Academics

Education Without Licensure, MEd

This is a Master's in Education primarily designed for certified teachers or for individuals who are interested in doing graduate-level work in education but do not wish to be certified in Massachusetts. This is also an excellent track for students who wish to earn a Master's degree for work in a broad range of other education-related professions outside of classroom teaching, such as in adult- and community-based settings or in non-teaching roles such as educational research, policy analysis, philanthropy, and advocacy. With assistance from a faculty advisor, students design a sequence of education-related courses to support their specific interests. The non-licensure track is especially appropriate for students who wish to combine interests in education and Asian American Studies, ethnic studies, and urban studies fields.

Course requirements

Four core courses (12cr.)

Master of Education: Learning, Teaching & Educational Transformation Non Licensure
Program Flow Sheet updated 12/8/11
Core   Course Number Course Name Credit Hours Term Taken
One required core course in each of the four following areas→
(select one from each list or a substitute after consultation with student’s advisor)		 Curriculum Organization and Innovation EDC G 642 Organization of School Curriculum 3  
EDC G 652 ABA: Principles II
CRCRTH 601 Critical Thinking
CRCRTH 602 Creative Thinking
CRCRTH 630 Criticism and Creativity in Literature and the Arts
CRCRTH 640 Environment, Science and Society
CRCRTH 645 Biology and Society
CRCRTH 652 Children and Science
BWPEDU 510 Writing in the Content Areas
EDCG 630 Writing in the Content Areas
 
Research and Writing for Reflective Practice
 EDC G 621 Teaching Writing K-12 3  
EDC G 689 Teacher Research
EDC G 690 Teacher Research: Professional Licensure
CRCRTH 611 Seminar in Critical Thinking
CRCRTH 692 Processes of Research and Engagement
CRCRTH 693 Action Research
BWPEDU 501 The Teacher as Writer
BWPEDU 530 Teaching & Writing Poetry: K-12
  Mediation, dialogue and collaboration CONRES 621 Negotiations 3  
CONRES 623 Introductory Theory
CRCRTH 616 Dialogue Processes
CRCRTH 618 Creative Thinking, Collaboration and Org. Change
EDC G 655 ABA: Settings and Supports
  Urban and Social Justice Education EDC G 606 Sociocultural Perspectives on Education 3  
EDC G 672 Race, Class and Gender
CRCRTH 627 Issues in Antiracist and Multicultural Education
APLING 665 Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development: Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration.
Seven elective courses in area of concentration
(selected after consultation with student’s advisor)		 1     3  
2     3  
3     3  
4     3  
5     3  
6     3  
7     3  
        33 Total Credits  

The choice of core courses must be recommended by the student's advisor and approved by the Program Director.
(Course descriptions for CrCrTh courses; BWPEDU; EDCG courses, see Graduate Bulletin

Seven additional courses, focused on a specific area of interest (21cr.)
Two upper-level undergraduate courses may be approved by the Program Director to be counted toward this requirement.
Students with specific areas of interest that match another Masters Program or Graduate Certificate listed in the Graduate Bulletin are encouraged to contact that Program for advice and to be assigned an advisor.
Students may transfer credits from a UMass Boston Certificate program into the non-licensure M.Ed. track (subject to the usual condition for transfer credits that the grade must be B or higher). This option is especially relevant for students from the following Certificate programs:


Downloadable NonlicensureTrackflowsheet.doc to plan courses

Capstone options

Students, after consultation with their advisors, choose which option to take.

1. Comprehensive examination

  • This option is a take-home essay examination. Students are given 30 days to complete the assigned questions and return them for evaluation by faculty committee. Students complete this during their final semester in the program.

2. Written paper with oral presentation.

  • This option for the capstone project is an opportunity for students to integrate into their professional lives the ideas and theory, skills and strategies, experiences and collaborations from their studies and associated activities. Students are invited to combine an essay with "exhibits" from their work during the program. The exhibits can take a variety of forms, such as original curriculum materials, a professional development workshop series, a video case study, a practitioner's portfolio, an implemented teacher inquiry project, other excerpts from coursework, or a proposal for action research. The essays are expected to locate the exhibits in relation to what others have written and done in the relevant area as well as to integrate students' reflections on their own professional practice, changes while studying in the program, and future directions. The forms and length of the essays will depend on the particular nature of the projects. For example, if the exhibit were a 2-4 page action research proposal, an extended essay (20-40 pages) that reviews and critiques literatures appropriate to the research questions would be expected to accompany it; a shorter essay (10-20 pages) would be appropriate to accompany a video case study.
  • Students wishing to pursue the option of a written paper with oral presentation for their capstone project are advised to enroll in a course designed for intensive research and writing appropriate to the forms of the project (e.g., EDCG 689, 690, CrCrTh692, 694). The course instructor and one other faculty member then serve as advisors for the project, but this arrangement and the form of the capstone project must be established before the start of the semester in which it is undertaken. Oral presentations before the advisors and peers are arranged toward the end of that semester.

 

Core faculty & advisors

email addresses = firstname.lastname@umb.edu
Peter Kiang (Asian-American Education)
Peter Taylor (Critical & Creative Thinking; Science, Technology & Values)
Glenn Mitchell (Boston Writers' Project)
Mary Brady (Applied Behavioral Analysis)
Denise Patmon (Global and Social Justice Education)
Eunsook Hyun (Curriculum Studies)
Donna DeGennaro (Instructional Technology for Educators or Teaching and learning in Technology-mediated environments).

To get assigned an advisor
When you come to a new student orientation meeting or first check in with the College of Ed Student Services office, Wheatley 2-119, ask for the advisor of your choice (phone: 617-287-7625; email: grad.teachered@umb.edu)
OR
Wait for one to be assigned to you at the start of your first semester.
Contact the office immediately if you have questions.