The Master of Education degree in Educational Practice (MEd EP) is a 12-month program “laddered” to SFU’s Graduate Diploma in Advanced Professional Studies in Education (GDE).  This is an opportunity for students to extend the work undertaken in the GDE. It involves broadening and deepening understandings of educational theory, research and practice.

Candidates will be selected on the basis of the strength of their application [see Application Guidelines], particularly in terms of the promise they show for academic studies.  Admission to the MEd EP requires a minimum undergraduate grade point average of 3.0 (see Grade Conversions). Individuals who do not meet this criterion should click here for further information.

Application forms and materials are only available from the Field Programs Office (edprgpa@sfu.ca). None of these materials are currently available online. Click here for information on fees and registration.

Locations
The MEd EP will be offered in two locations in the Fall of 2008: the Lower Mainland and Salmon Arm. Programs in these locations will be established if a sufficient number of qualified applicants are offered and accept admission. The specific location for the program in the Lower Mainland is to be determined and will be posted here as soon as possible. Please return to this site for updates on the location of the future programs (Summer and Fall 2009).

Curriculum
The MEd EP coursework includes the following components:

• Completed GDE coursework – the field studies comprising the GDE Portfolio may form a corpus of work for further analysis and extension during the MEd EP.

• EDUC 867-5: Qualitative Research Methods in Educational Research – This course surveys the historical roots and contemporary debates and practices of qualitative research methods as they are applied to educational settings. The course aims to acquaint students with a broad spectrum of issues and methods, with an eye toward being able to thoughtfully draw from these methods in developing their own research projects. Methods include: various forms of ethnography, participatory action research, narrative inquiry, case study research, and arts-based inquiry.

• EDUC 807-5: The Foundations of Action Research – This course draws on the ideas introduced in EDUC 867 toward a more specific focus on conducting research and ‘taking action’ in our classrooms and other school-based settings. Primarily, the course aims to help students situate their own experiences and understandings in a body of theories and practices concerned with action research, classroom-inquiry, and teacher-inquiry, and is additionally geared toward the continued development of their identities and roles as teacher-researchers. 

• EDUC 811-5: Fieldwork – Drawing on their understandings of theory and practice from the previous two courses, students will conduct a piece of ‘fieldwork’ or ‘field research,’ an inquiry into their own practice and setting. The ‘fieldwork’ is, in effect, an enhanced form of ‘field study’ such as have been done in the GDE programs. This project will form the basis of the ‘comprehensive examination’ to follow.

• EDUC 883-5: MEd Comprehensive Examination – This is not an ‘exam’ as such, but a summative presentation by each student of their now-extended understandings of the relationship between theory, practice, and teacher-research. There will be two components: (1) students will write a paper summarizing their projects, their understandings, and their further questions; and, (2) they will present their work in an end of program conference with cohort colleagues and instructors.

Click here for additional information if you
began the GDE at TQS Category Four prior to May 2008

Click here for additional information if you
began the GDE at TQS Category Four after May 2008

Eligibility
Students are eligible to apply for the MEd EP after completing their final demo and the grade for the last GDE course(s) is/are posted. Mentors and instructors will be expected to base their comments in letters of reference on performance, participation and learning throughout the entire program. 

Examples are shown in the chart below:

Time permitted between the GDE and MEd in Educational Practice
SFU’s policy allows for no more than six years between the start of any graduate study (including the GDE) and completion of a Master's degree. In the case of the MEd EP, candidates should realize that this six-year period includes their GDE program. For example, if the graduate GDE program began in September 2004, the MEd EP would have to be completed by August 2010. This means that applicants for the MEd EP should wait no more than three years after completing their GDE before beginning the MEd EP.

Admission to the MEd EP is competitive as we may receive more applications than we can accommodate.  Applicants meeting the minimum university rquirements for admission are not assured admission. Applications will be evaluated based on the evidence provided of the applicant’s willingness to engage critically with literature, commitment to inquiry, contributions to the learning of others, capacity for critical thinking (e.g., ability to articulate, act on and synthesize ideas), response to challenges and obstacles in the candidate’s practice and undergraduate grade point average based on the most recent 60 credits.  Evidence will be derived from the reflective paper, proposal for further study, letters of reference and transcripts. Descriptions of all of these application requirements are provided in the Application Guidelines.