Our Mission

Teacher Scholars for Social Justice are Committed to  

Creative and Critical Thinking

We don't believe that great teachers are born; instead they achieve greatness through honest self-evaluation, critique, experimentation, and risk taking.

What does it mean to become a creative teacher who thinks critically about all aspects of the teaching profession? At Illinois Wesleyan, demonstrating creativity as a prospective teacher involves using the tools of the liberal arts to create meaningful experiences for the children and youth, with whom you will engage. Those tools will allow you to problem solve in ways that are flexible but influential, in addressing the many needs and interests of your students. Creative teachers are also critical thinkers. At IWU, we work with you as you evaluate different approaches to teaching and learning in a rigorous fashion on an ongoing basis, examining their adequacies and deficiencies in light of your students’ needs, while determining which new approaches have a better chance of success. We don’t believe that great teachers are born; instead they achieve greatness through honest self-evaluation, critique, experimentation, and risk taking. Everyone’s teaching journey includes these elements and we are here to help you as you start that journey.

Social Justice

A commitment to social justice means working to ensure that the particular educational system, of which you will be a central part, will treat your students with fairness, recognizing their talents, and giving them every opportunity to succeed.

Teaching for social justice means that you understand that not all of the children who you will teach are always treated fairly in schools, or are given the same opportunities to succeed. Children come from diverse backgrounds and have many different gifts that they bring to the classroom. However, the history of this country is a history where many children who come from diverse settings, through no fault of their own, are not given the educational opportunities they deserve. Sadly, too often, this remains true of contemporary educational systems, throughout the United States. A commitment to social justice means working to ensure that the particular educational system, of which you will be a central part, will treat your students with fairness, recognizing their talents, and giving them every opportunity to succeed. This involves efforts to create classrooms that affirm democratic values, while working to make changes in educational policies that affect all children and youth broadly, inside and outside of the classroom.

Reflection

Scholarly reflection involves asking questions, rethinking what one knows, posing problems, and generating possible solutions.

Scholarly reflection involves asking questions, rethinking what one knows, posing problems, and generating possible solutions. It requires self knowledge. Collaborative reflection engages candidates in inquiry communities with their peers, their mentors, and their students. We expect candidates to re-examine their assumptions about learning and teaching, to be open to new ideas, to take seriously the tasks of self-assessment in considering how one engages all students in learning, and to engage in perspective taking to understand the experiences of students different from themselves. Teaching for social justice necessarily requires reflection about the educational implications of students’ culture, ethnicity, class, language, and ability. Teacher scholars reflect upon their disciplinary knowledge and how to bring that knowledge to life for the students they teach. They examine their own practices as well as institutional practices with respect to creating inclusive, democratic classrooms. 

Resourcefulness

Resourcefulness requires a commitment to ongoing learning, the ability to draw from theory, research, and disciplinary knowledge when developing curriculum and pedagogy responsive to culture, ethnicity, class, language and ability.

Inquiring into one’s students, one’s discipline, one’s teaching practices, and institutional practices while addressing the imperatives of social justice requires initiative, artistry, and creativity on the part of teachers. Resourcefulness requires a commitment to ongoing learning, the ability to draw from theory, research, and disciplinary knowledge when developing curriculum and pedagogy responsive to culture, ethnicity, class, language and ability. Resourcefulness involves searching for and modifying meaningful curricular materials, engaging teaching technologies, and collaborating with specialists, colleagues, families and community members to meet the learning needs of their students.

Responsiveness

Responsiveness involves establishing caring, inclusive, inspiring and safe learning communities in which all students feel they belong.

Inquiring into and reflecting upon the problems and prospects of schooling is not sufficient by itself if one is to adopt a commitment to teaching for social justice. One must engage in praxis. The concept of praxis comes to life in myriad ways as candidates respond to the lived realities of students in their classrooms. Responsiveness is required to develop authentic, reciprocal, and empowering relationships with students and their families and to develop multicultural, inclusive and democratic pedagogies. In turn, responsiveness requires an emotional capacity to enter into learning and teaching relationships, to appreciate and respect student and family diversity, and to willingly engage in collaboration with colleagues and students’ families to meet students’ needs. Responsiveness demands genuine care, and concern for all students’ well-being and academic success. It includes taking time to know one’s students and to thoughtfully create supportive learning environments. Responsiveness involves establishing caring, inclusive, inspiring and safe learning communities in which all students feel they belong. All of this in turn requires candidates to be reflective and resourceful; thus these three themes are integrally intertwined. 

Making a Meaningful Difference

We hold to a vision of teachers committed to making a meaningful difference in the lives of all students, teachers who will inspire among their students a passion for learning and acting in the world, and in so doing, will transform the Educational landscape.

We strive to prepare teachers who understand, appreciate, and are responsive to students from diverse backgrounds, and who have the knowledge, skills and dispositions to foster learning among all children regardless of culture, race, ethnicity, language, class, gender and/or ability. We hold to a vision of teachers committed to making a meaningful difference in the lives of all students, teachers who will inspire among their students a passion for learning and acting in the world, and in so doing, will transform the Educational landscape.