A colleague of mine just added the following quote from Nelson Mandela to her email signature line;
“A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.”
I immediately thought about all the places in the world where women and children are not privileged to become literate or for that matter attend graduate school. What a loss we all undoubtedly suffer as a result! I then thought about my colleague and friend and how fitting the quote is; she has a good head, a good heart, and is highly literate. She is also passionate about education, but not in the way you might think because she is not a teacher. So, what is her role in education? Her passion for education comes in the form of measuring and reporting on the success of teacher education programs here at the College of Education. She asks important questions that make a difference in the quality of education students in Hawai'i are receiving:
- Do the mentor teachers we team our students with find them well prepared, ready for the classroom?
- Do the students who complete our programs think it was worth their time? Worth their money?
- Do our alumni find themselves well prepared for their careers? Do they find the jobs they hoped for?
- Do the administrators who hire our students find them to be knowledgeable, effective and caring?
Beyond that, she helps the leadership here at the college assess the strength of our degree programs and understand where we can make improvements and where we shine. She evaluates feedback from students, mentor teachers, alumni and administrators who hire our graduates so that she can make recommendations to leadership at the college and they can (and do!) act on it. It's not easy work; there are tedious numbers to examine and contemplate, there are unwieldy reports to be written, there are surveys to be created, respondents to be located and encouraged. Why does she do it? Because she knows that by supporting the strength and success of educators in the classroom, educational leadership who develop curriculum and work to improve classroom instruction, and educational leadership who make education work for everyone, she is helping to ensure that every person who seeks literacy has access to it. In short, she believes what Nelson Mandela said. So, what does all of this have to do with an advanced degree in education? Well, to begin with; she has one (M.A. in Second Language Studies with two specializations: (1) Language Assessment, Measurement, and Program Evaluation, and (2) Language Teaching). She uses the degree she has to advance the quality of education our graduates receive. A lot of people out there are concerned about the quality of education; she is doing something about it. If education is an issue of importance to you, an advanced degree in a field like Educational Foundations, Educational Psychology, or Educational Administration may be a way for you to put your good head and good heart to work making education better! Thinking about it? Check out our blog post with tips on How to Pay for Graduate School (scholarships, anyone?), or download our handy guide with really useful tips on what to do before you apply:
