Outstanding Teacher - Ann Schulte

Ann Schulte was raised in Yankton, South Dakota where she completed her Bachelors degree in Elementary Education at Mount Marty College. At that time (and still), SD teacher salaries were some of the lowest in the nation. Ann wrote a letter to the local paper protesting the low pay for teachers and explaining that these conditions would result in a quality teacher, namely herself, leaving the state. Thus began a life of education activism.

After teaching middle school and coaching high school debate for eight years, Ann earned an MA in Middle Level Education at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and then continued her doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was in Madison where her activist-self was further nurtured and developed. She was an active member of the Teaching Assistants’ Association, the oldest graduate employee union in the world. She studied under renowned professors in social justice teacher education and learned how to prepare public school teachers to be agents of change.

Ann was hired by the Department of Education at CSU-Chico in 2001. She was drawn to the beautiful campus and the department’s mission of education for democracy. Here she has taught and supervised student teachers in the Multiple Subject Program and the Rural Teacher Residency Program. She has also taught and advised students in the Masters in Curriculum and Instruction. Teaching teachers is an exciting challenge because one must demonstrate the level of pedagogy one would expect of the (future) teachers in the class.

Ann is an active scholar in the Self-study of Teacher Education Practice (S-STEP) special interest group in the American Educational Research Association (AERA). She has served as the chair of that organization and has contributed a chapter to its international handbook of research. In 2009, she published her book Seeking Integrity in Teacher Education: Transforming My Student Teachers, Transforming My Self. This book offers a unique perspective of when a teacher educator teaches teachers how to examine the impact of their own identities on their teaching while examining that herself.

One of the quotes that informs Ann’s pedagogy is from Parker Palmer: “Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.” At the center of her teaching is a study of self. Ann believes that who one is directly informs how one teaches.

Ann is a representative for the Teacher Education Caucus and the campus Secretary for the California Faculty Association. She serves on the President’s Diversity Council where she hopes to help move the campus toward making diversity central to what we do. Locally she is politically active and works to promote awareness of the issues related to homelessness. Previous awards include the Taking it to the Classroom: Conversations on Diversity Award.