AFSNews Careers Column June 1997

Careers

Margy McClain has contributed the following "Careers" column, in which she reflects on her role as folklorist and assistant professor of education at National-Louis University. Margy earned her M.A. in folklore and mythology at UCLA and worked in folklore programs in not-for-profit agencies from 1979 to 1992. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

If you have suggestions for future columns, please contact me at Career Services, Lucina Hall, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306 (tel: 765/285-2430; fax: 765/285-3757; e-mail: jgoodwin@bsu.edu).

For general information about career planning and conducting a job search, as well as a variety of other resources, visit Career Services' World Wide Web site at http://www.bsu.edu/careers/home.html.

Joseph P. Goodwin Ball State University

Folklorists and Careers: Teaching Education

My interest in education came from several directions, both personal and professional. An early stint in an arts-in-education agency did not leave me enthusiastic about work with schools using the models then available. But in the late 1980s, my daughter entered public school in Chicago the year a major teachers' strike precipitated an overhaul of the school system. The Chicago School Reform Law instituted site-based management, in which each school elected a policy-making body that included six parents. I ran as a parent representative and won. Thus began my real education in the politics and realities of urban school systems. I began to see behind the scenes and discovered a few of the reasons we were so unhappy with the schools and so distressed at the way a majority of students were treated.

About the same time, the not-for-profit organization I directed, Urban Traditions, began to work more intensively in schools. As we pursued projects developing instructional strategies and curriculum to connect schools to their communities, we were puzzled by the tension between the schools' interests in pursuing these ideas and the difficulties in actually implementing projects. The program gave me valuable experience working intensively with teachers in schools and classrooms. I became more interested in becoming part of the educational system in order to find a place where I would have a greater chance of being able to participate effectively in educating teachers and administrators and to work on policy development. At the suggestion of a member of Urban Traditions' Education Advisory Board, I went back to school, almost twenty years after completing my M.A., to do doctoral work in curriculum. My doctoral program was crucial to helping me develop a greater understanding of the diverse contexts of schooling and of the nature of the challenges and barriers to the kinds of work I (and other folklorists) had done from "outside" the educational system. It also introduced me to a wider range of educational issues as well as career opportunities in the field. Graduate assistantships gave me experience in supervising student teachers and in doing research on staff development with classroom teachers.

My dissertation is in curriculum. I found a committee that supported me in doing an ethnographic study that drew on my background in anthropology and folklore, my interests in urban schools, and the relationships among schools, families, and communities. I conducted an ethnography of a Mexican American family, focusing on their children's teaching and learning experiences at home, at school, and in a folklorico dance group. ***I used frameworks from curriculum inquiry to look at the home and the dance group as educational settings and parents as well as dance instructors as well as curriculum makers and educators in the home.*** I also drew on folkloristic concepts about the nature of knowledge and informal transmission of knowledge. Another source for my dissertation was my participation in the American Folklife Center's 1982 study of ethnic heritage schools; I transferred many of the concepts we used to explore ethnic Saturday schools to the study of the folklorico dance group.

I decided I was most interested in seeking academic employment in education, where opportunities are not as restricted as in folklore. Colleges of education, I discovered, are organized in many idiosyncratic ways. Some of the more common areas that my degree in curriculum, in combination with my previous experience and my dissertation work, qualifies me to teach in are curriculum and instruction, teacher education, foundations, and research, as well as in my current role, elementary education. (I also have experience in secondary schools.) There are also opportunities in consulting firms, state and federal education agencies, publishing companies, and other venues.

Returning to school for a Ph.D. in my 40s was not a problem; in education, many people spend early professional years in classrooms or administration before pursuing the doctorate. I was a member of a minority of students coming from non- classroom-teacher backgrounds. Although some employers considered my lack of classroom experience to be a drawback when I began my job search, others appreciated the notion that a variety of perspectives and experiences are needed to enrich educational studies.

I am currently teaching at National College of Education at National-Louis University, one of the oldest colleges of education in the country and the first to become a four-year teachers' college. I work with students in a Master of Arts in Teaching program--students who have bachelor's degrees in other subjects and want to earn teacher certification in elementary education. My work includes teaching (at the moment, mostly seminars that support students in field experiences, as well as a workshop for new teachers), advising, supervising field experiences, service to the university, and scholarly work. The paperwork jungle required to document course work and field experiences for the state certification process is particularly burdensome for students and faculty.

I find may parallels between this opportunity and the work of such folklorists as David Hufford and Bonnie Blair O'Connor in schools of medicine. Like medicine, education is an applied field, and research is supposed to enhance practice. I enjoy teaching and look forward to continuing to do research in collaboration with families and teachers after I complete my dissertation. I see this very much as a continuation of my interests and concerns as a "public folklorist" and as an advocate for and collaborator with underserved communities, those most affected by the issues yet whose voices are too often silenced.

I look forward to sharing my most recent work with folklorists and being part of an expanding dialogue about the relationships between folkloristics and education. I do not see myself as any less a folklorist. The Ph.D. in my "other field," however, opens new doors for cross-disciplinary fertilization and new opportunities for influencing directions in a field that is seen as a central concern in our society.

Margy McClain National-Louis University U62471@uicvm.uic.edu