Deepen your knowledge of socially just instruction.

The MA/MS English Education program at Illinois State is for certified secondary English language arts teachers who want to learn about and grow their efforts to purposefully foster inclusive and equitable ELA learning interactions and communities that open opportunities for all students’ literacy learning. You’ll develop skills and tools to become a reflective instructional leader in your classroom, department, school, and state. Learn more about the core curriculum and goals for the English Education program, which begins in summer 2022.

In this program, you’ll design, conduct, and write a thesis about required teacher action research in your own secondary classroom(s) through a series of scaffolded core courses. You’ll share the findings of your research with professional audiences and improve the effectiveness of your instruction and ability to advocate for the strengths and needs of diverse learners.

English Education is flexible. You can take advantage of online coursework to fit your full-time teaching schedule during the school year and summer. If you're close to campus, you can also take advantage of an exciting array of graduate courses offered on-campus. You’ll work with the program coordinator and your faculty advisor to design a plan of study that best fits your timeline and professional goals.

Our classes strengthen your disciplinary knowledge through five elective courses that enable you to choose from courses in various subfields of English studies, including but not limited to composition, creative writing, English education, linguistics, literature, publishing studies, rhetoric, teaching English language learners (ELL) or TESOL, as well as young adult and children’s literature. You can also tailor courses to help you fulfill the requirements for dual enrollment teaching at your school and its partnering college.

This program is not designed to serve those who wish to teach English to speakers of other languages in international or higher education settings. For those applicants, explore the TESOL area of interest within the master's degree in English.

If you’re seeking initial licensure to teach English language arts (ELA) in secondary schools, explore post-baccalaureate options that lead to certification by contacting Dr. Maggie Morris Davis, Director of English Education.