Mission Statement
The Education Department at Grinnell College achieves this mission by preparing teacher-researchers who can fulfill decision-making and leadership roles in schools and communities. Because we carefully guide students through a program of increasingly demanding research and teaching experiences, our graduates are prepared to act on their informed choices to transform classroom practices to make schooling more equitable, engaging, and accessible to all students. Our courses are guided by the belief that educational leaders must be equipped to provide all students, particularly those whose knowledge and experiences have been denigrated and marginalized, with opportunities to practice the critical thinking skills that will enable them to act as effective and ethical citizens.
Practioner Preparation Program Goals
The Department of Education believes that an effective Practitioner Preparation Program should engage students in a critical consideration of educational theory, history, research and practice. Students' experience should be grounded in an investigation of the interdependence of education and society and the importance of individual identity in teaching and learning. Students in our Practitioner Preparation Program are expected to construct their pedagogy from a broad understanding of the liberal arts and sciences as well as a thorough knowledge of their chosen disciplines.
Our intent is to prepare teachers who have a firm grounding in educational research and theory and who use that knowledge to inform their practice. Students are guided in and held accountable for demonstrating the ways in which research and theory can inform practice, the ways in which those sources are limited as guides to practice, and the ways in which practice can, in turn, inform research and theory.
