The mission of the Department of English Language Teaching is to deepen and extend knowledge about the formation and utilization of human capabilities. The department is committed to prepare educators, who, as lifelong learners:

• Are integral parts of the community who work for positive social, personal and environmental change.
• Comprehend the roles of culture, power, and community in knowledge production.
• Create and promote learning environments that are informed by an understanding of the context of culture, power, history, community and knowledge production.
• Implement the pedagogical and content skills, knowledge and dispositions that prepare all students for 21st-century realities.

• Lead in the production and dissemination of research that advances our vision of a socially just, borderland-informed education;
• Locate teaching and learning within social, cultural, political, historical, and economic contexts;
• Co-construct knowledge about teaching and the world in ways that center the experiences and assets of all students;
• Engage students in rigorous research, public policy discourse, and community outreach;
• Model critical and culturally relevant pedagogical practices and interdisciplinary teaching of content knowledge, skills, and dispositions that prepare all students for 21st-century realities such as sociocultural and linguistic diversity, challenges of inequities, digital technologies, and the need for innovative, creative, and critical thinking;
• Mentor our students into and through strong professional networks of support.