ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College creates knowledge, mobilizes people and takes action to improve education.
MLFTC faculty create knowledge by drawing from a wide range of academic disciplines to gain insight into important questions about the process of learning, the practice of teaching and the effects of education policy.
MLFTC mobilizes people through bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs, through non-degree professional development programs and through socially embedded, multilateral community engagement.
MLFTC takes action by bringing people and ideas together to increase the capabilities of individual educators and improve the performance of education systems.
Core value: Principled innovation
Children born today will be shaped by accelerating change in technology, demography and our physical and social environments. The speed and convergence of change across so many dimensions of human experience will shape life in ways that are as profound as they are unpredictable.
For educators and education systems, these facts demand principled innovation that delivers positive social value and prepares children to thrive as individuals and as citizens at local, national and global levels.
Principled innovation is the core value that inspires all our activities: our academic programs; our strategic initiatives; how we teach and learn; and how we engage with one another and with the communities we serve.
Purpose of principled innovation
Through our core value of principled innovation, we believe that education should answer to three imperatives:
An equity imperative
We need to deliver excellence in education to all learners regardless of any human characteristics that might lead to unfairness or discrimination in learning opportunities.
An economic imperative
We need to prepare learners for the next economy and equip them for success in the workforce of the future.
A democratic imperative
We need to prepare learners to be caring, responsible citizens capable of balancing individual ambition and the public good.
Practice of principled innovation
MLFTC has developed an ethical framework for innovation and decision-making that is guided by four character assets:
Moral character
Empathy, compassion and fairness help us keep sight of the irreducible dignity of all people, especially the youngest, and of the realness of their experience.
Civic character
The desire to serve and understand others reminds us that we are social beings and that, ultimately, we thrive not by ourselves but in community.
Intellectual character
Critical thinking and problem-solving keep us honest with ourselves and with one another. They help us acknowledge and resist bias, pursue truth and distinguish fact from opinion.
Performance character
Initiative, creativity, perseverance, resilience, risk-taking and collaboration help us marry the quality of our actions to the strength of our convictions. They help us navigate uncertainty and transform good intentions into good outcomes.