Education Echo Blog

University of Redlands School of Education

Video: Department of Teaching & Learning, School of Education

Transcript of the video "Department of Teaching and Learning, School of Education"

Dr. Mousumi De, Assistant Professor: Our Teacher Education program embraces an equity-centered approach that prepares teachers to be change agents who can contribute to a socially just education system.

Dr. Nicol Howard, Associate Dean: The Department of Teaching and Learning is in the School of Education at the University of Redlands. The Teaching and Learning Department includes a multiple subject or single subject credential program. It also includes a Master's in Learning and Teaching. New students are often surprised at how much they learn about themselves. They come into our program expecting to learn how to teach but they are very surprised to see how much they really learn how their own experiences and expertise lend themselves so well to becoming future teachers. 

Dr. Mousumi De, Assistant Professor: This is a program where students are encouraged to openly and safely discuss social challenges or culturally difficult or culturally controversial issues in the classroom. We prepare our teachers to be critical thinkers so they don't blindly accept what is given in the education system. And that is what really helps them to teach students in a socially just way of education.

Dr. Nicol Howard, Associate Dean:  Our program is very unique from other programs in that we not only center equity at the core of the work that we do as faculty in the program but we actually work with our students in supporting their acquisition of an equity understanding and an equity mindset as they move onto their own professions.

Natalie O'Harra, Assistant Director of Academic Advising: Our students, when they come here, they're able to build great connections with their professors and their classmates because it is such a small setting. While students are out doing their fieldwork they're each assigned what we call a university supervisor and this university supervisor sees them succeeding and struggling in the classroom and is giving them feedback on how to become a better teacher. And when it comes to our advising office I've had students more than once mention how surprised they are at how easy it is to get access to an advisor. Maybe they came from a larger university where they were seen just as their student ID number but in our office, we know our students by name. We see them as they're walking towards their classes. We say hi to them, so I think they feel like an individual, they feel seen, and they feel heard while they are here. 

Dr. Mousumi De, Assistant Professor: Teacher candidates from all backgrounds are welcome and we prepare them to be K-12 educators who can actually go into a classroom and teach all kinds of learners and their success is not just about their own commitment to become a teacher but it's also about their own commitment to the community.

Dr. Nicol Howard, Associate Dean:  We encourage our students in our programs to look at the data that are in front of them to really learn the students and learn the community in which they're working in. Our hope is that as they learn about the communities of their students that they will go in and affect change and become the best possible teacher. And as they see injustices not just to stand by and not speak up but to improve the systems in which they work in.