Marion County Public Schools Instructional Coach Kacey Huffaker has improved professionally by degrees this year -- an advanced degree to be exact. Huffaker recently earned her PhD in history, an accomplishment that she’s happy to see completed.
“I’m glad I did it, but I’m glad it’s over,” she said. “It’s a big relief.”
Huffaker began working on her PhD in 2019 and then found more time to focus on it during the pandemic. Although she has completed all the requirements, her degree won’t officially be conferred until later this year.
Her dissertation, which she admitted was the most overwhelming aspect, focused on the ethnic-political identity of the Scots-Irish and how they transformed early American politics. While that exact topic might not figure prominently in the academic standards taught throughout K-12 classes (although much of what she studied does figure into 8th grade social studies standards), Huffaker says her advanced degree helps with her role as an instructional coach where she works with teachers and principals to help improve classroom practices and student learning.
“The biggest thing is the deeper content knowledge, and the research background helps me with data analysis for my job to look at things in more depth,” she said. “I feel like the more you can invest in your own knowledge and growth in your content area the more qualified you’re going to be as a teacher. If we’re going to claim to be lifelong learners, we need to put that in action.”
Before joining MCPS, Huffaker spent 18 years as a high school history teacher. And beyond her time working in public education, she sees an opportunity to continue to put her academic credentials to work researching and writing as an independent historian.
“That’s my retirement goal,” she said with a laugh.
She also holds masters degrees in sociology and school improvement, but she says her plan was always to complete a terminal degree in history.
“That’s my content area. My heart has always been with history -- I love history,” she said. “The PhD was always the end goal.”
Although she acknowledged that a PhD might not be the best route for all teachers, she did note the importance of teachers continuing to expand their content knowledge.
“For example, a masters degree in the content area -- that’s something that teachers should look into more so than just the pedagogy type courses [...] Those are important too, but we need a balance between content and application.
“The more we know the more we can facilitate the learning for our students and for them to know more and for them to go deeper, too.”
But for those who are up to the challenge, Huffaker had a simple piece of advice:
“If there are others interested in doing it then they should just start and do it. It is a process and takes a long time, but if you have an interest the best thing to do is just start.”