Examining Teachers’ Decisions to Pursue Graduate Programs in Administration or Curriculum

This study examines several factors that may have motivated teachers to either pursue a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) or one in educational administration. From a total of 120 applicants’ submitted letters of intent collected during 2012, four areas were qualitatively investigated: reasons for choosing the particular Master’s program, goals for degree attainment, personal/professional qualities possessed and perspectives about education as a profession. Letters were de-identified and examined for themes. Overwhelmingly, teachers pursing the curriculum degree cited additional knowledge needed to affect change in the classroom while those seeking the administration degree cited a desire to educate themselves in order to have a widespread impact as primary reasons for their choice of degree.