Doctoral Degrees and English Education.

Overview & Synopsis

Focusing primarily on the doctorate in English education, this paper explores existing opportunities for the English educator outside the conventional area of teachers training. In spite of a constricted job market, alternatives do exist to reduction or abandonment of doctoral programs in English education. Teachers without terminal degrees can be recruited into doctoral programs, thus upgrading their present positions rather than seeking new jobs. People doing advanced work in English education can qualify for jobs in community colleges, in continuing-education programs, in state departments of public instruction, in penal-institution education programs, in foreign teaching service, and in the publishing industry. Faced with such opportunities, an English education doctoral candidate should be equipped with a broad-based educational background, with components of writing and language skills, as well as with depth of understanding in a particular field. The content of a doctoral program should be individualized to match as closely as possible the interests, abilities, backgrounds, and aims of each student involved in a doctoral program in English education. (RL)