Department of Curriculum and Instruction Mission Statement

The Department of Curriculum and Instruction mission is to prepare effective professional educators who excel in K-12 classrooms, settings outside schools, instructional design, content coaching, or curriculum development. Our graduates are a force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.

The Department faculty fulfills its mission by fostering academic programs that develop:

• Responsible educators who uphold education as a democratizing, empowering, and justice-oriented process for all students and teachers.
• Effective educators who are knowledgeable, skilled, and able to use the latest pedagogies relevant to their discipline.
• Caring educators who are aware of the importance of a quality education available to all members of a democracy.
• Equitable educators who engage with their students fairly regardless of their background.
• Critical educators who are willing to question and improve the structures, techniques, and outcomes of the education systems in which they and their students are embedded.
• Respectful educators who are skilled at navigating and leveraging the multiple perspectives, cultures, and strengths of their students.
• Reflective educators who constantly learn and consider how their practices can improve.

We do this by...

• Using engaging pedagogical practices that generate student engagement and learning with a sense of agency that is visible in multiple dimensions of development for all students.
• Encouraging ongoing and intentional professional learning that facilitates critical self- reflection and demonstrated professional growth.
• Facilitating interactions amid diverse perspectives as informed, democratic decision makers.
• Believing all students can perform at higher levels by guiding them to use their life experiences, cultural and linguistic heritage, personal strengths, and interests to enhance their learning processes and outcomes.
• Recognizing how our biases may impact students and families, especially those rendered vulnerable by historical contexts that have perpetuated structural inequities in education.
• Valuing collaboration with colleagues, students, families, communities, and other partners.
• Being open to taking the perspectives of students and families, especially those whose voices or perspectives might otherwise be marginalized.
• Developing educators who are knowledgeable and skilled professionals committed to educational excellence in the richly diverse communities that we serve locally and globally.