Dr. Marilyn Johnston-Parsons
Name: Marilyn Johnston-Parsons
Title: Professor and Associate Head of Undergraduate Programs and Certification
Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
What do you do? I teach courses in social studies/civic education in the undergraduate preservice teacher education program. At the graduate level I teach courses in narrative and action research and teacher education.
What’s the most interesting paper/research/project you have written/involved in? Last year I published a book that I wrote collaboratively with teachers and faculty at Ohio State (where I used to teach). It is a longitudinal study of an experimental teacher educational program over 11 years and with longitudinal data on students for 5 years following.
What do you like about teaching profession? I like that teaching is always complex and therefore intriguing. It requires problem solving and strong relationships with students. It requires teachers to be sensitive to the cultural, racial, religious and gendered differences of students but these differences also increase what students and teachers can learn from each other.
How many Indonesian graduate students have you mentored? Are you still in touch with them? I have mentored 5 doctoral students, a number of masters students, and many doctoral sandwich students. I am in touch with many of them, although it’s hard to keep in touch in the way I’d like to.
When was the last time you visited Indonesia? What was the purpose of the visit? In SU 2012 I taught a course for the dual masters program in Semarang.
What is your current role at the USINTEC dual degree program? I have been the coordinator for the Doctoral Sandwich and Dual Masters participants coming to University of Illinois. At the present time, unfortunately we are not currently accepting Doc Sandwich participants because we lack the staff to handle the arrangements. Hopefully we will be able to have participants in the future.
From your perspective, what can USINTEC do to improve dual degree program? I think we should figure out how to better coordinate with USINTEC universities and DIKTI so that the timeline is more stable and procedures more transparent.
What books you’re reading right now? I’m reading a book by Meira Levinson called “No Citizen Left Behind”. It is a call to reform the way Civic Education is taught in the United States in order to better support preparation for living in an equitable and democratic society.
What are your hobbies?Gardening, hiking, and exercising