Teaching and Teacher Leadership

The TTL Program is designed to help you gain the knowledge and practice the skills essential to leading others in learning — and will create pathways to success that will allow you to thrive as an expert practitioner and mentor in your community. A minimum of 42 credits are required to graduate with an Ed.M. degree from HGSE.

The main elements of this academic year curriculum are:

• The HGSE Foundations courses (12 credits) — How People Learn, Leading Change, Evidence, and Equity and Opportunity — in which students gain core skills central to the profession of education.
  • Commence your Foundations studies with How People Learn, an immersive online course that runs June–July and requires a time commitment of 12–15 hours per week.
  • You will continue Foundations with Leading Change, Evidence, and Equity and Opportunity on campus in August. 
  • Your Equity and Opportunity Foundations experience culminates in an elected course, which will take place during terms when electives are available.

To fulfill the program requirement, students must take a minimum of 12 credits specific to TTL.

• The TTL Program Core Experience (4 credits), is a fall semester course where all students come together to observe, analyze, and reflect on high-quality teaching.
• Teacher Licensure Strand required courses include:
  • Teaching methods courses (10 credits) in the chosen content area, which begin in June. 
  • A Summer Field-Based Experience (4 credits), held on site in Cambridge in July, allows you to begin to hone your teaching practice. 
  • Two courses focused on inclusivity and diversity in the classroom (6 credits). 
  • Field experiences (8 credits), where students in the Teacher Licensure strand will intern or teach in Boston-area schools.
• Teaching and Leading Strand coursework:
  • Individuals interested in enhancing their own teaching practice can engage in coursework focused on new pedagogies, how to best serve diverse student populations, and special topics related to classrooms and teaching.  
  • Experienced teachers may wish to enroll in HGSE’s Teacher Leadership Methods course, designed to provide cohort-based experience with skills and techniques used to drive adult learning and improve teaching.
  • Candidates can take elective coursework based on interests or career goals, which includes the opportunity to specialize in an HGSE Concentration.

Advancing Research on Effective Teacher Preparation 

As a student in the TTL Program, you will have the opportunity to contribute to HGSE’s research on what makes effective teacher preparation. This research seeks to build an evidence base that contributes to the field’s understanding of effective approaches to teacher training, including how to support high-quality instruction, successful models of coaching and mentorship, and effective approaches to addressing the range of challenges facing our students.

TTL students will be able to participate in research studies as part of their courses, and some will also serve as research assistants, gaining knowledge of what works, as well as a doctoral-type experience at a major research university.

Explore our course catalog. (All information and courses are subject to change.)

Note: The TTL Program trains educators to work in U.S. classrooms. Required coursework focuses on U.S. examples and contexts.

Students who want to earn certification to teach at the middle school and high school levels in U.S. schools should select the Teaching Licensure strand. Students will pursue Massachusetts initial licensure in secondary education, which is transferrable to all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

TTL provides coursework and fieldwork that can lead to licensure in grades 5–12 in English language arts, 5-12 history/social science,  5-8 and 8-12 mathematics, 5-8 general science, 8-12 biology, 8-12 chemistry, and 8-12 physics. In the Teaching Licensure strand, you will apply to one of two fieldwork models:

• The residency model – our innovative classroom immersion model, with significant funding available, in which students assume full teaching responsibilities in the fall following acceptance to the program. The residency model starts in January following acceptance to TTL, with a Spring Residency Experience.
• The internship model – which ramps up teaching responsibility more gradually and starts the summer following acceptance to the program.

In both models, you will be supported by Harvard faculty and school-based mentors — as well as by peers in the TTL Program, with additional opportunities for network-building with HGSE alumni. Both models require applicants to have an existing familiarity with U.S. schools to be successful. Learn more about the differences between the residency and internship models.

The deadline to apply for the Residency Model, with priority for the Harvard Fellowship for Teaching is November 1, 2024. The priority deadline for the Internship Model, with consideration for the Harvard Fellowship for Teaching is November 1, 2024, with the standard deadline being January 5, 2025.

Summer Experience for Teaching Licensure Candidates

All students in the Teaching Licensure strand will participate in the Summer Experience supporting the Cambridge-Harvard Summer Academy (CHSA), which takes place in Cambridge in July. Through your work at CHSA, you will help middle and high school students in the Cambridge Public Schools with credit recovery, academic enrichment, and preparation for high school. Students in the Teaching Licensure strand will teach students directly as part of a teaching team. This is an opportunity for you to immediately immerse yourself in a school environment and begin to practice the skills necessary to advance your career.

Explore our course catalog. (All information and courses are subject to change.)

The Teaching and Leading strand is designed for applicants who want to enhance their knowledge of the craft of teaching or assume roles as teacher leaders, but are not pursuing a teaching license. Candidates for the Teaching and Leading strand will share a common interest in exploring and advancing the practice of effective teaching, with the goal of understanding how to improve learning experiences for all students. The program will be valuable for three types of applicant:

• Individuals interested in teaching, but who do not require formal licensure to teach. This includes applicants who might seek employment in independent schools or in informal educational sectors such as arts education, after-school programs, tutoring, and youth organizations. 
• Experienced teachers who wish to deepen their practice by learning new pedagogies and developing new capacities to help students thrive.
• Experienced teachers who seek leadership roles — from organizing school-based initiatives to more formal roles like coaching and professional development.

As a candidate in the Teaching and Leading strand, your own interests will guide your journey. If you are seeking a teacher leader role, TTL faculty will guide you to courses that focus on growing your skills as a reflective leader, preparing you to facilitate adult learning, helping you understand how to disrupt inequity, and teaching you how to engage in best practices around coaching, mentoring, and data analysis. If you are seeking to learn about the craft of teaching, our faculty will similarly direct you to recommended courses and opportunities that will meet your goals.

Students in this strand can also take on internships within the TTL Program (e.g., program supervisor) or the HGSE community, and at surrounding schools or organizations. And you can customize your learning experience by pursuing one of HGSE's six Concentrations.

Note: Applicants in the Teaching and Leading strand should expect a focus on U.S. schools.

Explore our course catalog. (All information and courses are subject to change.)

Students will work closely with faculty associated with their area of study. View our faculty directory for a full list of HGSE faculty.

The TTL Program prepares you for a variety of career pathways, including:

Teaching Licensure Strand:

• Licensed middle or high school teacher in English language arts, general science, biology, chemistry, physics, math, or history/social science

Teaching and Leading Strand: 

• Classroom teachers
• Curriculum designers 
• Department heads and grade-level team leaders 
• District-based instructional leadership team members 
• Instructional and curriculum leadership team members 
• Out-of-school educators; teachers in youth organizations or after-school programs
• Professional developers and content specialists 
• School improvement facilitators 
• School-based instructional coaches and mentor teachers
• Teachers of English language learners
• International educators seeking to understand and advance a career in U.S. education

As a TTL student, you will build a community around a shared commitment to teaching and teacher development. You will learn from and with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, levels of expertise, and instructional settings. To further connections with the field, you are invited to attend “meet the researcher” chats, engage in learning through affinity groups, and interact with teaching-focused colleagues across the larger university, by taking courses and participating in activities both at HGSE and at other Harvard schools.