Jeff Carpenter

Assistant Professor of Education

Erin Hone

Adjunct Instructor of Education

Terry Tomasek

Associate Professor of Education

Overview

The conceptual framework of Elon’s Teacher Education Program and the Education Department’s Five-year Plan strongly state our commitment to diversity. Both highlight our goal of preparing teachers as advocates for excellence and equity. In our Five-year Plan, two further goals relate to diversity: to develop teachers who are global citizens, and to prepare teachers to be informed and skilled advocates for the welfare of students. Currently, our commitment to diversity is most strongly emphasized in the Teaching Diverse Learners course required of all majors and typically taught in the junior year. 



Our team researched how we can infuse best practices for course content and pedagogy into the senior-year student teaching seminar. Student teaching challenges our teacher candidates in many ways, requiring that we revisit and reemphasize diversity during this formative experience. Teacher candidates can fall back upon traditional teaching practices that they experienced as students, or let unconscious biases affect their classroom behaviors. Many tend to see diversity primarily in terms of challenges. As Instructors for Spring 2013 student teaching seminar sections, we set out to develop the course such that it modeled and supported teaching which leads all students to learn. We wanted to see our students take a strengths-based approach to each individual student, and capitalize on the benefits afforded by heterogeneous classrooms. We also sought to develop awareness and advocacy skills in our students that will help them work against institutional factors contributing to the persistent race- and class-based achievement gaps in our schools.

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