Conceptual Framework
The Transforming Educator
The Professional Education Unit’s Conceptual Framework is the underlying foundation for its teacher education and educational leadership programs and is organized around the theme, “The Transforming Educator.”
The Transforming Educator, a living link in the educational process, is an educator who continually changes internally through understanding, practicing, and reflecting, such that, individually and collaboratively, he or she is an advocate for all learners. The Transforming Educator implements appropriate and significant life-changing experiences that effectively provide for the needs of the individual, actively engage others in transformative processes, and promote life-long learning.
Teachers, educational leaders, and school counselors who are Transforming Educators must embrace the processes of understanding, practicing, and reflecting, which are indeed vital components of transformation.
Through the interwoven processes of understanding, practicing, and reflecting, the Transforming Educator embodies the following principles:
- TO KNOW the foundations of the education profession, content bases for curricula, and characteristics of diverse learners.
- TO DO the work of a professional educator in providing and supporting developmentally appropriate, research-based, and culturally responsive learning experience to prepare students for future success. Through the use of data-driven decision making, professional educators examine existing policies and procedures and create new opportunities for increased students achievement.
- TO BE a reflective, collaborative, and responsive decision-maker, facilitator, role model, and leader within the classroom, school, community, and global environment. Professional educators work toward the equity, access, and academic, social, and career achievement for all students.
Additionally, our purposes incorporate goals of preparing teachers, counselors, and school leaders who honor, appreciate, nurture, and demonstrate three essential characteristics of Transforming Educators:
- The ability to engage students in learning
- The ability to be involved in effective collaboration with students, other educators, parents, and the community
- The ability to work with students of diverse backgrounds