Zucker Family School of Education

Zucker Family School of Education’s Purpose

The purpose of the Zucker Family School of Education’s undergraduate and graduate programs is to serve the people of the Lowcountry, the state of South Carolina, the Southeast, and the nation by providing high-quality programs to prepare middle and secondary teachers, professional educators, and school counselors. Through our initial program for teacher candidates for P-12 schools and our advanced programs for professional educators in P-20 schools, the Zucker Family School of Education cultivates undergraduate and graduate students into principled educational leaders capable of and committed to transforming our schools into learning communities where all children and youth succeed.

Mission

The mission of the Zucker Family School of Education at The Citadel is to support the development and preparation of individuals who are knowledgeable about the learning process and learners who are effective, ethical, and reflective educators prepared to assume leadership roles in the profession and community. Further, with a focus on learner-centered education, they are effective in educating a diverse learner population to high academic standards. The mission is based on the School’s philosophy and conceptual model.

Statement of Philosophy

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The philosophy of the Zucker Family School of Education is based on five fundamental propositions. These propositions serve to orient the mission and conceptual base of the School, guide the actions and value system of the faculty, shape the curricula of the various programs, and provide to its faculty their sense of purpose and meaning for teaching, scholarship, and professional service.

The five propositions are:

The faculty is committed to promoting education for all individuals to the fullest extent possible. With the implementation of appropriate teaching and assessment strategies, a fundamental guiding belief is that all students, though having unique learning styles and experiences, are capable of learning.
It is the educator’s responsibility to establish a mutually respectful environment where effective learning occurs for all students, with the aid of appropriate resources and support.
Education is a systematic effort to facilitate the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values necessary for the student to function in a diverse society.
The faculty is committed to upholding the highest professional standards in all situations in which they model these standards to students through their teaching, research, and service endeavors.
The faculty is committed to an open interchange of ideas wherein the perspectives of all are valued.

Conceptual Model

The Zucker Family School of Education prepares principled educational leaders to be knowledgeable, reflective, and ethical professionals. Candidates completing our programs are committed to ensuring all students succeed in a learner-centered environment.

The Citadel’s Professional Education Unit is committed to the simultaneous transformation of educational leaders’ preparation and the places where they work. Specifically, The Citadel’s Professional Education Unit seeks to develop principled educational leaders who:

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have mastered their subject matter and are skilled in using it to foster student learning;
know the self who educates (Parker J. Palmer) and integrate this self-knowledge with content knowledge, knowledge of students, and in the context of becoming professional change agents committed to using this knowledge and skill to ensure that all students succeed in a learner-centered environment; and
exemplify the highest ethical standards by modeling respect for all human beings and valuing diversity as an essential component of an effective learner-centered environment.