Ideally, with a Master of Arts in English Education from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke

The minimum requirement for an instructor of college-level courses (at a two- or four-year college) is a Master's degree, and eighteen hours of coursework in the relevant discipline.

Traditionally, English departments in most two-year schools have met this expectation by asking for a Master of Arts in English, a very common degree. This has some limitations, however. According to the Modern Language Association's 2011 report Rethinking the Master's Degree in English for a New Century, pedagogy courses are commonly not required in such MA programs. The Teaching of Writing was only required of all students in 14.5% of the programs that were surveyed, and the Teaching of Literature was required for all students in only 5.2% of programs. Those numbers are a bit higher when including programs that require them of some students (adding another 19.4% and 1.7% respectively). Given the centrality of teaching to the daily workload of college instructors, a solid grounding in pedagogy makes a great deal of sense for anyone pursuing a career as a college instructor or community-college professor.

The curriculum for UNCP's MA in English Education is a solid fit for such a career, however. We are among the small percentage of program requiring both Teaching of Writing and Teaching of Literature, and we also offer a broad range of content courses at the graduate level. The Thesis concentration, by requiring a six credit thesis, is more directly comparable to a typical Master of Arts in English than the Licensure concentration, but the latter contains only three credits taught outside the Department of English, Theatre, and Foreign Languages.