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CAREERS IN
EDUCATION
by E. Christiansen
A career in the education field
offers the reward of making a permanent impression upon the lives of thousands
of children and adults. Education gives people the keys they need to unlock a
successful future and to prepare to join the workforce of tomorrow.
It
is also a field where resourcefulness and creativity can be used in the course
of daily work. "If you are not artsy and creative, this shouldn't be for you, "
says Erika Stevens, an early education instructor. "You need to be able to
think fast, and pull new ideas off the top of your head when you are working
with children. You have to react to what they do and work it into the lesson
plan. "
Jobs in this field include adult education teachers, college and
university professors, elementary school teachers and
secondary school teachers, counselors, and
librarians. Due to the projected increase in the number
of people of the age to attend elementary school through college in the United
States by the year 2005, the prospects in all of these fields look better than
they did in the 1980s. The growing awareness of the value of multi-cultural and
bilingual education programs also helps make this field an attractive one for
Hispanics to enter. The web offers a number of resources for aspiring teachers.
We have included a list of some of the best education
resources at the bottom of this page. |
Adult Education Teachers
This category is divided
into three sections: vocational-technical instructors, adult basic education
instructors, and continuing education instructors. Each type of adult education
teacher has a different goal and a different pool of students.
- Vocational/Technical: These
teachers must integrate basic academic information into the vocational material
presented to the students. Teachers demonstrate techniques, watch the student
perform the same techniques, then offer a critique of the student's overall
performance. The most jobs in this area are in fields such as welding and
automotive repair, dental assisting, cosmetology, and computer repair.
- Adult Basic: This covers all
teaching of basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills to high school drop
outs and newly arrived immigrants, in order to help them increase their
employability. This often involves English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching.
Teachers either conduct classes with the goal of reaching the eighth-grade
proficiency levels, or the twelvth grade level (usually in preparation for the
GED test).
- Continuing Education:
Teachers in these courses are working with adults who take these classes for
personal enrichment, or to update their professional skills. Typical courses
include cooking, dancing, creative writing, photography, personal finance, or
starting a small business.
Adult education teachers have the advantage
that the people in the classes are there by choice, and are interested in
learning. The only drawback is that many students taking basic education
classes may have limited language skills or may have differing levels of
education. This makes adult basic education an excellent field for bi-lingual
teachers interested in giving personal attention to their students.
Adult education classes are generally held only at night or on weekends
in order to accommodate the work schedule of most of the potential students.
Adult education teachers often hold other jobs in an education related field or
are self-employed. About half of all adult education teachers only teach on a
part-time basis. Adult education teachers held 540,000 jobs in 1992, with the
majority of these workers employed by public school districts. Other
organizations that employ adult education teachers include community colleges,
universities, large corporations, specialty schools (cooking, bartending,
business, computer technology), job training centers, and religious
organizations.
To become an adult education teacher, it is required that
you have either worked professionally in the field you are teaching in, or have
some other experience in that field. Formal education institutions generally
require a B.A., M.A., or Ph.D. for credit classes, but will often accept
non-degreed applicants for special interest continuing education courses. Most
other positions require at least a B.A. and teaching certification.
Teachers in this field need to have excellent communication skills
and a reserve of patience, especially when working in the basic education
field. A desire to keep learning, and keep up on the latest teaching techniques
is also necessary, especially in the continuing education field. Jobs in adult
education can lead to administrative positions within educational
organizations.
- American Association for Adult and Continuing
Education, 1101 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 700, Washington DC 20036.
- American Association of University
Professors, 1012 14th St. NW, Washington, DC 20005.
- Association for Library and Information
Science Education, 4101 Lake Boone Trail, Suite 201, Raleigh, NC 27607.
- National Education Association, 1201 16th St.
NW, Washington, DC 20036.
On the web,
visit:
Educational Information sites
Educational Employment sites
You may also subscribe to the Web66 list, a
Spanish-language email discussion list for for discussion of web use in the
classroom, primarily focused on schools that are implementing and supporting
their own web sites. To subscribe to this list, send the message SUB
WEB66 yourfirstname yourlastname to
Listserv@tc.umn.edu.
Another
Internet Email discussion group is NSLCK-12, an open, largely unmoderated
discussion list for anyone interested in K-12 service-learning issues. A digest
of the list's topics, and information on subscribing, are available on the web
at http://www.nicsl.coled.umn.edu/lit/listsrch.htm.
©1996-97,
Saludos Hispanos.
No part of this article may be reproduced without
permission of the author. HTML links to this document are allowed, but please
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