The School of Education Brooklyn College

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HOME About Us Mission Statement Administration Faculty Jobs PROGRAMS Graduate Undergraduate Collaborations & Partnerships Roster of Nationally Recognized Programs RESOURCES For Students For Faculty ACCREDITATION THE TEACHER ACADEMY EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER PROGRAMS THE CHALKBOARD BROOKLYN COLLEGE HOME APPLY ON LINE: Graduate Undergraduate	Conceptual Framework Collaboration Critical Self-Reflection and Reflective Practice Social Justice Diversity __________________________________________________________ Introduction The Conceptual Framework offers an overview of the salient themes culled from our mission statement. While these themes do not address every aspect of our program, they do reflect the most pressing commitments of our faculty and the philosophical orientations of the School of Education. We are committed to prepare our candidates to use integrated methodologies; therefore, technology is infused throughout our coursework. We are also deeply committed to diversity. More than any other belief, we hold that understanding, addressing and learning to respond to issues of diversity is central to our work as educators. We present it as a theme unto itself as a way of reiterating its centrality to all the programs. The themes that follow are meant to provide students and interested parties with a substantive sense of our work at the School of Education and in the schools we serve. Collaboration The School of Education embraces the philosophy that preparing and supporting high quality educators is a collaborative process that requires sustained dialogue between relevant parties at all levels of our future practitioners’ academic and professional lives. We believe that our graduates should not only have a desire for collaboration, but should also strive to develop within their schools collaborative learning communities that are socially just, and intellectually and aesthetically rich. We recognize that collaboration is not easily achieved across organizational boundaries, cultural differences, professional roles and other asymmetrical power and status relations. Yet it is through forging collaborative bonds that we achieve our best in teaching and learning at all levels, and achieve professional growth while challenging others as well as ourselves. Therefore, we encourage the practice of collaboration in all our pedagogical, and administrative practices, and in the provision of related services, while we work with all constituencies within and beyond school contexts to forge strong professional connections and common objectives for action, research and teaching. Research demonstrates the connection between the preparation of educators and the achievement of their own students (Darling-Hammond & Ball, 1998; Sanders & Horn, 1994). We work with all our partners to identify, acquire, and demonstrate the specific knowledge, skills and sensibilities that we anticipate as outcomes for teacher candidates and other school personnel in our programs. One of the best ways to achieve these goals is to model collaborative practices ourselves. Whether we are working with our colleagues at Brooklyn College, our partners in schools, school districts and communities, or policy makers and representatives at the State and local level, the faculty in the School of Education believes active collaboration improves outcomes for all involved. Our use of technology enhances our capacity to strengthen the alliances we have with all of these groups. Through collaboration we seek to improve the preparation of educators, improve teaching and learning in our institution and improve teaching and learning in the local schools, and most important, foster the intellectual and emotional well-being of those students with whom our graduates work. We are committed to sustaining and expanding the conversations with all those who are central in the preparation of our graduates, because we believe that such collaboration enhances educators’ abilities to enrich the lives of students in a variety of educational settings. Faculty in the School of Education initiates and maintains conversations with the college’s liberal arts and sciences faculty. Well-established partnerships extend to our schools and school districts (Avinger & Tighe, 1994; Mantle-Bromley, 1998; Sandholtz & Finan,1998; Saunders, 1998), community organizations (Smith & Thomases, 2001), cultural institutions, parent groups (Comer et. al, 1996; Phillips et al, 2000), professional organizations and the business community. Understanding full well the importance of policy in shaping educational practices, faculty have attempted to collaborate with policy makers and to help teacher candidates and other school personnel understand and participate in the formulation of educational policy. We are committed to working with all groups, not only to help shape educational policies, but also so we can better help future educators develop professionally. *Performances* 1. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to involve themselves in students’ lives by collaborating with families, teachers, administrators and support staff, by participating in a wide variety of team building activities in schools, and by developing connections to relevant community groups, agencies, and other professionals that support educational efforts. 2. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to establish respectful and consistent relationships with families from diverse communities and seek to develop cooperative and reciprocal relationships with families in support of student learning and well-being. 3. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to contribute to and benefit from new knowledge in their disciplines by participating in professional organizations and professional meetings. 4. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to use and learn from multiple community resources to foster student learning and well-being. 5. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to work in collaboration in the development and implementation of curriculum, instruction practices and evaluation of student learning and teaching. 6. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to create classrooms that foster opportunities for student collaboration thereby enhancing student learning and social development. *Bibliography* Avinger, C. & Tighe, M. A. (1994). Partnerships that work: Toward effective collaboration for in-service education. Educational Horizons, 72, 170-175. Comer, J., Haynes, N., Joyner, E. and Ben-Avie, M. (1996). Rallying the Whole Village: the Comer Process for Reforming Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Darling-Hammond, L. and Ball, L. (1998). Teaching for high standards: What policy makers need to know and be able to do. Philadelphia, PA: National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future and Consortium for Policy research in Education. Mantle-Bromley, C. (1998). "A day in the life" at a professional development school. Educational Leadership, 55(5), 48-51. Phillips, C., Prue, J. F., Hasazi,, S. B., & Morgan, P. (2000). Personal learning plans: Building collaboration among teachers, students with disabilities and their parents. NASSP Bulletin, 84, 28-34. Sanders, W.L. and Horn, S.P. (1994). The Tennessee value aided assessment system: Mixed-model methodology in educational assessment. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 8, 229-313. Sandholtz, J. H., & Finan, E. C. (1998). Blurring the boundaries to promote school-university partnerships. Journal of Teacher Education, 49, 13-15. Saunders, L. (1998). Learning together. Thrust for Educational Leadership, 28, 18-21. Critical self-reflection and reflective practice The School of Education is committed to fostering critical self-reflection and reflective practice. We view the work of educators as a recursive activity that involves reflection on both personal knowledge and professional practice. As a faculty we recognize the importance of reflecting critically on our own educational endeavors and understanding the complicated nature of educational experience. We thus invite our teacher candidates and other school personnel to reflect on their own life histories and on the pedagogical and disciplinary knowledge that gives content, meaning and intention to their practice. We believe autobiographical work (Eisner, 1985, 1991; Connelly and Clandinin, 1987; Goodson & Cole, 1993; Goodson & Walker, 1991;Grumet, 1990; Kinchloe, 1991; Miller, 1990; Noddings, 1986, 1992; Pinar, 1994) helps educators explore their assumptions about educational practices and the students with whom they work, as well as the diverse communities that influence that work. Such critical self-reflection enables professionals to understand their own role in jointly shaping what occurs in classrooms and schools (Britzman, 1998; Ellsworth, 1997; Freire and Faundez, 1993; Greene, 1978; Pinar, 1994; Schon, 1983), and helps practitioners remain attuned to their students’ and their own emotional and intellectual needs (Appel, 1996; Palmer,1998; Silin, 1995). Critical self-reflection requires that our educators not only become familiar with and experience various approaches to self-reflection but also learn the value, skills and art of creating classroom and school cultures that value mutual respect, imaginative identification and mindfulness of oneself and others (Banks, 1981; Palmer, 1998; Portuges, 1985). We believe a professional also must reflect upon his or her own practice, rethinking it in terms of its intentions and its outcomes, as well as the actual felt experience of that practice (Eisner, 1991; Jackson, 1986; Henderson,1992; O'Reilley, 1998; Shulman, 1987). Such reflective practice requires that our educators can make connections between the knowledge, research, scholarship and methods constitutive of their particular discipline and their own practice (Eisner,1985; Shulman,1987; Willis and Shubert, 1991). Furthermore, we encourage our educators to reflect on the historical, political, aesthetic, and philosophical dimensions of their pedagogical and disciplinary knowledge, and we help them cultivate and sustain an appetite for and understanding of the research and scholarship relevant to their practice (Cuban, 1993; Henderson, 1992). Such work requires that our educators learn to research their own educational practice by articulating compelling questions about their practice, their students, the communities where they work and their subject area, and by knowledgably and sensitively investigating these questions. As a School of Education, we work to develop a culture of critical self-reflection and reflective practice. Through surveys, focus groups, and meetings at various administrative levels, the faculty in the School of Education elicits feedback from current and former students and faculty and reflects on that information to improve our own practices and programs. Faculty at the undergraduate and graduate levels offer their teacher candidates and other school personnel multiple methods for engaging in self-reflective practices and reflective practice. Understanding that the journey to knowing oneself and one’s discipline is intimately connected to knowing, educating and helping others, the School of Education insures that its graduates have engaged in critical self-reflection and know how to reflect critically on their own practices. *Performances* 1. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to integrate into their practice various methods of self-reflection to gain insight into themselves and their impact on student learning and well-being. 2. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to critically reflect on their own assumptions about their practices, the students with whom they work, the communities in which they work and their own development as professionals. 3. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to use classroom observation, self-reflection, and research as sources for evaluating outcomes of their practices as a basis for experimenting with, reflecting on, and revising practice. 4. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to develop classroom communities where trust, mutual respect, mindfulness and critical self-reflection are valued. Bibliography Appel, S. (1996) .Positioning Subjects: Psychoanalysis and Critical Education Studies. Westport, Conn.: Bergin and Garvey. Banks,J. (1981). Multiethnic education: Theory and practice. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Britzman, D.(1998). Lost Objects, Contested Objects: Toward a Psychoanalytic Inquiry of Learning. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Connelly, M.and Clandinin, J. (1987).Teachers’ Personal Practical Knowledge: What Counts as ‘Personal’ Is Studies of the Personal. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 19 (6): 487-500. Cuban, L.(1993). How Teachers Taught: Constancy and Change in America’s Classrooms 1890-1980. New York, NY: Longman Press. Ellsworth, E. (1997). Teaching Positions: Difference, Pedagogy and the Power of Address. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Eisner, E. (1985). The Art of Educational Evaluation: A Personal View. London, England: Falmer Press. (1991).The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational Practice. New York, NY: Macmillan. Freire, P. and Faundez, A. (1993). Learning to Question: A Pedagogy of Liberation. New York, NY: Continuum Books. Goodson, I. and Walker, R. (1991). Biography, Identity and Schooling: Episodes in Educational Research. London, England: Falmer Press. Goodson, I. and Cole, A. (1993). Exploring the Teacher’s Professional Knowledge. In McLaughlin, D. and Tierny, W. (Eds). Naming Silenced Lives: Personal Narratives and the Process of Educational Change, (71-94). New York, NY: Routledge. Greene, M.(1978). Landscapes of Learning. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Grumet, M.(1990). Retrospective: Autobiography and the Analysis of Educational Experience. Cambridge Journal of Education, 20 (3): 321-326. Henderson, J. (1992). Reflective Teaching: Becoming an Educator. New York, NY: Macmillan. Jackson, P. (1986). The Practice of Teaching. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Kinchloe, J. and Pinar, W.(1991). (Eds). Curriculum as Social Psychoanalysis: The Significance of Place. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Miller, J. (1990). Creating Spaces and Finding Voices: Teachers Collaborating for Empowerment. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Noddings, N. (1992). The Challenge to Care in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. (1986).“Fidelity in Teaching, Teacher Education, and Research for Teaching.” Harvard Educational Review, 56 (4): 496-510. O'Reilley, M.(1998). Radical Presence: Teaching as Contemplative Practice. Postrmouth, NH: Boyton/Cook. Palmer, P. (1998). The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pinar, W.(1994). Autobiography, Politics and Sexuality: Essays in Curriculum Theory, 1972-1992. New York: Peter Lang. Portuges, C. (1985). (Ed). Gendered Subjects: The Dynamics of Feminist Teaching. Boston, MA: Routledge & Kean Paul. Schon, D.(1983).The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York. NY: Basic Books. (1991).(Ed). The Reflective Turn: Case Studies in and on Educational Practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Shulman, L.(1987). Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57 (1): 1-22. Silin, J. (1995). Sex, Death, and the Education of Children: Our Passion for Ignorance in the Age of Aids. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Willis, G. and Shubert, W.(1991). (Eds). Reflections for the Heart of Educational Inquiry: Understanding Curriculum and Teaching through the Arts. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Social Justice In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls (1971) argues that where a democracy exists “justice is the first virtue of social institutions” Because democracy requires a substantive concern for equity, the faculty of the School of Education is committed, in theory and practice, to social justice. This commitment involves a vision of education that “extend[s] the principles of liberty, equality, and justice to the widest possible set of institutional and lived relations” (Giroux, 1983). We believe that an education centered on social justice prepares the highest quality of future teachers, school counselors, school psychologists and administrators to assume an active role in shaping the social, cultural, and political future of their communities and beyond. We prepare educators to “cross physical, cultural, and economic borders as they develop shared meanings and purposes” (AACTE, 2003) in classrooms and other educational settings. Realizing that inequalities persist in educational institutions, we are determined and committed to demonstrate democratic ideals for the teacher candidates and other school personnel in our programs. We recognize the challenges we face in preparing educators to be advocates for those on the margins of society.“ Of the many challenges facing public schools today, none is more formidable than eliminating racial, ethnic, and economic inequities in educational opportunity and student achievement” (Larson and Ovando, 2001;Lather, 1991).Given the historical roots of injustice, we are committed to helping practitioners see the vast possibilities of moving toward an equitable and just world knowing that “extreme inequalities in matters of race, gender and class often survive on the implicit understanding that there is no alternative” (Ayers et al, 1998;Sen, 1992;Weis & Fine, 1993). Our commitment to social justice is grounded in our accepting responsibility to expand the opportunities for an inclusive society. We believe “ the substantive freedoms that we respectively enjoy are extremely contingent on personal, social and environmental circumstances” (Sen, 1992).With this in view, we are working to create a society that supports liberty, dignity and freedom of expression for all. We develop in our students a deeper understanding of the quest for social justice. Also, we develop a respect for and a support of the inclusion of multiple cultures and voices in creating shared educational visions. We educate teacher candidates and other school personnel about issues of social injustice such as institutionalized racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism (Fine et al, 1996; Nussbaum, 1999); and invite them to develop strategies and practices that challenge biases against non-English speakers, immigrants, and those with special needs. Thus, we strive not to reproduce the social, economic, political, and cultural inequities in society, but to explicitly build collaborations. These efforts will help to ensure input from all stakeholders and to generate opportunities for everyone to be co-owners, thus shifting the balance of power in ways that create a truly democratic society. Performances 1. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to demonstrate a knowledge of, language for, and the ability to create educational environments based on various theories of social justice. 2. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to develop strategies that create classrooms and other educational settings that favor inclusiveness over alienation and promote high expectations for students from historically oppressed groups. 3. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to demonstrate in their practice strategies that support every student’s effort to reach the highest level of academic achievement and to use pedagogies that embrace the wide range of cultures represented in today’s classrooms. 4. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to demonstrate a knowledge of the basic rights of all human beings and to encourage critical thinking and a sense of community among the diverse students with whom they practice. 5. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to develop learning communities in partnership with other stakeholders in schools and their neighborhoods to build collaborations that are democratic and empowering for all citizens. 6. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to engage in conversations with school communities and others to support those most disadvantaged by the socioeconomic, racial, cultural, linguistic and economic inequities in our schools and society. 7.Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to be caring advocates and change agents for all students and their families in pursuit of academic excellence and social equality. *Bibliography* American Association of Colleges in Teacher Education (2003) Service Learning Monograph No.3.Washington, D.C. Ayers, W., Hunt, J.A., Quinn, T., and Greene, M. (1998). Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader. New Press. Fine, M., Powell, L., Weis, L., and Mun Wong, L. (Eds.) (1996). Off White: Readings on Race, Power and Society. New York: Routledge. Giroux, H. (1983).Theory and Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition. New York: Bergin and Garvey Press. Larson, C.L. & Ovando, C.J. (2001). The Color of Bureaucracy: The Politics of Equity in Multicultural School Communities. Wadsworth Press. Lather, P.A. (1991). Getting Smart: Feminist Research and Pedagogy with the Postmodern. New York: Routledge. Nussbaum, M. (1999). Sex and Social Justice. New York: Oxford University Press Rawls, J. (1971) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge MA: Harvard Press Sen, A. (1992). Inequality Re-examined. Cambridge, MA: Sage Publications Weis, L. and Fine, M. (Eds.)(1993). Beyond silenced voices: Class, Race, and Gender in U.S. Schools. New York: State University of New York Press. Diversity Throughout the programs, curricula, practices and in the ethos of the school itself, the School of Education is committed to addressing issues of race, ethnicity, class, cultural and linguistic diversity, religion, gender, sexuality and special needs, as well as to accommodating learner differences and styles. Extensive research has clearly demonstrated the relationships between student identities and the identities of those working with students and between attitudes and beliefs about various identities and educational policies and practices (Banks, 1997; Cochran-Smith, 1995; Cummins,1996; Delpit, 1995; Gardner, 1993; Ladson-Billings, 1995; McCarthy & Crichlow, 1993; Nieto, 1999).Educators must be aware that their understandings of and tacit assumptions about their own and others’ race, ethnicity, class, culture, linguistic diversity, religion, gender, sexuality and disabilities have a dramatic influence on their work with students, parents and colleagues (Sapon-Shevin,1999). Furthermore, educators must understand the importance of demonstrating in their own practices, curriculum and classrooms, a sensitivity to, understanding of, and willingness to engage with issues of race, ethnicity, class, cultural and linguistic diversity, religion, gender, sexuality and disabilities. Knowledge of and sensitivity to one’s own and others’ identities and subject positions are central to effective teaching (Dilg,1999; Darling-Hammond, 1999; Ladson-Billings, 1994;Ovando&Collier, 1998). The commitment to diversity and to the development of cultural competency is manifest in the core operations of the School of Education, as well as in the education of its students. Countless writers have addressed how education can meet the needs and aspirations of a multicultural society (Derman-Sparks & Ramsey,2000; Hernandez,2001).As Banks has noted, “A major goal of the school should be to help students acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to function effectively within the national macroculture, their own microcultures, and with and across other microcultures” (1997). In order to assist students in acquiring these skills, attitudes and knowledge, faculty and prospective practitioners start with self-awareness about their own attitudes, assumptions, expectations and beliefs about diversity (Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996).We believe that such self-awareness and understanding ought to permeate the preparation of professionals, not only in academic classroom settings, but also in field placement experiences (Zeichner & Melnick, 1995). *Performances* 1. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel reveal in their practices a sensitivity to, knowledge about and understanding of their own and others’ racial, ethnic, religious, class, sexual, gender, cultural and linguistic identities. 2. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to integrate multicultural educational theories and approaches into all dimensions of their professional practice. 3. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel demonstrate a capacity to understand students’ families, cultures, and communities, and use this information as a basis for connecting instruction and professional practices to students’ experiences. 4. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel make appropriate provisions for individual students who have particular learning needs, differences or varying abilities. 5. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel bring to their critical reflective practices an ability to examine educational policies and practices in ways that take into account race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, linguistic and cultural diversity and special needs. *Bibliography* Banks, J. (1997). Educating Citizens in a multicultural society. New York: Teachers College Press. Cochran-Smith, M. (1995). Uncertain allies: Understanding the boundaries of race and teaching. Harvard Educational Review 63 (4): 541-570. Cummins, J. (1996). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society. Los Angeles: California Association for Bilingual Education. Darling-Hammond, L. (1999). A License to teach: Raising standards for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (1999). Teaching as a learning profession: Handbook of policy and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Delpit, L. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: New Press. Derman-Sparks, L. & Ramsey, P. (2000).A framework for culturally relevant, multicultural, and antibias education in the 21st century. In J.L. Roopnarine & J.E. Johnson (Eds.). Approaches to early childhood education. (pp.379-404). Columbus, OH: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Dilg, M. (1999).Race and culture in the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press. Gardner, H. (1993).Multiple Intelligences: The theory in practice. Basic Books Hernandez, H. (2001). Multicultural education: A teacher's guide to linking context, process, and content. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers for African-American children. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Multicultural teacher education: Research, practice, and policy. In J. Banks & C. Banks (Eds.). Handbook of research on multicultural education (pp. 747-749). New York: Macmillan. McCarthy, C. & Crichlow, W. (1993). (Eds.). Race, identity and representation in education. New York: Routledge. Nieto, S. (1999). The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities. New York: Teachers College Press. Ovando, C., & Collier, V. (1998). Bilingual and ESL classrooms: Teaching in multicultural contexts. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Sapon-Shevin, M. (1999). Because we can change the world: A practical guide to building cooperative, inclusive classroom communities. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Zeichner,K. & Hoeft,K. (1996). Teacher socialization for cultural diversity. In J.Skula, T.J. Buttery, & E. Guyton (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education. (2nd ed.). (pp.525-547). New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan. Zeichner, K. & Melnick, S. (1995). The role of community field experiences in preparing teachers for cultural diversity. A paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Washington, D.C
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APPLY ON LINE:

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Conceptual Framework

Collaboration
Critical Self-Reflection and Reflective Practice
Social Justice
Diversity
__________________________________________________________

Introduction

The Conceptual Framework offers an overview of the salient themes culled from our mission statement. While these themes do not address every aspect of our program, they do reflect the most pressing commitments of our faculty and the philosophical orientations of the School of Education. We are committed to prepare our candidates to use integrated methodologies; therefore, technology is infused throughout our coursework. We are also deeply committed to diversity. More than any other belief, we hold that understanding, addressing and learning to respond to issues of diversity is central to our work as educators. We present it as a theme unto itself as a way of reiterating its centrality to all the programs.

The themes that follow are meant to provide students and interested parties with a substantive sense of our work at the School of Education and in the schools we serve.

Collaboration

The School of Education embraces the philosophy that preparing and supporting high quality educators is a collaborative process that requires sustained dialogue between relevant parties at all levels of our future practitioners’ academic and professional lives. We believe that our graduates should not only have a desire for collaboration, but should also strive to develop within their schools collaborative learning communities that are socially just, and intellectually and aesthetically rich.

We recognize that collaboration is not easily achieved across organizational boundaries, cultural differences, professional roles and other asymmetrical power and status relations. Yet it is through forging collaborative bonds that we achieve our best in teaching and learning at all levels, and achieve professional growth while challenging others as well as ourselves. Therefore, we encourage the practice of collaboration in all our pedagogical, and administrative practices, and in the provision of related services, while we work with all constituencies within and beyond school contexts to forge strong professional connections and common objectives for action, research and teaching.

Research demonstrates the connection between the preparation of educators and the achievement of their own students (Darling-Hammond & Ball, 1998; Sanders & Horn, 1994). We work with all our partners to identify, acquire, and demonstrate the specific knowledge, skills and sensibilities that we anticipate as outcomes for teacher candidates and other school personnel in our programs. One of the best ways to achieve these goals is to model collaborative practices ourselves. Whether we are working with our colleagues at Brooklyn College, our partners in schools, school districts and communities, or policy makers and representatives at the State and local level, the faculty in the School of Education believes active collaboration improves outcomes for all involved. Our use of technology enhances our capacity to strengthen the alliances we have with all of these groups. Through collaboration we seek to improve the preparation of educators, improve teaching and learning in our institution and improve teaching and learning in the local schools, and most important, foster the intellectual and emotional well-being of those students with whom our graduates work.

We are committed to sustaining and expanding the conversations with all those who are central in the preparation of our graduates, because we believe that such collaboration enhances educators’ abilities to enrich the lives of students in a variety of educational settings. Faculty in the School of Education initiates and maintains conversations with the college’s liberal arts and sciences faculty. Well-established partnerships extend to our schools and school districts (Avinger & Tighe, 1994; Mantle-Bromley, 1998; Sandholtz & Finan,1998; Saunders, 1998), community organizations (Smith & Thomases, 2001), cultural institutions, parent groups (Comer et. al, 1996; Phillips et al, 2000), professional organizations and the business community. Understanding full well the importance of policy in shaping educational practices, faculty have attempted to collaborate with policy makers and to help teacher candidates and other school personnel understand and participate in the formulation of educational policy. We are committed to working with all groups, not only to help shape educational policies, but also so we can better help future educators develop professionally.

Performances

1. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to involve themselves in students’ lives by collaborating with families, teachers, administrators and support staff, by participating in a wide variety of team building activities in schools, and by developing connections to relevant community groups, agencies, and other professionals that support educational efforts.

2. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to establish respectful and consistent relationships with families from diverse communities and seek to develop cooperative and reciprocal relationships with families in support of student learning and well-being.

3. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to contribute to and benefit from new knowledge in their disciplines by participating in professional organizations and professional meetings.

4. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to use and learn from multiple community resources to foster student learning and well-being.

5. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to work in collaboration in the development and implementation of curriculum, instruction practices and evaluation of student learning and teaching.

6. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to create classrooms that foster opportunities for student collaboration thereby enhancing student learning and social development.

Bibliography

Avinger, C. & Tighe, M. A. (1994). Partnerships that work: Toward effective collaboration for in-service education. Educational Horizons, 72, 170-175.

Comer, J., Haynes, N., Joyner, E. and Ben-Avie, M. (1996). Rallying the Whole Village: the Comer Process for Reforming Education. New York: Teachers College Press.

Darling-Hammond, L. and Ball, L. (1998). Teaching for high standards: What policy makers need to know and be able to do. Philadelphia, PA: National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future and Consortium for Policy research in Education.

Mantle-Bromley, C. (1998). "A day in the life" at a professional development school. Educational Leadership, 55(5), 48-51.

Phillips, C., Prue, J. F., Hasazi,, S. B., & Morgan, P. (2000). Personal learning plans: Building collaboration among teachers, students with disabilities and their parents. NASSP Bulletin, 84, 28-34.

Sanders, W.L. and Horn, S.P. (1994). The Tennessee value aided assessment system: Mixed-model methodology in educational assessment. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 8, 229-313.

Sandholtz, J. H., & Finan, E. C. (1998). Blurring the boundaries to promote school-university partnerships. Journal of Teacher Education, 49, 13-15.

Saunders, L. (1998). Learning together. Thrust for Educational Leadership, 28, 18-21.

Critical self-reflection and reflective practice

The School of Education is committed to fostering critical self-reflection and reflective practice. We view the work of educators as a recursive activity that involves reflection on both personal knowledge and professional practice. As a faculty we recognize the importance of reflecting critically on our own educational endeavors and understanding the complicated nature of educational experience. We thus invite our teacher candidates and other school personnel to reflect on their own life histories and on the pedagogical and disciplinary knowledge that gives content, meaning and intention to their practice.

We believe autobiographical work (Eisner, 1985, 1991; Connelly and Clandinin, 1987; Goodson & Cole, 1993; Goodson & Walker, 1991;Grumet, 1990; Kinchloe, 1991; Miller, 1990; Noddings, 1986, 1992; Pinar, 1994) helps educators explore their assumptions about educational practices and the students with whom they work, as well as the diverse communities that influence that work. Such critical self-reflection enables professionals to understand their own role in jointly shaping what occurs in classrooms and schools (Britzman, 1998; Ellsworth, 1997; Freire and Faundez, 1993; Greene, 1978; Pinar, 1994; Schon, 1983), and helps practitioners remain attuned to their students’ and their own emotional and intellectual needs (Appel, 1996; Palmer,1998; Silin, 1995). Critical self-reflection requires that our educators not only become familiar with and experience various approaches to self-reflection but also learn the value, skills and art of creating classroom and school cultures that value mutual respect, imaginative identification and mindfulness of oneself and others (Banks, 1981; Palmer, 1998; Portuges, 1985).

We believe a professional also must reflect upon his or her own practice, rethinking it in terms of its intentions and its outcomes, as well as the actual felt experience of that practice (Eisner, 1991; Jackson, 1986; Henderson,1992; O'Reilley, 1998; Shulman, 1987). Such reflective practice requires that our educators can make connections between the knowledge, research, scholarship and methods constitutive of their particular discipline and their own practice (Eisner,1985; Shulman,1987; Willis and Shubert, 1991). Furthermore, we encourage our educators to reflect on the historical, political, aesthetic, and philosophical dimensions of their pedagogical and disciplinary knowledge, and we help them cultivate and sustain an appetite for and understanding of the research and scholarship relevant to their practice (Cuban, 1993; Henderson, 1992). Such work requires that our educators learn to research their own educational practice by articulating compelling questions about their practice, their students, the communities where they work and their subject area, and by knowledgably and sensitively investigating these questions.

As a School of Education, we work to develop a culture of critical self-reflection and reflective practice. Through surveys, focus groups, and meetings at various administrative levels, the faculty in the School of Education elicits feedback from current and former students and faculty and reflects on that information to improve our own practices and programs. Faculty at the undergraduate and graduate levels offer their teacher candidates and other school personnel multiple methods for engaging in self-reflective practices and reflective practice. Understanding that the journey to knowing oneself and one’s discipline is intimately connected to knowing, educating and helping others, the School of Education insures that its graduates have engaged in critical self-reflection and know how to reflect critically on their own practices.

Performances

1. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to integrate into their practice various methods of self-reflection to gain insight into themselves and their impact on student learning and well-being.

2. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to critically reflect on their own assumptions about their practices, the students with whom they work, the communities in which they work and their own development as professionals.

3. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to use classroom observation, self-reflection, and research as sources for evaluating outcomes of their practices as a basis for experimenting with, reflecting on, and revising practice.

4. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to develop classroom communities where trust, mutual respect, mindfulness and critical self-reflection are valued.

Bibliography

Appel, S. (1996) .Positioning Subjects: Psychoanalysis and Critical Education Studies. Westport, Conn.: Bergin and Garvey.

Banks,J. (1981). Multiethnic education: Theory and practice. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Britzman, D.(1998). Lost Objects, Contested Objects: Toward a Psychoanalytic Inquiry of Learning. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Connelly, M.and Clandinin, J. (1987).Teachers’ Personal Practical Knowledge: What Counts as ‘Personal’ Is Studies of the Personal. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 19 (6): 487-500.

Cuban, L.(1993). How Teachers Taught: Constancy and Change in America’s Classrooms 1890-1980. New York, NY: Longman Press.

Ellsworth, E. (1997). Teaching Positions: Difference, Pedagogy and the Power of Address. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Eisner, E. (1985). The Art of Educational Evaluation: A Personal View. London, England: Falmer Press.
(1991).The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational Practice. New York, NY: Macmillan.

Freire, P. and Faundez, A. (1993). Learning to Question: A Pedagogy of Liberation. New York, NY: Continuum Books.

Goodson, I. and Walker, R. (1991). Biography, Identity and Schooling: Episodes in Educational Research. London, England: Falmer Press.

Goodson, I. and Cole, A. (1993). Exploring the Teacher’s Professional Knowledge. In McLaughlin, D. and Tierny, W. (Eds). Naming Silenced Lives: Personal Narratives and the Process of Educational Change, (71-94). New York, NY: Routledge.

Greene, M.(1978). Landscapes of Learning. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Grumet, M.(1990). Retrospective: Autobiography and the Analysis of Educational Experience. Cambridge Journal of Education, 20 (3): 321-326.

Henderson, J. (1992). Reflective Teaching: Becoming an Educator. New York, NY: Macmillan.

Jackson, P. (1986). The Practice of Teaching. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Kinchloe, J. and Pinar, W.(1991). (Eds). Curriculum as Social Psychoanalysis: The Significance of Place. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Miller, J. (1990). Creating Spaces and Finding Voices: Teachers Collaborating for Empowerment. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Noddings, N. (1992). The Challenge to Care in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
(1986).“Fidelity in Teaching, Teacher Education, and Research for Teaching.” Harvard Educational Review, 56 (4): 496-510.

O'Reilley, M.(1998). Radical Presence: Teaching as Contemplative Practice. Postrmouth, NH: Boyton/Cook.

Palmer, P. (1998). The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Pinar, W.(1994). Autobiography, Politics and Sexuality: Essays in Curriculum Theory, 1972-1992. New York: Peter Lang.

Portuges, C. (1985). (Ed). Gendered Subjects: The Dynamics of Feminist Teaching. Boston, MA: Routledge & Kean Paul.

Schon, D.(1983).The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York. NY: Basic Books.
(1991).(Ed). The Reflective Turn: Case Studies in and on Educational Practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Shulman, L.(1987). Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57 (1): 1-22.

Silin, J. (1995). Sex, Death, and the Education of Children: Our Passion for Ignorance in the Age of Aids. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Willis, G. and Shubert, W.(1991). (Eds). Reflections for the Heart of Educational Inquiry: Understanding Curriculum and Teaching through the Arts. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Social Justice

In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls (1971) argues that where a democracy exists “justice is the first virtue of social institutions” Because democracy requires a substantive concern for equity, the faculty of the School of Education is committed, in theory and practice, to social justice. This commitment involves a vision of education that “extend[s] the principles of liberty, equality, and justice to the widest possible set of institutional and lived relations” (Giroux, 1983). We believe that an education centered on social justice prepares the highest quality of future teachers, school counselors, school psychologists and administrators to assume an active role in shaping the social, cultural, and political future of their communities and beyond. We prepare educators to “cross physical, cultural, and economic borders as they develop shared meanings and purposes” (AACTE, 2003) in classrooms and other educational settings.

Realizing that inequalities persist in educational institutions, we are determined and committed to demonstrate democratic ideals for the teacher candidates and other school personnel in our programs. We recognize the challenges we face in preparing educators to be advocates for those on the margins of society.“ Of the many challenges facing public schools today, none is more formidable than eliminating racial, ethnic, and economic inequities in educational opportunity and student achievement” (Larson and Ovando, 2001;Lather, 1991).Given the historical roots of injustice, we are committed to helping practitioners see the vast possibilities of moving toward an equitable and just world knowing that “extreme inequalities in matters of race, gender and class often survive on the implicit understanding that there is no alternative” (Ayers et al, 1998;Sen, 1992;Weis & Fine, 1993).

Our commitment to social justice is grounded in our accepting responsibility to expand the opportunities for an inclusive society. We believe “ the substantive freedoms that we respectively enjoy are extremely contingent on personal, social and environmental circumstances” (Sen, 1992).With this in view, we are working to create a society that supports liberty, dignity and freedom of expression for all. We develop in our students a deeper understanding of the quest for social justice. Also, we develop a respect for and a support of the inclusion of multiple cultures and voices in creating shared educational visions. We educate teacher candidates and other school personnel about issues of social injustice such as institutionalized racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism (Fine et al, 1996; Nussbaum, 1999); and invite them to develop strategies and practices that challenge biases against non-English speakers, immigrants, and those with special needs. Thus, we strive not to reproduce the social, economic, political, and cultural inequities in society, but to explicitly build collaborations. These efforts will help to ensure input from all stakeholders and to generate opportunities for everyone to be co-owners, thus shifting the balance of power in ways that create a truly democratic society.

Performances
1. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to demonstrate a knowledge of, language for, and the ability to create educational environments based on various theories of social justice.

2. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to develop strategies that create classrooms and other educational settings that favor inclusiveness over alienation and promote high expectations for students from historically oppressed groups.

3. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to demonstrate in their practice strategies that support every student’s effort to reach the highest level of academic achievement and to use pedagogies that embrace the wide range of cultures represented in today’s classrooms.

4. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to demonstrate a knowledge of the basic rights of all human beings and to encourage critical thinking and a sense of community among the diverse students with whom they practice.

5. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to develop learning communities in partnership with other stakeholders in schools and their neighborhoods to build collaborations that are democratic and empowering for all citizens.

6. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to engage in conversations with school communities and others to support those most disadvantaged by the socioeconomic, racial, cultural, linguistic and economic inequities in our schools and society.

7.Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to be caring advocates and change agents for all students and their families in pursuit of academic excellence and social equality.

Bibliography

American Association of Colleges in Teacher Education (2003) Service Learning Monograph No.3.Washington, D.C.

Ayers, W., Hunt, J.A., Quinn, T., and Greene, M. (1998). Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader. New Press.

Fine, M., Powell, L., Weis, L., and Mun Wong, L. (Eds.) (1996). Off White: Readings on Race, Power and Society. New York: Routledge.

Giroux, H. (1983).Theory and Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition. New York: Bergin and Garvey Press.

Larson, C.L. & Ovando, C.J. (2001). The Color of Bureaucracy: The Politics of Equity in Multicultural School Communities. Wadsworth Press.

Lather, P.A. (1991). Getting Smart: Feminist Research and Pedagogy with the Postmodern. New York: Routledge.

Nussbaum, M. (1999). Sex and Social Justice. New York: Oxford University Press

Rawls, J. (1971) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge MA: Harvard Press

Sen, A. (1992). Inequality Re-examined. Cambridge, MA: Sage Publications

Weis, L. and Fine, M. (Eds.)(1993). Beyond silenced voices: Class, Race, and Gender in U.S. Schools. New York: State University of New York Press.

Diversity

Throughout the programs, curricula, practices and in the ethos of the school itself, the School of Education is committed to addressing issues of race, ethnicity, class, cultural and linguistic diversity, religion, gender, sexuality and special needs, as well as to accommodating learner differences and styles. Extensive research has clearly demonstrated the relationships between student identities and the identities of those working with students and between attitudes and beliefs about various identities and educational policies and practices (Banks, 1997; Cochran-Smith, 1995; Cummins,1996; Delpit, 1995; Gardner, 1993; Ladson-Billings, 1995; McCarthy & Crichlow, 1993; Nieto, 1999).Educators must be aware that their understandings of and tacit assumptions about their own and others’ race, ethnicity, class, culture, linguistic diversity, religion, gender, sexuality and disabilities have a dramatic influence on their work with students, parents and colleagues (Sapon-Shevin,1999). Furthermore, educators must understand the importance of demonstrating in their own practices, curriculum and classrooms, a sensitivity to, understanding of, and willingness to engage with issues of race, ethnicity, class, cultural and linguistic diversity, religion, gender, sexuality and disabilities. Knowledge of and sensitivity to one’s own and others’ identities and subject positions are central to effective teaching (Dilg,1999; Darling-Hammond, 1999; Ladson-Billings, 1994;Ovando&Collier, 1998). The commitment to diversity and to the development of cultural competency is manifest in the core operations of the School of Education, as well as in the education of its students.

Countless writers have addressed how education can meet the needs and aspirations of a multicultural society (Derman-Sparks & Ramsey,2000; Hernandez,2001).As Banks has noted, “A major goal of the school should be to help students acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to function effectively within the national macroculture, their own microcultures, and with and across other microcultures” (1997). In order to assist students in acquiring these skills, attitudes and knowledge, faculty and prospective practitioners start with self-awareness about their own attitudes, assumptions, expectations and beliefs about diversity (Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996).We believe that such self-awareness and understanding ought to permeate the preparation of professionals, not only in academic classroom settings, but also in field placement experiences (Zeichner & Melnick, 1995).

Performances

1. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel reveal in their practices a sensitivity to, knowledge about and understanding of their own and others’ racial, ethnic, religious, class, sexual, gender, cultural and linguistic identities.

2. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel are prepared to integrate multicultural educational theories and approaches into all dimensions of their professional practice.

3. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel demonstrate a capacity to understand students’ families, cultures, and communities, and use this information as a basis for connecting instruction and professional practices to students’ experiences.

4. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel make appropriate provisions for individual students who have particular learning needs, differences or varying abilities.

5. Our teacher candidates and other school personnel bring to their critical reflective practices an ability to examine educational policies and practices in ways that take into account race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, linguistic and cultural diversity and special needs.

Bibliography

Banks, J. (1997). Educating Citizens in a multicultural society. New York: Teachers College Press.

Cochran-Smith, M. (1995). Uncertain allies: Understanding the boundaries of race and teaching. Harvard Educational Review 63 (4): 541-570.

Cummins, J. (1996). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society. Los Angeles: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1999). A License to teach: Raising standards for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
(1999). Teaching as a learning profession: Handbook of policy and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Delpit, L. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: New Press.

Derman-Sparks, L. & Ramsey, P. (2000).A framework for culturally relevant, multicultural, and antibias education in the 21st century. In J.L. Roopnarine & J.E. Johnson (Eds.). Approaches to early childhood education. (pp.379-404). Columbus, OH: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Dilg, M. (1999).Race and culture in the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.

Gardner, H. (1993).Multiple Intelligences: The theory in practice. Basic Books

Hernandez, H. (2001). Multicultural education: A teacher's guide to linking context, process, and content. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers for African-American children. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Multicultural teacher education: Research, practice, and policy. In J. Banks & C. Banks (Eds.). Handbook of research on multicultural education (pp. 747-749). New York: Macmillan.

McCarthy, C. & Crichlow, W. (1993). (Eds.). Race, identity and representation in education. New York: Routledge.

Nieto, S. (1999). The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities. New York: Teachers College Press.

Ovando, C., & Collier, V. (1998). Bilingual and ESL classrooms: Teaching in multicultural contexts. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Sapon-Shevin, M. (1999). Because we can change the world: A practical guide to building cooperative, inclusive classroom communities. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Zeichner,K. & Hoeft,K. (1996). Teacher socialization for cultural diversity. In J.Skula, T.J. Buttery, & E. Guyton (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education. (2nd ed.). (pp.525-547). New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan.

Zeichner, K. & Melnick, S. (1995). The role of community field experiences in preparing teachers for cultural diversity. A paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Washington, D.C

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