Academic Programs Overview | Course Work | Supervised Fieldwork and Advisement | Integrative Master's Project
The Integrative Master's Project (IMP) is one of the three major components of your degree requirements. As the culminating component, it is expected to be a significant, academically rigorous body of work that integrates many facets of your experiences at Bank Street and in the field, and applies theoretical knowledge to your current and future work as an educator or educational leader. The process of writing the IMP is intended to further your professional growth through inquiry, reflection, and integration.
When you have completed significant amounts of your supervised fieldwork/advisement and course work, you are eligible to begin working on this third requirement for completing a degree program at Bank Street College. The Integrative Master's Project can take the form of a Portfolio, a Directed Essay, or an Independent Study.
You will discuss the appropriateness of each option with your advisor, who will help you select the option best suited to your learning style and preferences. You will need your advisor's or program director's approval to register for your Integrative Master's Project, which involves filing the appropriate commence form and paying the $300 fee. Registration takes place during regular registration periods. Details on each of the IMPs and on the registration process for each one are included in the Guide to the Integrative Master's Project, available as a download or in the Sixth floor Graduate Suite and in the Registrar's Office.
The Portfolio option allows you to work closely with an assigned mentor and, in monthly group meetings, with a small group of peers over the course of a full academic year. You must submit a Portfolio Application by the end of June. If you are selected as a participant in the Portfolio project, you work with your mentor to identify a theme that is highly relevant to your personal growth and professional development. The portfolio is developed through an emergent process of collecting documents and objects, called artifacts, which are significant markers of pivotal experiences in your professional and personal development. You will write a reflective essay to introduce the five artifacts and themes, a caption to accompany each artifact, and a conclusion. All students present their portfolios to mentors, peers, friends, and family the evening before Graduation.
Note: The Directed Essay option as it currently exists is being phased out by the College. The May 12-July 8 registration cycle (that leads to an October 2008 graduation date) will be the last and final registration cycle for the Directed Essay. Thus, July 8 will be the final date to register for the Directed Essay option as it currently exists. Information regarding the new Integrative Master's Project options that will replace the Directed Essay will be available shortly. Registration for these new IMP options will be available starting with Fall 2008 registration.
The Directed Essay requires you to respond to program-specific, prepared questions in essay form, and to complete your work within sixty (60) days of registering. This option will challenge you to integrate knowledge from your course work, current educational research, and your professional experience to respond to challenging questions. With this choice, you are researching and elaborating on questions and topics that you choose from a menu of possibilities. You are encouraged to discuss your approach to the questions with a faculty member within your program, but then you will work independently in researching and writing your essays. You have an opportunity to read the questions (available in the Registrarÿs Office) to see if this option seems like a good choice for you and your learning style.
The Independent Study is a significant, original work that you initiate, often growing out of a meaningful assignment in a course or an idea, question or experience rooted in a fieldwork or work setting. When you choose this option, you create the question or topic to research or elaborate in greater depth. The independent study offers opportunities to explore issues and develop a curriculum, a case study, a project, a program, a critical review of literature, or creative instructional approaches. This choice includes the possibility of writing literature for children and researching its use with children. Students work with a faculty mentor or, with approval, with a person outside the College who has expertise in the particular area of study. In general, the Independent Study is completed over the course of one year. Completed Independent Studies are housed in the Bank Street Library, where they can be read and borrowed by students and faculty as well as circulated through interlibrary loan outside the College.
Further information about all of the options - including detailed instructions, guidelines, and deadlines - can be found in the Guide to the Integrative Master's Project, available in the Graduate Suite and the Registrar's Office.