Diversity is a key disposition for emerging teachers and educational leaders, and our department defines it broadly to include socioeconomic, gender, cultural, racial, ethnic, sexual preference, religious, learning ability and learning style differences. The department provides opportunities for teacher candidates to experience, appreciate, and embrace diversity in all its complexities through classroom activities, field experiences, and extra-curricular programs, and events. In order to ensure that our candidates develop a broad perspective of how diversity affects education, the department has developed the following goals:
Goal 1: To ensure that candidates develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to understand diversity and the needs of diverse student populations;
Goal 2: To ensure that candidates develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to use pedagogical approaches that successfully address the needs of all P-12 learners;
Goal 3: To ensure that candidates have experiences with faculty, staff, partnership teachers and teacher candidates from diverse backgrounds;
Goal 4: To ensure that candidates have experiences with students from diverse backgrounds and students with exceptionalities;
Goal 5: To improve recruitment and retention of diverse candidates;
Goal 6: To improve recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, staff, internship supervisors, and partnership teachers;
Goal 7: To foster community connections and alliances to demonstrate and expand commitment to diversity.