Experiences Working with Diverse Candidates
The unit’s programs continually work towards the goal of maintaining diversity in its candidate populations. Goals in the unit’s Minority Recruitment Plan include efforts to increase the number of male teacher candidates enrolled in the program. Table 4.19 provides evidence of the degree of success in recruiting diverse teacher candidates.
Candidates from all three programs come from diverse ethnic, racial, gender, and socioeconomic groups, as documented in Table 4.19. In the art education program, candidates are members of a student chapter of the National Art Education Association. As members of that group, they volunteer in a variety of community services and school activities in and around the Chicago area. These include services and activities such as: art workshops and field trips for students at the Farnsworth School for the Blind, summer art workshops for parents and children in partnership with the Dick Blick State Street store, art workshops at the David Weinberg gallery with students from the Simpson High School for Girls, and art contests as fundraisers for various foundations. Candidates attend workshops and present at conferences at the local and national level. Candidates in the elementary education program begin working together in their first semester of study as members of lesson study teams working with teachers of bilingual students, as part of their math methods. In the middle school methods course, candidates work on projects with teachers and students at a Des Plaines middle school with a diverse population; while in Educational Psychology and the Exceptionalities course, they focus specifically on differently abled students.
Early Childhood Education candidates have been together for two years prior to entering candidacy and have already had the opportunity to form relationships through the program’s Student Forums, Socials, and Arts in Early Childhood Workshops. Upon entering the professional sequence of the program, which corresponds with candidacy for many students, they begin the portion of the program that is functions on a cohort model. Many long term friendships are made across ethic, racial, gender, and socioeconomic lines based on a shared commitment to bettering the lives of young children.
The undergraduate program works directly with the College’s recruiting office in an effort to attract diverse students. Faculty members attend recruiting events when invited in order to better present a program that differs from many at the institution. We have committed to working with a new effort that targets selected Chicago Public Schools this year. The undergraduate program has a long history with the Golden Apple Foundation Scholars Program, which shares its commitment to recruiting strong minority members into the teaching profession.
The graduate programs’ efforts to increase or maintain diversity among candidates include advertising in the Chicago Tribune, which covers the entire metropolitan area; electronic advertising on the Tribune web site and through a Google Ad Word campaign; and a series of radio ads on WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio. Word of mouth is a strong recruitment tool for the programs; and former graduates, including those from the bilingual program, constantly refer prospects. Posters and handouts have increased visibility on the diverse Columbia campus, prompting a number of graduates to apply. Efforts are made to work closely and personally with minority candidates or those with minor disabilities to assure that they successfully complete the program.
