Christ, both from an analytical, cognitive point of view and from a heartfelt, affective point of view.
“Our job as an institution is to equip our students to have critical thinking as Christians, and to [see them] bring that into their whole being and understanding of what it means to be a Christian and a Christian educator. Because then their whole core and foundation is set, and then they can go into the classroom and teach lovingly,” she said.
Dr. Ragpot emphasizes the need to have a strong educational background to complement faith, “It’s also the knowledge that they have, not just the heart.” Here, she references TWU’s biblical studies, theology, and core courses. These provide students with the theological foundation that encourages lives of integrity, so that graduates can become educators who are prepared to live out what they believe.
Aligned with professional standards, fostering character
On the topic of living with integrity, Dr. Ragpot points to the School of Education’s virtue pathways; these pathways produce outcomes that are aligned with BC Teachers' Council standards for teacher education while also fostering character virtues such as patience, discernment, hope, humility, and courage.
The virtue pathways serve as tools to teach life values. “If we can train our students to truly live out those virtues, then they will have positive regard for their students. They will accept each student for who they are, and where they are, and they will also live a Christ-like example to the students that they are teaching.”
Addressing mental health in the classroom
At a time when mental health is an increasingly important topic within schools, Dr. Ragpot, who is an educational psychologist, sees the advantage of drawing upon knowledge from diverse perspectives of both psychology and education.
“Seeing how many mental issues and how many children with exceptionalities teachers encounter within the classroom, I think that the world of psychology and world of education are not that far apart,” she commented. “More and more I see how important it is for our graduates to know how to deal with mental health and psychological issues in the classroom.”
Prepared to serve global learners
In addition to mental health, another area of focus for teacher training is how to better serve English language learners. As the diversity within B.C.’s classrooms continues to grow, Dr. Ragpot knows that it is important for graduates to recognize the trends and be prepared to help newcomers to Canada succeed.
“You come from a background where English is not your first language, and all of a sudden you need to learn a new language and learn concepts in that new language; it’s very difficult,” she said about the learner needs emerging from schools in B.C. Accordingly, Dr. Ragpot is working to bring into the School of Education’s core training a focus on English Language Learning (ELL).
There are two new graduate certificates available this year: Graduate Certificate in Environment Education and Graduate Certificate in Christian School Education. Several more graduate certificates are also in the development stage with probable implementation for Summer 2023...
Growth in the School of Education
TWU’s School of Education has long been known for its strengths in the undergraduate and professional year programs (PYP). This spring, for example, nearly the entire cohort of education majors secured job placements prior to graduation. As well, the numbers of education graduates have recently doubled, and already there are close to 60 students enrolled to be part of next year’s graduating cohort.
Seeing this growth, Dr. Ragpot’s vision is to build up TWU’s graduate offerings to match the strengths of the undergraduate programs. To expand upon the current graduate program offering, Master of Education in Special Education, the School of Education is now developing a master’s program in Indigenous Education.
Current and future School of Education students have much to look forward to. There are two new graduate certificates available this year: Graduate Certificate in Environment Education and Graduate Certificate in Christian School Education. Several more graduate certificates are also in the development stage with probable implementation for Summer 2023: these include Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Education, Graduate Certificate for Teachers of English Language Learning Students, and Graduate Certificate in Special Education.
Each of these certificates are designed to ladder into a master’s degree in Educational Studies. Look out for these upcoming program offerings at TWU's graduate studies webpage.
About Dr. Lara Ragpot
Dr. Lara Ragpot is dean and full professor in the School of Education. Previously, she served as Director of the Master of Arts in Educational Studies – Special Education (MAES-SPED). Dr. Ragpot is also a Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and one of the main investigators who launched the UJ Centre for Education Practice Research Cognition Lab, which focuses on the research of young children’s conceptual development, with the aim to inform education in South Africa.
About TWU's School of Education
The School of Education exists within the ethos of a Christian university of the liberal arts, sciences and professions. Faculty have advanced degrees in education and are actively involved in the profession. Learn more at TWU's School of Education.
About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is Canada’s premier global Christian liberal arts university. We are dedicated to equipping students to discover meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. Drawing upon the riches of the Christian tradition, seeking to unite faith and reason through teaching and scholarship, Trinity Western University is a degree-granting research institution offering liberal arts and sciences as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has four locations in Canada: Langley, Richmond-Lansdowne, Richmond-Minoru, and Ottawa. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn.