Friday, April 4, 2008
Teaching with an MA in CW?
Here's a random question for the blog: how possible is it to teach with an MA in Creative Writing? A friend of mine was accepted into Boston's MFA program with no funding and Cincinnati's MA/CW program with a full ride, TAship, and salary. I say it's a no brainer to go to Ohio but he worries that finding a job will be more difficult.
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4 comments:
I think one of the only benefits for getting an MFA in the teaching world is that it is a terminal degree, meaning you're qualified for tenure-track positions. A MA isn't considered a terminal degree. You'd have to get a PhD, I think, to be qualified for tenure track.
Seems like a PhD is necessary for tenure track, regardless. But that's just disappearing tenure.
He wouldn't get teaching/pedagogy experience at Boston, which makes me think he'd be at a disadvantage even if it's a more prestigious school.
I'm doing the exact same job I did before I got my MFA, since I already had a masters. So given the funding and the potential for teaching experience, I think he might get more bang for his buck (god that is a stupid, stupid cliche) if he goes to Ohio. It's still going to be the book/s that determines if he gets a job at a place with an MFA program later in life.
I'm with Carmen - my gut feeling is that it's more about publishing than anything else.
And I know that if the TSU program had been only two years, I'd have been at a pretty severe. disadvantage. I needed that third year to write something even worth sending out.
I know folks progress at different rates, but I'd say the MFA offers more one more year of shelter, which could lead to better publication rates, which could lead to real teaching jobs.
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