Working/Functional Title

English Education Coordinator- Associate Professor

Position Summary

The Department of English in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University (MSU) is seeking an English Education faculty member at the rank of tenured Associate Professor who will also serve as coordinator of the English education program concentration. This is a full-time, academic year (9 month) appointment, beginning August 16, 2024. English education at MSU prepares preservice secondary English teachers through coursework and experiential learning that focuses on theoretical and practical implications of critical issues surrounding language(s), literacies, digital technologies, literatures, discourses of adolescent development, and writing.

The coordinator will work with a committed team of English education faculty in the Department of English and Department of Teacher Education in the College of Education to coordinate and sustain a program that is committed to advancing equity and justice through anti-oppressive and liberatory approaches to teaching English language arts in a wide range of contexts (e.g., urban, rural, suburban) and through community-based and school-based initiatives. The program aspires toward an ethic of solidarity, reciprocity, and humility.

The successful applicant will have a tenure home in the Department of English, and will report to the department Chairperson. With a dynamic range of expanding programs including literary studies, creative writing, film studies, popular culture, and English education, the department is an integral part of the College of Arts and Letters and Michigan State University's global engagement. The Department is home to an award-winning National Council of Teachers of English MSU Student Affiliate chapter, the undergraduate literary journal Red Cedar Review, the MSU Film Collective, and many other exciting initiatives.

Major Responsibilities

The successful candidate will work collaboratively with diverse English education faculty situated across multiple units. This candidate will integrate programmatic commitments  -- to a) advancement of equity and justice through anti-oppressive and liberatory teaching approaches in diverse contexts; b) community-based and school-based learning; and c) aspirational ethic of solidarity, reciprocity, and humility -- into the following responsibilities: 

• coordinating and sustaining a high-visibility, cross-disciplinary secondary English education program with a national reputation for a, b, and c (above);
• producing innovative research and scholarship related to English education and pedagogy;
• guiding curricular and programmatic planning;
• nurturing community among English education students; and
• supporting student professionalization through partnerships with National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE), Red Cedar Writing Project (MSU's National Writing Project), and other relevant organizations.

We especially seek applicants who possess expertise and conduct research in one or more of the following areas, with specific relevance to English education: a) critical and/or global language perspectives and pedagogies; b) culturally responsive and sustaining English language arts curriculum, instruction, and/or English teacher development, c) cultural assets approaches to writing pedagogies (including creative writing); and d) Indigenous adolescent literacies, literatures, and/or pedagogies.

The English Education coordinator position comes with a course release. Their teaching load will return to the standard 2-2 load for a tenure system faculty member, once the faculty member has stepped down from that position. Within this 9-month academic year appointment, the successful candidate will be responsible for teaching three courses ann