Realizing the Democratic Ideal

Realizing the Democratic Ideal, based on the core values that drive Educating Illinois, is the conceptual framework for all teacher education programs at Illinois State University. Through the emphasis on intellectual and moral virtues, candidates at Illinois State University are prepared to take leadership roles as educators in our democratic society. Read the original full text document, Realizing the Democratic Ideal: Teacher Education at Illinois State University (pdf), drafted in 1997 and revised in 2002 in accord with National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education Standards.

Illinois State University has a historic and enduring commitment to educate teachers who will be responsive to the moral and intellectual demands a democratic society places upon them. To teach in a democracy is self-consciously to take up the burden of improving the moral and intellectual quality of our societal dialogue by including in it as many educated voices as possible.

The democratic ideal unites caring and knowing: the more voices we elicit and the less fettered the mutual exchange among those voices becomes, the truer our convictions and conclusions will be. This is, in a way, a democratic article of "faith," and it is why Illinois State graduates aspire to teach everyone, especially those on the margins, those who have been or are in danger of being excluded.

This democratic conception of education informs all aspects of teacher education at Illinois State University. The kind of teacher appropriate to the challenges and rewards of teaching in a democratic society unites the moral and intellectual aspects of teaching by embodying what one might call its virtues.

The moral virtues are as follows:

• sensitivity toward the varieties of individual and cultural diversity;
• disposition and ability to collaborate ethically and effectively with others;
• reverence for learning and a seriousness of personal, professional, and public purpose; and
• respect for learners of all ages and a special regard for children and adolescents.

The intellectual virtues are as follows:

• wide general knowledge and a deep knowledge of the content to be taught;
• knowledge and appreciation of the diversity among learners;
• understanding of what affects learning and appropriate teaching strategies;
• interest in and an ability to seek out informational, technological, and collegial resources; and
• contagious intellectual enthusiasm and courage enough to be creative.

Of the challenges facing teachers in the next millennium, none is more pressing than for them to develop and maintain a strong sense of their moral and intellectual roots—a professional identity. Toward this end, Illinois State University prepares teachers who have a strong sense of themselves and their mission as teachers: through caring and knowing they realize the democratic ideal. This, along with a high level of competence in their chosen areas, makes them teachers for whom we are thankful and of whom we are proud.

Council for Teacher Education (CTE) adopted the Values and Beliefs Statement in March 1997; CTE revised and adopted the statement in March 2000. The University Liaison and Faculty Concerns Subcommittee of the CTE assumes responsibility for bi-annual review of the framework, according to CTE bylaws. Council for Teacher Education governs all professional education programs; the term "teacher" applies to all educators.