Doctoral Program in Curriculum, Teaching and Educational Policy
The doctoral program in Curriculum, Teaching and Educational Policy serves the Department of Teacher Education's primary missions to improve professional practice and to extend knowledge about professional practice in the fields of teaching, teacher education, curriculum, and educational policy analysis. Doctoral specializations include history and social studies education, literacy education, mathematics education, and science education. Emphasis may also be pursued in educational policy and social analysis or teacher education and teacher learning.

Faculty members share many beliefs and assumptions about how these missions should be pursued, and have constructed the advanced graduate programs with the following underlying assumptions:

• curriculum, teaching, and educational policy depends upon multiple and diverse disciplines, voices, and comparative perspectives about practice, inquiry, and alternative forms of pedagogy and curriculum.
• studying practice can include attention to the historical, political, social, cultural, institutional, and ethical contexts of teaching and schooling that can impact teaching, teacher education, curriculum, and policy.
• study and practice should mirror and foster understanding of and regard for diverse learners, their communities, and their experiences. Efforts to improve practice and to contribute to knowledge about practice are undertaken with the well-being of all children, youth, and people in mind.
• study and practice should foster understanding and appreciation of the ways that diverse learners come to know disciplinary and subject matter content. Teaching also entails understanding the content goals of schooling, the ways in which that disciplinary content becomes expressed in school curricula, and the influence of culture and context on the learning of that content.

The program requires completion of at least 15 courses, typically distributed as follows: two proseminar courses taken sequentially in the first year, four courses about educational inquiry and research, three "selective" courses regarding broad and diverse perspectives on education, and six elective courses from an area of concentration approved by the guidance committee. Students are required to pass a preliminary and comprehensive examination as well as complete a dissertation.

Although applications for admission can be reviewed at any time during the year, it is in the best interest of students to complete the application as early as possible in the academic year, preferably by December 1 for guaranteed consideration with respect to college and university fellowships. January 5 is the last day when applications can be completed for any possibility of consideration for the competitive fellowship awards administered by the college and university. Competition for departmental support occurs for applications completed in the spring and summer of the year before study begins. For more information see http://ed-web3.educ.msu.edu/ctep/

Teaching and Educational Policy
The educational specialist degree program (Ed.S.) in Curriculum, Teaching and Educational Policy focuses specifically on practitioner-based inquiry about curriculum, policy, teaching and learning to teach. It is an advanced specialized program of study for practicing teachers and other education professionals that encompasses coursework at both the master's and advanced graduate level. The program is geared to individuals who hold a master's degree in education and have at least five years of experience as professional educators. The Ed.S. degree requires 30 semester hours beyond the master's degree, the completion of a professional portfolio, and a comprehensive examination.

Applications are considered on a rolling basis. For more information, see http://ed-web3.educ.msu.edu/ctep/prospective/eadindex.html

Master of Arts in Curriculum and Teaching
The Master of Arts in Curriculum and Teaching (MACT) program is designed primarily for experienced teachers who work full time in K-12 schools. The program has three primary goals that serve as an anchor for its standards and shared vision of what constitutes meaningful learning to achieve those standards:

• The organizing center and primary focus of the MACT program is "critical inquiry" in its various forms to help teachers understand the research and scholarship generated in our field, and to help them address and critique important questions in policy, practice, and professional development. Central to this inquiry should be an abiding interest in improving and supporting all students' learning and success in schools.
• Accomplished teaching is based on scholarship and evolves in the examination and application of best practices. It develops and is refined over time through systematic and collaborative inquiry into one's practice, and by pursuing shared goals/ practices in a community of learning where teaching is made public and open to collegial dialogue, study, and improvement.
• The MACT program seeks to promote and develop teachers' positive dispositions and skills in collaborative inquiry and shared decision-making in their schools and communities, and as public citizens who can exercise their commitment to public education in a variety of ways. Through study, teachers develop their skills in observation, communication, question posing, problem identification, problem solving, data analysis, collaborative inquiry, group decision-making, creating networks and communities of practice in their schools, and professional leadership in its many forms.

The program is offered on campus in East Lansing; at Michigan off-campus sites in Birmingham, Grand Rapids, and Traverse City; and in Plymouth, England. Some courses are offered online or in combination of face-to-face instruction and online instruction. The program requires three courses in inquiry into professional development and school culture, and one required and one selective course in inquiry into curriculum and schooling, In addition, the program requires three selective courses in subject matter and/or thematic concentrations, two selective courses of electives, and a final evaluation in the form of a summative review of the professional portfolio and synthesis paper.

Application deadlines are as follows: for fall, February 1; for spring, October 1; and for summer, January 15. For more information, see http://ed-web3.educ.msu.edu/mact/

Program Faculty