Master of Education (M.Ed.)

What Sets Us Apart?

Your coursework will be facilitated by experienced education scholars who seek to support students in engaging discussion, meaningful scholarship, and the advancement of their careers in education. At Roanoke College you are not “just a number” - you are a valuable member of our learning community. 

About Our Program

• Classes are in-person at our main campus with some hybrid components. The program totals 10 units.  
• Full-time, 1 year accelerated program begins in fall with an end of July summer session completion. The unit breakdown for the full-time, 1 year accelerated program in 2026-2027 includes:  
  • Fall: 3.5 units 
  • Spring: 3.5 units 
  • June: 2 units  
  • July: 1 unit 
• Part-time can begin at any time (fall, spring, June session, July session) and take classes at your pace (e.g., one class per term, two classes per term, etc.) The provided courses will remain the same per semester for efficient part-time pacing. 
• While this is not a licensure program, we do offer courses that satisfy recertification requirements for already VA k-12 licensed educators. Each course is worth 90 “recert” points.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will be able to examine and emphasize the integral connection between education and freedom.
• Students will be able to create an environment where educationists may imagine essential, transdisciplinary questions.
• Students will be able to connect educationists with others to build a collaborative, critical community.
• Students will be able to equip educationists with the tools and skills of inquiry necessary for rich investigatory work.
• Students will be able to discover and apply inquiry approaches that address real world, transdisciplinary challenges and create otherwise worlds in education.

The Master of Education (M.Ed.) requires the completion of 10 courses. All courses carry one unit of academic credit at Roanoke College, equivalent to 40 semester hours.

EDUC 510: What is Inquiry?
Description: What is the purpose of inquiry? What is its relationship to “knowing?” What are different modes and methods of inquiry? What do curiosity, imagination, and dreaming have to do with inquiry? This course critically examines philosophies/theories of inquiry. It brings into conversation traditional empirical methods, philosophical methods, and experiential, nontraditional modes of inquiry. The course includes a variety of formal and informal inquiry contexts, such as schooling, community, and cross-cultural contexts.

EDUC 520: Methods/Modes of Inquiry
Description: Why is empirical educational inquiry important and how do we engage in it? What methods and tools of inquiry may we use to explore educational issues and problems? This course invites students to participate in the processes and complexities of educational inquiry through collaborative problem-based learning and individual design of an action research blueprint.

EDUC 530: Legal/Political Issues in Education
Description: How do education philosophies manifest in education policy? Who decides which philosophies and values are reflected in education spaces? This course will examine education policies through various lenses and perspectives, give students the tools to engage in critical policy analysis, and culminate with “freedom dreaming” about policy that supports democratic educational spaces.

EDUC 540: Essential Discourses in Education
Description: How may we define education? What tenets are essential to a just and equitable education system? This course explores the fundamental concepts, theories, and debates within the field of education. Students will examine education policy, engage in critical discourse analysis, and develop a deep understanding of the diverse discourses that shape modern education.

EDUC 550: Instructional Systems Design
Description: How do we design context-appropriate instruction in a way which might maximize the probability of learning? What are the questions we need to ask so that the instruction we design will be appropriate to the needs of the learners? Once implemented, how do we know that our instruction was effective? How does an educational system make use of well-designed curricula to enable the most successful learning to occur? This course is a pragmatic, inquiry-based examination of the systematic planning, creation, and evaluation of instruction and the systemic impact such instruction may have.

EDUC 560: Community Pedagogies and the Anatomy of Practice
Description: In this course, students will engage in inquiry about the relationship between educational settings and the communities in which they are situated. Students will examine factors and strategies for creating and sustaining respectful, reciprocal, and empowering relationships with communities that enhance learner development. This course has a community fieldwork component which may require criminal background checks (i.e., “clearances”) of the students enrolled, for the protection of community members. The pedagogical/theoretical lens of inquiry for studying community pedagogies will vary depending on the instructor of record. Lenses may include but are not limited to, school and family relationships, policy and education, social/cultural institutions such as libraries and museums, performing arts communities, and education and the natural world.

EDUC 570: The Power of Theoretical Perspective
Description: How do you know what you know? With what lenses do you (and others) see the world and construct meaning in it? In this course, we will explore the theoretical perspectives that are behind some of the most controversial topics in education today. We will analyze how we might use those theories to build research-based arguments and then students will deeply dive into at least one of the theories, becoming conversant in its tenets so that they may explain them to others in the wider community.

EDUC 580: The Power of Empirical Inquiry
Description: How do research studies inform our understanding of an educational question, topic, and phenomenon? How can we use research studies to generate new questions? This course analyzes a topic of education through the lens of empirical studies. It serves the dual role of deeply examining an educational issue and developing the understanding of empirical inquiry. Topics will change based on the instructor of record for a given semester and will be drawn from current issues. Topics may include, but are not limited to, immigration, equity, race, class, and ethnicity as they relate to education.

EDUC 590: The Humanity of Learning
Description: In this course, students will engage in inquiry about the various psychosocial factors that influence and impact human learning. Students will consider the dynamic relationships that exist between the learner’s internal world of emotions and thought processes and the external world of relationships, family, and social and cultural networks. The pedagogy/theoretical lens of inquiry for studying the humanity of learning will vary based on instructor of record. Lenses may include, but are not limited to, culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally sustaining pedagogy, pedagogy of play, trauma-informed pedagogy and science of resilience, lifespan development, and more.

EDUC 596, 597, 598, 599: Applied inquiry Research (Each course is .25 units, totaling 1 unit of Applied Inquiry Research. 596 and 597 will be taught in fall and 598 and 599 will be taught in spring)  
Description: A series of four quarter unit courses creating an active-learning experience requiring participants to apply an inquiry research methodology to generate a reasoned resolution to a current education problem. Course meetings serve as workshops to research, reflect, question, analyze, synthesize, plan, and create your individual capstone project. Potential capstone projects could be empirical research, curricular materials, grants, and more. 

Career Opportunities After Graduation

• Work in educational policy and advocacy to drive meaningful change in education. 

• Lead corporate and non-profit training in organizations with an educational focus. 

• Engage in education research that influences education and instructional practices. 

• Become a practicing “teacher-scholar” in your current role in education. 

• Pursue a career in teaching and learning in higher education. 

Requirements

• The Master of Education program is open to any student who has completed an undergraduate degree.
• To be considered for admission, graduate students must have a minimum cumulative grade point average of a 2.5 (on a 4.0 scale) on college transcripts.
• No more than two units of graduate credit may be transferred into the program and only at the discretion of the program director.

Guaranteed Admission

Roanoke College graduates with a 3.0 GPA are guaranteed admission, but need to apply. 

How to Apply

Graduate students must submit the following when applying for admission to the M.Ed. program:

1. A completed application.  (Use the Roanoke application, not the Common app.)
2. An official transcript of all college-level coursework.
3. Two letters of recommendation. (Roanoke graduates with a 3.0 GPA and above only need one letter.)
4. A resume with a personal statement.

How to Apply (Roanoke students with 3.0 GPA)

1. A completed application. (Use the Roanoke application, not the Common app.)
2. One letter of recommendation from a major professor. 

Apply Now

Application Dates—Rolling Admission

Full-Time, 1 Year Accelerated Program

• The full-time accelerated program is a fall semester start, please apply by 4/15.

Part-Time (Can enter in at any semester when classes are offered)

• For a fall semester start, apply by 4/15.
• For a spring semester (Jan - April) start, apply by 10/15.
• For a June session start, apply by 1/15.
• For a July session start, apply by 2/15.

• $1990 per course
• Fees TBD from business office
• The cost per course in the 2024-2025 academic year is $1990 per course.  

There are no grants or scholarships and no graduate assistants. However, graduate students are eligible for FAFSA. 

The Office of Residence Life offers limited housing options for students enrolled in the graduate program, however housing if applicable will be charged at the same rates as undergraduate students. Housing is not included for spouses or families. 

Meal plans are not required, yet graduate students may choose any meal plan currently available for the fall and spring semesters. While there are no summer meal plans, meals may be purchased as desired at open campus food locations.

Campus housing is available for graduate students. Residence Life must be informed by March 1 about graduate students wanting apartments on campus to guarantee housing. (One may request housing after March 1; there are no guarantees after March 1).  

Per Roanoke College policy, students should have tuition paid, or have sufficient loan coverage or payment plan in place prior to the start date of the term.