MAT in Middle and High School Education
Schools create exciting possibility and opportunity at the same time that they often reproduce the vast and troubling inequities in our society. As a future teacher, it is essential to begin examining the ways schools operate in society, the positions and expectations of teachers and students, and the particular pedagogies performed within their walls.
As a student in the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in Middle and High School Education program, you will re-imagine the possibilities of schooling, carefully observe and analyze moments of teaching and learning, participate in an extensive field experience, and develop the practices of teaching that push and guide students towards their highest potential.
The 12-15-month residential MAT program is for candidates who are seeking Massachusetts Initial teacher license at the middle and high school levels in the following areas:
- Grades 5-12: English, History, Latin & Classical Humanities, Social Sciences
- Grades 5-8 and 8-12: Mathematics
- Grades 5-8: General Science
- Grades 8-12: Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Physics
- Grades PreK-8 and 5-12: Spanish and German
The Education department also partners with the Classical Studies department to offer a two-year Master of Arts with teaching licensure.
The MAT program in Middle and High School Education is designed and approved to meet only the Massachusetts initial licensure requirements. For information on licensure in other states, see below.
Message from Program Director
Ryan Redmond
Director, Middle and High School MAT Programs
Philosophy
Praxis:
In the Middle and High School Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, you will learn how to effectively engage in praxis – move between the theoretical and the practical. Students will develop an understanding of the crucial theoretical frameworks in Education, cultivate attention to student thinking, identify and examine the barriers that exist in learning contexts, explore the countless decisions that teachers make, and engage in extensive teaching practice in order to develop effective and responsive teaching practices.
Teachers at Citizen-Leaders:
In addition to preparing teachers to teach their disciplines, Tufts teacher candidates are prepared to be citizen-leaders through knowing and wrestling deeply with and acting upon the profound civic questions at the heart of schooling and education. What are the purposes of public education? What do students, families, and teachers want from schooling? And how and why do schools as organizations and as agents of the state in a democratic society meet (or not meet) those wants? Who does or doesn’t benefit from schooling and why? And what structures and processes within schools lead to those outcomes? What are the foundational beliefs and commitments that public school teachers should know, consider, and act upon? What responsibilities do people have to one another and to the institutions within which they live? What kind of citizen should schools endeavor to create anyway?
Courses and Requirements
The Middle and High School Education program requires 10 courses from the following areas.
1 Introductory Course
- ED 101: Introduction to Teaching in Middle and Secondary School
(includes a pre-practicum experience)
1 Foundations of Literacy Course
- ED 128: Foundations of Literacy
1 Course in Human Development and Learning
- ED 130: Human Development and Learning
1 Course in the Social, Cultural and Historical Foundations of Education
- ED 160: Post-colonial Theories
- ED 161: Anthropology and Sociology of Schooling
- ED 162: Critical Histories of U.S. Education
- ED 163: Philosophies
- ED 167: Critical Race Theory
1 Course in Exceptionalities in Learning
- ED 142: Education of the Exceptional Child
1 Course in Curriculum or a Related Guided Elective
- ED 110: History and Political Science/Political Philosophy Curricula
- ED 111: Development of Knowledge and Reasoning in the Science Curriculum
- ED 112: Mathematics Learning Environments
- ED 113: Language Arts Curricula in the Middle and Secondary School
- ED 114: Linguistic Approaches to Second Language Acquisition
(Cross-listed with German GER 114 and Modern Languages ML 114) - ED 119: Development of Knowledge and Reasoning in Engineering
1 Course in the Practices in Teaching taken during the Semester of Student Teaching
- ED 120: Practice of Teaching: History and Political Science/Political Philosophy
- ED 121: Practice of Teaching: Science
- ED 122: Practice of Teaching: Mathematics
- ED 123: Practice of Teaching: English
- ED 124: Practice of Teaching: Languages
- ED 125: Practice of Teaching: Latin and Classical Humanities
- ED 129: Practice of Teaching: Engineering and Design
1 Student Teaching
- ED 102: Supervised Teaching in Middle and Secondary School and Seminar
2 Courses in the Academic Field
Program Objectives
- Understand the triangle of education and its components (the teacher, the students, and the subject) and carefully consider their contexts
- Critically examine teaching, learning, and schooling through culturally responsive, anti-racist, and other complex and urgent theoretical frameworks
- Maintain strong and growing knowledge of the content you teach
- Draw upon research in human development and learning, working with exceptionalities in the classroom, learning theory and cognitive development, and adolescent psychology to design successful and inclusive classroom cultures and practices
- Employ and develop pedagogies that best meet students’ needs to foster engaged and purposeful learning
- Identify the culture and structure of schools and understand how schools shape the values and work of teachers and students
- Learn about the community in which you teach and think of yourself as a teacher in a community and a citizen-leader
- Understand the profound ethical and moral considerations embedded in the decisions that teachers must make every day in their classrooms and the impact of those decisions on students and their learning, their families, and the community
Disclosure on teacher initial licensure in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Each state has its own requirements for licensure. It is our duty to disclose our approvals and requirements.
Our MAT program is an approved initial teacher licensure program by the Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE). As such, the program requires that all required practicum hours for licensure be completed in person at a public or approved charter school in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While the required course work is offered online, the program is limited to candidates who can commit to completing their practicum in Massachusetts.
If you intend to teach outside of Massachusetts once you complete the program, it is not determined whether this program meets your home state requirements for initial licensure. It is your responsibility to complete any due diligence for reciprocity with other state licensure requirements. Please see the following table link for contact information for your home state’s licensure agency to confirm whether this program will meet your home state’s requirement for licensure. (Table)
Student and Alumni Perspectives
Benjamin Alford, MAT, Middle and High School, 2021, speaking about 'Learning with Students'