School of Education

Sarajane Armstrong

I grew up in a small town in eastern Arkansas. I went to a small private college in Batesville, Arkansas. I received a BA in Elementary Education from Lyon College before accepting my first teaching job. Since I was a little girl I had dreamed of getting a Master’s Degree after seeing how hard my mom worked for her degree in Early Childhood Special Education. A few months into my first year of teaching I started looking into programs and couldn’t find many options close to my interests. After some advice from friends and advisors, I decided to look abroad to see if anything caught my eye. I did a simple Google search and the first result to appear was an MEd in Children’s Literature and Literacies at the University of Glasgow. As soon as I read the description for the course, I knew this is what I had been looking for!

This program turned out to be everything I had dreamed of and more. I met some really great friends in my program that I still keep in touch with through group chats and monthly book club meetings. When COVID hit I made the decision to finish my degree in Scotland instead of going home like many other international students I knew did. I ended up spending a lot of time on the Isle of Bute with a friend from my course for 3 months of lockdown. We made the most of our time there taking in island scenery and watching movies when we weren’t writing our dissertations. Despite COVID changing a lot of plans I am so grateful for my time in Scotland and will always cherish the memories I made. I really enjoyed getting to travel to different parts of Scotland and hope to visit again one day soon! I learned a lot about myself and this experience gave me a new perspective on life and the world around me. In the future I hope to work with books in some capacity, maybe as a librarian, and I want to be involved in philanthropy projects that help children receive books.