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ACADEMICS:Education
Home > Academics > Majors > Education > Teacher Education Handbook
{ Philosophy of Teacher Education at Ripon College }
The teacher education program at Ripon College serves an important purpose in preparing teachers to be active, creative, and constructive participants in America’s democratic social institutions—especially schools. We believe teachers must understand that what they do in their classrooms contributes to the quality of life in all the social institutions they and their students inhabit—families and communities; local, state, and national governments; businesses and social service agencies.

Public schooling has become an essential institution for preparing students for democratic life. Through schooling, teachers assist students to become good citizens—citizens who will help maintain, improve, and reinvent the social institutions sustaining a democratic state. Teachers accomplish this objective by assisting all learners to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to function as free and effective citizens in modern society. In addition, because they have a special obligation to protect democratic ideals, teachers must work to guarantee all individuals equal access to quality education and real opportunities to participate in America’s institutions.

Teachers have a primary responsibility to attend to the characteristics, needs, and goals of the individual students with whom they work. Individuals do not, however, live in isolation from others, and teachers need to understand how individual experience and the quality of education can be shaped by membership in groups defined by race, gender, ethnicity, and class. Teachers should be aware of the tension between the needs of the individual and the needs of the society and work always with the intention to educate students so they will have the power to govern their own lives and contribute to the society at large.

We believe the combination of liberal and professional education in Ripon College’s teacher education program is particularly effective for preparing teachers who can and want to address the complexities of teaching in a democratic society. The curriculum of the Educational Studies Department is designed to prepare teachers who share two basic beliefs:

  • All individuals have abilities, rights, and responsibilities to learn an array of subjects preparing them to relate to the diverse people and institutions comprising democratic society.
  • The democratic social context requires a learning process in which teachers and students constantly explore how they relate to each other, their school, community, nation, and world.

We hope graduates of our program will be committed to the idea that teachers have a special responsibility to insure that all individuals realize the benefits and obligations of being free citizens in a democratic state.