The University of Pittsburgh Center for Urban Education (CUE) is a space of learning and sharing with communities to positively transform education. As part of the Pitt School of Education, CUE engages students, faculty, and colleagues through research, community events, and initiatives that seek to improve urban education in all its forms. Together, we partake in new dialogues focused on the meaning of scholarship and learn more about student experiences, teacher roles and classroom techniques, school structure and administrative policy.
The Pitt School of Education's Urban Education programs are for scholars and leaders who want to address how national, global, social, and technological change impacts urban education. View our Urban Education PhD and EdD flyer (PDF) to learn more about our programs, faculty, and impact.
Purpose
The purpose of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education’s Center for Urban Education (CUE) is to pursue education transformation toward freedom through a range of creative and intellectual endeavors.
Principles
CUE strives to:
- Advance liberatory educational praxis.
- Examine urban education structures in relation to power and power relations.
- Partner with various freedom-minded communities invested in societal transformation and reciprocity.
- Refuse systems and praxes of domination.
- Study Black and Indigenous knowledge traditions as horizons for educational equity and justice.
- Cultivate rigorous intellectual praxis in educators.
- Join in local and global struggle for collective educational liberation through actions and programs at various scales.
Community Partnership & Engagement
CUE is a research center, but the success of its findings, projects, and progress in influencing practice is dependent on community partnership and engagement, which it facilitates through its Community Partnership & Engagement (CPE) affinity group. CUE is grateful for its partners and collaborators, ranging from school districts and administrators to community councils and foundations, and from government contacts and offices to local and regional parent/teacher organizations.
Educator Development & Practice
The Educator Preparation & Development (EDP) affinity group works to devise, document, and deliver the tools and processes teachers and administrators need for improving urban school systems. CUE strives to be an educator training and professional development facility of the highest order for educators in the region, while developing, delivering, and documenting processes and tools that can yield major improvement in urban school systems.
Student Academic & Social Development
The Student Academic and Social Development (SASD) affinity group focuses on experiences and support of students at all levels. Through research, practice, and school and community partnerships, SASD works to study and enhance student-learned, academic, and social development.