Throughout my  tenure in graduate school, I have developed immensely. Although people have long joked that Sarah wants to be a professional student, I really feel this program taught me to value being a lifelong learner and solidified my desire to build a love of lifelong learning in my students and colleagues I encounter. The three main “themes of learning” I have gained are an enhanced understanding of adult education, a newfound perspective on theory versus practice, and a true commitment to being a reflective educator who values storytelling in life and in education. Earning my master’s degree has been more valuable on a personal level than I originally thought it would be when I entered the program. The Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program developed me intrinsically and gave me a personal focus that challenged my views on myself as an educator, my views of the educational landscape, and helped develop my professional values which will in turn guide my career. 

 

Teaching in Adult Education

 

My undergraduate program trained and certified me to be an elementary teacher. My career and professional experience brought me to higher education. One of the things that I most desired when beginning my MA program was to develop my knowledge and background in higher education contexts and institutions, as well as learn more about teaching in adult education. Two classes were instrumental in my development as a higher education professional, EAD 861 Adult Learning and EAD 866 Teaching in Postsecondary Education                         .

 

Teaching in Postsecondary Education felt like a methodology course for my teaching internship from so long ago.  I learned a great deal about motivation in higher education and adult learners, instructional design and planning, assessment strategies, and adult learning theories. This course provided well-grounded insight in how to incorporate my background in elementary education and teacher preparation to bridge the k-12 and postsecondary teaching contexts. In this course I created revamped syllabi for the Chinese Language Teacher Certification program, including Teacher Education 894 which is a course that I currently teach. I learned to assess different forms of instructional strategies, from lecturing to online education, to motivation for traditional and non-traditional adult students. The acumen gained in this course made me much more confident in my current role. Through EAD 861, Adult Learning, I gained a more profound understanding of how social conditioning affects all aspects of life. This course explored adult learning using the lens of critical race theory to look at the historical and current contexts of what is an adult learner, as well as what constitutes adult learning. This course centered non-western cultural norms and knowledge surrounding adult learning. I have an international education focus to my work so exploring the function and structure of non-western societies really enabled me to reflect on my positionality, surrounding my context of teaching students and intern teachers from the non-western world. My learning from this class has been invaluable to my growth and personal development.  

 

Reframing Theory vs. Practice

 

I've always struggled with taking best practices, “what you should do”, or the sort of “pie in the sky” brand new, research theory and integrating it into the classroom environment in a practical manner. How to make theory applicable to practice has always been a looming question in my mind. The MAED program has taught me that it is not theory versus practice but rather how to implement theory into practice. This reframing and knowledge of how to integrate theory into practice in specific learning contexts has been a tremendous growth point for me over the span of my graduate program. I have broadened my understanding of how to integrate social conditioning, individual identities, and the research surrounding social issues/social justice into practical teaching context. Two courses were especially conducive to this learning, although I would say all 10 courses that I completed to earn my master’s degree were all applicable to furthering my knowledge. The two courses that pushed my growth in this reframing were TE 822 Issues of Culture in Classroom and Curriculum, as well as EAD 822 Engaging Diverse Families and Students.

 

TE 822 fulfilled the core issues requirement in my academic program. The objectives of the course related to teacher identity and socio-cultural background, the functions of schooling in society, curriculum diversity in education, and how schools and classrooms function as societal cultural systems. In this course we explored how our cultural background as students and teachers function in relationship to student engagement, developing multicultural curriculum, and assessment components. This course had wonderful summative assessments including teacher interviews and critical text analysis centered around critical race theory and how it is implemented in the classroom.  However, I feel I grew the most from the formative assessments. This course was very intensive in the amount research reading required, and most of the ideas were new to me. We engaged with a multitude of critical theories in addition to critical race studies as we learned how to incorporate multicultural curriculum and assessment into the classroom. This course enabled me to have a framework for critical reflection and interrogating both my beliefs and the curriculum I produce. This empowered me to expand my horizons on how theory and practice can be integrated together for powerful change. The discussion boards were a critical element throughout the semester, plus we had to write 6 critical response papers. These formative assessments responded to the weekly readings and were reflective elements for why and how the research informed our thinking about multicultural education. How had the readings challenged our beliefs in honoring and integrating cultural differences as well as how did they relate to our own beliefs and values about education. Finally, we reflected on how we would use the authors’ research, ideas, strategies, etc. from their work to inform and improve our own teaching and curriculum. This was so powerful for me in learning how to take theoretical knowledge to deepen my understanding of a topic and then apply it practically in classroom context to better engage and reach students.

 

TE 822 Engaging Diverse Families and Students gathered so much of the knowledge from my entire program into focus. This course expounded on all my newfound theoretical learning as well as extended into practical considerations and theoretical application. This course taught me to interrogate my own intersectional identities and how to use that knowledge in the classroom and as a school leader to build on students’ and their families’ community funds of knowledge and to teach/lead with a true multicultural mindset. In this course we had to create our own comprehensive literature review and then utilize our newfound understandings from our literature review to engage with a personal, comprehensive problem of practice and to integrate the theory from the literature review into practical context. Since I currently teach international students in a teacher preparation program, this was a true opportunity for me to reframe theory into practice. Our program is focusing on helping our interns build a bigger toolkit that focuses on critical race theory and asset based instructional strategies and mindset. In my literature review I focused on three main themes of research to increase knowledge of how deficit practices affect both students and teachers. The themes I examined in my literature review were (1) Preservice Teacher Preparation (Deficit Language focus), (2) Critical Race Theory (CRT) relating to Chinese teacher preparation, and (3) Culturally Responsive and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies. Finding and reading all the research relating to my problem of practice helped me learn to frame problems and the accompanying learning from multiple perspectives as well as begin to build an arsenal of strategies and ideas for addressing such issues in practice. The title of my comprehensive project was “Responding to Preservice and Novice Chinese Teachers Deficit Practices regarding Building Relationships with Students and Families to become more Culturally Proficient and Responsive K12 Teachers”. This project was the first time that I had used intersectionality and critical theory to really drive my own instruction and my own teaching practice but also to think of these issues at the macro or programmatic level. I had examined how my intersectional identity contributed to my own autobiographical knowledge production but had not necessarily taken it to the next level of deeply interrogating how to express these beliefs and values in my teaching, leadership, and curriculum. The paper also allowed me to research and generate methods to help my intern teachers explore and respond to anti-Chinese or anti-Asian expressions as well. These assignments (the final literature review and the final comprehensive paper) served to bring all of my expanding understanding together to learn how leaders can integrate theory into practical contexts to drive both instruction and student learning. 

 

Reflection and Storytelling

 

The final theme of learning that I attained from my program is reflection and storytelling. In talking to any educator, they will often point to the value of reflection as being critical regardless of if you are a student or an educator. As an educator I’ve always valued being reflective as an important growth mechanism, but my graduate studies have shown me how substantial a role that reflection should play in growth on both a personal and professional level. Storytelling might seem to be an odd theme for learning, but I think ultimately, that's how I view myself. A teacher is a storyteller. We motivate students, reach and engage students, and build relationships and community with students through the stories that we tell and the stories that we hear. A reflective mindset plus vulnerable and authentic opportunities for storytelling binds teachers and students together in learning and in community. All of my classes provided me with learning material to reflect upon but the first course that I took in the MAED program, EAD 850 Issues and Strategies in Multicultural Education, was truly an eye-opening course. This course showcased the large component that social justice and social issues education was going to play in my graduate program. This course highlighted the societal and multi-cultural understandings surrounding the production of personal understanding of identity, critical reflection on diversity, colonization, and globalization in education. This course taught me to reflect on my own positionality and how the social construction of my identity exhibits itself in my teaching, interactions with colleagues and students, and in the curriculum that I produce. Social conditioning became the lens through which I could reflect on all of the other coursework and all of the other assignments that I produced throughout the entire program. I have spent a great deal of time reflecting on how my own position and my own personal social conditioning help me or hinder me in relating to students of diverse backgrounds across the K12 spectrum and across the higher educational spectrum. 

 

Exit Stage Left

 

As I prepare to graduate and transition out of my academic program and into the next phase of my career and personal development, I take with me a much larger repertoire of teaching strategies, deeper understanding of social justice issues, an arsenal of research and teaching techniques, plus a powerful love of lifelong learning. My studies have provided me with a deeper commitment to and understanding of adult education, a toolkit for integrating theory into practice, plus critical thinking skills for utilizing reflection and storytelling in my teaching context and professional life. As I leave the MAED program, I have newfound excitement and goals. I will continue to value all students’ and families’ funds of knowledge, work to better understand students’ and colleagues’ experiences, as well as continue my goal of working to build sustainable programs that bridge the K-12 and postsecondary educational landscapes. I have learned the value in active listening and authentic communication, in addition to becoming a more critical thinker, a more knowledgeable scholar, and an educator passionately committed to building engaging and sustaining communities for all students.