One Semester Down – Seven More To Go (I hope..)

This piece was written on Nov.24, 2009

Salam everyone!

Yes! As the title of this piece goes..sedar tak sedar dah nak masuk 12 minggu I kat sini. Kalau flash back cerita awal-awal dulu I pun tak sangka I’ve survived all that. Tapi like most of them here said it’s not going to get easier though (saspennyer)..so, I just hope that Allah will have mercy on me and continue showering me with all His blessings…(huih! Speaking US la pulok!)

Rasanya belum cerita pasal courses yang I ambik kat sini. Kalau ikut offer letter from Bhgn. Tajaan dia tulih Policy Analysis/Analisis Dasar. Tapi offer letter dari Michigan State University (MSU) dia tulih Educational Policy. Bunyik macam lain je. Kalau ikut my own interpretation, EPRD would vote for Policy Analysis but Bhgn. Tajaan will definitely go for Educational Policy. Dia orang ni kalau boleh nak jugak nama ‘education’ tu ada dalam offer letter and certificate nanti. Kira I selamat la. (Ye ke?)

Before cerita pasal MSU kena la explain TOR yang digunakan kat sini. Fakulti dia orang panggil college. So, dia ada college of education, college of natural science, etc. Lecturers dia orang panggil faculty. Tu yang pelik sikit tu. So, bila lecturer introduce him/herself dia akan cakap I’m a faculty at college of  bla..bla..kalau faculty yg junior2 tu jawatan dia org Assistant Professor. Yg senior tu dia org are mostly Distinguished Professors. Maybe macam Prof. Madya and Professor la kot..I teka je la..I might be wrong..tapi yang kelakar sekali dalam kelas dia orang prefer kita address them by their first names. Americans memang sempoi tapi kita org Asia ni kan penuh ngan adab sopan so my Pakistan, Chinese friends and I akan panggil dia orang Dr..tapi I kadang-kadang saja gak cuba-cuba panggil dia org by first name..he..he..

So, bidang I kat sini nama glamer dia  Ed. Policy. So bila introduce myself I cuma cakap I’m a first year ed policy doctoral student. Awal-awal dulu blur jugak sebab bawah college of ed ni ada banyak department. Teacher Education (TE), Educational Psychology (Edpsych), Education Administration yang bawahnya ada 2 sub dept higher education and long life learning (HALE) and K-12. Then ada pulak MQM.  Bila orang tanya my course bawah dept mana I pun tak sure. So, masa first ed policy students gathering (ada Deputy Dean and seniors) I pun tanya la soalan bodoh ni. Excuse me Dr. Sedlak, I’m just wondering  which department are we under? Dia orang senyum2 je. Then dia jawab ed policy is actually a small program that doesn’t have a department. Because it is so small so they put it directly under Assoc.Dean’s office (Assoc. Dean tu dia la). The biggest kohort yang dia org pernah ambik 10 orang. My kohort (2009) ada 9 orang je. And I rasa baru ada dalam 4-5 kohorts altogether. And the best part is belum ada Malaysian yang grad from MSU buat program ni. Isn’t that awesome? Kalau I grad, I’d be the first!! Tu yang buat lagi semangat tu..he..he..perasan lebih.

Lagi satu yang best jadi ed policy student, we all dok direct bawah Assoc Dean’s office so byk la ‘kelebihannya’. Pertama sekali kami ada office sendiri yang lengkap ngan PC (with internet access of course), printer and phone. Bilik ni boleh masuk dalam 5 orang at one time and boleh guna suma facilities yg ada free!. I selalu jugak lepak sini (I was given my own set of keys) and regular occupant bilik ni sorang final year student form Korea. Most of the times bilik ni memang available. Mat-mat Salleh suka lepak kat lobby and corridor je. So selalu la sembang ngan si Wang Jun ni. Biasanya I tanya dia tips macam mana nak grad cepat. Dia kata dia dah nak grad. Unlike other people, he took only four years. So I mmg berangan nak ikut jejak langkah dia. Kalau dia boleh buat, I pun boleh buat. I tengok English dia pun serabut jgk tp dah nak siap thesis dia. Yakin boleh!

Kalau ada apa-apa news pasal fellowship, budak2 ed policy akan dapat tahu dulu i.e. summer program fellowship, World Bank research grant, seminars,etc. Fellowships ni biasanya fund dalam $5000 - $6000 utk graduate students kuar buat mini research. Ada byk category. Ada yg utk senior, and ada jugak utk first year student. Kalau nak apply kita just buat a three-page proposal ttg project yg kita nak buat. Contohnya nak buat base-line study ke, nak kumpul literature review ke, ..apa-apa je la utk persiapan buat proposal. Kalau dapat bestkan? Boleh balik EPRD cari bahan kat pusat dokumentasi he..he..announcements pasal benda2 macam ni Dr. Sedlak hantar je through personal email kita org. Bila dah dekat tarikh tutup dia akan hantar lagi email remind yang berminat suruh send in application kat dia cepat because he controls the money!! Isn’t that great? Kalau kita ada nak attend seminar kat luar, or perlu software utk kerja-kerja kita, suma boleh apply for fund. Seminar tu dia akan cover fees, flight ticket, lodging, food. Software tu nak beli Microsoft office or SPSS pun boleh..tapi kita org Melayu ni biasa la pemalu..sampai la I dok pakai office and SPSS yg I beli kat IT Mall kat PJ ari tu..ha..ha  Cuma yg kureng sikit pasal ed policy ni facultynya org ‘lama’. Memang pure putih. Dari kaki sampai kepala suma putih. Uban penuh. Kalau tak de uban pun pasal kepala dia dah botak. He..he. Susah nak cari yang muda-muda. Most of them are well-known sociologists and some are economists. So paham2 je la school of thought dia org. Reading materials yang dia org selalu assign pun jenis yg zaman-zaman dia org punya materials. Zaman kunta kinte. Sepuluh kali baca pun garu kepala. Payah betul nak relate.

Kalau tengok content bidang ed policy ni ada:

1.     Policy and practice in Education;

2.    Politics of Education;

3.    Economics of Education;

4.    Sociology of Education;

5.    Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education;

6.    Educational Policy Analysis and Evaluation;

7.    Educational Inquiry

8.    Quantitative Methods in Educational Research

9.    Qualitative Methods in Educational Research

10. Political science; and

11.  Comparative studies.

No. 1,2,3,5,7 & 8 tu wajib. Yang lain tu electives. Graduation requirement 70 credits hours termasuk 24 credits for dissertation. So, basically kalau nak grad dalam masa 4 tahun, satu sem kena ambik at least 9 credit hours. (petua Wang Jun) Maknanya 3 kelas seminggu sebab satu kelas carries 3 credits. Tapi untuk semester ni sebab kira adjustment semester, I berani ambik 7 credits je. 2 kelas (Isnin & Selasa and satu kelas pro-seminar yang carry 1 credit je). Pro-sem ni penting sebab soalan2 untuk comprehensive exam hujung 4^th semester nanti lecturers akan ambik topic2 pro-sem ni la. Seminggu 1 ½ jam je. Hari Jumaat pulak tuh! Apa nak buat..dah nasib badan. Kat MSU ni tak banyak kelas hari Jumaat. So, bila I pegi kelas ni college macam lengang la sikit. Biasanya Zahrin hantar ondway dia nak pegi solat jumaat, and ambik ondway balik. Kira  convenient  la.(bukan convenient sampling aa..)

So far tak de miss kelas lagi. Walaupun kadang-kadang rasa malas, tak de mood, (tapi selalunya berat nak pegi sebab lom habis baca) tapi ku gagahkan juga demi membuktikan kesungguhanku kepada lecturer mat salleh ku itu..ha..ha..

Ok, stop sini dulu sebab dah panjang. Next I akan cerita detail pasal CEP930 and TE901, Susan, Philip & Peter Youngs. Wassalam.

Selamat Menyambut Aidil Adha!