Justice, Community and Leadership: Educational Specialist Teacher Education, BA
Do you believe that everyone deserves a high-quality education?
If you have a calling for teaching children with disabilities and learning differences, this JCL program will prepare for a successful and rewarding teaching career. Along with gaining a comprehensive understanding of interconnected systems of injustice and oppression, you will graduate with a preliminary Education specialist Credential (in addition to your BA).
You’ll have numerous opportunities to work alongside communities and organizations, at home and abroad, to tackle real-world injustices. Throughout your journey, you’ll hone your critical inquiry, adaptive and systems thinking, and collaborative problem-solving, all valuable skills in the new economy.
CURRICULUM
Upon successfully completing the JCL Program, students will be able to...
1. [Knowledge] Demonstrate knowledge of the ways systemic inequities (e.g. economic, racial, gender, environmental) are reproduced and interconnected historically and in our contemporary world.
2. [Research] Using appropriate library and information literacy skills, evaluate and apply research methodologies in ways that challenge dominant assumptions about knowledge production to articulate, interpret and contribute to social justice.
3. [Community Application] Collaborate with diverse community formations to imagine, co-construct, organize for and sustain strategies that contribute to a more just social order.
4. [Communication] Utilize oral, written, artistic, expressive and new media formats to advocate for transformative social change with attention to audience and power relations.
5. [Reflection] Demonstrate cultural humility and an understanding of one’s positionality within historical and intersecting systems of power.
6. [Analysis] Utilize critical transdisciplinary lenses to analyze unjust power relations and systemic oppression, centering the experiences, histories, and visions of oppressed communities.
Career Options
Saint Mary's Testimonials
“During my undergraduate studies I majored in Justice, Community, and Leadership on the Teachers for Tomorrow track. My graduate studies were done at SMC as well in the Masters of Education program. Both programs provided many opportunities to connect with knowledgeable professionals in an intimate educational environment. All of the lessons I learned during my five years have been applicable to my life and career as a teacher.”
Kaydee Valliere, Class of 2017
Western Regional Universities - U.S. News & World Report: Best Colleges 2023
Undergraduate student-faculty ratio