Department of Education

The mission of the Professional Education Unit (PEU) is to prepare educators who are competent, intentional, reflective, culturally responsive, leading, and empathic 21st Century Professionals. The PEU strives to provide all teacher candidates at the initial and advanced level with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to become effective teachers/leaders by offering the highest quality instruction and programs.

The advanced program strives to further develop and enhance the knowledge base of the practicing professional. As candidates progress through the graduate curriculum, the improvement, refinement, and practice of professional knowledge bases, skills, and dispositions are enhanced and refined.

The Department collaborates with representatives from public schools, professional groups, government, and other programs within the University to prepare educators and to cooperate in the development of educational policies. The Department also strives for the improvement of education at the local, state, regional, and national levels in that the improvement of schooling results in a more literate and enlightened citizenry. This, in turn, contributes to the proliferation of democratic values and enhances our position in the global economy.

Partner Schools

Concord University is involved in a collaborative with local public schools.The Partner Schools are designed to prepare future educators, to provide current educators with ongoing professional development, to encourage joint school-university faculty investigation of education-related issues, and to promote the learning of P-12 students. The Partner Schools, structured as a network that includes University and public school faculty, parents, and community partners, seeks to improve teacher education, and meet professional development needs and goals as identified by public school faculty.The partnership collaborative provides the bridges that connect Concord's teacher education program to the daily instructional practices that occur in P-12 schools. The Partner Schools serve as clinical sites for teacher candidates to teach under the guidance of nexperto mentor teachers.The clinical experiences allow faculty from Concord and the partnerships to collaborate extensively in providing quality experiences for all teacher candidates involved in the initiative.The public schools benefit from the expertise of the University faculty and the significant contributions the teacher candidates make to the school. The children in these schools benefit from the additional adult attention as well as from the enthusiasm and new learning strategies that teacher candidates often bring to the classroom as they prepare to become teachers.