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III. Standard 4: diversity
The unit designs, implements, and evaluates curriculum
and experiences for candidates to acquire and apply the knowledge, skills,
and dispositions necessary to help all students learn. These experiences
include working with diverse higher education and school faculty, diverse
candidates, and diverse students in P-12 schools.
Introduction
The Professional Education Unit is committed to preparing candidates who
are ready to teach in a multicultural and ethnically diverse world, and
who are prepared to meet the needs of all students, including those with
special needs, and those whose primary language and religious affiliation
differs from the majority. The Unit’s commitment to its candidates
and others it serves is consistent with and reflective of Morehead State
University’s Goals of General Education for all students, and the
university’s core value of being “a culturally diverse organization
dedicated to the personal worth of its members” See www.moreheadstate.edu/units/budgets/plan/mission.html
.
As a foundation for general education these goals include
two that are specifically diversity-related: 1) Candidates will be expected
to demonstrate the ability to recognize and value the multicultural nature
of American society and respect the rights of all citizens; 2) Candidates
are expected to analyze global issues in the context of cultural diversity.
The clear intent then is that the education candidates’ experience
at the university should lead to an understanding of and respect for the
cultural diversity within American society and the world. The goals clearly
imply that their personal and professional development should be influenced
by those qualities found through knowledge about and interactions with
not only the familiar, but also with the diverse nature of local, national,
and international society.
Within the context of the university’s broad goals, the Unit is committed
to producing candidates who understand the role of diversity and equity
in teaching and learning, and who can provide the instruction that permits
all students to learn. Many courses throughout the Unit engage candidates
in curricula that present a multicultural perspective of the world in
which we live and learn, and that help candidates develop dispositions
that respect and value differences that are necessary for working in the
diverse settings of schools in the 21st century. To this end, in the past
year the Unit has adopted and implemented a dispositions continuous assessment
process that specifically asks faculty members to evaluate a candidate’s
“sensitivity to differences”. www.msucoe.org/dispositions.html
The criterion for the most desired level of a candidate’s disposition
regarding sensitivity to differences refers to “…consistently
proactive in responding to diversity. Is consistently fair in the treatment
of students and designs learning activities that empower all students.”
By clearly espousing the expected dispositions of its candidates, the
Unit also accepts its responsibility to provide learning environments
throughout its programs that nurture those dispositions through the productivity
of its faculty in the university classroom, in field experiences, and
culminating in the professional clinical experience.
Part of the faculty members’ work involves the planned use of the
dispositions assessment instrument as a developmentally sensitive continuous
measurement of a candidate’s dispositions for teaching, and as such
clearly articulates and implements the Unit’s conceptual framework
of “Educators as Architects.” For example, in the Department
of Elementary, Reading, and Special Education, the assessment process
begins during a candidate’s introduction to the profession of teaching
in the EDF 207, Foundations of Education course, typically in the first
semester of the sophomore year. Further assessments are made during the
next year of development when candidates are enrolled in and have field
experiences as part of EDEL 305, Learning Theories and Practices in Early
Elementary, and EDMG 306, Development and Learning in the Middle Grades.
Subsequently, dispositions assessments are implemented at least once (two
evaluators) when taking methods courses, and again during the professional
semester clinical experience. It is felt that a candidate’s dispositions
for teaching will have been thoroughly assessed prior to TEP admission,
and that the continuity of assessment provides data and opportunities
for candidate and faculty to collaborate on planning how the candidate
might improve their knowledge, skills, and those dispositions judged to
be sensitive to remediation. www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html
Element 1: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Curriculum and
Experiences
At both the initial and advanced levels, the Unit’s faculty provides
candidates with exposure to curricula and field experiences that specifically
address diversity in schools. The purposes of these curricula and experiences
ultimately are focused on the universal mandate that all teachers should
provide an appropriate education for all students based on an inclusive
model, and to that end, should engage in professional collaboration with
administrators, teacher colleagues, other professionals and paraprofessionals,
with students’ parents, and with members of the school’s community.
The Unit’s faculty is aware that the range of diversity represented
among students and individuals with whom teachers come into professional
contact may encompass exceptionality, ethnicity, race, gender, socio-economic,
language, and religion; therefore, the Unit’s candidates are exposed
to curricula that prepare them to work with widely diverse individuals
in schools with understanding, fairness, respect, and skill.
The Unit’s faculty teaches in excess of 60 courses that educate candidates
about the diverse nature of students in P-12 schools through a variety
of instructional strategies most widely applied of which are lecture,
discussion, field experiences, and the integration of technology into
instruction; other strategies involve preparing case studies, self-observation,
the study of picture books and manipulatives, assigned readings, and special
events such as attendance at colloquia and professional conferences held
on MSU’s campus and elsewhere. According to faculty self-reporting
(Documents Room: Faculty Diversity Survey 4.1), more than 60 courses include
systematic instructional content about exceptionalities, ethnicity, race,
gender, and socio-economic differences encountered among P-12 students.
Over 40 courses engage candidates in content regarding language differences,
and more than 20 systematically address issues presented by the heterogeneity
of religious affiliation of students in public schools.
However, the Unit’s faculty recognizes that the quality of its programs
must ultimately be measured by the success of its candidates in producing
effective instruction for all students in the classroom. The relevant
question to ask of any program’s candidates is, “Can the candidates
help all students learn?” With the success of each individual student
in mind, in more than 60 courses where field experiences are an integral
feature, candidates are expected to plan and use multiple strategies for
engaging all students, and to integrate student interests, experiences,
and knowledge into the content of lessons. In many field experiences that
involve teaching lessons (more than 50 courses), course instructors collect
data on the candidates’ ability to engage all students, and more
than 30 collaborate with the supervising teacher to collect similar data.
In the vast majority of cases, candidates reflect on their own teaching
either in writing and/or personally with the course instructor to plan
and implement more effective teaching for all students. In at least 18
courses, candidates integrate technology into this self-reflective process
by using video recordings to critique their own and others’ teaching.
(Documents Room: Candidate Work Exhibit)
In many of the educator preparation programs check sheet requirements
indicate the extent to which candidates are exposed to courses containing
content designed to contribute to their knowledge base about diversity.
As candidates progress through the preparation program knowledge and skills
base is extended to ensure they are prepared for diversity within schools
and classrooms. An early introduction in guiding initial teacher candidates
towards a more culturally inclusive world perspective is found in the
general education requirement for all programs in the Department of Elementary,
Reading, and Special Education to take one non-western culture course
from GEO 300, World Geography; GOVT 362, Current World Problems; or SOC
305, Cultural Anthropology.
Within the Unit’s professional studies component, a required foundations
course provides the first opportunity to begin the process of inculcating
in candidates concepts and dispositions addressing the universal mandate
for schools to educate all students. In EDF 207, Foundations of Education,
www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html emphasis is placed on diversity issues related
to the conflict between freedom and conformity as it manifests itself
in schooling. Diversity is explored in the context of early nationalism;
treatment of European immigrants, women, African-Americans, and Native
Americans in nineteenth century schooling; the history of African-American
education; and current conflict over bilingualism. To represent their
understanding of diversity issues and content, candidates develop multicultural
art products and engage in technology-based teaching performance tasks
(Documents Room: Candidate Work Exhibit-EDF 207 Creative art product).
In addition, the field observation form used for all sections of EDF 207
includes the following prompt: “Describe the teacher’s behavior
as it related to gender, race, ethnicity, or culture.” In their responses,
candidates cited, for example, teachers’ responses to students with
emotional-behavior disorders, teachers’ efforts to provide opportunities
for students to work together in communities, and gender-related behavior.
During the year of record, a faculty member with special expertise in
issues of cultural diversity presented a series of workshops for foundations
faculty on effective ways to address these issues instructionally.
EDF 211, Human Growth and Development, an introductory course taken by
all candidates, requires completion of a case study of an adolescent “to
help develop skills in understanding the whole person.” This assignment
requires candidates to interview the students for their case students,
utilizing “creative but also respectful questioning.” Other
diversity-related field experience activities assigned to candidates enrolled
in this course include gender identification and preference for sex type,
parenting styles, and moral development www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html EDF
211. Candidates typically may hear first-person accounts of growing up
with parents who did not speak English, or who lived in extremely poor
homes, or who were unable to read until 3rd grade.
Intermediate-level courses common to most programs include EDEL 301, Media
Strategies, where candidates read about adaptive technology and participate
in online and class discussions focusing on integrating technology to
support exceptional children. Candidates enrolled in EDEE 305, Learning
Theories and Practices in Early Elementary, gather data and report and
discuss their findings about how experienced teachers accommodate and
address diversity. Additionally, candidates in this course participate
in a Diversity Fair in which candidates share multicultural children’s
literature, research articles, and engage in activities designed to meet
the needs of learners from diverse cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds.
Candidates also explore and discuss World Wide Web destinations about
diversity, and access course resources including Louis Derman Spark’s
Anti-bias Curriculum and James A. Banks’ Multicultural Transformation
Model.
Within the Department of Elementary, Reading, and Special Education, blocked
methods courses of the P-5 Early Elementary program (EDEE 321, EDEE 322,
EDEE 323, and EDEE 331) implement diversity-oriented “Blockland Museum
Day” involving candidates in a variety of activities to encourage
non-stereotypical unit designs about various cultures. Candidates create
a “me museum” with artifacts about themselves, and after individual
museums are created, candidates analyze and synthesize as they explore
how people of “Blockland” are the same and different (see Course
Syllabi). In EDEE 327, Literature and Materials for Young Learners, and
EDEM 447, Literature and Materials for the Preadolescent, literature selections
from cultures around the world and written by authors from many ethnic,
racial and cultural groups are included, and candidates enrolled in EDEE
330, Foundations of Reading, utilize the Teaching Tolerance World Wide
Web site extensively, with its publication, Teaching Tolerance, published
by the Southern Poverty Law Center. www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html
, EDEE 330 and Documents Room : Candidate Work Exhibit
In core courses for pre-service middle school candidates, several resources
and strategies pertaining to addressing the needs of diverse students
are utilized. For example, the lesson plan format for EDMG 332, Reading
in Content Areas for Middle Grades, requires candidates to include special
needs modifications as specified in students’ Individual Education
Programs (IEPs). Teaching Social Studies (EDMG 342) includes among its
resources The Preparation of Teachers in Multicultural/Culturally Diverse
Environments, and Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society, and
candidates create Web Quests featuring countries around the world. www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html
EDMG 332
Content area disciplines also expose the Unit’s candidates to a wide
variety of experiences designed to inculcate designing instruction to
address all student needs. In an introductory music education course for
example, MUSE 230, Introduction to Music Education addresses diversity
by including information concerning instrument selection as it pertains
to gender, and teaching students whose parents may not be able to afford
costly musical instruments, and in Physical Education in the Elementary
School (PHED 300), candidates develop a strategy for teaching a physical
education lesson with 25 students which also accommodates a student who
uses a wheelchair.
In Fall 2002, candidates enrolled in ART 221, School Art II, for elementary
generalist candidates, a unit about diversity and tolerance through cultural
expression included a culminating video exchange with an elementary generalist
class at the University of Tennessee. The exchange provided an opportunity
for candidates to explore the cross-cultural roles of art makers outlined
by G. Chalmers’ book, Celebrating Pluralism: Art, Education, and
Cultural Diversity. Candidates reflected on tolerance and equity as well
as on multiple approaches and solutions in the classroom (See Collaborative
Video Exchange Reflective Comments). Additionally, ART 221 candidates
presented an exhibition in Strider Gallery, invited the public, and explained
cultural origins of their displayed artwork, (acrylic on canvas). This
unit was presented spring semester 2003 in the tiered ART 221 and ART
231, Elementary Materials and Methods in Art Education. Three additional
multicultural activities that candidates completed as part of this multicultural
unit of study included writing an informative essay about a country of
choice, designing a lesson modified to present at least one instructional
approach that could teach tolerance and/or multiculturalism, and writing
an explanation of their own multicultural teaching philosophy. (Documents
Room: Candidate Work Exhibit: ART)
Several secondary level courses also incorporate diversity-related activities
and materials.
ENG 500, Studies in English for Teachers, includes the requirement that
candidates review diversity-connected standards in national and state
curricular and teaching documents, viz. National Council for Teachers
of English/International Reading Association Standards, Kentucky Department
of Education Academic Standards, Kentucky New Teacher Standards. This
course includes a reading list of diverse authors and topics, and the
recommended text for the course is Seeking Diversity: Language Arts with
Adolescents by Rief, L. www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html
, ENG 500 and Documents Room: Candidate Work Exhibit
Both BIO/MATH/SCI 402 and BIO/MATH/SCI 403, interdisciplinary methods
courses, deal with diversity first indirectly, and then directly. Through
discussions, candidates first explore learner differences (multiple intelligences,
giftedness, special needs, gender and culture). They then document observations
on the Classroom Visitation Document (see Course Documents) on which they
cite techniques used by high school level teachers to address the diverse
needs of students. Biology secondary level candidates are required to
read Characteristics of an Outstanding Biology Teacher found on the NABT
Web site, among which are two expectations related to diversity: An excellent
teacher 1) treats students with respect and designs curricula to meet
the needs of all students, regardless of level of instruction; and 2)
related subject matter to students’ lives, explaining how they are
an integral part of the entire ecosystem. Another example of helping candidates
develop dispositions to enhance their development as future teachers able
to address diverse student needs is found in the field experience of candidates
in BIO 403, who heard primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall speak
in Lexington, Kentucky on September 26, 2002. (Documents Room: Candidate
Work Exhibit BIO 403 Diversity Documents).
Among the many skills to be demonstrated during the clinical experience
across programs (IECE 457, EDEE 423, EDMG 446, EDSP 435, EDSP 437, EDSE
416), candidates must specifically attempt to accommodate diverse students
and their unique learning needs. In particular, candidates must propose
learning experiences that are developmentally appropriate; use appropriate/multiple
teaching strategies; make provisions to address diversity in learning
levels/styles; use multiple assessments that address diversity; and demonstrate
multi-teaching strategies from various perspectives. In EDSE 499C, and
EDEM 499C the Student Teaching Record of Performance (Documents Room:
Candidate Work Exhibit, Diversity Documents), which is aligned with Kentucky’s
New Teacher Standards and Kentucky’s Experienced Teacher Standards,
is used to evaluate the performance of pre-service candidates’ adaptation
of instruction to students from diverse backgrounds.
At the graduate foundations level, in EDEL 680, History and Philosophy
of Education, diversity related topics include social class issues, history
of education of European immigrants, native Americans, African-Americans,
Hispanics, and women. Key thinkers like W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington
and key court cases like Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. the Board of
Education are also explored. Such historical conflicts provide the context
for examination of a variety of contemporary issues, like ebonics, bilingual
education, busing, and resegregation. www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html EDEL
680 Graduate candidates enrolled in EDEL 640, Contemporary Instructional
Practices in Grades P-9, explore a variety of models of teaching and the
relationship between instruction and the learner, emphasizing learner
characteristics such as multiple intelligences, gender diversity, and
learning styles. In the new Master of Arts in Teaching program, diversity
is integrated throughout field experience components, EDUC 550 and EDUC
551, Supervised Practice in Teacher Education I and II (Documents Room:
MAT Student Work)
In the Department of Guidance and Counseling, counselor candidates enrolled
in EDGC 620, Psychosocial and Multicultural Factors in Counseling, www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html
are prepared to work with diverse groups of clients by examining the literature
of oppression utilizing a social perspective of majority/minority relations.
They also examine psychological development of individuals in relation
to culture and society, and are expected to demonstrate knowledge of values
and customs, and of issues affecting particular ethnic and/or cultural
groups, including gender and sexual orientation, individuals with disabilities,
religious beliefs, and others, which differentiate them from “mainstream”
America. Candidates also write reaction papers to a cross-cultural movie,
and to a book by an author who reflects an underrepresented group, explaining
cultural understanding, challenges to the candidates’ own perspective
of the world, and insights derived from viewing the movie and reading
the book.
A primary course objective for EDGC 667, Group Counseling, includes the
expectation for candidates to become cognizant of ethical and multicultural
issues related to group processes, while in EDGC 666, Theories of Counseling,
each mainstream theory from multicultural to feminist perspectives is
discussed and critiqued. This course additionally provides candidates
with the skills necessary to provide professional counseling and guidance
for clients of varying cultural, ethnic, and social backgrounds by requiring
candidates to know how cultural and ethnic diversity affect the practice
of professional counseling, and that they recognize ethical issues associated
with the practice of counseling. www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html
Examples of a diversity-oriented perspective for providing effective instruction
to all students are to be found throughout the Special Education programs.
From the earliest introductory courses at initial and advanced levels
(EDSP 230: Education of Exceptional Children, EDSP 332:Teaching the Exceptional
Student, EDSP 601: Survey of Exceptional Children), to the assessment
and teaching methods courses (for example EDSP 370: Assessment of Students
with Moderate and Severe Disabilities, EDSP 374: Teaching Students with
Moderate and Severe Disabilities, EDSP 375:Practcum in Education of Students
with Moderate and Severe Disabilities, EDSP 537:Educational Assessment
of Children, EDSP 555: Prescriptive Teaching for Children with Learning
and Behavioral Disorders, EDSP 557: Content Areas and Career Preparation
for Exceptional Students) can be found a philosophy that espouses the
concept embodied in the national legislation of PL 107-110, No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001 http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/esea/
www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html
Candidates are taught and implement informal academic and student interest
assessments prior to planning instruction, and routinely collect data
on the individual performance of every child in lessons they teach. No
subsequent lesson is taught until candidate and instructor have reviewed
instructional and observational data for each student’s performance.
The combination of elements of functional and instructional assessment
are designed to address individual student academic and social-emotional
needs, irrespective of the individual difference that may explain under-performance
by a student. It is a holistic, inclusive approach grounded in research-based
best instructional practice, and is inculcated into, and practiced by
candidates throughout their program. Examples of candidates’ measurable
knowledge and skills as special educators who can implement the concepts
of inclusiveness and individualization can be found in lesson plans, case
studies, assessment reports, and Individualized Education Programs from
those courses mentioned above. www.msucoe.org/syllabi.html and Documents
Room: Candidate Work Exhibit
Element 2: Experiences Working with Diverse Faculty
In 2002-03, MSU had a faculty total of 353, of which 146 (41.4%) were
female and 16 (4.5%) were classified as minority based on EEO categories.
There also were 10 Asian and 2 other foreign nationals. In 2002-03 the
College of Education had a full-time faculty of 55, of which 60% were
female and 2 (3.6%) were minorities. From 1997-98 to 2002-03 the percentage
of minority faculty members has remained stable at approximately 3.4%
per year of the institution’s total faculty workforce (Table 4.1),
and 5.9% of the College of Education’s total full-time faculty (Table
4.2).
The institution and the Unit continue to make good
faith efforts to maintain faculty diversity, principally by advertising
its affirmative action policy http://www.moreheadstate.edu/units/msac/affirmativeaction1.html
in all publications regarding employment opportunities, and specifically
targeting minority applicants for faculty vacancies through its advertisements
in the African American Action Register, the Southern Region Education
Board Minority Graduate Recruitment Fair, and with the Kentucky Department
of Education Minority Job Bank. During the period 1998-2002, these efforts
enabled MSU to meet 5 of 8 affirmative action goals for 2001, and 7 of
8 for 2002 (MSU Affirmative Action Plan, 2000; MSU Strategic Plan 2001-2006
http://www.moreheadstate.edu/units/budgets/plan/
Report Cards 2001, 2002). Table 4.3 shows the results of the institution’s
and Unit’s efforts to hire and maintain female and minority faculty
during the period of record, with the Unit’s hiring of female and
minority faculty representing 29.7% and 17.7% respectively of the institution’s
hiring.
The Unit’s minority and international faculty
members clearly have made an impact on curriculum development and professional
productivity within the Unit. Dr. Mee-Ryoung Shon made a presentation,
Implementing Multicultural Activities for Young Children: Thirty Activities
from Taiwan and Korea, at the Collaborative Conference of the Kentucky
Association for Early Childhood Education and Kentucky Head Start Association
in October 2002, where she was joined by two international students who
were enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education Program.
Within the Department of Leadership and Secondary Education, on the initiative
of Dr. Victor Ballestero, negotiations are in process between the Department
and Costa Rican school officials to establish a Sister Schools Project
between Magoffin County Schools and a similar group of rural schools in
San Carlos, Costa Rica. It is intended that this partnership will form
the basis for ongoing social, cultural, environmental, and personal exchanges
between students, teachers, administrators, and parents (Documents Room:
Faculty Vita 5.1). Other minority faculty members outside the College
of Education also have emphasized minority issues by implementing their
“Professors in the Schools” projects in areas such as Louisville
and Mason County with their relatively high minority populations (Documents
Room: Professors in the Schools Reports 1.14). Other examples of faculty
professional development focused on issues of meeting the needs of all
students are found in such activities as Joyce Minor’s attendance
at Teaching the Creative Child who is African American at the 48th Conference
of the National Association for Gifted and Talented in November 2001,
and the training that Joyce Minor and Dr. Daniel Grace received to implement
Second Steps, a programmed curriculum for elementary and middle grades
designed to help students develop tolerance and empathy for others who
are different from themselves. A further asset for the Unit is the fact
that Karen Hammons is the higher education representative of the Kentucky
team to the Multicultural Early Childhood Trainer of Trainers Project,
sponsored by George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The purpose
of this project is to promote multicultural perspectives in early childhood
teacher education programs and programs serving preschool children and
their families. In 2001 MSU hired, Dr. Anna Pennell, a new foundations
faculty member with special expertise in feminism and multicultural education.
(Documents Room: Faculty Vita: 5.1)
Goal 3 of the MSU Strategic Plan, 2001-2006, challenges the institution
to “Increase international experiences for students and faculty.”
In furtherance of this goal, currently the Office of International Education
oversees agreements with Guangxi University in Nanning, MSU’s partner
university through the Sino-American Leadership project sponsored by the
AASCU and CEAIE, and Guangxi Normal University in China, focused on faculty
and education leader exchanges. To date two visits to MSU by education
leaders from these institutions have been made, most recently in November
2002, and others are planned for the next two years.(Documents Room: Office
of International Education Information 4.1) Also, four members of the
University of Sunderland faculty have visited MSU and five of the Unit’s
faculty have visited the University of Sunderland in England, typically
to meet candidates and faculty, visit the regions’ public schools,
and to supervise their own Unit’s candidates during their clinical
experiences. (Documents Room: Office of International Education Information:
4.1) Several faculty have been involved in research projects exploring
educational and cultural differences in England, America, and Russia.
Element 3: Experiences Working with Diverse Candidates
The Unit’s teacher education program takes place in the context of
an increasingly diverse student population at MSU. One hundred forty-one
students from 38 countries were pursuing degrees or certification at MSU
during the Spring 2003 semester (Table 4.4 shows the history of foreign
student enrollment at MSU, 1998-2002). MSU has established the Office
of International Education to foster in its students and the Unit’s
candidates an appreciation of international, racial, ethnic, religious,
and cultural differences. The international programs both at MSU and abroad
developed and promoted by the Office of International Education will allow
students and candidates to gain an international perspective to apply
to their own lives, and to further the institution’s goal of increasing
international student enrollment. Largely through the recruitment efforts
of the Office of International Education, in 2001 the institution exceeded
its enrollment goals for international students (MSU Strategic Plan Goal
3: 2001-2006), enrolling a record high 173 students and candidates, 1.9%
of MSU’s full-time enrollment (see Table 4.5), with many of those
enrolling as regular students through the Office of International Education’s
English Language Center. However, the current political climate in the
country and budget constraints due to state funding shortfalls, have combined
to reduce the enrollment of international students since 2001. www.moreheadstate.edu/units/oie
The Office of International Education also oversees an agreement with
Eternal Life Christian College in Taiwan, and has a study abroad agreement
with Kansai Gaidai University in Japan. At the present time, further agreements
are in the negotiation stage with Lviv Polytechnic State University in
Lviv, Ukraine, the Teachers State Institute in Krakow, and with the University
of Warsaw. Other initiatives are being pursued for faculty, students,
and teacher education candidates to study and work abroad at Instituto
Tecnologico in Costa Rica, the Academy of Dijon, and during the spring
break of 2003, Dr. Robert Frank, Director of the Office of International
Education, lead a group of the Unit’s candidates and faculty to the
University of Burgundy in Dijon to explore future arrangements for candidates
to participate in the Teaching Assistants Program - English speakers teaching
(in English in content classes) as assistants to a French teacher. It
is hoped to develop a program of student teaching exchange similar to
that which the Unit has with the University of Sunderland, through which
20 candidates from England and 8 MSU candidates have traveled to the other
institution for their clinical practice experience since 1998. (Documents
Room: office of International Education 4.1)
In recognition of the limitations for working with
diverse candidates that MSU’s location in a culturally homogeneous
region presents, the College of Education has systematically recruited
candidates from Fayette and Jefferson Counties, designated “targeted”
counties by the university for the recruitment of minority candidates.
Minority students and candidates in Fayette and Jefferson Counties, and
in Louisville, are recruited through the Council on Post-secondary Education
(CPE) and the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE)-funded Minority Teacher
Education Program (MTEP) that provides annual scholarships of up to $5,000.00
to candidates who demonstrate “a definite interest in teaching”
and who remain on a teacher education program track. The enrollees in
the MTEP are overwhelmingly African–American, with some Native American
and Hispanic representation. From 1998-2002, MTEP has maintained an average
enrollment of 53 individuals per semester. In Fall 2002, 55 minority students
were enrolled at MSU through this program, seven were incoming freshmen.
In 2002, 20 Fall and 21 Spring MTEP enrollees were awarded KDE scholarships.
Spring 2003, 19 scholarships were awarded. (Documents Room: MTEP Information:
4.2)
Between 1998-2002, 19 minority students graduated from the Unit’s
Teacher Education Program (TEP). In Spring 2003, of a total of 367 minority
students at MSU 50 (13 %) have declared areas of concentration in teacher
education (Documents Room: MTEP 4.2)
A Performance Indicator for Goal 3 of MSU’s Strategic Plan for 2001-2006
requires the institution to “Meet or exceed enrollment goals for
minority and international students,” with 1999-2000 being the baseline
year (see Tables 4 and 5). The institution exceeded this goal by increasing
African American enrollment from 3.1% to 3.4% in 2001 (MSU Strategic Plan;
2001-2006). In 2002 the African American enrollment dropped to 3% of the
total enrollment. http://www.moreheadstate.edu/units/irca/ir/profile.html
; Documents Room: TEC Minutes 1.5; Documents Room: MTEP Information 4.2;
Registrars Printout )
Element 4: Experiences Working with Diverse Students
in P-12 Schools
The vast majority of field experiences for candidates in the College of
Education are in schools and other education settings in Rowan County
which has two minority teachers out of a total of 200 teachers, and only
a small minority student population. However, the Unit is cognizant of
the fact that teachers in the 21st Century must be prepared to teach students
from a multiplicity of racial, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds, and to
learn to teach effectively those students with disabilities who are increasingly
receiving their education in inclusive classrooms. In its efforts to provide
a more diversified range of experiences, in 2002, for example, the Unit
placed candidates for their clinical experiences in 29 Kentucky counties
other than Rowan, and in the state of Ohio, with 7.3% of candidates being
placed in the targeted counties of Fayette and Jefferson, and a further
20.5% placed in Mason and Montgomery counties where there is a higher
than average minority population than is typically found in the Unit’s
22 county service region. See Table 4.6 below.
When candidates elect to observe in other counties
for the Unit’s foundations course (EDF 207), they are encouraged
to observe in school districts with higher concentrations of African-American
and other minority populations, namely Fayette, Jefferson, Bourbon, Paris
Independent, Fleming, Mason, and Montgomery. Also, some faculty members
have arranged one-day field experiences for their classes in Fayette and
Mason counties for the primary purpose of increasing their candidates’
exposure to minority students, while some candidates have experienced
teaching in another cultural setting abroad through the candidate exchange
program that has been in operation for the past 12 years with the University
of Sunderland in England. Documents Room: Office of International Education
Information 4.1
In the required introductory Special Education courses all candidates
receive exposure to a wide range of individuals with disabilities; field
experiences are integral to EDSP 230, Education of Exceptional Children,
EDSP 332, Teaching the Exceptional Student, and at the graduate level,
EDSP 601, Survey of Exceptional Students. Typically in these courses,
candidates practice observation skills, critique instruction and management
methods and skills, and discuss their findings back in the university
classroom, with their learning objectives steadfastly oriented towards
evaluating the quality of opportunity for school success provided (or
not) for all exceptional students. These field experiences also emphasize
interaction with exceptional school students in order to provide insights
into the reasons why an individualized approach to planning and delivering
instruction is mandatory for these students. www.msucoe.org/programs.html
Next: Standard
5: faculty qualifications, performance, and development
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