Educators demonstrate a broad knowledge base and an understanding of areas they teach. Educators understand the curriculum and methodologies of areas they teach. This standard is incredibly important because we have the responsibility, as teachers, of being experts in what we are teaching so that our students are provided with the best learning experiences possible. If we are not proficient in whatever we are teaching then the students will be negatively impacted. For me personally, I will be teaching high school level humanities. This means that I need to be up to date with the curriculum and understand everything that I am going to teach. I found that during my firs two practicums that I spent a lot of prep time before each lesson re learning certain subjects or going into more detail than I had remembered during my time in high school. As a history and political science undergrad, keeping up to date on the best teaching practices is important. I think that this professional standard emphasizes the importance of being a lifelong learning because what we know about history and politics is always changing and being updated. The standard also states that “educators teach curricula from Canadian, First Nations, Inuit, Metis, and global perspectives. This is important, especially when teaching history or social studies, because historically we have relied upon teaching only the Western perspective of history which leaves other, just as important, histories behind or pushed to the periphery. Truth and reconciliation with our Indigenous groups cannot happen unless we teach our students about their histories and what happened during Western colonization. Giving our students the opportunity to see things from various perspectives can only benefit them and enhance their understanding of the world and their place in it.
