Secondary Education (M.Ed.)

Engage in rich coursework focused on critical perspectives and goals connected to using education to create a more equitable society.

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Program Overview

Secondary Education graduates hold teaching positions in the United States and around the world. They find teaching jobs in public, private, and charter schools-typically the jobs they want, in the places they prefer.

Collaborate with faculty on current research and gain invaluable experience teaching at the middle and high school levels. Specialize in the area you plan to teach in with a 2-year program that includes licensure. Deepen your understanding of subject matter for teaching, focusing on eliciting students' ideas about subject matter and connecting students' ideas to that subject matter, all while partnering with schools as a member of a teaching team.

  • Secondary licensure in Grades 6-12
    • Social Studies
    • Science (biology, chemistry, earth science, physics)
    • Mathematics
    • English
  • Licensure in Grades K-12
  • Licensure in Grades preK-12

Careers

Of job-seeking Secondary Education graduates, 96% were employed or attending graduate school within four months of graduation.  Examples of careers for program graduates:

  • Eighth Grade Science Teacher, Jefferson Middle School, Champaign, Illinois 
  • English Teacher, Los Gatos High School, Los Gatos, California
  • History Teacher, IB School Quito, Ecuador 
  • Science Teacher, Hume-Fogg High School, Nashville, Tennessee
  • Teaching Assistant, Fulbright Western Hemisphere, Buenos Aries, Argentina 
  • Mission and Vision

    As a secondary education program, our mission is to engage teacher candidates in justice-oriented, disciplinary pedagogies. We work to understand the systemic inequities in our schools and society. We care deeply that teacher candidates bring their humanity to this work, in a way that develops and sustains their cultural identities.

    Our vision is to prepare teachers to teach toward a more just society, to build teachers who embrace their students' humanity as they:

    • bridge theoretical and practical models for teaching,
    • implement curricula focused on rigor, joy, and socio-political consciousness,
    • develop a commitment to work toward educational equity and access, and
    • envision their role in working toward productive system-level change.

    Our vision embraces the notion that our students are both honoring their own positionally and seeking to understand and embrace the same in their students.

Program Facts

Program Director: Heather Johnson
Admissions Coordinator: Erica Bodden
Admission Term: Fall (2-year program)
Credit Hours: 30 hours for those seeking licensure in Music; 33 hours for those seeking licensure in Math, Science, Social Studies, and World Languages; 36 hours for those seeking licensure in English

Application Dates

  • Application Deadline 1

    January 3

  • Application Deadline 2

    February 3

  • Rolling Admissions

    After February 3*

    *Applications received after the Feb 3 second deadline are reviewed on a rolling basis and accepted as space and funds allow.

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Program Curriculum

There are two tracks to the Secondary Education degree, allowing you to complete the second year of the master's degree in either a traditional student teaching model or a job-embedded approach.

Making your choice between student teaching or the job-embedded pathway is a decision you can make after you have had some field experience in your first year.

Coursework

  • Courses and Practicum

    Core Courses

    All Secondary Education students are required to take the following six hours of core courses:

    • EDUC 6300 Advanced Social and Philosophical Aspects of Education
    • EDUC 6310 Classroom Ecology

    Subject-Specific Learning and Pedagogy

    The M.Ed. in Secondary Education includes an in-depth experience in subject-specific courses. The total number of credit hours for subject-specific learning and pedagogy will be determined by the licensure you seek.

    English: 16-18 hours

    • ENED 6340 Reading and Learning with Print and New Media or ENED 6330 Social and Philosophical Foundations of Adolescent Literacies
    • ENED 6350 Adolescent Readers
    • ENED 6360 Literature, Pop Culture, and New Media
    • ENED 6370 Teaching Literature and Media to Adolescents
    • ENED 6380 Teaching Writing and Media Composition
    • ENED 7973 Seminar in Teaching Secondary English

    Mathematics: 12 hours

    • MTED 6370 Advanced Teaching of Mathematics in Secondary Schools
    • MTED 6380 Computers, Teaching, and Mathematical Visualization
    • MTED 7330 Introduction to Mathematical Literacies
    • MTED 7973 Seminar in Teaching Secondary Mathematics

    Science: 12 hours

    • SCED 6370 Advanced Teaching of Science in Secondary Schools
    • SCED 7330 Introduction to Literacies in Science
    • SCED 7400 Modeling in the Secondary Science Classroom
    • SCED 7973 Seminar in Teaching Secondary Science

    Social Studies: 12 hours

    • SSED 6240 Human Geography
    • SSED 6370 Advanced Teaching of Social Studies in Secondary Schools
    • SSED 7330 Intro to Literacies in Social Studies
    • SSED 7973 Seminar in Teaching Secondary Social Studies

    Field-Based Practicum Work

    All students also complete eight hours of field-based work.

    • EDUC 7972 Internship in Teaching: Secondary

    Licensure Requirements

    All students are required to complete four to six hours of coursework to meet the requirements for teacher licensure.

    • EDUC 6510 Principles of English Language Learner Education or EDUC 6520 Foundations of English Language Learner Education
    • SPED 7000 Education and Psychology of Exceptional Learners

    All students seeking licensure additionally will need first aid and CPR training within two years before licensure recommendation. Students seeking licensure in English will need to complete two semesters (or the equivalent) of college-level coursework in a foreign language.

    Elective Courses

    Depending on your specific licensure, you may need to complete up to five additional credit hours of coursework to complete your degree. Elective courses may be taken across Peabody College, as well as in other disciplines offered across Vanderbilt University upon consultation with your faculty advisor.

Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

As a secondary education program, our mission is to engage teacher candidates in justice-oriented, disciplinary pedagogies. We work to understand and disrupt the systemic inequities in our schools and society. We care deeply that teacher candidates bring their humanity to this work, in a way that develops and sustains their cultural identities.

Our vision is to prepare teachers to teach toward a more just society, to build teachers who embrace their students' humanity as they:

  • bridge theoretical and practical models for teaching,
  • implement curricula focused on rigor, joy, and socio-political consciousness,
  • develop a commitment to work toward educational equity and access, and
  • envision their role in working toward productive system-level change.

Our vision embraces the notion that our students are both honoring their own positionality and seeking to understand and embrace the same in their students.

Selected Faculty Research

Andy Hostetler, professor of the practice of social studies education

Andy Hostetler, professor of the practice of social studies education

Professor Hostetler's research focuses on how social studies learning can engage people in their community and stimulate action for social change. His projects include exploring how high school students used archival materials and maps to tell (under)told stories of local neighborhood histories and investigating how novice social studies teachers navigate classroom discourses around relevant social issues.

Heather Johnson, professor of the practice of science education

Heather Johnson, professor of the practice of science education

Professor Johnson is exploring a critical framework for ambitious science teaching that introduces culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies to preservice teachers during their professional year; she is also examining how to support novice teachers in noticing and responding to moments of epistemic injustice in the secondary science classroom.

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