About GPE

About GPE

At Earlham, believe that there is no more valuable calling than the work of education. We seek to “awaken the teacher within,” thereby equipping new educators with the skills and knowledge to shape their classrooms and workplaces into environments that foster lifelong learning in their own students. 

Those who are best prepared to meet the challenge of education are well grounded in their content field, passionate about their learning, and courageous in their response to this calling.

Our history

The Earlham M.A.T. program is a unique post-baccalaureate teacher preparation program that began in 2001.

In creating the M.A.T. program, Earlham faculty sought to blend Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching with the Earlham College Principles and Practices. The program was also informed by two key works: Parker Palmer’s The Courage to Teach and Robert Fried’s The Passionate Teacher.

Developed by teachers, for teachers

Secondary teachers and administrators provided significant input into the program’s creation, and the faculty of the Earlham M.A.T. program have continued a strong working relationship with these and other stakeholders.

Our Advisory Board meets annually with program faculty to provide feedback. More importantly, the M.A.T. program uses input from area teachers throughout the year in the assessment of teaching candidates.

From summer semester through spring semester, input and advice from current secondary teachers is a vital part of the process of teacher preparation.

Developing educators beyond the classroom

The M.Ed. was program was added in 2005. At that time, this program focused on serving currently practicing teachers.

In 2018, the M.Ed. was revitalized to serve a wide range of candidates with different focuses in education. Partnerships on Earlham’s campus with Trueblood Preschool, the Joseph Moore Museum and the athletics department, as well as off-campus partnerships with local schools and non-profit community organizations make our M.Ed. program unique in its ability to be personalized to each individual candidate’s needs. 

Our educational philosophies

Awakening the teacher within

Every person has unique strengths, needs, and viewpoints, so every educator is unique in those ways as well. Through foundational identity work, substantial responsibility in the classroom or workplace, and an environment of encouragement and support, we help our students find who they truly are as educators. By the end of your 11 months with us, you will have begun the process of awakening the teacher within yourself, which will sustain you for your whole career.

Cohort model

We seek to develop and reinforce our students’ understanding and practice of how to create and successfully participate in a community of learners and appreciate how a community of learners enhances learning.  Rather than teaching and learning in isolation, our students have ample opportunities to construct a culture of collaboration, both in and outside the classroom.  The cohort model enhances actively listening to others, thoughtfully reflecting, and rigorously applying collective insights to develop individual beliefs about teaching and learning.

Community of leaders

Being an educator extends to much more beyond knowing how to manage a classroom or create lesson plans. The M.A.T. and M.Ed. programs seek to show future educators how to become leaders in their school or workplace in order to shape the culture and learning environments to better serve their students or community. Students have opportunities to learn, practice, and value the process of infusing Quaker beliefs and practices—such as the process of consensus-building, the affirmation of the worth of individuals, and the process of peaceful problem-solving—in the foundation and formation of a learning environment’s culture. We help our students understand issues surrounding structural inequities and how to advocate for equity within their spheres of influence.

Research

One component of the program is a project that requires each student to pick an area of educational research that interests them and not only study the current research, but design and implement their own action research project. At the end of the Spring semester, students will present their research to an educational community.

Equitable learning environments

Earlham is a Quaker institution, and as such we take seriously the principles and practices of equity and acknowledging the worth of every individual while fostering stewardship in a community that works towards peace and justice. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, Structural Equity Pedagogy, and Historically Responsive Literacy are threaded throughout almost every course in our program and are the lens through which we view an educator’s responsibility to their students, school, and community.