Guided by our Jesuit ideals and social justice mission, we strive to foster a culture that is diverse, inclusive, and equitable. Care and compassion characterize our teaching and mentorship, and we actively apply research to disrupt the oppressive forces that marginalize. Through our curriculum, placements, programs, and service trips, students learn how to apply culturally sensitive practices that empower diverse populations to thrive.
Our students represent a variety of life experiences, personal interests, and professional goals. Together with our supportive faculty and staff, they make up our vibrant community.
“The architecture of diversity and difference enables us as faculty to advance a broader, richer, and deeper understanding of how professionals in education and applied psychology can create a more just and compassionate world. Our diverse identities and experiences shape our inquiries and the meaning we make of our conclusions, allowing us to compose a more complete understanding of the public good. ”
The Lynch School of Education and Human Development is home to a variety of centers and initiatives focused on serving our communities. By developing new models of student support, reshaping achievement standards, and advancing human rights, our research centers and initiatives offer students opportunities to make an impact.
Championing race and culture as assets and addressing the societal conflicts associated with them.
Visit siteFocused on studying and addressing the out-of-school factors that impact student success.
Visit siteCSTEEP strengthens school assessment practice and policy with research, engagement, and advocacy.
Visit siteA multidisciplinary center nurturing leaders who improve global human rights through service and scholarship.
Visit siteCreating transformative learning opportunities within and beyond prison walls and investigating critical issues through a community justice lens.
Visit siteProviding personalized educational and therapeutic services to students ages 3–21 who face complex challenges and have unique learning needs.
Visit siteThis initiative helps disrupt inequalities by supporting schools and teachers in instruction that empowers student voices to support more equitable learning.
Visit siteThrough four strategic initiatives, the Roche Center strengthens and transforms Catholic schools and improves student outcomes.
Visit siteCreating a more just world through training transformational educators who prioritize social justice and equity in classrooms and organizations.
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During the 2018-2019 academic year, the Lynch School organized a Faculty Seminar titled Addressing Oppression and Diversity in Our Pedagogy and Practices, focusing on anti-racism. Ongoing work incorporating learning from this seminar into every day pedagogy is carried on by the Undoing Oppression committee.
Faculty were invited by the LSEHD Educational Policy Council (EPC) to participate in a project designed to help faculty assess the extent to which their course syllabi address diversity, equity, and inclusion topics. The EPC, working with the Dean’s Office, provided faculty desiring this support with a syllabi review and consultation. The review used the “Race, Ethnicity and Inter-Cultural Understanding Curriculum Map” tool developed at Columbia University.
In 2019 a curricular and pedagogical revision of the first-year course, Experience, Reflection, & Action (ERA), was undertaken to offer a more academically robust and substantive program than previous iterations of the course.
Graduate Student Services at the Lynch School oversees a Diversity Doctoral Fellows program. Students that participate in this program receive mentorship from current faculty and programming centered on current issues.
The minor is designed to advance understanding of restorative and transformational justice as a critically important tool. Students will explore restorative and transformational justice topics as they relate to education, applied psychology, and human development; select electives from different departments; and engage in social impact action project or senior thesis.
This certificate helps school leaders develop and enact a theory of change to boldly advance equity in schools. Through a series of four courses, participants discern organizational impediments to students’ opportunities to learn, then envision and enact a systemic response to confront these barriers.
The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (McNair Program) is a graduate school preparation program for Boston College undergraduates who are low-income, first-generation college students, or undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds interested in furthering their education and are committed to pursuing an advanced degree.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the McNair program prepares undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue and attain an advanced degree to enter careers in research and academia. Students are paired with faculty mentors and are provided with academic advising, research opportunities and workshops tailored to the graduate school experience and application process.
Created as a subcommittee of the Lynch Educational Policy Committee (EPC) the the Undoing Oppression Committee is a voluntary group of interested faculty and staff who have come together to take action toward more closely living the social justice aspirations of our community. The committee has created a Canvas site with resources for current faculty and staff, and puts on workshops and brown bag events throughout the academic year.
In order to implement best practices for equity and inclusion in academic searches, we conduct training before beginning a search for all faculty engaged in search committee duties.
Every semester the Lynch School's Dean's Office brings in leading scholars across the country to discuss their research on current issues across education and human development.
Germán Cadenas, assistant professor, Lehigh University
Critically Agentic Coping: Undocumented Immigrant Students Resisting Ethno- Racial Discrimination and Preserving Mental Health
Limarys Caraballo, associate professor, Queens College-City University of New York
Cypher as Pedagogy(ies): Centering Participatory Epistemologies in Education for Justice
Alex Pieterse, associate professor, University at Albany-State University of New York
Knowns and Unknowns of Racial Trauma: Considerations for Research, Training and Practice
Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos, Murchison Endowed Professor of Education and department chair, Trinity University
Critically Examining Funding for English Learners: Towards an Anti-Racist and Anti-Xenophobic School Funding System
Oscar Rojas Perez, postdoctoral associate, Yale University School of Medicine
Tu Bienestar es Mi Bienestar: A Latinx Understanding of Well-being
The Charles F. Donovan Urban Teaching Scholars program is an intensive one-year Masters in Education program leading to teacher licensure, that seeks to prepare K-12 teachers to work effectively with students and families in urban schools throughout the country.
The UCTC actively engages in the ministry of teaching in the schools of the Archdiocese of Boston and provides an academically rigorous and experientially rich urban Catholic teacher preparation based on the Jesuit tradition of formative education.
“Being a great leader isn't about speaking up for the ‘voiceless’. It's about creating spaces where ‘voiceless’ doesn't exist.”
College Bound is a pre-collegiate enrichment and support program offered to a diverse group of 50-60 students in 7th through 12th grade. The mission of the College Bound Program is to empower students to become positive change agents in their schools and communities. Through a S.T.E.A.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) lens, students learn about a variety of important issues impacting their communities.
Dedicated to advancing a Boston College culture and climate that is welcoming to all through leadership, support, education, compliance, and policy.
This forum provides a meeting place for dialogue about race and racism in the U.S., while serving as a catalyst for bridging differences, promoting reconciliation, and encouraging new perspectives.
Courageous Conversations Towards Racial Justice is a dialogue-centered initiative on racism and privilege designed to address racial healing, equity, and justice.
Boston College proudly welcomes all veterans of the United States Armed Forces and is committed to helping them find the resources they require to thrive here.
Boston College is dedicated to fostering a welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment for all students and to positively impact and improve the LGBTQ+ student experience.
This center supports and empowers undergraduate students, with a particular focus on AHANA, multicultural, and multiethnic issues.
We want to hear from you! We welcome suggestions for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion site.
