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[1bourbon1scotch1beer]

So I have an M.A. from an U.S. regionally accredited institution.  The subject matter was focussed on global history.  I have been teaching in South Korea for three years at a low level university.  I teach a couple of history courses but most of my courses are in basic ESL.  Will this experience aid me?  I am obviously wanting to target community college positions.

So why the online degree?  My grades were poor for my history M.A.  I had a 2.90 in my major and 2.55 overall.  I was married and holding a full-time and part time job while studying.  One divorce later I found myself with time to study since my university in Korea has minimal hours and I had free time I could be using for more product means ohter than my username suggests.  Anyway...

I am not in love with research.  I have always wanted to teach at the community college level and that has long been my goal.  I am a product of a GED, community college, transferring for the B.A., and finally an online M.A.  I am aware being in the humanities with a distance M.A. limit my options.  I am contemplating a second distance M.A. in political science or English in order to help my job prospects.  I may also attempt a phD at a cheaper foreign university in Taiwan, China, or the Philippines. 

Which lead to my second question: Which would be a better of those two routes for jobs at a community college in your opinion?  Also, will my being a product of the community college system if properly emphasized in an interview help or hinder me in my job search?  I feel it may aid in helping me relate to my students as I was certainly out of the category of traditional students.

Thank you sincerely for your advice,

1bourbon1scotch1beer

[betterslac]

An online MA in political science will get you nowhere in the US, even at the cc level in terms of teaching political science courses. It also will not get you very far in Taiwan at the university level, and I doubt anywhere else in Asia.

I think if you are unable to attend a full-time program in one of these areas up to the Ph.D. level (always a risky venture) your best bet is to leverage your overseas ESL experience to try to move up the English training food chain in Asia. There are lots of opportunities in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, as you know. See if you can find a nice town with a nice company and move into a supervisory role. A good living can be had.

[1bourbon1scotch1beer]

So with an online MA in global history and poly sci/English you see no opportunity for cc jobs at all?  Even if I'm will to work Indian reservations, Alaska, and/or anywhere that is less desirable?

I'm thinking if this advice matches others and with obvious additional research on my own then an international phD is my best bet.

[baka_janai]

Whether this is fair or not, your experience at the Korean university will count for very little back in the US job market.  Even your EFL experience will count for very little in terms of US ESL jobs.  Furthermore, the full-time cc job market for ESL is completely saturated with people with solid "brick and mortar" degrees in TESOL.  I'm currently a full-professor at a Japanese university with a BA and MA in applied linguistics, Ph.D., a list of publications, and 20+ years of ESL/EFL/EAP/ESP experience and I would also have a hard time landing a cc position.  It's little more than a random crap-shoot.

As far as teaching in History or Political Science, again the market is saturated with people with traditional Ph.D.s from good (even great) US universities -- people who are willing to teach ANYWHERE. 

I know it may sound harsh, but I don't think your chances of succeeding in the CC dream are very good.  Getting an "international Ph.D." probably won't help.

[sugaree]

Even before the economy tanked, the history job market was so tight that most CC could have their pick among PhDs, sometimes from top schools. An M.A. (esp. an online one) won't get you anywhere anymore, I should think. ESL experience I'm afraid won't count for much either.

[baka_janai]

I may also attempt a phD at a cheaper foreign university in Taiwan, China, or the Philippines. 

This would be entirely worthless in the US. 

[kedves]

There is demand in public high schools for teaching of languages other than Spanish, but I don't know if you are qualified to teach any of these or how online graduate degrees are viewed within this system---and you would need to meet teaching certification guidelines for that state.  I also don't know how online universities treat online graduate degrees, but maybe that is a possibility.

I agree with the assessment of the CC situation in history.  A friend of mine is competing for those jobs now, and it's an employer's market.  Being from that background would help you only if you were already a very strong candidate.

Betterslac's advice sounds good, if you don't have a strong desire to move out of the region.  Above all, don't invest in a degree that won't do anything for you.

[seniorscholar]

Aside from the problems that have already been raised, most community colleges require (at a minimum) 18 hours of graduate course work *in the field in which you're hired to teach* -- and the range of international/interdisciplinary/etc. degrees you're considering don't seem to me to add up to that number of graduate hours in a field that's widely taught at community colleges. (Political science is not such a field.) Before you fix your heart on CC teaching, at least look at the course offerings and the distribution of faculty at a US CC (such as the one you attended) and see what they teach and what sort of jobs they are offering.

[1bourbon1scotch1beer]

The major percentage of cc colleges have courses in U.S. history.  Generally they break it up into two survey courses.  They also offer general world history survey courses but rarely get more specific than that.  My world history M.A. contains 18 hours of U.S. courses (I took a few extra U.S. classes to make sure of it) and all of my cc history teachers advised that I should pick up another M.A. in a secondary discipline like political science.  They seemed to think that if I had qualifications and could teach and reach across multiple disciplines that it would significantly increase my chances for landing a cc job.

Apparently what everyone else (re: you) are saying is that multiple disciplines is meaningless when they are online.  That in history there are so many unemployed phD's that the nature of my online degree puts me absolutely at the bottom of the list and thus I have no hope.  Also that being from the cc system gives me no advantage because it's really not about connecting to students it's about being the most academically qualified which seems to me to go against the grain of cc's across the states.  Most people who go to cc don't graduate and go on to get higher degrees so I also considered that I put the time and effort into such would set me apart.  I spent too much fantasizing and not enough time reading between the lines to understand some important lessons in reality versus the rhetoric of my cc environment.

I'm a bit disheartened and I feel like all my education was for not.  I guess my student loans don't have to be paid if I live the rest of my life overseas :P  Hmmm.  I guess teaching university overseas isn't such a bad gig afterall.

That or maybe I'll get a teacher's cert and hit the kiddie market.

[grasshopper]

So with an online MA in global history and poly sci/English you see no opportunity for cc jobs at all?  Even if I'm will to work Indian reservations, Alaska, and/or anywhere that is less desirable?

I'm ABD, planning to finish in August, from a decent brick and mortar school, and the rejections are still coming in in waves from less desirable schools, including one-building crap CCs paying a pittance to teach 5/5 in Nowheresville, New Mexico and Alaska. The market sucks across the board in humanities and social sciences - some disciplines worse than others, of course.

Apparently what everyone else (re: you) are saying is that multiple disciplines is meaningless when they are online. That in history there are so many unemployed phD's that the nature of my online degree puts me absolutely at the bottom of the list and thus I have no hope.

Pretty much.

Also that being from the cc system gives me no advantage because it's really not about connecting to students it's about being the most academically qualified which seems to me to go against the grain of cc's across the states.

It's not so cut and dry. You'd be competing with people who have the degree, have the publications, and have good teaching records. You don't have to go to a second-rate school to be able to connect to students.

I'm a bit disheartened and I feel like all my education was for not.

For "naught."

And no, it's not for naught. You have accomplished something that you wanted to do, and it has gotten you the job that you have now. You wouldn't have gotten this job without having gotten your online degree. You might still be able to get work in education, just probably not at the college level in the US. At least not right now.

I guess my student loans don't have to be paid if I live the rest of my life overseas :P  Hmmm.  I guess teaching university overseas isn't such a bad gig afterall.

You've got it better than me right now with my fancy-dancy ABD status at a brick-n-mortar.

[jackalope]

I think the "online" is less of a problem than the "MA," which is just not a sufficient credential to land you a TT history job at a CC anymore. The online thing is a small strike against you, the terminal MA is a big strike. Being located overseas (unavailable for campus interviews) and not having any U.S. college teaching experience are strikes three and four.

Some things you could do to tip the scales a little bit would include publishing an article or two in peer-reviewed journals (this would make your MA seem more credible) and teach some online classes for American institutions. I think if you did both of these things, and applied to really remote schools, you might have a chance.

Another approach would be to find something else you could do at a CC--perhaps in student support?--get your foot in the door adjuncting some classes, and work on some publishable research.

Sorry, it is just a terrible job market.

[1bourbon1scotch1beer]

Perhaps I should have mentioned that I am not looking for a TT position exclusively.  Adjuncting at a couple of institutions or solid hours to garner experience would be for a few years an acceptable opportunity.  Does that change things dramatically?  I also coach my South Korean basketball team at my university.

I've been published twice during my M.A. coursework but hardly enough to consider my experience in research lengthy. 

[jackalope]

There are a lot of places where an MA in anything can get you multiple adjunct opportunities. We would hire you to teach two survey courses a semester at my old school, a rural teaching institutions in a town with no MA granting institution within 50 miles (so no pool of adjuncts). For which we would pay you $1950 a course and no benefits whatsoever.

Is that what you want? We had one long-term adjunct who actually lived on his $8000 a year, with his mother, in their run-down house in an even cheaper nearby town. God he was bitter.

[baka_janai]

Apparently what everyone else (re: you) are saying is that multiple disciplines is meaningless when they are online.

Pretty much.  Online degrees are generally looked down upon.  The only exception might be certain programs connected with well-established US universities which also offer the same program (with the same course requirements) as an on-campus MA.  An on-campus MA typically takes about two years to complete (including writing a thesis).  Yet, many online MAs are doable in about a year.  Right away that should tell you something. 

Having multiple degrees in multiple disciplines would generally be good but two MAs don't add up to one Ph.D.  Now if you had a Ph.D. and also an MA in a second related field that would give you a leg up. 

That in history there are so many unemployed phD's that the nature of my online degree puts me absolutely at the bottom of the list and thus I have no hope. 

Yep.  Well, you can still hope, but if I were you I wouldn't count on the CC thing as a way to get back to the US. 

Also that being from the cc system gives me no advantage because it's really not about connecting to students it's about being the most academically qualified which seems to me to go against the grain of cc's across the states.  Most people who go to cc don't graduate and go on to get higher degrees so I also considered that I put the time and effort into such would set me apart. 

Plenty of people started off their college studies at a CC.  I did.  My three kids did.  Yeah, it's a different student population than at the 4-year schools but just having attended a CC won't really give you any "street cred" in terms of getting a job at one. 

I'm a bit disheartened and I feel like all my education was for not.  I guess my student loans don't have to be paid if I live the rest of my life overseas :P  Hmmm.  I guess teaching university overseas isn't such a bad gig afterall.

Education is never wasted even if it doesn't immediately result in a job.  My career path to a university position (in Japan) was certainly non-traditional.  After doing some low-level ESL in the US, I finished my MA and took a job in the Arabian Gulf and ended working there for 12 years.  Then I took a chance a wrangled a job in the linguistics department at a Mexican university that paid almost nothing but gave me some great experience teaching academic subjects.  That then led to the job in Japan, which then allowed me the time and money to pursue a Ph.D. (through a university in the UK).  The Ph.D. work led to a sabbatical in the US, during which time I "communed with the Gods" of my field and taught a few classes as an adjunct in the Cal State system. 

Now 13 years after coming to Japan, I'm a much different person both professionally and personally that I was when I was hired.  It would still be a 1-in-500 shot at best to land a tt job in the US.  But then at the moment, particularly with the dollar-yen exchange rate, I earn about $20,000 more a year in Japan that I would at a tt job in the humanities in the US. 

In total I've lived abroad for almost 26 years.  It's been a great life. 
[/quote]

[pink_]

The problem, as I see it, is that even the adjunct market is really tightening up as schools are forced to find ways to eliminate costs and tighten belts.  A number of those kinds are being cut, and with the market what it is, there are more Ph.Ds than ever competing for the few jobs that are left.

Even if you had an MA from Harvard, you would be at the bottom of the pile.