Post-grad Teaching Training Option

Image: MFA studentsMFA graduates have a new post-graduate option: The post-grad Teaching Training Option. This opportunity has been approved by the Fairfield University faculty committees and will be offered to interested MFA graduates starting in August 2012. This six-credit course is intended for those MFA graduates interested in teaching at the college level, more specifically, in receiving training to teach freshman students English.

General program details include:

  • Six-credit program (2 graduate courses) including a seminar in basic pedagogy of teaching college freshman English and a "hands-on" practicum in teaching.
    • Students will either teach a course and be observed or function as a teaching assistant to a Fairfield Department of English Professor. If a student teaches a freshman English class, he/she will be paid a regular salary for teaching a course (the number of such courses open to MFA students will be limited by Departmental need).
  • The first pedagogy course will be offered in August, 2012 and the hands-on practicum will be offered in the fall semester.
  • The program will accept approximately four students this August for its trial run
  • Application process will include an interview with Dr. Cinthia Gannett, Director of Freshman English at Fairfield.

This opportunity is a great chance for MFA graduates to receive formal training in teaching pedagogy as well as some actual hands-on teaching experience. When going for full- or part-time teaching positions, applicants normally have to prove knowledge of freshman pedagogy as well as some actual teaching experience. This option is intended to provide MFA graduates with both.

If interested, please contact Ms. Elizabeth Hastings at ehastings@fairfield.edu or (203) 254-4000 ext. 2688. The administrators of the MFA in Creative Writing will inform students of acceptance and provide further details of the program.