Social and Cultural Analysis of Education Masters Program

The minute read the description of the program and it said social justice it was for me. Coming from my background it was immediate. Like ok this is the one want to apply to. One thing that makes this program unique is the fact that it actually does concentrate on social justice, and it allows every student to look into the topic of social justice within their own personal interests. You learn people skills. And you learn how to argue and disagree, but respectfully while building off each others opinions and thoughts. The SCAE environment is definitely different then your regular traditional classroom. think the best part about the program is that we learn from one another. We use dialogue. We sit in circles and definitely have genuine conversation throughout our whole classroom time. It's not the typical experience where student comes in and we lecture to them right. And so lot of what we call facilitation in the classroom is really based on kind of the Svedian idea that everybody is learner. So engage in learning just as my students engage in learning. And yes have an expertise in particular area, but that everyone comes to the table with knowledge. So for me my role think is scaffolding those discussions and scaffolding the critical dialogue that we engage in. But also coming to it with an understanding that yes my role is professor, but my role is really to facilitate the discussion around the knowledge that these students already have. feel welcomed, appreciated. Appreciated in not only what can contribute, but also feel and give appreciation for what am able to learn. When I'm able to see the things that other people are doing, it gets me excited because can see where I'm going to be at and where have the potential to go and how can grow to the highest level to create the highest level work. It gets me very excited everyday about coming to school. This program offers very unique space, an opportunity to grow both academically, professionally, aesthetically... don't know what other adjective to describe other than it is really transformational experience. It actually changes you. From the beginning to the end it changes you and the dynamic and the elements that causes that change will depend upon how you engage in the material and also how you engage and interact with your colleagues. It has enabled me in my position, in my role, to be more conscious of the fact that we need to engage our community much more when we create these programs and develop services and think of needs that we actually have this conversation with the people we're serving. And that they become critical part and piece of that puzzle. Our program is actually very diverse in number of ways. So its uniqueness has lot to do with the subject matter and that we take this critical stance and we focus on critical pedagogies and critical theories. We're also very diverse in the sense of the students who make up the program. And that diversity is not just racial and ethnic diversity, it's also diversity of language, it's diversity of age and backgrounds. And think that's real strength of the program because all of that diversity adds to that really rich discussion that we have in out classes. It's so broad it leaves you the doors open to any field in education. You can be an educator,. You can continue your education in terms of Ph.D. You can get into counseling, higher education, K-12. think it's so broad that you are able to really do what you love and take the topics that you learn from that you maybe is now sphere of influence, and see how you can help any community.