Enrollment in the Educational Studies Department provides students with the opportunity to apply the particular skills and knowledge of their chosen disciplines to the specific domain of the school classroom. The liberally educated teacher is not simply a technician who has inherited and adopted a set of prescriptions for practice. The liberally educated teacher brings intellectual curiosity and the excitement of his or her disciplinary studies into the classroom. Liberally educated teachers have both a content base and an understanding of educational processes and issues. A primary mission of the professional teacher education program is to enable students to think critically and creatively about the processes of education, the place of education in society, and their own roles as educators.
Teaching is embedded in the economic, social, and political contexts of our time.
Family and community life continue to change, and effective teachers strive to understand their roles and responsibilities with respect to these changes. The liberally educated teacher is committed to acquiring disciplinary competence that serves as a basis for reflecting on one's own learning, and teaching that discipline to others. Liberally educated teachers are able to construct, claim, ground, articulate, and implement pedagogical positions and beliefs that are informed and well-reasoned. The liberally educated teacher is a researcher in his or her own classroom. The liberally educated teacher is a reflective practitioner, who is able to evaluate his or her practice and adapt it to changing contemporary contexts.