Our Commitment
The College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin is committed to a culture of social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in which students, faculty, staff, and visitors engage in an environment that is welcoming and respectful of all people. The Social Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee serves as a steward of this facet of the college’s mission.
We believe that diversity is inextricably linked to excellence. We believe that embracing diversity and social justice—in our faculty, staff, students, research, curricula, and service to the community — creates a rich atmosphere for teaching, learning, and inquiry and is a necessary condition for preparing our graduates to succeed in a diverse world and to change it for the better. We recognize a history of oppression, inequity, and structural discrimination in the university, local, state, and national context. We leverage diversity and interdisciplinarity as critical components in our innovative research, inclusive and empowering curricula, and professional leadership.
Features
The Color Complex
College of Education student Vida Nwadiei joined three undergraduates from other colleges on campus to be one of seven teams selected to conduct region-focused research that would have a lasting impact on its citizens. Their proposal: explore the influences of colorism, a form of prejudice, in Ghana through the lenses of media and businesses, identity and self-worth.
Audrey Sorrells, North Cooc: Equity and Diversity Concentration Closes a Gap in Special Education
Listen in as Associate Professor Audrey Sorrels and Assistant Professor North Cooc discuss why the concentration in equity and diversity is needed, who the concentration serves and hopes to attract, as well as their own personal and scholarly interest in the topic.
More Than Just a Walk Around the Block
A group of pre-service bilingual/bicultural education students go on community walks near Zavala Elementary School in Austin each semester. Students learn about the various resources in the neighborhood as well as the history and people that exist in the communities in which their students live.
Early Childhood Education Professor Jennifer Adair on Raising Anti-Racist Children
Watch Jennifer Adair, associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education, as she outlines the three patterns she has observed in white parents of white children as they raise their children to appreciate the racial differences they see around them on KLRU’s Blackademics TV.
Urban (Education) Legends
Urban farming. Urban outfitters. Urban music. What does “urban” look like, sound like, feel like? What is “urban” code for? Depends on who you ask, and what you’re talking about. Within certain contexts the utterance of “urban” connotes a degree of cache and currency, but it just as easily can be deployed to denote decay and decline.
Mary Steinhardt Receives $3.3 Million Grant from the National Institutes of Health
Kinesiology and Health Education Professor Mary Steinhardt has been awarded a $3.3 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases. The grant will fund her research program Resilience-Based Diabetes Self-Management Education. The project provides resources to African Americans to manage their daily demands of type 2 diabetes.
© College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin 2020