Hello Everyone!
My name is Katelyn Fisher and I’m a fourth-year history honours and geography student at the University of the Fraser Valley. I’ve grown up in the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver region my whole life and I have always been fascinated by learning about local histories and pasts. So when the history 440 course focused on telling local histories on an online platform was offered this semester, I jumped at the chance. In addition to having a passion for history, I’m also an aspiring teacher, hopefully entering into the teacher education program at UFV. So I was thrilled to be able to tie in my love of history and education together to create this website. Although it was a daunting challenge at first and very tedious I had a lot of help and support along the way!
Overall, I was inspired to focus on important female educators in Mission due to the Paths & Pathfinders: Women of Mission Program established by Archivist Val Billesberger. Personally, I have always felt that educational history and psychology have been focused on the “Great men”. Even though the profession of education has been historically and continuously dominated by women. Specifically, the study of female educators in a local context of the Fraser Valley has been lacking. And this is shown not only in the historical field but also the field of educational psychology as education students are focused on learning about educational theories by men such as Vygotsky, Piaget, Erikson, and many more.
As a female pursuing both a history degree and in the future an education degree, I feel obligated to fill in this “blank”. It is important to showcase the history of female educators in the local community of Mission because it can help enrich our historical understandings of how educators have contributed to the local community, their students, and schools. Additionally, through research, we can obtain a better understanding of these educators’ personal ideologies and beliefs around education Thus further enriching our historical understanding of female educators’ pedagogy throughout the 20th century. Lastly, by understanding these dedicated educators’ ideologies can help guide future educators in their path to supporting students in the modern-day context.
Acknowledgements:
Last but certainly not least I would like to acknowledge that this website was created with the help and support of local community partners.
I would like to thank and acknowledge local archivist Val Billesberger for supporting me and other students doing research for History 440. She was very helpful and vital in guiding my research and helping me find relevant resources.
Additionally, I would like to acknowledge that without the Mission Community Archives this research and website wouldn’t be possible. The Mission Community Archives was my gateway to finding important resources I needed to piece together my website. If you are a local of the Fraser Valley, I would urge you to support your local archives however possible. As they are important pillars of the local community and provide windows into the past that make historical research possible.
And I would also like to acknowledge that the land on which I performed my research is the traditional and unceded territory of the StĂł:lĹŤ.
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