Outcomes:

• Understand the contextual nature of learning
• Help students construct their own knowledge
• Integrate theory and practice
• Assess, reflect upon, and critique our own knowledge, practice, schools, and society
• Engage in inquiry
• Collaborate with students, teachers, administrators, parents and the community at large

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PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT
National College of Education’s Conceptual Framework was developed through an extensive and collaborative process predating our initial accreditation visit in 1999. In 2001, an Assessment Task Force was formed to ensure alignment of NCE’s assessment policies with the knowledge, skill, and dispositional outcomes of our Conceptual Framework as well as state, NCATE, and specialized professional association standards. A permanent Assessment Council has now been formed (2003-04) to carry on this work. Conversations with regard to the Conceptual Framework arise continually in the normal governance structure (for instance, as a structured element of curriculum development and evaluation processes). During the fall of 2002 and fall of 2003 a majority of NCE faculty participated in more formal faculty conversations on the Conceptual Framework during Faculty Connections (ER [Exhibit Room]: Fall Connection materials and agendas in the Evidence Room). Indeed, the discussion in September, 2003, took the form of a two day mini-conference on our Conceptual Framework. Though no significant changes have been made to the Conceptual Framework since our last visit, these conversations have helped us continually challenge the Conceptual Framework and deepen our understanding of its relevance for our community.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS
Mission Statement/Vision of the College
For over one hundred years NCE has had as its mission excellence in teaching, scholarship, service, and professional development. NCE continues its history of innovative leadership in education in Chicago, the nation, and in other parts of the world. Recognizing the importance of life-long learning in a diverse, rapidly changing global society, the College is committed to developing and empowering all learners, consistent with the mission of National-Louis University.

NCE Philosophy and Purposes
Each term in our Conceptual Framework represents a powerful concept. These concepts continue to provide substantive direction for all teaching, courses, programs, candidate performance, scholarship, service, and program and unit accountability. Together these ideas fire the robust and consciously shared life of our educational community. They articulate our philosophy and the way in which it is lived out. As outlined below, each term in the phrase, “A Professional Community Advocating for All Learners” is packed with meaning for our community.

1) PROFESSIONAL. A profession is an occupation or vocation that requires advanced training in a specialized field. From the inception of our community in 1886, NCE has been a frontrunner in establishing the nature and standards of professional practice and in preparing professionals who will model those standards. Our founder, Elizabeth Harrison, dedicated her life to establishing the kindergarten in our public education system and to training women to take up a vocation in early childhood education.

In 1918, NCE created a demonstration school (The Children’s School, now Baker Demonstration School). The demonstration school faculty model the College’s commitment to wedding the theoretical knowledge base of the profession to the wisdom of authentic professional practice. In 1930, NCE further advocated for the profession by becoming the first college in Illinois to require a bachelor’s degree for teacher certification. By the mid 1950s, NCE extended its support of the profession by introducing graduate programs. During the last three decades of the 20th century, NCE broke new institutional ground by developing a full university around itself, examining and adjusting its mission, program and delivery systems to reach out and meet the needs of a more diverse student body.

2) COMMUNITY. We have refused to see our own professional practice bounded by a closed “campus” perspective, taking our programs out into the field and across state and national boundaries and, in turn, learning from diverse environments and learners. It has taken much hard work to meet the serious challenges facing colleges of education in this era and to maintain our place as an international leader in the profession. The courage and dedication that make such a response possible come directly from the strength and coherence of our Conceptual Framework and our sense of community.

The importance of “professional” community versus a more geographically defined notion of community cannot be overstated. It is our shared progressive professional identity that allows us to move forward confidently as a united yet diverse community and to make our beliefs concrete through a coherent set of NCE programs that are realized in diverse settings and with diverse learners. We believe the capacity of our community to respect new ideas and multiple perspectives and to welcome the benefits and tensions of diversity while maintaining a core professional identity may be our greatest strength.

3) ADVOCATING. From the earliest days of NCE’s history, we have argued for, supported, and vociferously defended the profession of education. In an era not eager to welcome women into the professions, our founder advocated to, with, and for women as she worked to define and develop a professional community around early childhood education. NCE continues to play an active role in educational policy, especially through participation in and leadership of regional and national professional organizations. As the National-Louis University mission statement points out, the goal of the education profession must be to provide each learner with the tools he or she needs “to fulfill personal and professional goals as both a citizen of an increasingly complex society and member of an emerging global community.” In our many activities and partnerships, the notion of professional community is linked to social justice through advocacy for all learners.

4) ALL. At NCE the word “ALL” both challenges and provides focus and direction. It challenges us to continually reflect upon and critique our knowledge, practice, school, and the society we operate within to understand how we are responding to the needs of ALL learners. It reminds us that a key disposition among educators is the belief that ALL children can and should learn and that it is the business of educators to advocate for the outcomes associated with that belief. While we refuse to respond to the diversity of ALL learners by sorting and labeling people, we work across many contexts to address diverse needs.

5) LEARNERS. We understand that learners—all learners—represent the central defining element of our professional lives. This is what our profession is all about. Our philosophy and knowledge base support the centrality of the learner and the learner’s needs. The notion of being learner-centered saturates our professional practice at NCE.


Professional Commitments & Dispositions
The six outcomes of the Conceptual Framework establish the basis for the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to support a professional community, collaborating with students, teachers, administrators, school professionals, and others advocating for all learners. The specific knowledge, skills, and dispositions are described below:

1) The contextual nature of learning. To advocate for all learners, candidates must come to know and understand that the learner and the process of learning are situated in social, political, and cultural contexts. Understanding the contextual nature of learning leads the candidate to develop knowledge of and to value diversity and cultural differences among children, families and communities. This knowledge and the disposition to value difference, in turn, foster a commitment to the long-standing NCE tradition of promoting social justice and developing democratic communities. NCE faculty model, and candidates develop, skill in using all forms of difference as a source of strength and a building block of democratic classrooms.

2) The role of the educator in helping learners construct meaning. A professional who advocates for all learners understands the processes whereby students actively construct meaning individually and collaboratively through the integration of content knowledge and experiences within a community of learners. This knowledge leads the candidate to commit her/himself to developing the values and skills necessary to provide the appropriate, situated environment that each student needs to be a successful learner.

3) The integration of theory and practice. To be effective advocates for all learners, faculty must model and candidates understand and develop skill at fusing the accumulated knowledge available through theory with experiential knowledge arising from reflection upon their own professional practice. To become accomplished at this, members of the NCE professional community must show a disposition to value both theory and experiential knowledge and the skills necessary to compare and synthesize the knowledge available from each.

4) Reflection upon and critique of knowledge, practice, school, and society. In order to advocate, candidates must value and become skilled at reflecting upon and critiquing their own and others’ knowledge and professional practices, based on the professional standards of their field. Because of the situated nature of learning, candidates come to understand that such critiques must extend beyond their own practice to school and society in order to effectively inform professional practice and advocacy.

5) Engagement in inquiry. Just as the active construction of knowledge depends upon systematic inquiry skills in students, so must candidates and faculty engage in systematic inquiry to improve professional practice and enhance learning outcomes among all students. Understanding this, candidates value inquiry and develop the knowledge and skills associated with the design and implementation of inquiry processes to support student learning and their own professional development.

6) Collaboration with students, teachers, administrators, parents, and the community at large. Candidates understand that advocating for all learners requires active collaboration among all stakeholders within and around an educational community. Candidates learn how to become knowledgeable about their communities of practice. They develop a disposition to seek out, understand, and value differences among community members. And they value and develop skills in collaboration and communication.


Commitment to Diversity
NCE is committed to preparing candidates to support learning for all students. This may be seen in its efforts to increase the ethnic diversity of its faculty, and in its efforts to provide experiences for its candidates in diverse learning environments with diverse learners (see narratives on Standards 3, 4, and 5). The articulation of outcomes one and six of our Conceptual Framework offer a conceptual understanding of how knowledge, dispositions, and skills related to diversity should be fostered across the curriculum, instruction, field experiences, clinical practice, assessments, and evaluations. Our commitment is consistent with NLU’s statement on diversity:

National-Louis University values diversity within its own community and in the national and international communities it serves. We experience and envision our own diversity in a manner that extends beyond the formal definitions, such as ethnicity, race, religion, to embrace the contributions all members bring via their unique heritage, political views, lifestyle, education, nationalities, differing abilities, and life experiences. We are committed to recruiting, hiring and retaining diverse, highly qualified faculty, administrators, staff, and students in order to continue planning, developing, supporting, delivering, and graduating from our programs. Our commitment to diversity stems from our belief that our community members strive to respect, appreciate and advocate diversity. National-Louis University has a strong commitment to diversity. Such diversity promotes the inclusion of multiple perspectives and ideas, as we prepare our students to interact with diverse populations in our ever-changing world.

Commitment to Technology
Our Conceptual Framework provides a foundation for understanding of how knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to educational and information technology are integrated throughout the curriculum, instruction, field experiences, clinical practice, assessments, and evaluations. The design of learning environments cannot now be successfully undertaken without consideration for the role of technology in the development of learning environments that assist students in actively constructing meaning from their educational experiences. Evidence of technology resources and use are presented in detail in Standards 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6). We are committed to preparing candidates who are able to use educational technology to help all students learn. As may be seen in this report, we have made a serious commitment over the last five years and into the future, to enhance our technology infrastructure and to incorporate emergent technology tools into our work.

Candidate Proficiencies Aligned with Professional, State, and Institutional Standards
As stated earlier (see Conceptual Framework structural elements), our assessment system is built upon our Conceptual Framework. Programs, in conjunction with faculty curricular oversight committees and councils, ensure that professional, state, and institutional standards are met (see narratives for Standards 1 and 2).


CONCLUSIONS ∼ REFLECTIONS ON OUR COLLEGE
Today we work within a national climate that challenges the very foundations of our profession. The quality and even the validity of professional preparation in education are daily called into question. Legislation is proposed on a state and national level that either explicitly or implicitly questions the utility of teacher preparation. At NCE, we are clear and passionate about the importance of our profession and the substance of its knowledge base. Modeling another definition of profession we “profess” and “declare” our beliefs across the diverse landscape of our practice and influence. We live out our purpose as a professional community dedicated to advocating for all learners.