Standard 1.1

The Mills College at Northeastern University, School of Education, as an education unit, has created and articulated a research-based vision of teaching and learning that is consistent with educator preparation for California public schools and their adopted standards and curricular frameworks. The overall statement is as follows:  

Impact Statement: Building on the foundations of critical race (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) and critical language (Crump, 2014) theories, culturally-responsive pedagogy (Sleeter, 2011), reflective practice (Dewey, 1986), organizational learning theory (Capper, 2018), praxis (Bajaj, 2017), and an inquiry stance toward practice (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2015), the core philosophy of these programs is to critically examine individual and collective positionality within sociopolitical, cultural, linguistic, historical, environmental, and economic systems and how we impact teaching, learning, and schools. Candidates and faculty engage in an inquiry-based approach to curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, with a focus on culturally sustaining, anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and universally designed practice. The overall orientation is built on lived experiences (Garvis, 2015) from an asset-based approach to cultivate a nurturing, healing, curious, and rigorous community of educators. Candidates and faculty engage in critical reflection and practice to disrupt dominant ideologies and inequities, with a commitment to fostering a joyful, visionary, and pragmatic community of transformative leaders in education.   

Purpose: We seek to inspire and empower practitioners to make a positive difference in the lives of others, moving communities toward justice and equity through experiential learning and confident, innovative scholarship.   

Goal: We cultivate scholar-practitioners through lifelong experiential learning that transforms communities toward just and equitable societies.   

Mission: The educator preparation programs at Mills College at Northeastern cultivate scholar-practitioners through lifelong experiential learning that transforms communities towards a just and equitable society. The university educates candidates to think critically and communicate responsibly and effectively, to accept the challenges of their creative visions, and to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to effect thoughtful changes in a global, multicultural society.   

Vision: To ignite networks to co-create inclusive and equitable change and to critically examine our positionality within sociopolitical, cultural, linguistic, historical, environmental, and economic systems and how we impact teaching, learning, and schools. 

The overall framework that informs all credential programs is informed by theories and research on critical race theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), critical pedagogy (Freire, 1996), sociocultural learning (Jaramillo, 1996), culturally responsive pedagogy (Sleeter, 2011), humanization education (Camangian & Cariaga, 2022), lived experiences (Garvis, 2015), and an inquiry stance toward practice (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2015). The framework that emerges from these theories and research helps us guide our organization and work to prepare educators who value the rich diversity in schools, while critically examining their practice, institutions, and society. In addition, each of the credential programs is further guided by research and theories as follows:  

• Teacher Education - Multiple and Single Subject  

• Critical Pedagogy (Freire, 1996)  

• Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Alim & Paris, 2017)  

• Multiliteracies (Cazden et al., 1996)  

• Critical Language Theory (Crump, 2014)  

• Early Childhood Special Education  

• DisCrit: Disability Theory and Critical Race Theory (Connor, Ferri, & Annamma, 2016)  

• Inclusion Education, Anti-ableist, Anti-racist Curriculum (Baglieri & Lalvani, 2019)  

• Educational Leadership and Administrative Services  

• Organizational Theory for Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice Education (Capper, 2018)  

• Distributed Leadership Utilizing a Power Analysis of Race and Equity (Diamond, 2013) 

• Asset-Based Approaches and Paradigms and Displacing Deficit Thinking in Educational Leadership (Skrla & Scheurich, 2001) 

• Critical Adult Learning Theory (Brookfield, 2005 & Merriam, 2018).  

• Community Capacity Building as Urban School Transformation (Horsford, & Sampson, 2014) 

• Reflective Practice (Schön, 2017)