The University of Southern Maine (USM) School of Education and Human Development is dedicated to preparing educators and human development professionals for responsible and ethical service.

Our Mission

We seek to foster respectful and collaborative learning communities, well-informed decision-making, valid reasoning, and a concern for equity and social justice in the fields of education and human development.

Our Values

  • Democracy: To enact and elicit inclusive dialogue, freedom of expression, and participatory decision-making that includes respect for, and consideration of, multiple views and perspectives.
  • Civility and caring: To attend to the health of our learning and working communities through maintaining constructive communication, protecting individual dignity, and exhibiting empathy, compassion, and openness.
  • Equity and diversity: To seek understanding about, engage inclusively with, and foster the voice and visibility of individuals of all identity groups and perspectives.
  • Social justice: To speak for and empower people who are disenfranchised and to work towards a more just society.
  • Ethical practice: To engage in, and insist on, the highest level of professional practice.
  • Scholarship: To gain, create, teach, and apply knowledge and skills using methods of research and inquiry that reflect the diverse range of accepted practices within our various academic and professional disciplines.
  • Professional learning and continuous improvement: To engage ourselves and our various external partners as learners in our respective fields, use formative feedback, and adjust our practices for mutual and continuing professional growth.


References

Democracy

  • Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education. Macmillan Company
  • Giroux, H. (1989). Schooling for Democracy: Critical Pedagogy in the Modern Age. NY: Routledge
  • Glickman, C. (1998). Revolutionizing America’s Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
  • Gutman, A. (1987). Democratic Education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
  • Kelly, A. V. (1995) Education and Democracy: Principles and Practice. London: Paul Chapman
  • Parker, W.C. (2003). Teaching Democracy: Unity and diversity in public life. New York & London: Teachers College Press.
  • Wood, G. H. (1998). Democracy and the curriculum. In B. Landon & M. Apple (Eds). The Curriculum: Problems, politics and possibilities. New York: SUNY Press.

Civility & Caring

  • Buber, M (1970). I and Thou. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons
  • Comer, J. P. (2004) Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
  • Held, V (2007). The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global. Oxford University Press
  • Kahane, A. (2007). Solving Tough Problems. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
  • Noddings, N. (1992). The Challenge to Care in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Education. NY: Teachers College Press
  • Palmer, P. (1998). The Courage to Teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
  • Rogers, C. R. (1965). Client-Centered Therapy, Its Current Practice, Implications, and Theory. Boston : Houghton Mifflin
  • Senge, P., Scharmer, C. Otto, Jaworski, J., Flowers, B. S. (2004). Presence. Cambridge, MA: The Society for Organizational Learning.
  • Wheatley, M.J. (2007). Finding our Way. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Equity & Diversity

  • Banks, J. A. (2006). Cultural Diversity and Education: Foundations, Curriculum and Teaching, 5th edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
  • Belenky, M., Clincky, B.M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1986). Women’s ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind. NY: Basic Books.
  • Brantlinger, E. (2003). Dividing Classes: How the middle class negotiates and rationalizes school advantage. New York: Routledge.
  • Delpit, L. 1995. Other People’s Children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press.
  • Gay, Geneva. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research and practice. New York & London: Teachers College Press.
  • McIntosh, P. (1992). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies. In M.L. Andersen & P. H. Collins (Eds). Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing co.
  • Nieto, S. (1999) The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities. New York: Teachers College Press.
    Villegas, A.M. & Lucas, T. (2002) Educating culturally responsive teachers: A coherent approach. New York: SUNY Press.

Social Justice

  • Anyon, J. (1981). Social class and school knowledge. Curriculum Inquiry 11:1.
  • Black, P. (1993). Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
    Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational reform and the contradictions of economic life. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  • Branch, T. (1968). Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963. NY: Simon & Shuster.
  • Freire.P. (1968, 2007). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. NY: Continuum Books
  • Goodlad, J. (1984) Common Schools for the Commonweal: Reconciling Self-Interest with the Common Good. NY: The College Board.
  • Kozol, J. (1992). Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. NY: Crown Publishers.
    Mithaug, D. E., Mithaug, D., Agran, M., Martin, J., & Wehmeyer, M. L. (Eds.) (2003). Self-determined Learning Theory: Construction, Verification, and Evaluation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Rauls, J. (1999). A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press
  • Wehmeyer, M.L., Abery, B., Mithaug, D.E., & Stancliffe, R.J. (2003). Theory in Self-Determination: Foundations for Educational Practice. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD.

Ethical Practice

  • Gilligan, C. (1982). In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Harvard University Press.
  • Kohlberg, L. (1981). The Philosophy of Moral Development: Moral Stages and the Idea of Justice. NY: Harper & Rowe.
  • Sergiovanni, T. J. (1992). Moral Leadership: Getting to the Heart of School. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
  • Strike, K.A. & Soltis (1985). The Ethics of Schooling. NY: Teachers College Press.

Scholarship

  • Boyer, E. (1990) Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. NY: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
  • Hutchins & Shulman (1999). Scholarship of Teaching: New Elaborations, New Developments. Carnegie Foundation.
  • Lieberman, A. (1997). The Vision Thing: Educational Research and AERA in the 21 st Century. Educational Researcher (26)7: 24-25.

Continuous Improvement

  • Cochran-Smith, M. & Lytle, S. (2001). Beyond certainty: Taking an inquiry stance on practice. In Lieberman, A. & Miller, L. (Eds.) Teachers caught in the action (pp. 45-58). New York: Teachers College Press.
  • Johnston, M. (Ed.). (2000). Collaborative reform and other improbable dreams: The challenges of professional development schools. NY: SUNY Press.
  • Schon, D. (1990). Educating the Reflective Practitioner: Toward a New Design of Teaching and Learning in the Professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Senge, P. (2000). Schools that Learn: A Fifth Discipline Handbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education. New York: Doubleday/Currency.
  • Teitel, L. (2003). The professional development schools handbook: Starting, sustaining and assessing partnerships that improve student learning. CA: Corwin Press.