1. Diversity: NMU’s Teacher Education Program Now and for the Future Dr. Rodney H. Clarken School of Education, Northern Michigan University

2. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 2 What have we been doing to realize our ideal of social justice? 1.Exposed our candidates to literature, conversations and activities to correct harmful stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. 2.Selected and retained faculty that possess a high level of commitment to social justice and strive to attain ever higher levels in their practice and candidates.

3. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 3 3. Demanded a minimal level of social justice (freedom from unfair prejudice and discrimination) from our candidates and colleagues. 4. Expected our candidates to exhibit increasing levels of commitment to social justice in their understanding, attitudes and practice.

4. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 4 What more could we do? 1.Can increase knowledge and actions for social justice in our candidates and ourselves. 2.Give legitimate experiences to further develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions related to developing social justice in our candidates and ourselves. 3.Strive to meet the target expectations set by NCATE for diversity.

5. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 5 NCATE 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.

6. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 6 Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Curriculum and Experiences TARGET: Curriculum, field experiences, and clinical practice help candidates to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to diversity. They are based on well-developed knowledge bases for, and conceptualizations of, diversity and inclusion so that candidates can apply them effectively in schools. Candidates learn to contextualize teaching and to draw upon representations from the students’ own experiences and knowledge.

7. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 7 They learn how to challenge students toward cognitive complexity and engage all students, including students with exceptionalities, through instructional conversation. Candidates and faculty review assessment data that provide information about candidates’ ability to work with all students and develop a plan for improving their practice in this area.

8. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 8 Where are we? 1.Our Conceptual Frameworks address these expectations and our discourse and practice supports them. 2.We seem to be committed to equity and justice, but need to provide more reliable and valid data to assess our progress so we can continue to improve.

9. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 9 Examples of curriculum that help candidates to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to diversity. Liberal arts Foundations (ED 201, 301, 230, 231) Methods Student teaching Graduate programs

10. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 10 Examples of field experiences and clinical practice that help candidates to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to diversity. ED 230/231 Block 1 Block 2 Secondary methods Student teaching Graduate programs

11. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 11 What could we do to improve? 1.Need to get assessment data that more clearly address areas of strength and weakness, especially longitudinal data to evaluate progress of candidates and program. Data may come from various sources: objective artifacts, candidate self evaluations, supervisor and faculty evaluations and normative measures.

12. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 12 2. More clearly articulate our rationales and expectations for our candidates, and assess and give them feedback on their progress. For example, do their lesson plans and activities with P-12 students demonstrate an appreciation of inclusion and diversity, can they adapt instruction for diverse students, and can they give evidence that they have helped all students learn?

13. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 13 3. Invite external consultants and evaluators to help us assess and improve our activities in these areas. 4. Revisit our knowledge bases and conceptual frameworks related to race, culture, social justice, equity and unity in diversity.

14. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 14 Experiences Working with Diverse Faculty TARGET: Candidates interact in classroom settings on campus and in schools with professional education faculty, faculty in other units, and school faculty who represent diverse ethnic racial, gender, language, exceptionality, and religious groups. Faculty with whom candidates work throughout their preparation program are knowledgeable about and sensitive to preparing candidates to work with diverse students, including students with exceptionalities.

15. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 15 Where are we? Northern’s education faculty 1.is limited in racial diversity. 2.have commitment, knowledge and experiences related to preparing candidates to work with students from diverse cultural backgrounds, including students with exceptionalities. 3.have a wealth of experiences in many diverse settings e.g., rural/urban, minority/majority, national/international and high/low socioeconomic, with a rich appreciation of and a demonstrated commitment to social justice and equity.

16. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 16 4. come from many different backgrounds, socioeconomic groups and ethnicities; is balanced between female and male; and includes individuals from Asian and Native American origins. 5. have tried attracting and retaining more faculty from diverse racial backgrounds, though with limited success.

17. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 17 What could we do to improve? 1.Create more opportunities for our candidates to interact in our classrooms with faculty of different racial backgrounds using such things as visitations, technology or hiring. 2.Articulate and be more direct about sharing our diversity with our students in ways that can help them develop.

18. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 18 3. Assess and document the degree to which education faculty are knowledgeable about and sensitive to preparing candidates to work with diverse students, including students with exceptionalities, through such things as curriculum, candidate surveys and attitudinal measures. 4. Make efforts to increase faculty diversity, especially in terms of race, through more aggressive recruitment and retention.

19. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 19 5. Make public the diversity of backgrounds and experiences of our faculty and share these experiences with our candidates in meaningful ways that affirm their value. 6. Assess the diversity of our field and clinical experience faculty and their diversity of experiences. Invite those with experience successfully working with students of diverse backgrounds to assist our program and candidates to be more knowledgeable and sensitive to all students.

20. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 20 Experiences Working with Diverse Candidates TARGET: Candidates interact and work with candidates with exceptionalities and from diverse ethnic, racial, gender, language, socioeconomic, and religious groups in professional education courses on campus and in schools. The active participation of candidates from diverse cultural backgrounds and with different experiences is solicited, and valued and accepted in classes, field experiences, and clinical practice.

21. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 21 Where are we? 1.We have several candidates of Native origins, but have few to none that identify as Hispanic or African American, giving our candidates very limited opportunities to interact and work with diverse candidates. 2.The Upper Peninsula is about 95% white, 4% Native American and 1% other. Though NMU has tried to attract and retain diverse students, it is about 96% white, which greatly limits our candidate pool.

22. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 22 What could we do to improve? 1.Try harder to attract and retain more candidates of color. 2.Involve more candidates of color in our discussions and decisions, i.e., in classrooms, projects and committees. 3.See that activities and experiences are as balanced as possible with the diversity present.

23. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 23 Experiences Working with Diverse Students in P–12 Schools TARGET: Extensive and substantive field experiences and clinical practices are designed to encourage candidates to interact with exceptional students and students from different ethnic, racial, gender, socioeconomic, language, and religious groups. The experiences help candidates confront issues of diversity that affect teaching and student learning and develop strategies for improving student learning and candidates’ effectiveness as teachers.

24. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 24 Where are we? 1. Field experiences are in settings with exceptional populations and students from different ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic groups and are designed for candidates to develop and practice their knowledge, skills, and dispositions for working with all students. Feedback from peers and supervisors helps candidates reflect on their ability to help all students learn.

25. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 25 We strive to have our teacher education candidates 2. develop respect for and value of differences of others throughout our program and expect them to develop the competencies needed to help all students learn. 3. have more extensive experiences with diverse P-12 students, though there are limited opportunities near NMU, especially for racial diversity.

26. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 26 What could we do to improve? 1.Assess and document what we are presently doing. 2.More consciously help our candidates confront issues of diversity that affect teaching and student learning and develop strategies for improving them. 3.Provide substantive field experiences with students of different backgrounds, especially racial.

27. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 27 General recommendations 1. Increase use of technology to expose our candidates to faculty, teachers, candidates and students of diversity, especially racial diversity and how to develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions to help all students learn.

28. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 28 2. Use more assessment tools and data to provide feedback into how we are doing as a program and how our candidates are doing collectively and individually. 3. Require all students document significant experience working in schools with students and teachers from diverse backgrounds. 4. Have all student teachers spend two weeks in an urban and minority school during their student teaching or to document comparable experience.

29. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 29 5. Include diverse candidates, faculty and colleagues input into our programs, committees, boards, curriculum, pedagogy, field experiences, recruitment and retention. 6. Invite diverse consultants, advisors or associates to work with our programs and candidates. 7. Work with admissions and human resources to increase our pool of diverse candidates and faculty.

30. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 30 In closing, NMU’s Education Program can 1.help develop social justice for all students. 2.help reveal and develop the potentialities inherent in each individual. 3.prepare teachers to contribute to the well-being of themselves, their students, classrooms, schools, communities and world.

31. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 31 Our healthy and full development depends partly on our relationships, norms, values, social structures and processes which compose our program. They influence and shape us and those with whom we work, but we in turn mould and influence them. Together we can promote social justice and improve the world.

32. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 32 Some questions to consider 1. What might undergraduate and graduate students do in classes, field placements, and student teaching/internships to show that they can apply understanding of children’s differences in ability, socioeconomic status, culture, language, race, religion, and gender?

33. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 33 2. What assessment data is appropriate for pre-service and in-service teachers to use? 3. What experiences can be provided so that pre-service and in-service teachers use data for improving practice?

34. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 34 4. How might we assure that all NMU education and P-12 faculty with whom our candidates work are able to address issues of diversity and exceptionalities? 5. How do we determine if our undergraduate and graduate students can both confront issues of diversity and develop effective strategies based upon knowledge of diversity?

35. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 35 6. Considering the demographics of NMU, the UP and collaborating P-12 schools, how might we provide consistent opportunities for all undergraduate and graduate students to interact with diverse university and P-12 faculty and students?

36. © Rodney H. Clarken 2006 36 Contact information Dr. Rodney H. Clarken Director of Field Experiences and Professor, School of Education, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue, Marquette, MI 49855-5348 Tel: 906-227-1881 (o), 226-2079 (h), Fax: 227-2764 Email: rclarken@nmu.edurclarken@nmu.edu Website with info on courses, papers, Bahá'í, China, this and other presentations: http://www-instruct.nmu.edu/education/rclarken