With an eye on social justice, UC Davis holds off changing how it trains teachers

University of California, Davis administrators on Friday announced that after listening to faculty, staff and community input, they will slow down their process to suspend and redesign their teacher education program.

Earlier in the week, administrators announced they were considering suspending the teacher education master’s degree and credential program beginning in fall 2021, allowing the university to redesign it and prepare it for a stronger social justice lens.

But the teacher education faculty, and the surrounding school districts that benefit from the partnership, responded sharply with a petition and a protest. Those who opposed the suspension said they support the changes to the program, but pausing it will hurt schools and the community.

In a letter to the community Friday, Dean Lauren Lindstrom said she is not ready to put this question to a faculty vote.

“Instead, we will engage in a deliberative and collaborative process for deciding if admissions need to be suspended during the redesign process, or if there are satisfactory alternative approaches,” she said in a statement.

Lindstrom said administrators in the Teachers Education program heard from hundreds of concerned community members.

The program administrators will take the next several months to work with faculty, students, district partners and other stakeholders to discuss how to redesign the program.

Irina Okhremtchouk, who received a doctorate from the UC Davis School of Education and is the director at San Francisco State’s Graduate College of Education, complimented UC Davis’ move. But Okhremtchouk said she wants to know what administrators will do to rebuild the trust among leadership, faculty, students, alumni, school districts and the community.

“How do (the school of education’s) dean and teacher ed director plan to engage in these restorative practices to, once again, establish/re-establish trust among all of the above-mentioned groups and not put teacher education in jeopardy again?” she asked. “Because without Teacher Education, there is no School of Education.”

Admissions will remain open for the next group of students who will begin classes in summer 2021.