The M.Ed. In Secondary Education Humanizing & Culturally Affirming Teacher (HCAT) Program is a two-year, professional, alternative certificate program in which students develop as teachers, meet certification requirements, and earn a master’s degree while teaching full-time in middle or high schools. With a conceptual framework based on equity literacy, the program uses context specific pedagogy to help nurture teachers’ appreciation of the unique schools and students they serve.
Students in the program, called teaching interns, are hired as teachers of record in a Southern Arizona middle school or high school where, as a teacher of record on an Alternative Teaching Certificate, they deepen their teaching practice while being paid as full-time teachers. Throughout the program, teaching interns receive support and guidance from assigned university coaches and mentors as well as a school-based mentor in the schools in which they teach.
