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Message from the Chair

Welcome to the Department of Educational Studies, an interdisciplinary department comprised of faculty in learning and development (psychological foundations), social foundations (history, sociology, and philosophy of education), Special Education, Educational Leadership, and Community Based Leadership. 

The educational programs offered in the School of Education involve both departments. Faculty from each department teach within almost all programs. Our foundations faculty members teach the 200 level courses in the undergraduate programs as well as graduate courses in the masters programs in elementary and adolescent education. Our faculty in Special Education teach the special education component of the undergraduate and graduate programs in childhood and adolescent education as well as in the Special Education Program. Only the faculty in our Leadership program teach exclusively within that program. 

The beauty of our Department is that it is an amalgamation of multiple fields. In my position as Chair, I facilitate our efforts to meet the goals of the School of Education. These goals included the following: 1) maintaining an environment committed to academic excellence informed by research of the faculty; 2) providing an education that by example and instruction excites and motivates, addresses ethical standards, fosters critical thinking, respects differences, acknowledges creativity, challenges existing beliefs and assumptions, encourages flexibility and sensitivity, and develops expertise in the process of teaching, learning, and educational leadership; 3) retaining a commitment to integrating theory and practice, addressing classroom realities as well as social contexts; and 4) emphasizing the significant role teachers and school administrators play in the development of students into persons able and willing to participate fully in our democratic society.  

I see my role as Chair as an opportunity to model a participatory democratic environment in which decisions are reached through compassionate and respectful civil discourse and, when possible, consensus. These are the processes through which the goals of the Department of Educational Studies and the School of Education will be fully reached.  

Deborah De Simone, Ed.D. 
Interim Chair