Faculty of Education – National University of Samoa

Welcome to the Faculty of Education

Talofa lava and welcome to the Faculty of Education.

FOE is one of the NUS’s teaching and research faculties. Therefore its core business articulated through NUS statutory functions which are to:

preserve and maintain the Samoan language and culture, and promote teaching and research on all matters pertaining to Samoa;
provide education and technical training that contributes to Samoa’s economic growth and social development;
enhance academic collaboration and operational efficiency;
increase and transmit knowledge; and
encourage intellectual independence and diversity

(NUS Corporate Plan FY2017/18-2020/21, pg. 8)

As part of the National University of Samoa, our Core Values include:

RESPECT

We value efforts made in all conduct, operations and affairs for the ongoing development of our University.

INTEGRITY

We value transparency, honesty and ethical conduct in individual and collective actions and decisions.

RESPONSIVENESS

We value resilience in our pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning, research, safeguarding of Samoan heritage, sustainability and professionalism, and responsiveness to national needs.

Vision

Every child in Samoa has a right to be taught by a well-qualified teacher.

Mission

The Faculty of Education embraces the Vision and Mission of the National University of Samoa to produce quality graduates from across all disciplines to meet the nation’s human resource needs. Therefore the mission of FOE is to provide quality teaching and professional training to prepare teachers academically, professionally and personally for the tasks of assisting children’s social, moral intellectual and physical development. The mission statement aligns the teacher education curriculum with the (Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (MESC) Strategic Policies and Plans 2006-2015).

A broad and balanced curriculum that encompasses the full range of academic, social and cultural knowledge, understanding and skills which are essential to for today’s and tomorrow’s world (MESC Strategic Policies and Plans 2006-2015, pg., 37).

Teacher education and training provides consistently good quality pre-service programmes that are relevant and effective in meeting the needs of teacher trainees so that they can be effective teachers who are able to make children enjoy learning (MESC Strategic Policies and Plans 2006-2015, pg., 26).

MESC national policies provide the vision for teacher education programmes to be on-going and in-service training to be accessible for professional development and lifelong learning (pg. 26).

FOE programmes promote the achievement of this aim through the provision of academic and professional courses by offering a variety of learning experiences to cater for professional requirements as well as the enrichment of lifelong learning.

Departments

The Faculty of Education provides comprehensive undergraduate teacher education programmes, graduate and postgraduate programmes. These programmes focus on developing student teachers’ deep knowledge and critical thinking to ensure quality education for all learners. FOE consists of TWO Departments:

1. Education Department (ED)

The Education Department plays a core function in the provision of professional courses pertaining to diverse educational areas that are appropriate for training and development of quality teacher graduates. These include human development, psychology, sociology, the philosophy of education, teaching and learning, curriculum, assessment, pedagogy and research.

2.Teacher Education Department (TED)

The Teacher Education Department focuses on curriculum and pedagogy. Thus, the general aim of this department is to offer high quality courses that prepare graduates to effectively teach the curriculum in their classes and confidently use a multitude of teaching approaches for the various curriculum areas at Early Childhood Education, Primary and Secondary levels.

Become a teacher

We provide teaching qualifications in Early Childhood and Primary and get to inspire the next generation, pass on your knowledge and teach our youth to become independent learners and thinkers.