FAIRFIELD, Conn. — Responding to the nation’s critical need for highly trained educators, Fairfield University's School of Education and Human Development (SEHD) has launched its first-ever undergraduate major in curriculum and instruction. Simultaneously, SEHD has reformatted Fairfield's four-year track for secondary education, allowing those pursuing careers as middle school and high school teachers to also become certified in four years.
The curriculum and instruction major offers students the opportunity to pursue one of two distinct tracks: elementary education or special education, exemplifying SEHD’s mission of responding to society's critical teacher shortage crisis by preparing students to serve in the field of education in a timely and sensitive manner.
“We are thrilled to be able to offer an undergraduate major in curriculum and instruction — leading to teacher certification in elementary or special education — beginning in fall 2024,” said director of the Curriculum and Instruction program, Alyson Martin, EdD. “Teacher shortages across the country are at an all-time high. We aim to prepare enthusiastic and well-trained educators to fulfill these critical positions and begin to address the teacher shortage crisis.”
Interim Dean of the School of Education and Human Development, Evelyn Bilias Lolis, PhD, explained that the undergraduate major and the revision to the four-year track in secondary education is a result of the innovative and copious efforts of the faculty of the Department of Educational Studies and Teacher Preparation, who hope to attract students passionate about teaching and earning a degree from an institution committed to Jesuit education.
As of the fall 2024 semester, prospective students will be able to complete their certification for teaching in Connecticut in four years, which according to Dr. Bilias Lolis, “allows SEHD to place students into a workforce that direly needs qualified and competent professionals teaching our K-12 youth.”
Vol. 56, #41
Fairfield University is a modern, Jesuit Catholic University, rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions. More than 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 46 states, 73 foreign countries, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are enrolled in the University’s five schools. In the spirit of rigorous and sympathetic inquiry into all dimensions of human experience, Fairfield welcomes students from diverse backgrounds to share ideas and engage in open conversations. The University is located in the heart of a region where the future takes shape, on a stunning campus on the Connecticut coast just an hour from New York City.