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[helpful]

I don't think English Education involves research using quantitative methods. Anyone out there in the humanities who can confirm this?

[wet_blanket]

I don't think English Education involves research using quantitative methods. Anyone out there in the humanities who can confirm this?

I don't know what light someone in the humanities would shed; it's a question for someone in education.  Which I'm not, but I imagine the answer is "it depends."  I can think of both qual and quant methods to evaluate various pedagogical techniques, for example.

[lohai0]

I don't think English Education involves research using quantitative methods. Anyone out there in the humanities who can confirm this?

I don't know what light someone in the humanities would shed; it's a question for someone in education.  Which I'm not, but I imagine the answer is "it depends."  I can think of both qual and quant methods to evaluate various pedagogical techniques, for example.

We use both, but I don't do a lot of quantitative research myself. (Not in English ed either).

[snowbound]

A Comp/Rhet degree is an English degree. There is certainly usually some overlap with Education, but the kind of research that you would do--and your career trajectory--would be different depending on whether you got an English degree or an Education degree.  One prepares you to teach in an English Department, the other in a School of Education.

So are you thinking about a PhD in English, in the filed of Comp/Rhet?  If so, your years of teaching may be of SOME help getting into a good program or getting an academic job later--but it really won't be that big a factor.  Do you have a passion for some aspect of Comp/Rhet? An intellectual passion that you can explore in a book-length work of original scholarship (your dissertation)? Because that's what you'll need for an English PhD. I don't get that sense from your post.

If indeed it's the teaching that you're most interested in, you'd probably be better going for a PhD in Education--or maybe an EdD, which is less scholarly and more to do with practice.  You will do research, esp for the PhD, but it will be more focussed on pedagogical issues.  And I'm sure you could focus on a topic to do with teaching writing.  And they will put quite a lot of value on your years in the classroom.  IN fact, many tenure track jobs Schools of Ed require quite strong classroom experience.

[msparticularity]

I teach in a College of Education; I taught social studies and language arts at the secondary level, did my PhD in education (curriculum), and did my outside field in comp/rhet. This is not an unusual choice for someone with an interest in writing (reading and writing across the curriculum, in my case) who wants to teach secondary teachers.

Kbeard, at a casual glance you look like a reasonable candidate for a graduate program in English education. Your verbal score is excellent, and your quant score is not a problem for your field. In English ed, it would be quite unusual to do quantitative research, although you would almost certainly have to take a semester or two of stats as a part of any well-rounded doctoral program. I did not score well on stats on the GRE, either (I was around the 55th percentile also), but did fine once I figured out what I needed to do to be certain I mastered the material.

The employment situation for English education is far, far (far) better than it is in comp/rhet; one can even be a bit selective about regions when applying, in fact. You would still need to go to the very best doctoral program you can get into, do conferences and publish, and get experience in teaching undergrad education courses--including English methods. Do not, however, do an EdD, unless it is from Harvard or Columbia Teachers College; you will not be taken seriously, particularly in English ed.

Feel free to PM me if you want to have a more specific discussion.