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PeterDragon
Joined: 20 Jan 2008
Posts: 50
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 Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 7:15 am Post subject: Is a Masters in Education any good without a certification? |
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I'm looking into grad schools (have been for quite a while, but I'm closer to taking the plunge; I swear!).
Anyway, I'm finding a lot of very good options for a Masters in Education--- cheaper and more flexible than the Linguistics and TESOL programs I've been finding. However, I'm also being told that because my undergrad wasn't in Education, it would take me an additional 3 years to get an actual teaching certificate--- something I am definitely not up for.
If I got a Masters in Education but didn't get certification, would this be a "lame duck" degree? Or could it still give me access to a lot more jobs and higher earning potential? |
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Chris_Crossley
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
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| Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 7:38 am Post subject: Re: Is a Masters in Education any good without a certificati |
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| PeterDragon wrote: |
| I'm also being told that because my undergrad wasn't in Education, it would take me an additional 3 years to get an actual teaching certificate--- something I am definitely not up for. |
You haven't made it clear as to what your background is in terms of work experience and who has told you that you need to study for another three years to get certification. Nor have you made it clear, if I may say so, as to which jurisdiction you want to gain a qualification to teach in - i.e., are you from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., where?
| PeterDragon wrote: |
| If I got a Masters in Education but didn't get certification, would this be a "lame duck" degree? Or could it still give me access to a lot more jobs and higher earning potential? |
That depends entirely upon what kind of work you want to do and where you think you might want to work, i.e., is it primary, secondary, tertiary, special educational needs, what? Again, your question is somewhat vague so I am metaphorically shooting in the dark here.
What kind of certification have you been told you "must" get? Is it possible for you to study for this qualification part-time rather than full-time so that you don't have to give up the day job if you have one? I can only guess from what you have said that a period of another three years of study means having to undertake a bachelor's degree programme in education in a particular sector that leads to said certification.
Usually, a master's degree in education is thought of as being for teaching professionals who may already have a bachelor's, although not all universities, depending upon which jurisdiction they serve, necessarily insist on people having one, though they should ideally have a first degree. After all, to teach in state high schools in England and Wales, one should either have (a) a four-year bachelor's degree in education or (b) a three-year bachelor's degree in the specialist subject one wishes to teach in plus a one-year postgraduate certificate (or diploma, in the case of Scotland) in education in the specialist subject.
If you have been teaching or are going to teach adults, though, I would say that a master's degree in education is still worthwhile and would not necessarily be a "lame duck" as far as the job stakes are concerned, but gaining some kind of certification would not do you any harm. In the U.K., a three- (or four-) year undergraduate degree outside of education would normally be followed by a one-year certificate or diploma programme in order to teach in state-funded educational institutions except in universities where no specialist teaching qualification is required.
Nevertheless, one must be cautious about automatically assuming that a higher qualification like a master's will (almost) "definitely" lead to a better job and higher earning potential. Potential employers will be just as interested, if not more so, in what work experience you have got and how relevant it is to what you want to do, but you should be aware that a lot of employers, especially if they are state-funded, may absolutely insist on your gaining some recognised certification first before they can consider employing you. |
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tommchone
Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 108
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| Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:21 am Post subject: |
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| Are you from the US? Are you going to teach in a foreign country? Which ones? |
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natsume
Joined: 24 Apr 2006
Posts: 409
Location: Chongqing, China
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| Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:35 am Post subject: |
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What do you want to teach?
Who do you want to teach?
Why will it take you an additional 3 years to get certification? Is that on top of the 1-2 it will take for an MA? Certification by who? For whom? For what? |
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PeterDragon
Joined: 20 Jan 2008
Posts: 50
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| Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 12:28 pm Post subject: |
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Sorry, my first post was pretty vague--- I was a little tired when I typed that.
OK, to be more specific--- I'm from the U.S. If I got U.S. teacher certification, I've been planning to do so by returning to Wisconsin, my home state. Apparently, Wisconsin requires three years for certification in just about any area--- from what I can tell, they make you take a lot of Bachelor's in Education courses to get your certification--- Master's courses won't do for this--- I guess. So yeas this means 3 years for certification plus two ADDITIONAL years for a Masters in Ed. I need to make an appointment with an advisor to get the details on WHY this is, but that's tricky, due to time zone differences.
My own background: My bachelors is in Social Work. I have 3 years' ESL experience in the South Korean public school system, and I have an internationally recognized 120 hour TESOL certificate. In the future, I would ideally like to teach at either a university or an international school in the Middle East, Latin America, or Southeast Asia.
Would a Masters in Ed serve that purpose? And for the love of God, is there a state other than Wisconsin that would let me get certification more quickly?
Would a Master's in Ed without certification help me teach the students I want to teach in any of the regions I have my eye on? |
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tommchone
Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 108
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| Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 12:46 pm Post subject: |
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| You can go to China right now. "Your face is your resume." Plus you've got a "real" resume. Google "Teaching Jobs In China" and GO! |
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Chris_Crossley
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
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| Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 1:32 pm Post subject: You could do a master's degree by online learning |
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| PeterDragon wrote: |
| In the future, I would ideally like to teach at either a university or an international school in the Middle East, Latin America, or Southeast Asia. Would a Masters in Ed serve that purpose? (...) Would a Master's in Ed without certification help me teach the students I want to teach in any of the regions I have my eye on? |
Since I am from England, I obviously cannot comment on whether or not you need U.S. state certification apart from saying that you would probably need it if you wanted to teach back home.
Since you have expressed an interest in continuing to teach overseas after your stint in Korea, though, given the regions you have specified, I don't see any problem in your being able to gain employment and, hence, gain further experience in teaching.
At the same time, you can always gain a Master's in Education degree by online/distance learning without having to give up the day job, though you should be aware that there are, so I have read on this forum, certain employers in the Middle East who generally frown upon degrees gained by online/distance learning and believe that only degrees gained through traditional on-campus study are the "proper" ones to have.
In China, though (the only country in Asia about which I can speak with any real certainty, having been here for eight years), you would probably not necessarily gain any particular advantage in having a master's for most teaching jobs because China generally welcomes English native-speakers educated to degree level in any major.
However, the sticking point, as far as applying to international schools would be concerned, would be the fact that you do not have U.S. state certification for teaching in public schools, in which case you might not be able to command as high a salary as you would like.
I have a friend and former colleague who has five years of TESOL experience in primary schools in China, including at a joint-venture Chinese-Canadian school where he was at the bottom of the teachers' pay scale as he was neither Canadian nor a certified state-school teacher. He is now undertaking a programme to gain certification to teach in state high schools in his home country, but, for degree-holders there, such a programme lasts only the one academic year on a full-time basis, not the three which you specify as being required by Wisconsin.
If you wanted to gain a master's degree by distance learning, this is feasible because this is precisely what I did between January '06 and December '08, gaining not one, but two master's degrees in education from the same England-based university. I did, though, already have an MBA degree when I first started teaching English in China in October '01, though, and that had been through full-time, on-campus study.
It certainly would not do your chances any harm to gain a master's by online/distance learning while teaching full-time, but what I am saying is that there is no cast-iron guarantee that it will necessarily give you a kind of uplift (so to speak) in terms of pursuing your career overseas and/or of gaining higher pay than your teaching colleagues. |
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JZer
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 3898
Location: Pittsburgh
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| Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 2:09 pm Post subject: |
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| PeterDragon wrote: |
Sorry, my first post was pretty vague--- I was a little tired when I typed that.
OK, to be more specific--- I'm from the U.S. If I got U.S. teacher certification, I've been planning to do so by returning to Wisconsin, my home state. Apparently, Wisconsin requires three years for certification in just about any area--- from what I can tell, they make you take a lot of Bachelor's in Education courses to get your certification--- Master's courses won't do for this--- I guess. So yeas this means 3 years for certification plus two ADDITIONAL years for a Masters in Ed. I need to make an appointment with an advisor to get the details on WHY this is, but that's tricky, due to time zone differences.
My own background: My bachelors is in Social Work. I have 3 years' ESL experience in the South Korean public school system, and I have an internationally recognized 120 hour TESOL certificate. In the future, I would ideally like to teach at either a university or an international school in the Middle East, Latin America, or Southeast Asia.
Would a Masters in Ed serve that purpose? And for the love of God, is there a state other than Wisconsin that would let me get certification more quickly?
Would a Master's in Ed without certification help me teach the students I want to teach in any of the regions I have my eye on? |
You could spend one or two years in Texas and get your alternative teacher's certification. I do believe that most states now require three years experience for permanent certification. |
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denise
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Posts: 3419
Location: finally home-ish
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| Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 3:45 pm Post subject: |
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International schools typically require certification + a couple of years of experience in your home country. I don't know if an MA would really help you there, but I'd bet it would not substitute for the certification.
Universities in the Middle East generally ask for MAs + experience--you wouldn't need the state certification.
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