Laura Miller: Meaningful Change through Evidence-Based Practices in the Classroom

MEd in Secondary Education

Laura Miller is a graduate student in the College of Education and Human Development studying Secondary Education. After receiving her undergraduate degree from the University of the Arts, Laura chose Temple University's Master of Secondary Education program for its strong reputation and flexible class options with the goal of becoming a progressive educator who advocates for inclusive curricula and educational reforms. She is fulfilling her student teaching requirement this fall while teaching full-time at Frankford High School.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you come to choose Temple for your graduate education?

After graduating from the University of the Arts in 2021 with a BFA in poetry, I started teaching their pre-college classes in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Getting to work with high school students was an incredible experience, but I found myself wishing I had more time with them. It felt like as soon as I was really getting to know them and making an impact, it was time to say goodbye. It helped me realize how much I wanted a full-time teaching position. I knew my art school background would give me a unique and valuable perspective as a teacher, but I wanted to ensure that I had the teaching abilities to back it, as high school is quite different from a BFA program. A master's degree in education felt like the perfect way to marry my content knowledge and passion with research-based pedagogy.

What aspects of Temple University's program were appealing to you?

I knew I wanted to stay in Philadelphia, so I did some research and found the program here made the most sense for me. It has a great reputation, and seemed flexible with online and in-person classes, so it would be okay if I had to continue working while getting my degree. Only after starting the program I discovered how research-oriented the College of Education and Human Development is, and how much I was inspired by that. In classes like those taught by Adjunct Associate Professor Dr. Aiden Brett, we would study the works of Temple University educators who came before us, who’ve gone on to become renowned scholars of education. So our classes were especially relevant to the Philly area as a result, because they were informed by educators who went to Temple and taught in its neighboring schools.

How has your experience at Temple University been in terms of building relationships with professors and peers?

I expected graduate school to be a solitary experience, but I found a great community in the College of Education. I mentioned Dr. Aiden Brett, who created the sort of collaborative classroom environment I missed out on when I was an undergraduate taking most of my classes via Zoom. He made sure that we were always doing meaningful group work, and approached the material with a sense of urgency that gave us so much confidence. Similarly, Dr. Amy Scallon has provided invaluable support during my job search and is helping me transition to a full-time teaching position. She helped me realize that in grad school, community is what you make of it. Reaching out to professors for help and making plans to study with classmates— that's how I found community here, and now I feel like I’m starting my career with a strong support system.

What impact do you hope your work will have within your field of study and beyond?

When I came to Temple I already knew that I wanted to be a progressive educator who advocates for inclusive and relevant curriculum choices, even in the face of challenges such as book bans; that I wanted to stick up for students who are often blamed for the failures of teachers and administrators. The biggest challenge in education is often the lack of power to make necessary changes due to administrative constraints. I hope that having a master's degree will give me more influence and the ability to back my ideas with research, making it easier to advocate for positive change. Everything I've learned at Temple has empowered me to actually do those things, to have an impact on students and the educational reforms that need to happen, and to actually see those as attainable goals.