Jessica Winston

The PhD in English and the teaching of English (http://www.isu.edu/english/EnglishGrad/PhD.shtml) is a distinctive program that combines training in British and American literatures with theoretical and practical work in teaching literature and composition. The primary aim of the degree is to train graduates for teaching careers at two- and four-year schools, especially community colleges. The degree is designed to respond to a need among two- and four-year colleges for knowledgeable, skilled faculty members who can teach a wide variety of classes in composition and literature.

ISU has a long tradition of doctoral training in English, having offered doctoral degrees since 1971; the rationale for the PhD program grows out of this tradition. In 1971, the ISU English doctoral degree was a DA (doctor of arts). Conceived in the late 1960s at Carnegie-Mellon University and originally funded by the Carnegie Foundation, DA programs were established across the country and in multiple fields to address a perceived shortage of teachers for community and small liberal arts colleges. The DA, or “teaching doctorate” as it was (and still is) called, provided broad rather than specialized training in various fields, as well as theoretical and practical work in discipline-specific pedagogy. Over time, the DA became less visible and viable as a degree. In the mid-1970s, at the height of interest in the DA, at least twelve institutions offered the degree in English, but today only one institution does.¹ In response to the decline of the DA, in 2009 ISU replaced its DA program with a PhD in English and the teaching of English. The department reconceived the structure and philosophy of the curriculum in this process, but it chose to maintain the distinctive, long-time emphasis and mission of its doctoral degree in literary and pedagogical training for university-level teaching faculty members. The department also adopted a name for the degree that highlights the program’s emphasis in teaching.

The curriculum integrates historical, theoretical, and practical work in the teaching of English into the program at every level. Alongside course work in literature and literary theory, students take two seminars in composition and literature pedagogy. Working closely with faculty mentors, students also undertake two teaching internships, where they design and teach a course that explores some aspect of pedagogical theory in the literature or composition classroom. One part of the qualifying exam focuses on a field in the teaching of English, usually connected with the student’s dissertation research. While the dissertations are usually literary, students must also write a chapter-length essay that discusses the implications of the dissertation research for teaching. Thus the program trains conscientious, reflective, and versatile scholar-teachers whose primary career goals lie in college-level teaching.

^{1. Paul Dressel and Mary Thompson, “The Doctor of Arts: A Decade of Development, 1967–1977,” Journal of Higher Education 49.4 (1978): 329–36, print. See also, “Phases of Development and Discontinuance of the D.A. by Institution, Field, and Year, 1967–1990,” Idaho State University Graduate School, 1991 (DA programs archive, uncataloged misc. MS). The remaining institution offering the English DA is Saint John’s University, in Queens, NY. Several universities, including ISU, continue to offer the DA in other disciplines, such as biology and political science.↩}