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Secondary Teacher Education
Education for a socially just world
The UMass Amherst secondary education program views teaching as an act of caring, with complex intellectual, moral, theoretical, and political implications that reach beyond testing and benchmarks. Our students become critically reflective educators committed to a life-long process of learning, embedded in the core values of social justice, evidence-based practice, and community engagement.
Our faculty bring scholarly and practitioner perspectives to the intellectual work of training teachers, and their constructivist orientation encourages students to create meaning and apply theory through practice. Our students build a strong foundation in subject specific pedagogy, a comprehensive understanding of how students learn and engage, and learn to navigate complex relationships among curricula, instruction, and assessment.
Recognizing that effective educator preparation is a cooperative endeavor involving all members of an extensive professional community, our students learn to work within and across a range of community and professional contexts, sensitive to the family, community, and political contexts of education.
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