I have always dreamed of pursuing a doctorate
in education. I view the George Mason University, Graduate School
of Education, cohort program for a Ph.D. in Education with a specialty
in Educational Leadership as a way to fulfill that dream.
When I finished my Masters in the Arts of Teaching,
my impulse was to pursue a doctoral program but instead, I put my newly
learned knowledge to the test and took a teaching position in Iran.
Basically, I wasn't ready to continue my studies. I needed to gain
experience in the teaching field. After Iran came Greece, Mexico
and then family considerations, Uruguay, Canada, Mexico again and now the
US. Finally I am in a position to pursue my educational dream.
Fortunately, my employment history kept pointing me to this point in my
professional career. As I taught, mentored, assessed needs and designed
programs and materials in various countries, my goal became more defined.
Now it is crystal clear. I want to become an educational resource
to teachers in a more official capacity. As a doctoral student in
Educational Leadership, I would study program design and learn through
research and delving into educational leadership theory, the best way to
analyze a situation and design the most effective program to maximize
learning. And then I would teach prospective teachers how to
be the best teachers they could be in their teaching situation. More
specifically, my focus is to research the best program design for a multicultural
K-12 school in an English speaking country.
In my multi-focused teaching career, I have
taught every level from kindergarten to grade 12 in both public and private
schools. I have taught adults in a plethora of settings. I
have designed and taught programs in the workplace, college and university.
I have taught in the US and out of the US. There has been one constant
when teaching. I am used as the resource on how to teach. This
is reflected in my positions as demonstrating teacher, mentor, teacher
trainer and Senior Instructor.
My academic focus has always been program design.
Even in my first teaching assignment, I moved quickly into a supervisory/teacher
trainer position where I evaluated teachers, demonstrated methods and observed
potential hires. Then my job expanded to a curriculum writer where
I analyzed the knowledge which the students needed at the end of the program
and then designed and wrote the materials for use in the language laboratory.
These were used by hundreds of students for the Bell Helicopter training
program in Iran during the late 1970s.
After Iran, I went to northern Greece where
I wrote a proposal for an ESL program at an international school which
only accepted students who could function academically in English.
The Japanese community financed the proposal in order to get their children
into this prestigious school. The program was so successful that
the school took over the financing of the program. Three years later,
the program enrollment had increased to 45 students. I left Greece
after 3 years at the school and was hired by the San Diego State University
Foundation to write curriculum for an Aramco project in Saudi Arabia.
In 1985 I was hired as an ESL teacher by Alexandria
City Public Schools. During my first year there, I tired of hearing
disparaging remarks about the intellectual capacity of ESL students.
The remarks showed a lack of understanding and of strong cultural insensitivity.
So I created a series of staff development workshops. These workshops
were based on writings by Edward Hall on proxemics and monochromatic versus
polychromatic cultures. The workshops were experiential and based
on the kind of problems which were experienced by the teachers and staff
attending. Within five years, I had given these cultural awareness
and sensitivity workshops on the local, state and national level.
Being part of a husband-wife diplomatic team,
I moved to Uruguay which provided me with another learning opportunity.
I volunteered my time at the Uruguayan American school and provided the
staff with workshops on cultural sensitivity and activities for integrating
the new student into the classroom. Many times I was called on to
demonstrate lessons and methodology which would better serve the new classroom
teacher. Also, as an elected member of the board of directors, I
seized the opportunity to study the qualities of a successful school.
In Canada I got the opportunity to teach on
the college level. I taught at Sheridan College for two years and
at the University of Toronto for another two years. Assigned to the
Engineering Faculty, I taught required first year writing classes and public
speaking electives for 4th year students and graduate students. During
this teaching assignment, it became clear that I needed to pursue
my graduate studies in order to continue teaching at the university level.
The area that I wished to research became clear
during this time. In Toronto, my students were mostly born and bred
Canadians who had a second language background. They were products
of English language Canadian high schools. But their English language
skills were very poor in the communicative areas. They could neither
speak English well nor write at an acceptable academic level. I wanted
to know why. This program in Educational Leadership will help me
to focus my research to find some of the answers to the questions which
plagued me during those teaching years.
Wherever I have gone, I have taught; however,
not all of my teaching as been in the classroom. From 1998 to 2000,
I worked as a vice-consul with the US Department of State. I was
assigned to Mexico City, first in the Non-Immigrant Visa unit and later
in the Passports and Citizenship office. In these positions I had
to research immigration law and be able to explain it both to Mexicans
and to Americans. I was given a performance award, an unusual occurrence
during an officer's first consular tour. I was commended among other
things for my mentoring towards less experienced or less confident officers.
I am first and foremost an educator.
I would like to continue as a teacher in a multicultural setting while
studying the ways to make K-12 programs more effective. This program
would help me to do research in the area which interests me the most which
is program design for the multicultural school. Common sense and
experience tell me what the best way is. This doctoral program would
direct me to back it up with solid research and theory. After I become
an expert in the field of program design and leadership modules for multicultural
programs, especially at the elementary level, I would like to pass on my
knowledge by teaching in a teacher training program. New teachers
need dedicated, inspiring, empowering, experienced professors to help them
discover what they are capable of doing and being as teachers of the future
generation. My goal is to be one of those professors.
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