University of Idaho

The University of Idaho College of Education, Health and Human Sciences' conceptual framework, CARE, stands for Cultural Proficiency, Assessment in Teaching and Learning, Reflective Scholarship and Practice, and Engagement in Community Building and Partnership. We endeavor to promote the development of caring professionals who can be secure in their identities, acknowledge their predispositions, biases and limitations, and actively and critically engage in culturally proficient leadership and teaching. The caring professionals at the University of Idaho embrace a cultural proficiency approach, or an inside-out approach, to developing harmony and unity through diversity. This approach thinks about those who are insiders in the organization, and encourages reflection on self-understandings and values. It relieves those identified as outsiders — members of excluded or marginalized groups — from the responsibility of doing all the adapting.

This approach acknowledges and respects the current values and feelings of people and encourages change without threatening feelings of worth. Through engagement with local communities in mutually-beneficial partnerships, we have been able to cultivate a teaching candidate group that more closely resembles the region. One such partnership is the Indigenous Knowledge for Effective Education (IKEEP) program, wherein the University of Idaho prepares and certifies culturally responsive indigenous teachers to meet the unique needs of Native American students in K-12 schools. This has required cultivation of partnerships across the west, as we recruit and retain high-quality candidates as well as high-quality mentors from Idaho and neighboring states, each including unique Indigenous populations. The commitment of the faculty and staff to diversity continues to grow as the IKEEP community of learners has become an invaluable portion of our student body.