Master of Arts in Teaching
Awakening the Teacher Within

Introduction

The Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) Program is an 11-month program for liberal arts and sciences graduates who want to become licensed teachers any time after graduation from college. This full-time program begins each year in early June and leads to licensure the following May.

After licensure and while teaching in a school, students take one more course designed to help support them in the first full year of teaching.

After successfully concluding that course, students are awarded the master's degree. Earlham's M.A.T. recently added art as a license area, the program also offers licensure in social studies, English/language arts, math, science and modern foreign languages, all at the middle and high school level. Licensure in elementary education is not currently available in this program.

Participating in this Program at Earlham College

At Earlham, few activities are more esteemed and joyful than teaching — and creating teachers. The College's long-standing commitment to excellence in teaching can encourage and develop your own passion and potential as a teacher. Earlham's Master of Arts in Teaching Program is unique in focusing on the cohort model and developing a culture of collegiality.

The College intends to do more than provide licensure for teachers. The program's purpose is to develop teachers who are leaders in their school communities, who model outstanding classroom practices, and who prepare their own students to be socially active and morally conscious citizens in this new century.

The Earlham M.A.T. Program also emphasizes the teacher as researcher, one who is able to locate the most recent social science and educational research on teaching and learning. You also become a competent user of the Socratic seminar method of instruction as a means of helping your own students develop critical thinking and communication skills.

Principles Guiding the M.A.T. Program

The goals and the entire concept for the M.A.T. Program derive from Quaker principles, which include awakening the teacher within, respect for persons, integrity, simplicity, consensus governance, equality, peace and justice. These values are manifested in all aspects of the program; for instance, the Earlham M.A.T. Program seeks to create teachers who are comfortable, knowledgeable, respectful, and who especially value and appreciate all kinds of diversity.

A number of books have also shaped our program, especially Robert Fried's The Passionate Teacher: A Practical Guide and Parker Palmer's The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life. We encourage you to read and think about these works.

Is This a Good Time To Think About Becoming a Teacher?

Approximately 40 percent of our country's teachers are approaching retirement. Schools are scrambling to fill their vacancies, and the number of openings exceeds the number of qualified teachers. The prospects for obtaining a teaching position are excellent.