With the start of the new semester, a host of new faces came in to teach and work at Doane, but for one teacher, it was not a new opportunity, rather it was a return back to Doane.
Assistant professor of Practice for Multiplatform Journalism Eric Tucker returned as the advisor of the Owl newspaper and as a professor after taking a semester away and noticing the old job he held at Doane was still available.
“I really missed teaching and the students here at Doane. I missed the students I had gotten to know. I had missed the whole teaching experience. I think the reason I stepped away in the first place was because I had taught non-stop for thirteen years, and I felt like I needed some time away. When I saw they were looking for a journalism professor, I was eager to reapply,” Tucker said.
Tucker came into teaching while in graduate school at the University of Oregon studying long-form feature writing, science journalism and copy editing, but did a teaching fellowship for freshman composition that changed the trajectory of his career. He later went on to teach in Illinois and at Hastings College with his wife before eventually becoming a teacher at Doane in 2020. “I had never intended to go into teaching; it was a lucky accident. I had a lot of anxiety teaching in front of a lot of people. When I started teaching writing classes at Oregon, I tried to make a more collaborative environment and it felt less like lecturing and more like we were all working together,” Tucker said.
Tucker’s teaching style emphasizes more oneon-one peer education, where he prioritizes more collaborative spaces that make for more meaningful connections. He sees Doane’s smaller class sizes as a reason for him choosing to come to Doane to teach.
“I hope to continue more one-on-one collaboration with students and I hope to provide the newspaper staff with whatever guidance they need,” Tucker said.
