Curriculum
The MA in Art Education is designed for part-time students and typically takes two years to complete.
Courses are online and mostly do not have set class times. You will have weekly deadlines to meet, and some courses, particularly in studio areas and during your final student teaching semester, include live sessions.
All in-person hours take place at fieldwork and student teaching sites in New York State. Online students are always welcome at events on campus, but attendance is never mandatory.
Download a brochure to see full curriculum information
What You’ll Do
Understand artistic development across the lifespan, from a child’s earliest marks to advanced creative practice
Build your own teaching philosophy and creative voice as an artist-educator
Design curriculum and lesson plans that meet students where they are, across grade levels and learning needs
Explore contemporary theory in art pedagogy and the history of the field
Apply technology and media arts in your teaching practice
Appreciate the role art plays in opening cross-cultural understanding
To learn more about Adelphi University’s Online Master of Arts in Art Education program and download a brochure, fill out the fields to request information or call us at 516.619.2209 to talk with one of our enrollment specialists.
Program Structure
Each fall and spring, you’ll take two core courses. From there, you choose how many and how often to take electives. For example, if you have room to take more electives one term but then need to step back in another, you can adapt your elective course load to fit.
Electives are available in the fall and spring as well as in the summer and a short January intercession.
Year One
Your first year focuses on building the artistic and pedagogical foundation you’ll carry into the classroom.
- Core coursework covers the history and theory of art education, digital and visual literacy, artistic development across the lifespan and special education for arts educators.
- Two of these courses include fieldwork hours in local art rooms, so you’re observing real classrooms from early in the program.
Year Two
In your second year, coursework deepens into curriculum design, accessibility and creative arts for all learners. Fieldwork continues alongside your courses.
- This is the year you’ll take the Master’s Seminar in Arts Education, where you develop your teaching portfolio, continue building your artistic portfolio and engage with arts research.
- You’ll then move into full-time student teaching in your final semester.
- The program ends with a capstone gallery exhibition, a chance to bring your work as both an artist and an educator into public view.
Fieldwork: Get Your Footing Before Student Teaching
By the time you reach student teaching, you’ll be ready. You’ll have around 30 credits of coursework plus 100 hours of fieldwork experience in real classrooms. You walk into student teaching knowing you can do this.
Student Teaching: A Supported Progression
Student teaching takes place over your full final semester. You’ll move through a deliberate arc:
Shadowing and observing Taking on individual lessons Running your own classroom
You’ll be mentored by a classroom teacher and a university supervisor assigned by Adelphi.
Certification Built Into the Curriculum
Adelphi’s MA in Art Education fulfills the coursework requirements for both initial and professional certificates in New York State Visual Arts Pre-K–12 certification.
Master of Arts in Art Education Courses
ETH 525 – Exploring the Role of Arts in Education (3)
This course serves as an orientation to historical and contemporary practices in visual arts education. It considers issues related to educational policy, research and practice. Students will examine their assumptions about artistic experience in early childhood and adolescent education and articulate a rationale for the role of arts in education.
EDT 501 – Digital Literacies and 21st Century Skills (3)
How do multimedia, texting, chat, status updates and hypertext change the way we read and interpret texts? Students study various theories of literacy and how it changes with the introduction of digital technologies. Readings will include selections on new media, new literacy, multiliteracies, multimedia, cognition and visual semantics.
EDU 697 – Dignity for All Students (DASA) Training (0)
This training course is designed to fulfill the harassment, bullying and discrimination prevention and intervention training required for certification/licensure under the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA). The training is for six instructional hours and can be taken at Adelphi or elsewhere.
ETH 509 – Artistic Development and Creative Growth (3)
This course examines artistic development with an emphasis on how sound art education can support, enrich and nurture cognitive, emotional and social development, and enhance general educational practice. Students are required to complete 25 hours of fieldwork in Pre-K–12 settings.
EEC 600 – Introduction to Special Education (3)
This course provides educators with awareness of special education, exceptional learners, special educational law, historic and philosophical bases of special education. Focus is placed on the nature of pupils with a range of disabilities, healthcare and instructional needs. Students are required to complete 25 hours of fieldwork. This course satisfies the New York State requirement for 3 hours of seminar in “Needs of Children with Autism.”
ETH 513 – Exploring the Arts: Creative Arts for All Learners (3)
This course prepares students to include visual art in the education of children with special needs, disabilities, giftedness and other unique learning styles/differences. Students will explore interdisciplinary, expressive art activities for young people that build oral, tactile, visual, sensory and motor skills that complement learning across the curriculum.
HED 610 – Health Preparation for Teachers (1)
In this course, students explore health issues such as chronic and communicable diseases, puberty, HIV/AIDS, tobacco, drugs, alcohol, nutrition, physical fitness, child abuse and abduction, mental health and violence. This course satisfies the New York State mandate in violence prevention, child abuse and substance abuse.
ETH 788 – Masters Seminar in Arts Education (3)
Candidates conduct an inquiry project, which may include traditional research, new media curriculum development, action research, service learning or field based inquiry. Special topics will be offered. Candidates also complete the cosynthesis phase of their portfolio.
ETH 790 – Student Teaching in Art Education: Pre-Certification (6)
Students work with a cooperating art teacher and supervising university art educator who teaches a reflective practice seminar one evening each week during the student teaching semester. Students spend eight weeks in a Pre-K–6 setting and eight weeks in a 7–12 setting.
Note: Candidates not required to student teach add 3-credit studio art or exploring the arts elective.
Arts Electives
See below for elective course information.
EAR 515 – Integrating the Arts in Curricula: The Waldorf Method (3)
Students are introduced to ways in which to integrate the arts in learning, using the Waldorf educational practices as a case study. Students will study the impact of hands-on activities for integrated learning. Readings will support discussion.
EDT 503 – Technology and Instructional Design (3)
Students will learn the foundations of instructional design and understand how to integrate technology in meaningful ways in K-12, higher education or other educational settings. Students will also learn how to develop and assess learning plans that are aligned to technology standards and/or other learning outcomes.
EDT 604 – Technology and Society (3)
Students are introduced to major critical views on technology, culture, society and education. Students are also exposed to perspectives and ideologies such as Marxist, feminist and posthumanism. These positions will help students analyze and contextualize the role of technology along sociotechnical, historical, political, pedagogical and ethical lines.
EDT 610 – Online Learning (3)
Students study online learning in distance and blended classes, and in virtual schools in both higher education and K-12 settings. Looking at pedagogy, best practices, interactivity and student-centered design, this class considers the positive and negative potential of online learning in terms of universal accessibility, teacher development and economic sustainability.
ED0 500 – The Art of Teaching Shakespeare (3)
Students will apply educational theatre strategies to enliven learning about Shakespeare. They will explore the psycho-physical and creative imagination techniques of the Michael Chekhov system to develop original characters and monologues inspired by Shakespeare’s language and historical period.
No background in Shakespeare or performance required.
ETH 502 – Exploring the Arts Series Fiction & Film: The Immigrant Experience (3)
Explore the immigrant experience in the United States. A cultural studies framework will structure the study of literature, and students will explore classroom implications for reading such literature with students, especially second language learners.
ETH 505 – Exploring the Arts: Writing Our Lives in Networked Age (3)
Develop confidence and abilities in the written and spoken word. Survey a range of autobiographical texts including prose, poetry, film and new media while developing skills across a range of modes and genres.
ETH 506 – Exploring the Arts: Women in Art and Lit (3)
Students will explore the social, cultural and professional situations of women as seen through art and literature. Students will undertake a search involving studio experimentation and critical thinking to clarify their own position in our culture and generate initiatives for the innovative teaching of art and literature in the classroom.
ETH 514 – Waldorf Education for the Public School Teacher (3)
Students will explore integrated learning in the light of the philosophy and methods of Waldorf education within the context of the public school classroom. Students will focus on children’s needs and explore ways to generate curricula, through classroom activities and the creation of a portfolio of cooperative and individual work.
ETH 516 – Exploring the Arts: Museums & Performance Spaces (3)
During this course we will explore the roles of art museums in elementary curriculum (language arts, mathematics, science and social studies). Students will be introduced to a range of public artworks, related theories of artistic development at the elementary school level and interdisciplinary activities involving art history and aesthetics.
ETH 518 – Exploring the Arts: Creative Speech and Storytelling (3)
Students will explore the musicality and sensory richness of language through oral and written explorations of poetry and storytelling. They will discover the expressive capacities of their voices, gain a newfound feeling of confidence and ease while speaking and discover imaginative ways to enrich their classroom experiences.
ETH 526 – Exploring the Arts: Creative Literacies and Art Education (3)
Practice introducing artist books, graphic novels and performances into curricula to inspire curiosity and creativity. Explore literacy skills and creative teaching activities across the arts. Engage with interdisciplinary, meaningful methods of teaching theatre literacy, visual/media literacy, and museum literacy with selected poetry, performance and other works of art.
EDT 613 – Teaching With Social Media (3)
Social media prevades our social life with implications for education, business and beyond. Examine the sociological and psychological impacts, benefits and risks of social media. We examine social networking sites, (micro) blogs, video and wikis; focusing on their use in classrooms to build community, develop literacy and foster critical thinking.
ETH 791 – Independent Study in Art Education
Independent study can be arranged between a student and instructor. Project plans must be clearly stated in writing and signed by the Chair. Masters candidates are limited to two independent studies in the course of their graduate work.
ETH 503 – Exploring the Arts: The Michael Chekov Acting Technique (3)
Students will explore the two pillars of the Michael Chekhov acting technique: psycho-physical expression and the creative imagination. They will engage in specific acting exercises and reflect on their work with the goal of accessing emotions through an embodied, imaginative approach. They will apply these explorations to improvisational character studies.
ETH 508 – Exploring the Arts: Creative Dramatics (3)
Students will explore the history, foundations and methods of creative dramatics, including theatre games, creative movement, story drama, playmaking, theatre in education and drama-based instruction, among others. They will explore the role of literature and script writing in the creative dramatics curriculum.
ETH 618 – Expressive Literacies: Spoken Word, Storytelling and the Arts (3)
Through creative exploration of spoken word poetry and storytelling, students will discover engaging ways to support the oral language and literacy development of culturally and linguistically diverse learners. They will develop their own expressive literacy skills through creative speaking and writing, exploring the musicality and sensory richness of human language.
Field Work and Student Teaching
The classroom experience in this program is structured to build on itself. You spend 100 hours observing and supporting certified art educators before you move into your own full-time student teaching placement.
By the time you spend a semester in front of a class on your own, you’ve already been in real classrooms for months.
Fieldwork
Fieldwork is built into three of your courses during the second and third semesters. You’ll complete 100 hours in local K-12 schools before student teaching begins, broken down as:
- Artistic Development and Creative Growth — 25 hours
- Introduction to Special Education — 25 hours
- Exploring the Arts: Creative Arts for All Learners — 50 hours
Plan on 3 to 4 hours per week in the classroom. You’ll observe certified art educators and see how artistic development happens in real environments. The experience offers insight into how teachers plan lessons, design inclusive classrooms and handle the day-to-day work of teaching art.
You’ll start as an observer and gradually take on more active work, so by the end you’re working closely alongside the educator in the room.
Student Teaching
You’ll spend your full final semester in the classroom completing your student teaching hours. That breaks down into two eight-week placements: one in Pre-K-6 and one in 7-12.
In the classroom, a cooperating teacher mentors you daily through full days of teaching. An experienced art education faculty member also serves as your university supervisor.
In the evenings, you’ll attend a weekly seminar with faculty covering curriculum planning, classroom management, technology, career development and other aspects of instruction.
Over the course of the semester, you move from shadowing to observing to taking on individual lessons to running your own classroom, with both your cooperating teacher and university supervisor supporting you the whole way.
We’ll Secure the Placements for You
Adelphi’s Office of Community Partnerships is responsible for placing you in every field experience and student teaching assignment. Placements are chosen with an eye toward positioning you for employment after graduation.
The office has partnerships with more than 20 school districts across Nassau County, Suffolk County, New York City and upstate New York, plus out-of-state and international options.
If you have an existing connection at a school or with a teacher, you’re welcome to request that placement. We’ll work to make it happen as long as all parties agree.
The MA in Art Education and New York State Certification
The MA in Art Education is approved by New York State to prepare graduates for Visual Arts Pre-K-12 teaching certification.
The program fulfills the coursework requirements for both the initial certificate (the starting credential) and the professional certificate (the advanced credential that requires a master’s degree).
Your coursework, fieldwork and student teaching are designed to prepare you for the required New York State certification exams. After you graduate, you’ll apply for certification through the NYS TEACH system and complete the required exams.
General Education Prerequisites
To meet New York State certification requirements, you’ll need 30 undergraduate credits in art before you can be certified: 18 credits in studio, 3 credits in drawing and 9 credits in art history.
Most applicants complete these as part of their undergraduate degree. If you are missing any of these credits, you can complete them at any accredited institution either before or during your MA program.
After you apply, an adviser will review your transcript and walk you through what’s needed. If you have questions, call us at 516.619.2209.
Learn more about NY teaching certification →