Vision and Mission
Vision
The Department of Teacher Education seeks to graduate educators who inspire students, generate rigorous research, understand the significance of cultural diversity, and be agents of social transformation toward equity and excellence.
The Division of Bilingual Education, Early Childhood Education, Literacy/Biliteracy, Sociocultural Studies (BELSS) views a humanizing education as our most promising pathway to a more equitable and democratic society. We envision an education where students are taught through hope, compassion, curiosity, and challenge. Educators teach for social justice when they embrace, build upon, and cultivate students’ multiple languages and literacies as assets to foster dynamic teaching and learning in the 21st century.
The Division of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education in the College of Education has at its core the preparation of today and tomorrow's teachers for working with modern students in multicultural settings who need to find motivation and engagement in their learning. STEM Education faculty envision contributing to a bi-national region and a global community that supports all students—particularly those who encounter geographical and cultural borders on a daily basis—to engage in rich and rewarding learning experiences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.
Mission
The department is committed to prepare educators, who, as lifelong learners:
- Are integral parts of the community who work for positive social, personal and environmental change.
- Comprehend the roles of culture, power, and community in knowledge production.
- Create and promote learning environments that are informed by an understanding of the context of culture, power, history, community and knowledge production.
- Implement the pedagogical and content skills, knowledge and dispositions that prepare all students for 21st-century realities.
The department’s faculty and students conduct and disseminate high-quality research that enhances the field of education by promoting best practices in teaching and learning in diverse and multilingual communities. We align with the University’s mission of access and excellence and its goal of creating and maintaining multicultural and transnational educational research collaborations.
The mission of the Division of Bilingual Education, Early Childhood Education, Literacy/Biliteracy, Sociocultural Studies (BELSS) is to graduate reflective teachers and researchers who act from a deep understanding of bilingualism/biliteracy, social foundations of education, and the borderland context to create socially just education. To that end we strive to:
- Prepare teachers and researchers who see themselves as informed actors with a responsibility to shape the teaching profession and educational institutions;
- Lead in the production and dissemination of research that advances our vision of a socially just, borderland-informed education;
- Advocate for dual language acquisition, biliteracy, and social justice in education across the university, our community, the U.S. and our binational region;
- Locate teaching and learning within social, cultural, political, historical, and economic contexts;
- Co-construct knowledge about teaching and the world in ways that center the experiences and assets of all students;
- Engage students in rigorous research, public policy discourse, and community outreach;
- Model critical and culturally relevant pedagogical practices and interdisciplinary teaching of content knowledge, skills, and dispositions that prepare all students for 21st-century realities such as sociocultural and linguistic diversity, challenges of inequities, digital technologies, and the need for innovative, creative, and critical thinking;
- Mentor our students into and through strong professional networks of support.
The Mission of the Division of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education in the College of Education is:
- To prepare teachers who support all students, especially English language learners, to actively engage in STEM learning. We model approaches that are student-centered and integrate active and culturally responsive teaching and learning.
- To prepare future researchers and teacher educators who combine theory and practice to impact quality K-20 education for today’s diverse student populations in the field of STEM education.
- To bring innovative scholarship, teaching methods, and curriculum to life in order to illuminate and to promote excellence in cutting-edge research and creative endeavors that improve learning outcomes for all students.
- To put research at the service of the broader community, so that our work advances not only knowledge but also human development for all served through the mission of access and excellence.