Tenure-Track Faculty Position Announcement
Department: Special Education
Faculty Hire Number: #26-18
Rank: Assistant Professor
Effective Date of Appointment: August 2026 (Subject to Budgetary Approval)
Anticipated Hiring Range: $80,004 to $84,000 (Dependent upon qualifications)
CSUN’s Commitment to You:
CSUN is committed to achieving excellence through teaching, scholarship, learning, and inclusion. Our values include a respect for all people, building partnerships with the community, and the encouragement of innovation, experimentation, and creativity. CSUN strives to cultivate a community in which a diverse population can learn and work in an atmosphere of civility and respect. CSUN is especially interested in candidates who make contributions to equity and inclusion in the pursuit of excellence for all members of the university community.
As a Hispanic-serving Institution (HSI), inclusiveness and diversity are integral to CSUN’s commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and engagement. As of Fall 2025, CSUN enrolls 36,960 students, where 57.5% are Latinx, 18.4% are White, 8.5% are Asian-American, 5.5% are Black/African American, 0.1% are Native American, and 0.1% are Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
For more information about the University, visit: http://www.csun.ed
About the College:
For information about the Michael D. Eisner College of Education, see: https://www.csun.edu/eisner-education
About the Department:
The Special Education Department at CSUN is committed to preparing educators who advocate for and provide services to students with all levels of support needs. Our department strives to dismantle systems that categorize, segregate, or limit student expectations on the basis of perceived disability label, level of support need, assumptions about language access or cultural/linguistic background, with special attention to multiply-marginalized students. In this way, we prepare educators to be strength-based service providers and advocates who focus on adaptation of the learning environment and materials to meet the support needs of each student and their family.
For more information about the Department of Special Education, see: https://www.csun.edu/eisner-education/special-education
Position:
The Department of Special Education at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) is seeking a tenure-track faculty member in Mild/Moderate to Extensive Support Needs (MM/ESN) at the rank of Assistant Professor.
The successful candidate will teach Special Education teacher preparation and Master’s Degree and certification courses in the Special Education department. The typical teaching assignment is 12 units each semester, plus student advisement and committee assignments. Tenure Track faculty are eligible for a reduced load of 3 units (equivalent to one class) each semester during the first two years of teaching. Opportunities for reassigned time and other projects are also available.
The position also includes collaboration with the Special Education Department faculty on matters of recruitment, enrollment, and admissions, and supervising students in school-based, clinical, and virtual settings. We value candidates who can effectively mentor and supervise students using multiple pedagogical formats (i.e., face-to-face, hybrid, and online formats), as well as the ability to prepare students to become justice-oriented educators. The candidate will collaborate with the Special Education Department and other community agencies.
In addition to teaching, the position requires advisement, weekly office hours, attending faculty meetings, service to the department, college, university, and maintaining research and scholarly activities. The successful candidate may be required to teach on weekdays, evenings, weekends, and/or online and will be held to the standards and requirements of the college and department in which they are housed for recommending tenure and promotion. Given CSUN’s commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and engagement in a diverse environment, the successful candidate will help the Department achieve equitable academic outcomes for all students through teaching, student mentorship, scholarship, and service.
Required Qualifications:
- Doctoral degree in Education or related fields from an accredited institution, including Special Education, Communication Disorders, and Psychology. A terminal degree must be completed before the first day of employment.
- Minimum of two years teaching with students with mild/moderate and/or extensive support needs in schools and related settings.
- Record of strong ability or potential to teach a variety of credentials and graduate courses across the Special Education credential in
- Mild/Moderate and Extensive Support Needs addressing the California Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs).
- Ability to communicate effective pedagogical and collaborative strategies that support multicultural and multilingual learners, drawing on experience from cross-cultural study, training, teaching, or comparable settings.
- Record of working and communicating effectively with colleagues and students.
- Strong ability or potential to advise students for timely program completion.
- Strong ability or potential to supervise interns and student teachers during their practicum.
- Includes a complete social justice statement
Preferred Qualifications:
Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated expertise in one or more of the following areas:
- Cross-disciplinary collaboration in the areas of research and teaching, especially in mathematics pedagogical approaches for diverse learners.
- Expertise in inclusive education and the implementation of standards-based academic curricula (including alternate achievement standards) in inclusive educational settings.
- Understanding and applying inclusive, culturally sustaining, and equity pedagogies in teaching, scholarship, and clinical settings.
- Experience teaching and working closely with students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, including English language learners and those from historically marginalized communities.
- Hold/held a K-12 teaching license, preferably in California.
- Experience and/or research in the field of Educational Therapy (ET).
- Experience in writing successful grant applications.
- Knowledge about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS).
- Demonstrates a commitment to social justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion through scholarship, teaching, and service.
Application Deadline:
The preferred application deadline is December 31, 2025, and applications received after this date may be considered on an as-needed basis. However, the position will remain open until filled.
How to Apply:
Candidates should apply by completing the CSUN online application. To apply and for more detailed information on the application and hiring process, please visit this link: www.csun.edu/careers.
Applicants must submit:
- A cover letter that directly addresses each of the required qualifications and any of the preferred qualifications that apply to their experience/ expertise (3 pages recommended);
- A statement that demonstrates how the candidate addresses social justice and a commitment to diversity through their scholarship, teaching, and service (2 pages recommended);
- Curriculum vitae;
- Names of three references who can address the candidate’s teaching, research, and service qualifications;
- Terminal Degree (if ABD, provide unofficial transcripts)
In later stages of the search process, applicants may be requested to provide additional materials (e.g., course syllabi, teaching demonstration, letters of recommendation, teaching evaluations, scholarly writing sample that exemplifies a line of their research, verification of terminal degrees, and/or evidence of other relevant certifications).
At the time of appointment, the successful candidate, if not a U.S. citizen, must have authorization from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to work in the United States. Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the United States.
Please note: California State University, Northridge (CSUN) is currently not sponsoring applicants for H-1B employment that are subject to the $100,000 fee established by the “Presidential Proclamation: Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers” issued on September 19, 2025. Applicants are responsible for determining the applicability of the fee.
Inquiries may be addressed to:
Dr. Fatmana Deniz, Search and Screen Chair
Fatmana.deniz@csun.edu
General Information:
In compliance with the Annual Security Report & Fire Safety Report of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, California State University, Northridge has made crime-reporting statistics available on-line here. Print copies are available by request from the Department of Police Services, the Office for Faculty Affairs, and the Office of Equity and Diversity.
The person holding this position may be considered a 'mandated reporter' under the California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act and is required to comply with the requirements set forth in CSU Executive Order 1083 as a condition of employment.
A background check (including a criminal records check) must be completed satisfactorily before any candidate can be offered a position with the CSU. Failure to satisfactorily complete the background check may affect the application status of applicants or the continued employment of current CSU employees who apply for the position.
In accordance with the California State University (CSU) Out-of-State Employment Policy, the CSU is a state entity whose business operations reside within the State of California and prohibits hiring employees to perform CSU-related work outside of California.
CSUN is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, and disability. Our nondiscrimination policy is set forth in the Interim CSU Nondiscrimination Policy. Reasonable accommodations will be provided for applicants with disabilities who self-disclose by contacting the Department of Special Education at 818-677-2596.
