Teaching and Teacher Education: Program Overview
The doctoral specialization in Teaching and Teacher Education prepares graduate students as scholars for work in practice, research, and policy. Students develop their own research questions and emphases, while working collaboratively with other students and faculty. The program is an intensive one in which students engage in practice and scholarship alongside nationally recognized specialists in their field.
Doctoral students in teaching and teacher education take a common set of core courses, dealing with the practice and scholarship of teaching and teacher education (broadly defined to include professional development across the lifespan), and policy contexts of professional education. They also select electives from other areas, and from programs and departments outside the School of Education. While some focus on teaching and teacher education in particular school subjects, others consider issues common across subject matter boundaries. In addition, we engage our students in a practicum experience in teacher education –– on campus on in schools –– to provide focused opportunities to learn to use what they are learning in programs of teacher education. Our faculty is engaged in a wide variety of projects, both within the School, and nationally and internationally. Hence, myriad opportunities exist for graduate students to gain professional knowledge and skill through their involvement in these projects.
Teachers are central to the quality of students’ opportunities to learn in schools. Teaching is a complex practice, requiring substantial knowledge and skill, and involving relationships not only with learners, but with other professionals, parents, and community members. Debates over professionalism of teaching and about the challenges of equity and diversity shape teacher education as a field today. Central to this doctoral specialization is attention to these contemporary issues with a particular focus on the work of teaching, on learning to teach, and on the ongoing development of teachers and teaching across the lifespan. The study of teaching and teacher education is rooted in close attention to the demands and nature of practice. Faculty members also investigate a variety of contexts for teacher development, from formal programs of teacher education and professional development, to the organization of schools and teacher networks and groups. Opportunities to learn more about teaching, about teacher learning and teacher development, and about professional education are the cornerstones of our doctoral program in Teaching and Teacher Education.
This degree specialization is housed within the Educational Studies program, which fosters links among students and faculty in a number of specializations sharing a commitment to the integration of theory and research on teaching, learning, and educational access in P-12 settings.
It is also worth noting that, as a unit within Michigan's Educational Studies Program, the Teacher Education PhD program is a national partner in the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of teaching.
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