The Graduate School
GRS 390K
K-12 Teacher Leader Internships
(Not currently offered)
The U.S. Department of Education estimates that the nation's school systems will need to hire more than two million new K-12 teachers during the next decade. Recent Ph.D.s offer the potential to become a national resource for providing highly qualified educators to meet this need. Persons with Ph.D.s have a deep understanding of their content areas and they are excited about their subjects. Moreover, as a result of the strong emphasis on research that is part of their training, Ph.D.s can implement inquiry-based learning in their classrooms. Ph.D.s can become teacher leaders who not only teach their content within their own classrooms, but who also become involved at local, state and national levels in curriculum reform, curriculum development and the professional development of other teachers. Teacher leaders can choose to move from teaching into content specialist jobs within a school district or in a resource center that serves multiple school districts. They can also develop and implement educational programs in a community environment, such as a museum.
Future Ph.D.s who find K-12 teaching potentially interesting may wish to intern in school classrooms in the Austin area. The best way to find out if K-12 education is right for you is to spend time working with local students and teachers. The Graduate School will allow you to earn academic credit for the internship experience.
After you have identified possible locations
where you would be interested in doing a K-12 Internship, please
submit the following form electronically and we will contact you. You
may also
e-mail or call Dr. Thomas Darwin (232-3632; tdarwin@mail.utexas.edu
).