Professional designation

High OCTane

Marie Josée Berger, OCT, has been a teacher for almost 28 years and is dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. Adelina Ocampo, OCT, started in the profession in 2007, not long after arriving in Canada from the Philippines, and is a supply teacher with the Dufferin-Peel Catholic DSB. These are two educators with very different backgrounds and experiences who now use a common acronym after their names and share similar sentiments about this new professional designation for teachers.

“After all these years I am still proud to be called a teacher,” says Berger. “The title beside our name is a summation of who we are. It gives credibility to our expertise.”

“The OCT helps me with the confidence I need to serve society and to say with pride, ‘I am a teacher,’” says Ocampo. “It is a trust given to us by the College, acknowledging that we are authentic catalysts in the total development of children.”

Until now, teaching was one of the only self-regulated professions in Ontario without a professional designation. The letters next to the names of people such as nurses, chartered accountants and engineers – RN, CA and PEng – are respected titles for those practitioners and symbolic of their professions, says Liz Papadopoulos, OCT, who is Chair of College Council. OCT can serve the same purpose.

“Members wanted a tool to help raise the level of respect for teaching within the community,” says Papadopoulos. “They wanted a symbol of personal, professional achievement. They wanted a moniker as a testament to their distinct knowledge and skills and the respect, trust, care and integrity they demonstrate with students, parents and each other. OCT is that symbol.”

The September issue of Professionally Speaking outlined the development and goals of the OCT title. Now that it is here, what do members like best about it? How and when do they plan to use it? What do they hope fellow educators realize about its importance? And how does having the OCT designation make them feel about being a teaching professional?

Filling a gap

For some, it fills a long-standing gap – one that not all teachers even knew existed.

“I never realized that teaching was the only profession without a designation,” says Theresa Moher, OCT, of the Halton Catholic DSB. “We are professionals, and we deserve the recognition that other professionals receive.”

“It’s certainly about time,” adds Karen Pappin (Kyrzakos), OCT, of Sudbury, who graduated from teacher’s college in 1963.

Pappin has had a varied career, teaching at the elementary, high school, college and university levels and working in the corporate world as a consultant in organizational development. Her daughter has followed in her footsteps, teaching JK for the Thunder Bay Catholic DSB.

Pappin says, “It seems inappropriate that a profession such as ours – charged with the responsibility of not only educating children but building their characters and inspiring them to reach their potential – lacked a designation.”

Now that she has one, Pappin says she will proudly use the designation after her name as a calling card to all. “My teacher’s education is the cornerstone of all I have accomplished professionally.”

Elevating the profession

The word “credibility,” which Berger uses to describe what the OCT designation can help to instill, comes up frequently when teachers discuss the impact of the title.

Teaching has certainly been a respected field, but the new designation puts an exclamation point on the idea that “I am a teacher with integrity and credibility,” says Ocampo. She will sign OCT after her name and suggests that the title elevates the teaching profession, putting it on an equal footing with other professions.

The designation can have benefits wherever teachers use it, says Moher. “I will be using it to promote myself in starting a summer day-camp program beginning in 2010. I think it will assist me greatly in establishing credibility and getting parents on board with my camp’s philosophy and ideas.”

Seema Sajjad, OCT, who uses her teaching background as a trainer with the city of Mississauga, says she will gladly use OCT on her business cards. “The OCT designation bestows the high level of esteem that has always been the mark of true professionals,” says Sajjad. “It lends credibility to what one does and enhances the faith and trust of the public and parents in the integrity of the educator.”

While the designation can help to promote teaching as a profession to the public, many teachers say it can also inspire a sense of solidarity and worth throughout the field.

“We have to begin to value the profession ourselves,” declares Berger.

Adds Sajjad, “It’s important for our self-esteem as well as being in the interest of our profession.”

As Ocampo notes, without teachers guiding students towards their futures, there could be no other professions. So celebrating this profession is vital. “I hope that teachers will realize the significance of the OCT,” she says.

Characterizing competence

That’s a lesson that Berger tried to convey to teacher candidates at the University of Ottawa in her opening address this school year. She told them that the new OCT designation is more important to her than even her PhD.

“I define myself as a teacher, one who happened to get a PhD because I wanted to continue my study of education,” says Berger. “But the OCT designation is the one that will make me recognized in the field.”

She draws a comparison between the fields of education and health. Everyone is an amateur expert, she says, but when you go to a doctor you ultimately trust the diagnosis you get because doctors are professionals, the ones with the letters next to their names. “The OCT is a recognition of our competence in education.”

Berger says the OCT is also a reminder – not only for teacher candidates but for all teachers – that being a teacher is a commitment and that teachers must continually learn and grow in their profession.

Pappin appreciates what the OCT represents. She tells the story of teaching part-time at Laurentian University and being questioned repeatedly by the tenured faculty about how she could manage such large classes.

“None of these people were privileged or fortunate enough to have the training and knowledge base that I had as a certified teacher,” she says. “Now I can proudly add this designation. The answer to questions regarding my expertise will simply be three letters: OCT.”

For more on the new title and its uses, please see the guide OCT – Your Professional Designation, available in the Members’ Area of the College web site.

Other designated professionals