Loyola University Maryland will celebrate the official launch of its School of Education with an inaugural convocation set for 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14, in McGuire Hall. After an introduction by Loyola President Brian F. Linnane, S.J., Nancy S. Grasmick, Ph.D., Maryland state superintendent of schools, will offer remarks. Peter C. Murrell, Jr., Ph.D., founding dean of Loyola's School of Education, will deliver the event's keynote address.
"We are excited by the prospect of being a leader in shaping the professional training, scholarly preparation, and spiritual development of the next generation of urban educators," said Murrell, a nationally known expert in the field of urban education who joined Loyola in July 2008 from Northeastern University, where he was an associate professor of education and interim chair of the education department. "In addition, our Center for Innovation in Urban Education, modeled on a similar program I directed at Northeastern University, will position Loyola at the forefront of advancing instructional research practices, school leadership, and policy development in urban education across the United States and beyond."
Loyola's School of Education is the only one in the state with a dedicated focus on the advancement of achievement and development of city children and youth that is based on an analytical framework of identity, race, social capital, and culture. Education students at Loyola, both undergraduate and graduate, will prepare to face the challenges and opportunities inherent in urban classrooms by engaging in deep analysis of popular culture, its messages and meanings, and how these concepts reproduce inequalities in school policies and practices. Other parts of the curricula will focus on deeper understanding of human development in the cultural, familial, and social contexts of contemporary society, as well as scholarly examination of how social capital, social achievement, academic merit and race affect the schooling experience, especially for children from ethnically, racially, and culturally diverse groups.
"The old institutional structures and paradigms for how we educate all of our nation's children are no longer sufficient, particularly if we are to repair the unraveling fabric of our civic public life," said Murrell. "We need a new vision of education-one that replaces the current tyranny of testing and instead relies on an innovative, courageous, and morally engaged approach to public and intellectual life."
Just prior to the convocation, Loyola's School of Education will host an informational open house in the McGuire Atrium from 5 - 6:30 p.m. The convocation will be followed immediately by a reception. Sister Delia Downing, SSND, president of Sisters Academy of Baltimore, will offer the convocation's invocation.
All events are free and open to the public and members of the media, but registration is required. To register, visit www.loyola.edu/urbaned.
For more information or questions regarding this story, contact Media Relations Manager Nick Alexopulos at nalexopulos@loyola.edu or 410-617-5025.