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Possible. I would have to step up my writing game though. I am looking at teaching overseas as well. I hear that South Korea is hiring like crazy for people to teach English. Having an English degree would give me an edge in the job market.
South Korea is slowing down the hiring of English teachers. Since the layoff of so many teachers in the US, they are going overseas for those jobs. Having a degree is the minimum anything beyond that can increase your salary. Actual teaching experience & an ESL certificate helps.
I think I may get a masters in Education administration instead. The pay is a lot better and I wouldn't have to deal with grading papers. I think I would rather do that than deal with the stress of being a high school English teacher. Thoughts?
Last edited by IshGibbor; 04-25-2011 at 01:40 PM..
I think I may get a masters in Education administration instead. The pay is a lot better and I wouldn't have to deal with grading papers. I think I would rather do that than deal with the stress of being a high school English teacher. Thoughts?
Truthfully... the last thing school districts need are more adminsitrators who haven't taught in the classroom. How can you be an instructional leader of a school when you never taught in a classroom? What advice are you going to give a new teacher who needs your guidance? Go through the stress of being an English teacher, it'll only make you a better administrator down the road. Teachers will respect you more and be willing to support you if you've "been there, done that".
Truthfully... the last thing school districts need are more adminsitrators who haven't taught in the classroom. How can you be an instructional leader of a school when you never taught in a classroom? What advice are you going to give a new teacher who needs your guidance? Go through the stress of being an English teacher, it'll only make you a better administrator down the road. Teachers will respect you more and be willing to support you if you've "been there, done that".
Good point. Also, the PHD in English is still on my mind even though the job prospects are abysmal. I wonder if my minority status will help me get hired (I'm an African American male) seeing as there are a very small number of black male PHD's in anything. I still will have to produce amazing scholarship and hit up a top school but I my minority status could help me in the job search. I read an article that there is a push for black male teachers in high school. I am not sure if that is the case in academia.
I earned both a master's in English Ed and a master's in Educational Administration. I wish I wouldn't have gotten the Ed Admin degree. I taught junior high English for seven years. I recently left after the birth of my child. I now teach part-time at a community college and I also work as a teaching assistant for an online university. In addition, I have a small writing consulting business.
I highly recommend getting a master's and/or PhD in English education or Composition/Rhetoric. There are no jobs for Literature majors and the MFA in Creative Writing limits you. The courses I took for my master's in English Ed had to do with vocabulary instruction, writing instruction, young adult literature, technology literacy, etc. I loved the courses and feel they prepared me for K-12 teaching and college teaching. My friends who completed the MA in English Comp/Rhetoric completed courses in writing theory, rhetoric, etc. They were able to find college teaching positions or writing center director positions. I think those would help you secure employment and decide if you want to pursue a PhD
Whatever you do, I beg of you, teach grammar! Teach good writing skills! Teach about parallel construction and dangling participles. Most students need this, whether at the HS, CC, or university level. Except for the private school kids, they get that stuff in 9th grade.
I wanted some feedback on pursuing a career as an English teacher.
I am currently working on my bachelors in English and I am looking into applying for graduate school. I am deciding on whether I want to pursue a MA in English Education or a MA in English with a concentration in English composition. I feel that getting the MA in English Education would be beneficial to my career as an educator but I am not one to take classes in education (I looked at the classes for the MA in Education at the University of Florida and I frowned). I would enjoy graduate school a lot more doing a Masters in English (really just a continuation of my bachelors in English) and it would give me a taste of what is to come if I would like to pursue a PHD in English.
My end goal is to be able to teach English in high school (honors) or at a collegiate level. I would prefer to teach English in college and not have to deal with the hassle of trying to get published or attending conferences to talk about an English related thesis I discovered (hence my reluctance to get a PHD or be hired as a professor in a tenured position). Since the highest frequency of English classes being taught in college are Composition I and II, a Masters in English composition wouldn't hurt in trying to obtain a position at a university (even if it is a community college). Also, I would have no problem teaching outside of the United States.
Thoughts?
Ish
I actually thought this post was meant as sarcasm, but maybe it's not? Regarding teaching English in college - the market for English PhD's is so poor at this point that unless you are at a top school and are at the top of your class you will not find a full-time teaching job anywhere, community college or otherwise. You MAY be able to adjunct at a cc for low pay and no benefits, but you'll have the fight off all the unemployed PhD's even for that privilege. However, the statement "even at a cc" pretty much disqualifies you for that employment as well - there are more than enough people who love teaching at cc's and believe in their mission, and cc's usually avoid people who think of them as a "fall-back."
If you really enjoy teaching composition - I mean, the mechanics and structure of composition, not creative writing - then you might consider a TESL (English as a second language) or Applied Linguistics major. That field generally only requires an MA and has better job opportunities than English literature. However, a full-time job, even at a CC, does require some professional work today such as publications and conference attendance. If you really don't want to do that, then you probably won't succeed in finding full-time employment anywhere at the college level.
For high school, you will need a teaching certificate or license. And you will need education courses, sorry. Sounds like you just want to pursue a hobby and enjoy studying English, but that's not a career, even in academia. Maybe you should give some education or TESL courses a try - you might find they aren't as bad as you think.
Good point. Also, the PHD in English is still on my mind even though the job prospects are abysmal. I wonder if my minority status will help me get hired (I'm an African American male) seeing as there are a very small number of black male PHD's in anything. I still will have to produce amazing scholarship and hit up a top school but I my minority status could help me in the job search. I read an article that there is a push for black male teachers in high school. I am not sure if that is the case in academia.
Unlikely. Colleges and universities try to avoid the appearance of affirmative action, especially in this competitive, litigious market. You would need to compete on the merits of your scholarship and, well, connections. High schools and other K-12 schools seek minority teachers for a different reason - they hope to better reflect the demographic of their schools and hire teachers who can serve as role models for minority students.
I think I may get a masters in Education administration instead. The pay is a lot better and I wouldn't have to deal with grading papers. I think I would rather do that than deal with the stress of being a high school English teacher. Thoughts?
I know this is an older post, but I thought I might have some good info to add anecdotally. I have a masters in English and was fortunate enough to be hired as a full-time instructor fresh out of grad school by a local private Christian college (it operates more like a community college).
You mentioned trying to decide between the MA, the MA in Ed, the PhD, or the MFA, and I can offer a little perspective on some of those. What do you do if you are interested in literature grad studies but you like teaching more than research? Like you, I wasn't really into the research aspect of higher education, although I do enjoy research. I love teaching much more and am more interested in it. My husband has his MFA in Creative Writing, and even though he was hired as an adjunct the first year we both started working at the school, he has quickly risen to a higher position than me due in main part to his terminal degree. This is why I began a PhD last year at my former MA university, but after only one year of part-time study, I am getting tired of the humanities postmodern nonsense, the terrible insecurities if my fellow students, and the silly politics. (No offense to other Ph.D. students or those who enjoy that life.)
As a college teacher with only an MA, I won't be able to progress higher quickly, if at all in some cases, so having the terminal degree is something I would encourage you to do if you want to stay in any form of higher ed. The MFA can do just as well as the Ph.D. depending on the circumstances. We both teach composition, which anyone with an English graduate degree is qualified to do, but I was also hired to teach classes that were initially outside of my area of emphasis (no, it's not really a concentration for the masters, but some programs do want you to pick an emphasis and do slightly more in that area). Here are some of the things that I think helped me get hired:
1. I went to work at a place that was necessarily more selective in its hiring with regard to religious beliefs, not something a lot of other types of schools and universities are too concerned with, but this was an advantage for me as a practicing Christian.
2. I found the job at the very end of the hiring year (August!), when the school had lost a faculty member unexpectedly and was not as picky about finding someone whose qualifications exactly fitted the job post. I was hired to teach non-Western lit and remedial reading classes, and had no grad
Last edited by Sunjata; 07-28-2014 at 09:33 AM..
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