After spending two years getting my master’s in educational change and leadership, overall, I see my experience has a massive moment of a lot of different kinds of emotions. Whether it was exhaustion from writing an essay for a class, or joy every time my cohort got together, it was a very memorable two years.
One of the biggest challenges I faced when starting this program was doing it independently. I had moved from Delaware to Washington State for this graduate program, and I had put myself up to the ultimate challenge, navigating a new city while navigating a new program. One of the things that stood out to me the most was this immense sense of community within my cohort, and how welcoming they were to everyone who walked through the door. As classes got harder and expectations rose, we still relied on each other.
The main pain-point I think about, is during my critical education policy analysis class. Throughout this class, professor Dr. Stone would talk about the different educational policies that are affecting the U.S education system. One of the biggest policies that we talked about is the book ban and the ban to eliminate slavery and racism from history textbooks. For the beginning of the quarter, I could really tell the emotional toll that information was having on me. When half of the country is banning something, I feel passionate about, it can feel and will feel very defeating. After having the feeling of defeat for several classes, I decided to make the most out of it. I did more research on how to support those states, and what we can do in states where it isn’t banned. I made the emotion of defeat turn into wanting to do something about it. Turning my mindset around greatly impacted how I am as an educator now, and I am always grateful for that course.
Within this reflection, I wanted to address three specific points that revolve around my master’s program:
Consideration of academic and/or personal growth from across the M.Ed. program.
Academically wise, I would say that my biggest growth was actually doing really well in the program. While I did have a high GPA while getting my bachelor’s, I was quite worried when starting the program that my grades would be less than what was expected. There were a lot of changes in my personal life when I started the program, and I think being able to maintain upstanding grades throughout this M.Ed. program allowed me the space to build confidence in my academic work, and who I am as an educator.
Discussion of how learning from the M.Ed. program will be applied in educational and professional settings in the future.
One of the biggest goals that I have for myself is to get a doctorate in education, with a focus on higher education. With this being the next step that I want to be taking, I know that I go into the next step with immense knowledge from the M.Ed. program. From critical thinking to educational policy, to effective research, I don’t question for one second that this program has helped me prepare for that next step.
The biggest conversation that’s been had in my program is this need for educational change and wanting to make a difference. The main goal that I have with wanting to get my doctorate in education is that I want to be as informed as I can be and have the most knowledge that I can, so that way when I say I want to see change and make a difference, I have a clearer path to have that.
Consideration of gaps, discomforts, and remaining questions lingering through engagement in the program.
I believe that one of the questions that I still have lingering, is a question I will go long into my career not knowing the answer to. It is a question that I have asked within various classes throughout my second year in the program, and nobody has really given me a clear answer. Some part of me thinks that together as a cohort, we are always yearning for questions that might not ever be fully answered. One of the questions I have continuously had, is “what does the end goal for education look like”? What I mean by that is that throughout so many different places, we are constantly absorbing different educational policies and laws that change our systems drastically. Those policies and laws almost never feel like it is for the better. So, what does the end goal look like? The end goal as in where everyone is supportive of the laws being enacted, and where how much money you make depends on what school you get into, or where history isn’t being changed and erased? Maybe a follow up question to that is “Will we ever get to that end goal?”.