ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPT
Below you will find an annotated transcript of the courses I took while in the Master of Arts of Education at Michigan State University. Each annotation provides not only an overview of the course, but a reflection on what I learned and gained from my participation in each course.
EAD: Educational Administration
ED: Education
TE: Teacher Education
2018
EAD 850: Issues & Strategies in Multicultural Education
Dr. Riyad Shahjahan, Spring semester
EAD 850 served as my introduction into the MAED program at MSU. This course pushed me to think more deeply about the intersections of education, privilege, and power, and how I can better create a classroom that truly addresses and celebrates diversity among students. In addition, I also engaged with critical self-reflection on how multicultural education functions in my own professional context. Throughout this course, we were asked to analyze how education is represented in the media and how those representations serve to maintain the status quo of the dominant culture’s hold on education, and how we can use the concepts and theories discussed in the class to challenge that status quo. For example, my final project was an evaluation of the “truths” of education as seen in the films Freedom Writers and Waiting for Superman.
EAD 863: Training & Professional Development
Dr. John M. Dirkx, Summer semester
I took this course because I was interested in exploring teaching and education in a different manner than I had thus far in my professional experiences. I had been tasked with leading a professional learning cohort at my job before I took this course, and I thought that this course could help me better lead training and professional development sessions in the future. Throughout this course, I learned how to not only design sessions for professional trainings and development roles, but how to cooperate with organizations and clients who were hosting the sessions. For example, I learned how to apply the ADDIE approach to develop trainings as well as concepts of reflective conversations to make professional learning experiences more purposeful and meaningful.
ED 800: Educational Inquiry
Dr. Steven Weiland & Dr. Aaron Enfield, Summer semester
ED 800 helped me focus on why I believe education and teaching is so important because the course focused on our own inquiry into what we learn and why we learn. The course was designed using four frameworks: classroom-based research, ethnographic participant observation and personal narrative, history and biography, and psychological theory in relation to curriculum. Through engagement with readings and my own experiences, I was able to interrogate my own beliefs in regard to the purpose of education and re-think how I organize my classroom and my curriculum.
2019
TE 823: Learning Communities & Equity
Dr. Sandro Barros, Spring semester
In this course, we examined the interrelationships between education and social orders. Specifically, we studied how pedagogy is impacted by differences in culture, race, class, and how this can lead to inequities. Readings in this course truly pushed me to think outside of my own experiences as a student part of the dominant culture to better understand how I can provide effective and equitable education for all students. I was urged to think about the role of a community in educating a child—both the community in and out of the school environment. The final assignment for this class was an autoethnography where I was first asked to examine my own educational experiences and how they related to equity; I then used these experiences to reflect on my professional practices in relation to learning communities and equity.
TE 818: Curriculum in its Social Context
Chris Kaiser, Fall semester
This course was focused on digging into curriculum and its larger role beyond being a mechanism to deliver educational content. Throughout TE 818, we viewed curriculum through a historical, social, philosophical, and political lens. What was most interesting to me about this course was the manner in which I learned how to view and question curriculum as more than just what is taught, but how it is taught and in what environments is it taught. For example, I thought more about how as a teacher, I present materials in relation to my own background and experiences, thought more about how I set up my classroom, and thought more about how what I don’t teach can have just as big of an impact as what I do teach. The final project for this course was to write a curriculum analysis; this paper helped me see the areas in my own curriculum that I could improve to create more purposeful and equitable educational environments.
EAD 853: Education Finance & Policy
Dr. John Yun & Dr. Maria Gistinger, Summer semester
I decided to take this course to examine how schools are financed. In this course, I specifically learned about how schools in Michigan are financed and how changes in policy since proposal A have affected public school funding and equity. Perhaps one of the most useful parts of this course that I did not expect was the aspect of engaging the educational community and stakeholders in conversations about budget decisions. The culminating project for this course—developing a school budget of my own using the Royal Oak Public School district—helped me understand the intricacies and complexities when it comes to creating budgets and maintaining fiscal responsibility while still effectively serving the community and funding all students appropriately and equitably.
EAD 866: Teaching in Postsecondary Education
Dr. John M. Dirkx, Fall semester
As I continued through the MAED program, I became increasingly unsure if I wanted to stay a classroom teacher or continue on the path to becoming involved in educational leadership or curriculum development. Part of this exploration was to think about what teaching at the postsecondary level would be like, which is why I took this course. In this course, we examined approaches to learning and teaching, effective engagement and assessment strategies, concepts of learning and professional development, different characteristics of learners, and methods of instructional design and planning through theoretical and empirical research. What was most helpful about this course was the “clinical” nature of it. We were often asked to interview and observe educators in postsecondary settings in order to better understand the frameworks through which the course was run. For example, for this course, I worked on creating a professional development workshop for my colleagues using the theories and concepts covered and subsequently reflected on the process and its success.
2020
EAD 801: Leadership & Organizational Development
Dr. Kristy Cooper Stein, Spring semester
Because I had begun to think about how my career may look outside classroom teaching and in a more leadership-driven role, I decided to take this course. This course focused on and examination of different ways to lead and how those leadership types may operate within different organization contexts. We also studied how organizations came to be and what types of leadership are most effective for which types of organizations. We also looked through leadership & organization through the lens of justice and equity, and how certain types of leadership can perpetuate an unequal status quo. Though this course was focused more on leadership outside of a classroom and on a bigger scale within a school environment, it did help me reflect on how I want to lead my students as a classroom teacher. This course also helped me think about how I may enact leadership should I move to a more consistent leadership position within a school in the future.
EAD 864: Adult Career Development
Dr. Steven Weiland, Summer semester
Continuing with my thoughts that I may one day move outside of high school classroom teaching, I decided to take this course in career development, thinking it may help me if I decided to go into instructional coaching in the future. In this course, we examined how career development is a natural part of our lives, and how it is a constant cycle of learning, reflecting, and applying. We also learned about the history of career development through the biographical lenses of many people who are famous for their career success, such as Katherine Coleman, Steve Jobs, and Glen Holland. Underpinning the coursework was the question “Is there a right or a wrong way to develop in one’s career?” Through careful analysis of the research literature and biographical representations, I learned from this course that our relationship with career development is fluid and ever-evolving.
ED 870: Capstone Seminar
Dr. Matthew Koehler & Aric Gaunt, Fall semester
In the final course to earn my master’s degree, the capstone course offers me an opportunity to reflect on and showcase the work I have completed as a student in the MAED program. In creating this web-based portfolio, I have been able to reflect on my past goals and how they inform my future goals in addition to being able to demonstrate the growth I have achieved through my engagement in educational inquiry and academic rigor. Part of this course has also been to share and reflect on my classmates’ portfolios, which has helped me think deeper about the creation of my own and how I want to present my academic accomplishments. The capstone portfolio awards me the ability to practice using technology as a means of gathering and showcasing all the work I have put into this degree.