CWE Early Childhood Education Program History
The Center for Worker Education’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) degree program (Bachelors of Science) is the City College School of Education’s undergraduate teacher education program.
It was established in 1985 by CWE students, faculty and daycare workers as a result of their advocacy efforts to create a formalized early childhood program that met the needs of the education workforce.
The CWE administration collaborated with the City College of New York’s School of Education to form a bachelors program that enhanced the professional development of men and women interested in early childhood instruction in both daycare and pre-school settings.
In 2004, the ECE program, as part of the School of Education, received accreditation from the National Council for Association of Teacher Education ( NCATE). The program leads to New York State initial teacher certification in early childhood education— birth through second grade as well as New York City licensing requirements.
Mission and Shared Vision of ECE ProgramThe Early Education curriculum is designed to prepare knowledgeable, reflective, and caring educators who will be qualified and committed to teaching, participating, and leading in the life of diverse communities. The Center has contributed significantly to the professional development of group teachers, assistant teachers, and teacher aides in day care centers and Head Start programs, and of paraprofessionals in New York City's public schools. We focus on several themes:
DEVELOPING IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE WORLD
We seek to support our candidates to develop the content knowledge and skills that are needed to help all students learn. Our goal is to nurture candidates’ abilities and dispositions to realize their potentials and become life-long learners.
BECOMING SKILLFUL, REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONERS
We aim for our candidates to demonstrate excellence in teaching by fostering practices that include:
· A deep knowledge of human learning and development
· The ability to recognize, respond to, and support diverse learners to actively inquire and construct understandings of the world
· A broad range of instructional and assessment strategies that apply theory and knowledge to practice in real-life situations
· Skills in using technology appropriately nurturing leadership for learning.
Our goal is to develop the capabilities of candidates to assume leadership roles in their classrooms, schools, and communities. We seek to nurture educators who are critical thinkers, can articulate their understandings to others, and become active agents for improvement and change.
EDUCATING FOR AND ABOUT DIVERSITY
We embrace diversity as a resource that enables the faculty to build on the varied strengths of all learners. We continuously work to promote understanding by being responsive to the needs and perspectives of those from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. We focus special attention on how issues of diversity can best be used to support student learning and positively impact schools in urban settings.
BUILDING CARING COMMUNITIES
We seek to enable candidates to create democratic communities in their classrooms and schools and to model caring, committed, and ethical practice.