Cathie English, Ph.D.
I'm a December 2011 graduate of the University of Nebraska with a Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition. My dissertation, Living Well: The Value of Teaching Place is a memoir of my place conscious teaching practices. I am a teacher consultant with the Nebraska Writing Project and served as the site's first technology liaison. I have facilitated summer writing and literature institutes and served on the advisory board for over a decade. I also served as a teacher consultant for the National Writing Project as co-director of the Technology Design Team, a co-creator of the New Site Leadership Institute, and a co-creator of a writing retreat focused on professional writing emphasizing the integration of technology in the classroom.
I have taught secondary English in Aurora, Nebraska for twenty-one years, implementing place conscious pedagogy into my classroom through work ethnographies, oral histories, and other local inquiries. In the 2012-2013 academic year, students in English 4 investigated the issue of poverty and hunger in Hamilton County creating fact sheets, informational flyers promoting agencies that offer assistance, and a culminating video synchronizing this information.
My future research project, "Sustaining the Local Watershed: Place Conscious and Sustainability Pedagogy in Secondary Education" examines the role of place conscious studies and sustainability pedagogy in the secondary classroom. I want to investigate the teaching methods of secondary educators in interdisciplinary teams and how these educators might develop curriculum and advocate for educational changes that accommodate practices encouraging student engagement with the local community, that is, its people, culture, politics, economy and ecosystem. I am particularly interested in editing a collection of essays by secondary instructors who practice place-based education with an emphasis on sustainability. I believe there is a severe lack of emphasis on ecological sustainability within secondary school curriculum, so I hope to advocate and instruct future teachers within my university work.
I have taught secondary English in Aurora, Nebraska for twenty-one years, implementing place conscious pedagogy into my classroom through work ethnographies, oral histories, and other local inquiries. In the 2012-2013 academic year, students in English 4 investigated the issue of poverty and hunger in Hamilton County creating fact sheets, informational flyers promoting agencies that offer assistance, and a culminating video synchronizing this information.
My future research project, "Sustaining the Local Watershed: Place Conscious and Sustainability Pedagogy in Secondary Education" examines the role of place conscious studies and sustainability pedagogy in the secondary classroom. I want to investigate the teaching methods of secondary educators in interdisciplinary teams and how these educators might develop curriculum and advocate for educational changes that accommodate practices encouraging student engagement with the local community, that is, its people, culture, politics, economy and ecosystem. I am particularly interested in editing a collection of essays by secondary instructors who practice place-based education with an emphasis on sustainability. I believe there is a severe lack of emphasis on ecological sustainability within secondary school curriculum, so I hope to advocate and instruct future teachers within my university work.
