Why Urban Education | SUNY Oswego

We are not satisfied having our students leave our programs with a limited view of communities and schools. At SUNY Oswego, we have a 160-year history of preparing teachers to travel all over the world, learning more, and sharing the knowledge they have developed.

With this legacy in mind, we want to prepare our students as completely as possible by arranging for them to experience many different schools and school communities, including urban schools.

Most of our students have not visited urban communities like Syracuse, Rochester, or New York City. We expect that after traveling to the cities and working in them closely with teachers and students, our students will have a greater willingness to travel to urban areas, learn from them, and make a contribution.

Reasons for Having an Urban Experience

It will broaden your personal and professional horizons.
It will enhance your understanding of schooling and your role as a teacher.
It will make a contribution to urban schools, teachers, and children.
It will help you to understand why our College of Education, Health, and Human Services has made a commitment to teaching for social justice.

The Role of Teachers

The limited urban experiences of our students also result in limited views of the relationships between:

Specialists and classroom teachers
Schools and communities
Schools and parents
Children and their communities
Community resources and schools
Different cultural groups within a school community
Schools and teachers unions
Schools and community agencies

Our students visiting urban schools have been surprised to find very different assumptions about teachers' planning times, before and after school events, communicating with parents, professional development opportunities, and other issues.

Working in an urban school allows you to develop a deeper understanding of how these relationships can or should operate, and how teachers' roles change with the community within which the school is located. Once our pre-teachers gain awareness of how different schools can be, they are more likely to quickly adjust and take advantage of community resources wherever they teach.

Teaching for Social Justice

It may be hard to understand why our College of Education, Health, and Human Services has made such a strong commitment to teaching for social justice. In rural communities, differences in wealth, gender, or physical ability may be hidden or minimized. Urban communities are tremendously dynamic and diverse.

With limited resources, the needs that arise from such diversity often remain unaddressed. As a result, issues of race, class, gender, (dis)ability, religion, and sexuality are often much more visible. Gaps in wealth, ability, and culture confront us regularly — and these social gaps usually result in achievement gaps in schools.

When our pre-teachers enter urban schools, the need to address social and achievement gaps becomes clear. Thus, the need to teach for social justice becomes a central focus of their teaching approach — whether they remain in urban schools or return to rural or suburban areas.

Pre-Teachers Who Come from Urban Communities

Students from urban schools bring valuable insights about urban life. Yet, classroom discussions and curriculum often reflect rural or suburban experiences, unintentionally silencing urban voices.

After urban field placements, discussions become more inclusive. Urban pre-teachers contribute insider knowledge and expand the conversation. However, even urban students may initially hold misconceptions about urban schools based on limited exposure to pedagogical practice.

When they return to classrooms during placements, they combine deep personal understanding with new ways of viewing urban education and teacher roles.

Contributing to Urban Schools

We begin with the assumption that no relationship can be valuable if it is one-sided. Whether between colleagues, teachers and students, or pre-teachers and schools — mutual benefit is essential.

Urban school partners, like all schools, have children eager to learn and grow. But they often lack the resources needed to meet challenges such as poverty, mobility, and language diversity.

Our pre-teachers can provide meaningful support, and in turn, they gain critical insights into schooling and their evolving roles as educators.

Contact

Pat Russo, PH.D.
Director, Center for Urban Schools
310 Park Hall, SUNY Oswego

315-312-2632
[email protected]
Monday–Friday 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.