Masters in Urban Education offers grad students unique opportunity

Many are unfamiliar with the Master of Urban Education (M.U.Ed.) program that Union University offers through the Memphis Teacher Residency.

The Urban Education program is a selective program that incorporates graduate work with training for teaching in an urban area as part of a residency program. Students who complete the year long program receive the M.U.Ed., a Tennessee teaching license and one year of documented teaching experience through the Tennessee Department of Education.

 “The Master of Urban Education is a 30 credit hour degree program developed and executed in partnership with the Memphis Teacher Residency (MTR),” Dr. Robin Henderson, program director said. “As a response to the Gospel mandate to love our neighbors as ourselves, MTR will provide students in partner low-income Memphis neighborhoods with the same, or better, quality of education as is available to any student in Memphis by recruiting, training, and supporting effective teachers within a Christian context.”

The Memphis Teacher Residency program  was established in 2009, followed by The Master of Urban Education program in 2010. Currently, there are 57 students enrolled who plan to graduate from the M.U.Ed. program. Upon completion of the degree, graduates will go on to teach for at least three years in a high needs Memphis school.

According to the Memphis Teacher Residency website, www.memphistr.org, the program is motivated by faith and views teaching as  “a vocational response to the Gospel and an active participation in the work of the Church to glorify God by bringing justice to the poor and oppressed.”

Union University’s core values are integrated through coursework, service-learning and clinical experience. Through this program, the university will prepare and support exceptional teachers called to impact urban school systems and the students within them.

For more information, visit www.memphistr.org or www.uu.edu/academics/graduate/mued.