Your Path to Teaching
The Master of Arts in Teaching program prepares aspiring educators — who bring curiosity and a commitment to serving students, communities, and the profession — to earn their initial North Carolina teaching licensure. Whether entering the MAT program after earning a bachelor’s degree or through early affiliation as a UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate, our MAT students graduate ready to launch their careers to effectively support, challenge, and inspire students.
Intensive, Immersive, and Impactful
This intensive, full-time, 13-month program — running from June to May — is grounded in research-based best practices and designed to connect academic study with the realities of today’s classrooms and needs of students. Through 40+ credit hours of structured coursework and an intensive, two-semester student-teaching internship in a local public school, our students learn to lead their own classrooms alongside dedicated mentor teachers. The student-teaching internship helps bring coursework to life — providing opportunities to translate theory into practice, strengthen their instructional approach, and develop confidence in a supportive, collaborative environment.
Equipped to Make a Difference
At the conclusion of the program, our beginning teachers step into classrooms and schools prepared to empower their students’ academic success and are equipped to meet complex challenges in their classrooms and in their schools and strengthen the communities in which they work.
Licensure Areas
The MAT program offers the following tracks with coordinating licensure pathways in:
- Elementary Education (K–6)
- Secondary Education (6–9 and/or 9–12)â¯in English, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies
- Special Education (K–12) General Curriculum
Students may also pursue an add-on licensure in Special Education to deepen their preparation and broaden their impact.