Master of Arts in Teaching

× The Bard MAT Program joins the New York State Department of Education (NYSED) in its commitment to the belief that a “complex system of biases and structural inequities is at play” in US schools, “deeply rooted in our country’s history, culture, and institutions. This system of inequity—which routinely confers advantage and disadvantage based on linguistic background, gender, skin color, and other characteristics—must be clearly understood, directly challenged, and fundamentally transformed. New York State understands that the responsibility of education is not only to prevent the exclusion of historically silenced, erased, and disenfranchised groups, but also to assist in the promotion and perpetuation of cultures, languages and ways of knowing that have been devalued, suppressed, and imperiled by years of educational, social, political, [and] economic neglect and other forms of oppression” (Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework 6). These shared commitments mean that Bard MAT faculty aim to incorporate an equity and inclusion dimension into our courses, that we regularly share and develop our understandings with one another, and that we expect our students to learn about, practice, and honor these commitments, as well, in their graduate coursework and in their work with secondary school students.