Education is a vital force in the Rio Grande Valley, affecting just about every aspect of the social and economic fabric of our communities. Thus, the preparation of teachers, which is our unit’s primary role and responsibility, is tantamount to constructing new bridges and highways, except that in our case these venues lead toward a future where our children are at stake. It’s not surprising that our mission and goals are closely aligned with the University’s. After all, we pride ourselves for having a curriculum that is student-centered and focused on a framework that includes the social and cultural contexts of education, preparing our students for the challenges of tomorrow’s global society.

Our excellent teacher preparation program is a result of the collective energy and efforts of our faculty. Our dedicated faculty members challenge our students at every “benchmark” step of the way. Equipped with pedagogical understandings and perspectives, we use constructivist approaches to build upon our students’ linguistic and cultural resources. Our students achieve their optimal goals because we maintain high expectations for their success and we genuinely care about their professional lives.

I’m very proud to be a new member of the UTPA academic community. As the Department head, my goal is to facilitate the success of every member of our faculty. We take our leadership role very seriously and we aim for success, one student at a time.

MISSION AND GOALS
Our Department mission and goals are closely aligned with those of the University and College of Education. Our mission is to create pathways and opportunities for students who want to become effective and visionary educators; to facilitate and support our students’ mission to educate the next generation of leaders with the similar vitality and enthusiasm for lifelong learning. Additionally, we recognize the value of educational research and accordingly, support the research efforts of faculty and students in an effort to create a stimulating, caring, and respectful environment for learning and advancing new knowledge.

Our Goals

1. To provide students with a world-class programs that enable them to become knowledgeable, effective, creative, and innovative leaders , educators, and advocates for their students;
2. To facilitate our students in successfully completing their degrees and certification requirements in a timely manner;
3. To build partnerships with schools that enable productive relationships between and amongst teachers, students, and university faculty in order to advance new knowledge and understandings through collaboration and research; and
4. To engage in educational research that is poised to make a substantial contribution in the corresponding academic fields or disciplines.

The Department of Curriculum and Instruction consists of approximately       40 full time faculty positions with a commitment to building a learning community dedicated to collegial program development, shared governance, scholarship, and the preparation of education professionals to serve diverse learning environments.