School of Communication and Culture

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
~ W. B. Yeats

Spanning the fields of communication and education, the overarching goal of the School of Communication and Culture is to foster and support critical thinkers in professional contexts.

Great educational theorists from John Dewey to Jack Mezirow agree that critical thinking is central to a complete education. Critical thinkers ask pertinent questions, admit a lack of understanding or information, and examine beliefs, assumptions, and opinions. Critical thinkers are able to clearly define a set of criteria for analyzing ideas. They listen carefully to others and give feedback. Critical thinkers adjust opinions when new facts are found and see that critical thinking is a lifelong process of self-assessment.

In professional contexts, the capacity for critical reflection is particularly important to ensure the generation of sustainable, far sighted, and systemic or ‘big picture’ strategies. We therefore provide our students with integrated programs combining a strong theoretical foundation, an experiential learning approach, and an applied research focus.