Masters of Rural Development
I am in the process taking a Master in Rural Development at Brandon University, aiming to graduate in Oct./03

Background Context
Most of the long-term activities in my life are, in retrospect, multiply motivated. The MRD is no exception.
Upon entry to the program, I was concerned with three inter-related aspects:

Increasingly, I found myself providing consultant support to clergy on the front lines in a variety of denominations in and around Brandon. I was continually seeking to upgrade and improve the level of excellence in the support that I was able to provide to these leaders, both at a theoretical and practical level: in a one-on-one , group, and media-based contexts.

Specifically, I was interested in The Role of the Rural Church in the current Agricultural Crisis, and was seeking out a guiding paradigm for the local Church to operate effectively in the current context. After becoming aware of an operating paradigm, then I would be able to develop a rule-set which could operationalize such a paradigm in local churches.

At the personal level, I was interested in seeking to find any links between faith and economics, beyond the popular "theologically sugarcoated socialism and capitalism", if indeed such links existed, particularly in this troubled agricultural / local economic development setting. It was my hope that these studies towards a Master of Rural Development would enrich and integrate with the (primarily Biblically-based) economic insights and experiences I had already attained, so as to bring a greater degree of academic rigor to bear on them, moving us all to a greater level of excellence.

Approach Used
In my experience, a Masters Degree is something of a moving target. I recently received some vital perspective in this regard from Ken Bessant. He noted that in Masters Degrees which have no Thesis requirement, it is often replaced with a set of "comprehensive exams". He further noted that at the Doctoral level, passing the comprehensive exam is necessary to become a candidate for a doctorate. Up until that point you are just taking classes. The Doctorate is all about the writing of a Dissertation. At that level they simply say, "take as many courses as you need to pass the qualifying comprehensives". As the Masters is something of a "half-marathon" compared to a Doctorate's "full- marathon", the thesis and comprehensives double up into one activity.
Though that gives me a good perspective for finishing my degree, a quite different outlook has informed my approach to date:

With the above objectives in mind, I approached the department and asked specifically if I could get where I wanted to go within the structure of their degree. The staff said yes.
I was grandfathered on the old program so I had a great deal of flexibility in shaping my program to fit my needs, being able to select aspects from both old and new formats.
As I already had one Masters, I decided to enjoy the journey as well as the destination, and take whatever time it required, within the structure, to accomplish my objectives.
I specifically selected courses and professors which related to my objectives (rather than selecting "filler courses" because they were available.
Itried to use each assignment to further both learning and integrating of prior learnings in light of the front-line needs of my "target audience" of fellow clergy.
I shot for excellence in both learning and output within the constraints of term lengths.
I separated out the selection of my thesis topic from the focus of my course work, (rather than orienting all coursework towards a particular subject). I chose to use the courses to pursue the dimensions of the ag-ec crisis and (hopefully) an operating paradigm for the Church in such a context. I felt that once that was accomplished, I would be in a better position to select an appropriate research subject for my Thesis.

Current Status

Completed:
Research Methods I (#II extra-audited)
Intro to Agro Industry (extra-audited)
RD from Global Perspective
Rural Resource Development
Rural Community Development
Rural Restructuring
Workshops at International Institute of Qualitative Research (Edmonton, Fall,2000)
Underway:
Advanced Skills (extra audited)
Work Placement (TV skill development; role of media in RD)
Directed Individual Study (Qualitative Research Methods; usefulness of Qual research in RD)
Pre-reading for Thesis

Findings To Date
The results have been very rewarding.

A rough understanding of he agricultural crisis was achieved by Christmas of 2001, along with an operating paradigm for the church in that context.
Some remaining courses are being completed in order to round out that component of the program.
Work has now commenced on the "run-up" to Thesis writing.
A target date for Degree completion has been selected.

Lateral Connections

Required for Completion
For me, the issue is "what remains to be completed so I could complete a set of comprehensive exams in Rural Development successfully?"
The obvious activities are:

Sufficient familiarity with Qualitative Methods to render them easily useable in RD work.
Sufficient familiarity with TV production to be able to use it along with the still, audio and video media now at my disposal, in RD work
Scan over the materials and course outlines of the several optional courses not taken to update and round out my understanding of those areas, so as better to function with practitioners in those areas of RD (tourism, rural health, and sustainability).
Address the felt insufficiency in the area of business development in some way, owing to the time tabling of the Bus. Dev. course not working out.
Then selection and completion of a Thesis in which I produce some sort of significant output in which all of the above has a chance to be brought, as an integrated whole, to bear on some issue of significance to me.