Education
Mission Statement
The mission of the Denison University Department of
Education is to provide a foundation for:
1. thinking
critically about teaching and learning in the context of contemporary society;
2. service or
careers in non-school settings, such as social work, counseling, nonprofit
organizations, educational publishing, leadership development, and
business-related teaching; and,
3. critical
analysis of important educational issues in our society. The department is committed to developing in
students an appreciation of the power of learning to transform people and society, in the sense that
individuals have the potential for constant growth and in the sense that
education can be a force toward improvement in the life of the community and
society at large.
We see ourselves acting in concert with the Denison
University mission statement that emphasizes autonomous thought, moral agency,
and active citizenship for all Denison students. Each student in the college, and
therefore also in the Department of Education, is to become informed broadly by
the liberal arts, grounded in one or more chosen disciplines, and capable of
thinking across disciplines. The
department’s focus on active learning and engagement in the liberal arts grows
out of a profound belief in the transformative power of education.
The program emphasizes the development of habits associated
with praxis, a concept in which reflection grows out of experience and is
prelude and catalyst to action, particularly action that shares power and
challenges injustice. Through this
process, students come to recognize they are transformed as they learn,
unlearn, and relearn in continuous ways that become life-long habits. The department intends that our graduates
work throughout their professional and personal lives encountering, defining,
and solving problems in continuous active engagement with the central issues of
their time.
Our purpose is that our graduates continue to develop powers
of analysis concerning both the individual learner and the many systems within
which education takes place. Our
commitment is to thinking and acting ethically concerning social equality,
educational equity, justice, freedom of thought, peacemaking, and fair
distribution of resources and opportunities.
