For Hiring English Teachers

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Christopher Green, Nov 9, 2002.

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  1. Christopher Green

    Christopher Green New Member

    I'm interested in teaching english at a junior college in CA, or close to CA. I have narrowed my search for an English Lit. program down to four. Does anyone have any rec's with respect to which of these programs would make me more/less hire-able???

    University So. Mississippi summer program. This would be an M.Ed. in Secondary Studies, with an emphasis in English. Advantage is it would take 2 years. 15 credits of English may mean I would have to take more to meet a CA requirement.
    http://www.spge.usm.edu/book_info.shtml

    Hamline University's MFA, completely DL, but will an MFA do the trick to get hired? (see comments below).
    http://piperline.hamline.edu/pls/prod/hamwebsite.P_WebSite?site=GLS

    Indiana Univ. of Penn. I found out that the program they offer over the summers is no longer a PhD only program. They offer four MA's in English over summer residency. However, the "generalist" MA which is tailored to prep. junior college teachers requires courses seldom offered over the summer schedule. The summer MA in Literature would be the best bet to finish. No thesis, no comps:
    http://www.english.iup.edu/graduate/masters/ma-lit/requirements.htm

    Univ. CA Irvine. UCI boasts a famous English faculty, and they offer this program Summer MA English Program, thesis included.
    http://www.humanities.uci.edu/english/summermasters/index.html#A4

    Now, I should graduate in the next 3 to 6 months with another BA from Excelsior in Literature in English (now a major!). With that in mind, is it conceivable that I would be competitive in the marketplace to teach English at a JC if I have the MFA from Hamline? Or would an MA in Lit. be better, say, from IUP? From what I know, most JC's offer mostly courses in writing and composition with a few courses in Literature. Given that, wouldn't it be better to get an MFA (given one has a bachelors in English Lit) over an MA in Lit??? Which is more hire-able???

    Any thoughts would be appreciated. I decided to post these sites since I had such a hard time finding MA's in English. Also, Holy Names College has an MA program for weekenders, but it is out of commission (still posted on the net, though). Also, U. of Maine now has a summer program in English Lit.


    Again, any help would be welcomed.

    Chris G.
     
  2. Christopher Green

    Christopher Green New Member

    Let me sum it up...

    Let me sum it up and make it simple:

    Is it better to have an MFA or an MA in Literature to get hired teaching English full time, probably at a community college???

    Chris
     
  3. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    With the options you gave, I would go for UC-Irvine, hands-down.

    If you want to teach English at any level, then a M.A. in English will always be preferable to a M.F.A. or any other Master's degree you care to name.

    Add in the fantastic reputation that the University of California system has, I think it's a no-brainer to go with UC-Irvine.


    Bruce
     
  4. cdhale

    cdhale Member

    I would agree. All of the options you listed could potentially work, but getting the degree in English would be preferable.

    Your post raises a question in my mind. Would foreign MAs in English serve this purpose? I am going after mine from UNIZUL beginning this spring. I haven't planned to go into teaching, I am just doing it because I want to....

    Just wondering.

    clint
     
  5. Roscoe

    Roscoe Guest

    I've always thought of an MFA as a professional degree and the MA as academic and therefore better suited for teaching. Is this correct?

    Roscoe
     
  6. Christopher Green

    Christopher Green New Member

    This may be true...

    this may be true, that the MFA is simply a prof. degree.

    My questions come up because many, many have told me that if you want to teach english, you need to be ready to teach mostly "composition." Both UCI and IUP are basically courses in Literature, although IUP actually calls it an "MA in Lit." What confuses me is why this would be better prep to teach classes in composition when most of the literature classes at junior colleges are plums (you pick em when you can).

    Chris
     
  7. tcnixon

    tcnixon Active Member

    One point somewhat unrelated is that it is *very* difficult to get one of those California community college positions. The local college will easily get more than 100 applications for one position (and that's in Fresno, CA! -- imagine if it were in a livable place!!).

    Most often the position will then go to someone who has been working as an adjunct for them.


    Tom Nixon
     
  8. jcryan

    jcryan New Member

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