The University of North Carolina Wilmington recently debuted its Summer Institute, which is part of its online master’s degree in history.
 
The program is distinct for its approach toward educating teachers. Rather than the subject of the course being pedagogy, the practice of teaching or classroom dynamics, the purpose of the program is for teachers to become more knowledgeable in the subjects they are teaching — in this case social studies and history.
 
“Unlike many master’s degrees available from schools of education, ours comes from historians and a history department,” said Paul Townend, chair of UNCW’s history department. “We don’t teach teachers how to teach. We just look to support and strengthen their love of subject ... We want to feed the historian inside the teacher and make them a better teacher by strengthening their love of their subject.”
 
The program is made up of 10 courses and takes two years to complete. The courses cover subjects such as U.S. history, global history and North Carolina history. Students must also take two integrative and comparative courses that cover topics such as international trade, revolutions and women in history.
 
“Over the past five-plus years, there has been tremendous expansion in the delivery modes of higher education,” UNCW chancellor Jose Sartarelli said. “The beauty of online education is that it offers an otherwise lacking opportunity for working professionals who want to grow their skill set and advance in their careers ... but can't take two years off to further their education.”
 
Currently those enrolled in the program are taking part in the Summer Institute, which focuses on regional history and historical sites and is taught by Chris Fonvielle, a UNCW professor who has written several books on North Carolina’s coastal involvement in the Civil War.
 
The Summer Institute is a classroom section of the online program, in which those enrolled visit regional historical sites, such as Fort Fisher and Brunswick Town, to learn how to integrate historic sites into their teaching.
 
Fonvielle volunteers to teach the Summer Institute course during the summer, according to UNCW spokeswoman Janine Iamunno.
 
The program is made up of mostly middle school and high school history teachers.
 
The two-year program costs about $6,000, and Townend says there are concerns about the cost of tuition, given teacher’s salaries in North Carolina.
 
“Our teachers — I think 95 percent of our students are working teachers from this state — are paying for this degree out of their own pocket,” he said. “... We have no designated scholarship money for this program that operates on a shoestring budget.”
 
The state of North Carolina does not currently offer extra pay for advanced degrees, but some teachers are hoping that it may be reinstated in the future or are looking to perhaps attract recruiters from other states who would pay teachers with advanced degrees more than they receive in North Carolina, according to Townend.
 
The master’s program started off with 22 students before reaching a low of 11 due to the academic rigors of the program and the difficulties of balancing a teacher’s schedule with that of a student’s, Iamunno said.
 
There are currently 16 students enrolled. Students for the next class were admitted this spring.
 
“This is a service for my faculty and the department, to the state, to the students and schools these teachers serve, but first and foremost to the teachers, who quite frankly do not get enough respect,” Townend said. “If this experiment wasn't working, we would discontinue it — we have plenty of other things to do with our time.”