Anyone who has ventured up to the third floor of McClellan Hall has seen the bright, colorful posters and inviting classrooms that seem to transport one back to a time when school was easier for many of us. Others may have seen students hard at work at SPEC and wondered what they were up to. Both of these buildings are home to the Huckabee School of Education, which consists of two departments: the Department of Education and the Department of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies.
The Department of Education offers majors in early childhood, middle school, and secondary education. It also works with other departments preparing students to teach art, theatre, music, English, math, biology, chemistry and social studies. On the other hand, the Department of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies gives students the opportunity to major in fitness, recreation, recreation and sports ministry and teaching. There are currently about 250 students in the School of Education and another 25 minors in Kinesiology or Education and Public Policy.
“In the kinesiology department, fitness is right now the leading major,” Dr. Merribeth Bruning, the dean of the School of Education and director of Teacher Education, said. “In the education department, the most popular major is elementary education, K-6.”
While some education majors go on to graduate school, most of them get their teaching licenses and begin teaching in schools right away. There are Ouachita graduates teaching not only in Arkansas, Texas, Illinois and Colorado, but some have taught or are teaching in Hungary, Uruguay, China and Russia as well.
“Our students are in high demand for teaching jobs,” Bruning said. “People know that students from Ouachita will be well prepared in their content and pedagogy, and that they’re going to have positive professional dispositions or attitudes about teaching and about people because we are a Christ-centered school. Our Kinesiology non-teaching majors are also employed in a variety of settings and some go to graduate school, especially those in the pre-professional track”
Although education majors spend a good amount of time in the classroom, they are given numerous opportunities to observe teachers in local schools and to hear from guest educators on the Third Thursdays for Teachers at Ten as well. Education majors may sign up for the UK Study Abroad Trip, where students visit schools in the UK and also visit Liverpool Hope University and Oxford University. In past years, the UK Study Abroad trip has also involved travelling to Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These annual trips, which began in 2011, aim to teach students how culture and education shape each other.
“The education department here at Ouachita sets extremely high expectations for their future teachers and prepares us immensely,” Kaela Butler, senior elementary education major from Lincoln, Arkansas, said. “We are constantly in and out of actual schools, observing real teachers with real students. With the many hours of field experience, a student pursuing this major will know if being a lifetime educator is for them in their first year.”
Education majors spend their last semester at Ouachita student teaching at schools within a one-hour radius of Ouachita.
“I won’t student teach until Spring 2017, but I’m already preparing for that semester and I know I will grow significantly during that time,” Abby Root, junior speech communications and theatre education double major from Arkadelphia, Arkansas, said. “During my sophomore year, I got to observe at all the schools in Arkadelphia and a school in Benton. It’s exciting to get to watch learning theories and expectations in practice. It makes me very excited to student teach and work in a school one day.”
For more information on the School of Education, contact Bruning at bruningm@obu.edu.
By Kimberly Wong
