Ask the Expert: Career in Education with Walter Burkat

First question: what attracted you to the field of education? 

In education, I think there is so much opportunity to really make a positive change in our world. And I’m seeing that as an educator right now I currently teach in a middle school; I’ve worked in high schools; I worked at the university level as well. 

And you know, having all those experiences really has shown me that being in that sort of position, being an educator, being an instructor, however you want to put it, is such a valuable and rewarding experience. And it really makes me happy and glad to, like I said, be in that position to build relationships with students and hopefully influence them in a positive way so that they can also contribute positively to their world. 

What specific training or certification do you have? 

I have my undergraduate degree from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where I double-majored in French and anthropology/sociology with a minor in Mandarin Chinese, and I also earned my Master of Arts in the social sciences from the University of Chicago. 

What are your non-technical skills or characteristics that you think are essential for success in your role? 

I would say that communication is absolutely key, so I guess we can consider it a “soft skill.” Communication is so vital to really, you know, in whatever project you are involved with, with clients, communicating with customers, communicating with students, communicating with families, whoever you may be communicating with. It is such a crucial part of making something work, making a project work, making a lesson work, whatever you are doing. 

What is your process for teaching honors classes or AP classes in high school? 

I would say that generally speaking, in order to more successfully contribute to that environment is holding my students to a high standard. And I think I try to make that clear on day one of that course, you know, saying that, “It’s not going to be an easy road; you are going to contribute, and you are going to have to dedicate a good amount of time and effort into finding success in the course.” 

But also, I think beyond that as well, I think making sure that students are aware that it is perfectly acceptable and it is encouraged to reach out for help. That just because you are in an honors course or an AP course or an advanced course, it doesn’t mean you have to do anything by yourself. That learning, education, training, or whatever you want to call it, is a group effort, and you can’t just rely upon yourself to do everything that you need to utilize those resources when necessary. 

What is the biggest challenge you face in your field? 

I think there are quite a few different issues or challenges that face us today, and I’m seeing more so now, I think, with the introduction of AI, or artificial intelligence, and I think it’s so, so still new, so nation. There are so many evolving changes regarding artificial intelligence, and how do we appropriately utilize it in the classroom? 

Like I said whether that is in the K–12 realm, whether that is at the college/university level. You know, as an “expert in that field,” I still feel like I am learning quite a bit of how to actually effectively utilize AI. I do see so many of the benefits, and like I said, the benefits of the potential uses that we can have AI implement, or we can implement it for in the classroom, but at the same time. Like I said, it’s so new; it’s so rapidly evolving. I think it can be a little overwhelming on using AI in the classroom. 

What are the typical tasks and responsibilities of someone in your role? 

Sure, so I think it depends on which particular section of education we are talking about. So, I think in the K–12 realm there’s a lot more opportunity to not only develop the academic sense of the student but also to develop the personal ambition — to develop a personal relationship with the students and to help them become more social beings. So, I do find that it’s a nice healthy balance of– so for example, in the K–12 realm. I’m a French teacher, and I have also done social studies, and like I said, we use a couple of general terms like “social studies” and “humanities” for those sorts of courses. 

So, like I said, it’s the healthy balance of balancing the academic rigor and expectation, but also, since we are dealing with a population that’s still growing in many different ways — physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, right? There is a lot of opportunity to provide guidance and direction potentially for those students. And like I said, balancing expectation and rigor with also finding a sense of personality, humanity, however else you may call it. 

What are the pros and cons of your career path? 

I would say the pros are, regarding education, like I said, regardless of which level you are involved with, is really building relationships. I find that education is such an important field in society just because of the fact that for basically almost anyone who has existed on the planet, you are in some sort of situation where you are enrolled in a school or an educational program, an academic pursuit, a trade school, anything like that. So, I do find that education — I am using that term very broadly here — is such a crucial aspect of, I guess you can say, the creation of society and the preservation of society, and without it I can’t imagine a world in which we don’t have education in some way, shape, or form because how do we  — how would we consist or how would we persist as a society if we hadn’t such thing? 

How does someone transition from a general role to your area of expertise? 

I am going to focus on K–12, and then I’m going to the college/university aspect. 

I would say K–12– it’s kind of interesting because of my particular instance having been more routinely involved in middle/high school environment where we are specialized. As I mentioned before, I am currently a French teacher. Like I said, I do have experience in teaching social studies/humanities at those levels as well. I guess in a general sense, when I was in the process of becoming a certified teacher, I had to go through a process of examination through the practice exam. I had to provide credentials that I had met basic requirements for certifications, having my general education requirements.  

Then I guess going into more specifics, whether it’s French or social studies or the social sciences/humanities, however you want to classify it. Once again, I had to take my certifications examinations for those particular subject materials making sure that I maintain regular contact with professionals in those particular fields, maintaining a rigorous curriculum for my own professional development, maintaining professional development with colleagues in the field. 

Even though I consider myself the teacher, educator, or instructor, however you want to label it, I also consider myself a student. And even though we are the “leaders” in the room at that time in the classroom, we are always learning. I am always learning every single day, and that is one of the nice, refreshing things in education is that you are always learning, and you never stop learning. Things are changing all the time, and things are always evolving all the time, and if you want to become the most effective teacher, instructor, educator you want to be, you need to be responsive to those changes.