Program Overview

Description of Program

The Master of Arts in Teaching with a concentration in elementary education (PreK-6) initial licensure program seeks to foster in its candidates:

• An understanding of the ways that children are affected by social contexts and by the children's own abilities/disabilities.
• The knowledge and pedagogical skills to support each child's success.

These school professionals will:

• Critically challenge conventional wisdom and common practices to identify hidden assumptions and activities that constrain or privilege some at the expense of others.
• Openly consider and explore a range of teaching philosophies and practices and their relevance in particular contexts.
• Ask questions and develop an inquiring approach.
• Reflect deeply on relationships with their own families, peers, and university and school mentors and their students.
• Express knowledge, skills and attitudes in ways that communicate the creative and academic expression of the profession and the self.
• Develop an appreciation for the global connection of all humanity and our interdependence on the finite, natural resources of the earth.
• Experience life among people whose social contexts are unlike their own to broaden and deepen their respect of and sensitivity to various cultures and social contexts.
• Appreciate the complexity of human development from conception throughout the period of childhood/preadolescence.

Degree Offered

Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.)

Concentration

Elementary Education (PreK-6)

Early Childhood Education (PreK-3)