Transformational Teaching & Learning, Med
Designed for educators in Catholic and independent schools, this flexible, equity-centered program empowers you to earn Washington State teacher certification through a social justice–driven, community-focused approach.
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About this Program
Seattle University’s Hybrid Transformational Teaching & Learning Certificate (TTL) prepares practicing educators to earn Washington State teacher certification while continuing to teach. Grounded in equity, social justice and community partnership, this program equips you to meet the needs of today’s diverse K–12 learners without pursuing an additional graduate degree.
Designed specifically for working teachers in Catholic and independent schools, this certificate offers a flexible, cohort-based pathway to certification rooted in reflection, practice and purpose.
Become the Educator Your Community Needs
A Certification Pathway Designed for Working Teachers
This program is built for educators already in the classroom who need certification—not another degree. You’ll continue teaching while completing your coursework and clinical experience.
Equity-Centered Curriculum
Coursework emphasizes anti-racist, humanizing teaching practices, culturally responsive pedagogy and social justice in education.
Cohort-Based Learning
You’ll move through the program with a supportive cohort of educators, building meaningful professional relationships and learning communities.
Hybrid Flexibility
A blend of online coursework and in-person summer institutes allows you to balance professional, personal and academic commitments.
Special Opportunities for Partial to Full Funding Available
By applying to this program, you become eligible to apply for three grant funding opportunities that offer a range of partial tuition assistance to full tuition coverage with housing and a stipend. Please review each grant for additional eligibility criteria:
Teacher Education Mission
Teacher education at Seattle University prepares social justice educators who actively strive for educational equity in partnership with students, families and communities furthest from justice, through a lifelong process of critical reflection and action rooted in anti-racist and humanizing pedagogies.
Strands and Competencies
The strands and competencies are pillars of the hybrid Transformational Teaching and Learning Certificate program. Below you'll see the different strands, the essential questions for each pillar and competencies.
Essential Question: How will you develop your identity as an anti-racist, humanizing teacher working for social justice?
1.1 TCs are committed to examining their own histories, identities, biases, assumptions and their own tensions with racism and oppressions.
1.2 TCs value learning as a lifelong process in becoming an anti-racist educator.
1.3TCs recognize students' intersecting identities and critically reflect on how biases, perceptions, expectations and actions in classrooms and schools affect their learning opportunities.
1.4 TCs understand how anti-racist and humanizing pedagogies impact the teacher student relationship and professional relationships.
1.5 TCs understand how historical and institutional structures create and maintain racial and other inequities and oppressions in education.
1.6 TCs develop the skills to reimagine and enact solutions to the inequities within schools, specifically focused on students who are disproportionately harmed on a micro or macro level, based on their various identities (racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, etc.).
1.7 TCs demonstrate the expectations and requirements of the teaching profession and engage with all stakeholders in humanizing ways.
Essential Question: How will you partner with families, communities, and school personnel to cultivate learning opportunities in pursuit of educating the whole person?
2.1 TCs are committed to listening to and honoring the voices of persons who are from communities furthest from justice, including indigenous communities.
2.2 TCs value the partnerships with families, communities and other school personnel as a necessity in educating the whole person.
2.3 TCs understand the purposes and principles behind developing and maintaining authentic partnerships.
2.4 TCs develop asset-based practices and pedagogies in collaboration with students, families and communities in pursuit of educating the whole person.
2.5 TCs demonstrate accountability to the community through cycles of feedback, action, and co-reflection with families, school personnel and community partners.
Essential Question: How will you facilitate an inclusive and culturally sustaining learning community in your classroom that fosters a sense of belonging and agency for each student?
3.1 TCs believe that “all learners can achieve at high levels and persist in helping each learner reach their full potential.” (INTASC, 2(l))
3.2. TCs create classroom communities where students' identities, cultures and languages are valuable resources for learning.
3.3 TCs collaborate with learners to establish and monitor expectations for a learning community to foster and maintain a sense of belonging, agency, and collective responsibility for the classroom.
3.4 TCs create classrooms where learners have agency to regularly name, critique and address injustices.
Essential Question: How will you design and enact relevant and meaningful instruction and assessment to develop students' identities, knowledge, understandings, skills, and dispositions to bring creativity and innovation to the world's most pressing issues?
4.1 TCs utilize strategies to prepare all students to be responsible for an environmentally sustainable, globally interconnected and diverse society.
4.2 TCs make careful decisions about the content they teach using a social justice lens and the ways of knowing and doing in the discipline.
4.3 TCs design and enact meaningful and responsive instruction in which alignment exists between content goals, assessment and students' identity development, assets and diverse learning needs.
4.4 TCs apply research-based theories of learning and development to design and enact equitable instruction.
4.5 TCs design and enact instruction and assessment using a range of equitable instructional models and technologies so that learners can apply knowledge in authentic ways and develop critical thinking skills.
4.6 TCs design and enact instruction and assessment in which students can develop academic language and literacy skills to engage with content and represent their ideas in a range of modalities.
4.7 TCs incorporate tools of language teaching to foster English language development and provide opportunities for students to draw on their home languages for learning.
4.8 TCs understand and apply humanizing strategies and resources to support students with exceptional needs, including disabilities and giftedness.
4.9 TCs enact assessment strategies to adjust and differentiate instruction and to support students in monitoring their own learning.
4.10 TCs seek out feedback and engage in ongoing critical reflection to strengthen their practice.
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If you have any questions about the program or application, we’re here to help!
Ashley Miller
Senior Admissions Counselor