Master of Education

MEd in Curriculum & Instruction: Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Method of delivery:
In-person
Applications open:
November 1, 2022
Applications close:
April 14, 2023
Next start date:
September 2023

What and how we read alongside youth matters. From picture books to blockbuster films, students will learn the skills necessary to critically read texts produced for youth while co-creating a range of pedagogies for teaching in B.C.’s culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Designed for

Practicing K-12 teachers, librarians and students with an interest in children’s and young adult literature.

Program Structure

  • 2 year, 35-unit program (7 5-unit courses)
  • In-person classes five times per term on Friday evenings, Saturdays, and/or Sundays
  • Summer term classes may meet during the week in the daytime
  • Workshops with published authors and illustrators

Intake Schedule

Next Start Term
Fall 2023

PROGRAM DESIGN & COURSES

Program Design

Designed with working professionals in mind, this two-year degree program offers the opportunity to obtain a high-quality master's degree. Our cohort-based model allows students to work through the program and coursework together (18-24 students).

Working with a cohesive and interdisciplinary faculty team, students will benefit from a rich curriculum and experience that will balance theoretical trends in the study of children’s and young adult literature with hands on teaching strategies. The program was designed to provide opportunities for students to:

  • understand children’s and young adult literature as a genre with its own traditions and histories;
  • analyze compositional elements of visual images and how graphic narratives like picturebooks, comics, cartoons, and film communicate;
  • understand the relationships between texts for youth and shifting cultural constructions of “childhood” and “adolescence” and what kinds of stories adults believe youth need and/or should be shielded from;
  • develop knoweldge about BIPOC children’s and YA authors and illustrators and how to select and teach engaging culturally responsive texts in B.C.’s culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms;
  • demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of Indigenous children’s and YA literature and develop strategies for teaching First People’s literature, especially to meet the new requirement (beginning 2023-24) set out by the B.C. Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the First Nations Education Steering Committee, that secondary students complete Indigenous-focused coursework before graduation.

Additionally, students will learn directly from authors/illustrators to understand the craft of creating narratives for youth and for communicating that creative process to young people via 1-day workshops with authors and illustrators.

Courses

Students complete:

EDUC 848-5 IDEAS AND ISSUES IN AESTHETIC EDUCATION

This first course provides a survey of children’s literature (K-grade 8). Students will understand children's literature as a genre with its own tradition and history; analyze compositional elements of visual images and how graphic narratives like picturebooks, comics, cartoons, and film communicate; understand the relationships between texts for youth and shifting cultural constructions of "childhood" and "adolescence".

EDUC 820-5 CURRENT ISSUES IN CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY

This course provides an in-depth study of Indigenous children’s literature and pedagogies. It is taught by Dr. Sara Davidson a Haida literacy scholar and published picture book author for young readers.

EDUC 710-5 SPECIAL TOPICS: TEXTS FOR YOUNG ADULTS

This survey course covers the genre of young adult literature from 1967 to the present. It introduces students to Young Adult Literature--its history, unique characteristics, controversies, and possibilities within and outside the classroom. Other texts consumed by youth including television shows, films, and comics will be addressed throughout the course.

EDUC 816-5 DEVELOPING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND PRACTICES FOR DIVERSE EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS

This course focuses on environmental justice within and ecologies of children’s and young adult literature.

EDUC 904-5 FIELDWORK III: ACTION RESEARCH

This hands-on course focuses on creating and teaching texts with young people. Participants develop a research question in relation to children’s and YA texts and test out the pedagogies and practices that they have developed in the course.

EDUC 823-5 CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION IN AN INDIVIDUAL TEACHING SPECIALTY

This final course focuses on writing texts for and with youth.

EDUC 883-5 MED COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION

The examination is graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Program courses and order of delivery subject to change.

LOCATION

At SFU, campus life is rich with opportunities to engage with people, ideas and activities that contribute to personal development and a better world.

Vancouver

Our Vancouver campus transformed the landscape of urban education in downtown Vancouver. The campus comprises multiple facilities clustered in the core of one of the world’s most liveable cities.

Simon Fraser University respectfully acknowledges the unceded traditional territories including, the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations, on which SFU Vancouver is located.

FACULTY

The strengths of the program rest in the years of experience and broad expertise of its teaching faculty. Meet some of the faculty members teaching in this program.

FUTURE PATHWAYS

Where can this program take you? The world is changing rapidly and so is the full range of career and academic opportunities that await.

Occupations

  • Teachers
  • Teacher-librarians

Further Studies

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PROGRAM

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UPCOMING INFORMATION SESSIONS

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