Teaching of English MA INSTEP

Master of Arts Intensive Summer Teaching of English Program (InSTEP) (34 Points)


The InSTEP Program in the Teaching of English is geared toward in-service teachers who wish to further their teaching, research, and leadership skills while remaining full-time teachers in their communities. This program stresses teacher inquiry, the integration of the language arts with the performing and fine arts, and a focus on intellectual processes in reading, writing, and literary study. Through the 34 points of coursework, students will explore critical pedagogical and theoretical stances in English Education, build upon their knowledge of curriculum design and methods, and engage in deep self-reflection to better understand their positionality as a teacher.

Experiences and Exposures: 

  • Courses draw on a range of cultural resources in New York City in the interest of furthering your own professional, intellectual, and aesthetic development.
  • Coursework prioritizes bridging the theory-practice gap to help students understand critical issues in the field, and consider what reflective practitioners might do in response to them. 
  • Students come together with world-class faculty and a select group of experienced English educators from around the country and around the world to reflect on practice and build new understandings of what it means to teach English in their unique contexts.

Our InSTEP Program

Visit with students and faculty of the Intensive Summer Teaching of English Program (InSTEP).

A student is engaged in conversation with one her peers at a study group at Teachers College.

Admissions Information

Displaying requirements for the Spring 2024, Summer 2024, and Fall 2024 terms.

Master of Arts

  • Points/Credits: 34
  • Entry Terms: Summer Only

Certification

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  • Non-Certification Track

Application Deadlines

  • Spring: N/A
  • Summer/Fall (Priority): January 15
  • Summer/Fall (Final): April 1

Supplemental Application Requirements/Comments

Requirements from the TC Catalog (AY 2023-2024)

Displaying catalog information for the Fall 2023, Spring 2024 and Summer 2024 terms.

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Students, all of whom are inservice teachers, complete most course requirements for the INSTEP PROGRAM (which are similar to the 34 credit M.A. program) through their enrollment in an intensive month-long summer program for two consecutive summers during which they work in a cohort of inservice teachers for 6-8 hours each day. The program emphasizes aesthetic education through a course collaboration with Lincoln Center Educational Institute that is followed up with involvement in successive courses and the students’ final project based on research on classroom practice. Threaded through the coursework are emphases on issues of culture and social justice, innovative teaching methods, and teacher professionalism. Supplementary online courses for each cohort conducted during the academic year after summers 1 & 2 allow the cohorts to continue their collegial collaboration during the academic year while satisfying the few remaining requirements.

InSTEP is a 34-point program offering an MA, but not a New York State professional teaching certificate. It is geared for teachers who want to continue to work on their teaching through advanced studies at Teachers College, but don’t wish to stop teaching to do so. It is a cohort program that follows this prescribed schedule:

Summer 1

  • A&H 4033 English & the Language of Arts

  • A&HE 4151 Teaching of Writing

  • A&HE 4050 Literature & Teaching 

  • A&HE 5518 Teaching English in Diverse Sociocultural Contexts

Fall  1

A&H 5001 Research Methods in Arts & Humanities

Spring 1

  • A&HE 4556 Seminar for Inservice Teachers

Summer 2

  • A&HE 4058 Teaching of Reading

  • A&HE 4100 Teaching Drama & Theater

  • A&HE 4152 Literacies & Technologies in the Secondary English Classroom

  • A&HE 4052 Adolescents and Literature

Fall 2 

  • A&HE 4156 & 5590 Writing Non-Fiction & Master’s Seminar (3 + 1 = 4 credits)

The capstone project is a form of practitioner research that is developed during the first fall semester and completed in the second fall semester.

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