Welcome to Teachers College at Columbia University and to the excellent teacher education programs we offer. Teachers College has been engaged in the preparation of school and classroom professionals since its founding in 1887 and has been especially committed to meeting the needs of those children who are often least well-served but deserve the best that education can provide. While many things have changed over the past 135 years, teacher preparation at Teachers College has remained true to several core values. First among these is a deep commitment to meeting the needs of all learners and the multiple capacities, as well as challenges, they embody.
Our programs prepare educators who are equally well-versed in the theories and practices of the field and therefore can draw upon a wide repertoire of methods, culturally responsive pedagogies, and teaching strategies supported by research, knowledge of learning and development, and curriculum theory in order to develop school/classroom environments, curriculum and instruction that are multi-level, content-rich, differentiated and responsive to diverse learners.
A second core value emphasizes teachers as deliberative and reflective decision-makers, thoughtful professionals whose central focus is the growth and learning of their students. At Teachers College, we prepare teachers who are not merely curriculum implementers but curriculum makers, able to move beyond the delivery of instruction to the careful, creative and well-informed design of instruction. We encourage our students to be thinkers, to ask critical questions and therefore equip them with the tools of inquiry for classroom research, empowering them to examine and assess their own instruction for the purpose of continuous learning, knowledge creation and improvement.
A final core value is a focus on context and community. Our teacher candidates enter the field understanding that both factors necessarily shape—and must inform—what goes on in schools and classrooms, that quality teaching depends on teachers’ ability to respond to the specific needs of local contexts, cultures and communities.
We welcome the opportunity to work with you, whether you are just beginning your journey as a teacher, or you are a seasoned educator considering a new professional goal.
Our graduates
- Have the courage and imagination to create learning spaces supporting more socially just schooling in our diverse, pluralistic, democratic society.
- Are prepared to engage in and facilitate conversations across differences, and to
- Grapple with the issues their students are facing both within and outside of the classroom, from economic and racial injustice to climate change.
Our approach
- We prepare all teachers for all children and youth: multi-lingual and immigrant learners; children who experience foster care and/or are unhoused; students with disabilities; racially marginalized families; queer students
- We nurture educators to be responsive to learner and community needs in local and global contexts.
- We prepare teachers to be architects of responsive instruction: planning instruction based on ongoing formative assessment of student learning.
- Our certification programs are clinically rich and build recursively between theory and practice in New York City Public Schools.
We're committed to
- Prepare teachers as intellectuals who weigh evidence and make wise decisions
- Elevate the teaching profession through research and advocacy
- Invest in deep partnerships with schools, communities, and families' needs and funds for knowledge
Our Stories
Highlights
Teacher Preparation for Comprehensive Literacy Instruction
Explore how the tools from educational psychology, special education, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and responsive instruction inform our preparation of teachers and school leaders
Welcoming Multilingual Newcomers into the Classroom
Dr. Creider introduces mindsets and skill sets for understanding language learning, considering the relationship between trauma and learning, and identifying concrete teacher practices and classroom tools that can support language learning, particularly for newcomers in a general education context. (Watch the whole series.)