The BA in Education Program is of special interest to educators, parents, or community/cultural workers who seek knowledge in the field of educational pedagogy and progressive education.

Within the Low-Residency BA in Education program, you can choose between two degree options:

• Individual Focus in Education (Non-Licensure)
• Teacher Licensure

This BA in Education degree is ideal for the education student who desires to put the ideals of democracy, human development, peace, and global responsibility into practice.  

As educators and teachers, we are both liberated and imprisoned by our own education and schooling.  At Goddard we create a space for you to rethink and trust a new paradigm of learning, first for yourself and then to support for others.

With a strong commitment to progressive education, students in our program, and the communities of our graduates, experience education that:

• Is problem-based, inquiry-driven, and grounded in social responsibility.
• Focuses learning on the student and their community rather than a pre-determined curriculum.
• Validates the students’ experience and builds upon their values and needs.
• Engages faculty as guides in the learning process, rather than as dispensers of knowledge.
• Focuses on the whole person, not just the mind.

PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY

The philosophy of the BA in Education program relates to the ends and the means of teaching and learning, in formal and informal, traditional and alternative, educational settings. We collectively seek to understand and articulate existing problems in the field of education, to develop tools to challenge and change dominant unhealthy structures, and to envision alternative options which will allow for a more just and inclusive world community. We support a commitment to diversity, cultural understanding, equity, and social justice through the understanding of self, others, and the world community. The program embraces your interest within the context of your life and sees you as a co-constructer of knowledge.

DEGREE CRITERIA

The BA in Education degree criteria are the goals toward which your individualized undergraduate studies are aimed. Throughout your course of study, you are expected to deeply engage with the criteria, working toward a full and sustained demonstration of them by graduation. Students graduating with a BA in Education will have successfully completed the Goddard undergraduate degree criteria and will also successfully have accomplished the following:

• Gained an understanding and actualized the essential concepts of progressive education; namely, inquiry-based learning, reflection and critical thinking, and student-focused curriculum;

• Prepared themselves to work toward the creation of a more just, humane, democratic, and sustainable world;

• Produced a culminating project in the form of a senior study in an area of interest; for example, curriculum development, multicultural education, alternative education, environmental education, critical pedagogy, democratic schooling, collaborative teaching, feminist theories of education, or authentic assessment.

WORK OF THE PROGRAM

Admitted students are expected to have already earned 60 credit hours (see Transfer Information below). Undergraduate Education students earn 15 credits each semester and are expected to spend a minimum of three semesters enrolled in the BA EDU program. Once enrolled, you engage with faculty who allow you to begin your studies where you are, and help you discover your interests and goals. From there, your study plan evolves.

Educational resources vary from independent study to field experience. Many studies focus on a particular issue or problem.  Creative engagement and the integration of theory and practice are emphasized. Within an individualized education focus, work may include studies in anti-racist education, alternative schooling, integrative arts, mediation, bilingual education, spirituality, and environmental sustainability, to name a few.  At the end of each semester, in lieu of grades, you and your advising faculty write narrative evaluations that describe your work in a practice of authentic assessment.

LOCATIONS

Students can enroll in the BA in Education Program in two locations:

The Plainfield, VT Campus, offering the following BA Degree Options:

• Individual Focus in Education (Non-licensure)
• Teacher Licensure

The Seattle, WA Site offering the following BA Degree Options:

• Individual Focus in Education (Non-licensure)

Goddard College programs operating in the State of Washington are authorized by the Washington Student Achievement Council.  For more information, please refer to Accreditation and Approvals.

TRANSFER INFORMATION

The low-residency BA in Education and Licensure program is a 120-credit program open to transfer students who have already completed approximately 60 liberal arts credits and who wish to extend their knowledge in the field of education to meet personal or professional goals. Students may be eligible to bring a combination of transfer credits and/or credits awarded for prior learning and experience into the program. This is determined through Goddard’s Assessment of Prior Learning process. Students just starting their undergraduate studies can begin in Goddard’s BA in Individualized Studies program, before transferring to the BA in Education Program.