COA faculty and alumni contribute to new volume on innovative P–12 learning environments
Their chapter highlights how College of the Atlantic’s teacher certification program prepares educators for culturally responsive, trust‑centered learning.
A book chapter from Emerald Publishing showcases how College of the Atlantic–trained teachers are bringing trust‑centered, student‑driven, and community‑engaged learning into rural Maine classrooms.
“Trust: Foundation to Passion‑Driven, Student‑Activist, and Community‑Engaged Learning,” authored by professor emerita Bonnie Tai and alumni educators Abby Plummer MPhil '16, Sarah Kearsley MPhil '16, and Beth Heidemann '91, appears in Active and Engaging Classrooms: A Practical Exploration of P–12 School Contexts.
The chapter illustrates the experience of COA graduates teaching at the early childhood, upper elementary, and middle school levels. Each relates how culturally responsive, democratic, developmentally appropriate, experiential, and place‑based education shape their daily practice—approaches rooted in COA’s interdisciplinary educator preparation program, which emphasizes culturally sustaining education, experiential and place‑based learning, developmental psychology foundations, and extensive practicum experiences leading to Maine teacher certification. which emphasizes culturally sustaining education, experiential and place‑based learning, developmental psychology foundations, and extensive practicum experiences leading to Maine teacher certification.
Across their classrooms, trust emerges as the foundation for active and engaging learning. The authors describe how trust enables teacher autonomy, supports student choice and collaboration in curriculum design, and strengthens connections between schools and their surrounding communities. Their examples include inquiry‑based projects, curricular co‑design, novel experiences, and authentic place‑based learning that integrates global issues such as climate change, food systems, and human‑caused environmental challenges.
Together, the chapter demonstrates how COA’s educator preparation program equips teachers to design learning environments that challenge, activate, and support students, and how COA alumni are carrying those values into public schools across Maine and elsewhere.
College of the Atlantic’s educational studies program offers Maine’s state‑approved pathways to teacher certification, supporting students interested in teaching, learning, and educational change across a wide range of contexts. Through coursework, field experiences, and community partnerships, students explore how human ecology informs the work of educators in schools, museums, outdoor programs, and other learning environments.