M.A. Program Goals¹

The Master of Arts in Curriculum and Teaching is based on the following goals to foster educators’ professional development. Such development over time is enhanced by engaging in multiple forms of inquiry that integrate academic study and field-based inquiry.  Through such inquiry, M.A. students should develop:

1. a deeper understanding and appreciation of disciplinary knowledge, subject matter, and alternative forms of curriculum, pedagogy, and evaluation to enhance the academic learning of all K-12 students;

2. a deeper understanding and the role of diversity in learning, and a strong commitment to equity and equal access to worthwhile knowledge through meaningful educational experiences for all K-12 students;

3. the capacity to envision and establish learning communities in classrooms and schools to realize goals of personal development, academic and lifelong learning, democratic participation, and social justice for students, teachers, and the diverse communities served by schools;

4. knowledge, dispositions, and skills to critically assess proposals for reform; understand different human interests reflected in one’s own philosophy, the professional literature, and K-12 practices; and improve teaching and learning in M.A. students’ respective, educational contexts; and

5. the capacity to engage in self-directed, sustained professional development in order to participate proactively in professional activities and provide leadership in educational organizations, school improvement efforts, staff development, and policymaking within and beyond one’s own classroom or school.

The Master’s Program in Curriculum and Teaching provides multiple opportunities for educators to engage in inquiry in order to reexamine and improve their practice. This program helps professionals identify and examine enduring questions and issues in curriculum and teaching, explore various ways that others have tried to address these questions over time, and critically assess potential, alternative proposals for improving the education of all students.

This program encourages new visions for improving teaching and learning, despite limitations perceived to be impervious to change or beyond an individual’s control. Professionals should develop the desire and capacity to engage in inquiry aimed at better understanding the complexity of learning (their own and others’) while also creating ways to improve practice. Such inquiry requires analyzing curriculum, teaching, learning, and schooling from multiple perspectives and by assuming a personal, professional, and critical stance. As a result, decisions and actions are apt to be more informed and to influence the education of all children and youth in more positive, morally defensible ways.