Teaching
saic.edu/mat
The Master of Arts in Teaching program prepares students to become teachers of art, design, and visual culture while strengthening their own artmaking practices. Connecting contemporary practices of art and design with current educational theory and practice, the program fulfills PreK-12 visual arts educator licensure requirements in Illinois.
Education and empowerment through art
Everyday experiences and concerns of youth and communities are the basis for identifying subjects that can be explored through artmaking. The goal of SAIC’s Art Education community is to develop engaged and reflective teachers and artists whose work creates transformative experiences that support community engagement and foster social justice.
Rigorous, vibrant curriculum
The curriculum is taught by artists-educators whose artistic practices and scholarly writing provide vivid examples of new roles and possibilities for 21st- century art and art education. Students integrate artmaking with learning and practicing teaching strategies and are encouraged to reflect deeply on traditional and cutting-edge theories and practices of art, design, and education. The curriculum addresses the aesthetic, technological, cultural, and political implications of schools and curricula. Students choose electives in contemporary art, craft and design, new technologies, art history, and visual critical studies to enrich their artistic and teaching practices.
Innovative teaching experience
Students teach in urban and suburban public elementary and secondary schools throughout the Chicago area. The Art Education Department identifies mentor teachers and placement schools whose teaching practices and educational climate exemplify innovative and effective learning environments. SAIC faculty supervisors and mentor teachers work closely with apprentice teachers, providing one-on-one tutorials in developing a teaching style suited to each apprentice teacher and school environment.
Designing a personalized curriculum
Each student develops curriculum projects that connect learning art-making techniques to significant social and cultural concerns. These multi-week projects take place during apprentice teaching and invite elementary or high school students to become co-researchers with their teacher, learning to use their artmaking and cultural investigations to engage big ideas. This empowers students and teachers to use the arts as an avenue of meaningful participation in shaping democratic cultural communities.
Professional opportunities
The program fulfills State of Illinois PreK-12 visual arts professional licensure requirements, and our graduates build art education careers in schools and other educational settings throughout the United States. Alums secure wellpaying teaching jobs upon graduation, and we typically receive more referral requests for recent graduates than we can meet.
Faculty
ADAM J. GRETEMAN
ANDRES L. HERNANDEZ
MELITA MORALES
JOHN PLOOF
SARAH ROSS
For complete faculty listing visit: saic.edu/mat
Application Deadline: January 10
Admission to the MAT program requires that students have at least 27 hours of studio coursework demonstrating competency in a minimum of five artistic mediums. These 27 semester credits must include 9 semester credits of upper division (junior, senior, or graduate-level) studio coursework.
Curriculum Requirements
Teacher Preparation Core
› ARTED 5015 Practices of Art and Design Education 1: Children and Youth (3)
› ARTED 5021 Becoming Human: Evolving Conceptions of Human Development (3)
› ARTED 5200 Cyberpedagogy (3)
› ARTED 5105 Ethical & Pedagogical Issues: Cultural Workers and the Public Sphere (3)
› ARTED 5900 Practices of Art and Design Education 2: Teens and Adults (3)
› ARTED 5125 Doing Democracy (3)
› ARTED 5011 Curriculum Theory, Pedagogy, and Possibilities (3)
› ARTED 6100 Cultural Approaches to Production (3)
Practicum and Apprentice Teaching
› ARTED 6190 Practicum: Elementary and Secondary Experiences (3)
› ARTED 6900 Apprentice Teaching (9)
Electives
› Studio, Art/Design History, Art/Design Analysis, Visual Critical Studies
Total Credit Hours
Application Process
Submit:
› Online application
› Application fee
› Official college transcripts
› Statement of purpose
› Letters of recommendation
› ePortfolio
› Résumé
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Teaching in Chicago
Chicago offers opportunities to teach art, design, and visual culture in diverse Chicago schools, museums, galleries, and community settings.
SAIC’s teacher preparation program coursework fulfills Illinois’s requirements to become a licensed PreK-12 visual arts teacher.
