Linda Rice, assistant professor of English, approaches the classroom from every angle: as a teacher, a learner, and a researcher.

Her classroom work revolves around English and language arts education, and student learning is the general focus of her research.  

"I think it’s important to find out what students are actually learning, what they are actually taking away, and that’s what I try to focus my research on," said Rice.

Currently, she is working on a book about teaching African literature with fellow professor Jackie Glasgow.  Each chapter in the book is about a different country or region, and contains teaching tips, examples of student work, and projects to keep students engaged. 

"A lot of people still see it as this big, vast, dark continent, with very little understanding that [Africa] is  54 separate countries that each have distinct cultures that are very different from one another," said Rice. "We’re trying to make the literature of Africa more accessible to high school teachers and college professors."

Rice, a Youngstown native, had never been to Ohio University prior to being hired here, but she does have a family connection to the university.  Her father graduated from OHIO in 1954 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Her parents visit campus frequently, and her father reminisces fondly about his days here as a student living in Scott Quad.  Rice’s employment at his alma mater is also a point of pride.

"After one of their visits, my mother said that on the way home my father told her he would never have imagined, when he was a student here, that his daughter would one day be a professor at Ohio University," said Rice. "And I knew the way she said it that it was a source of pride for him."

As a 2006-2007 University Professor, she was allowed to teach two courses of her choice. She chose to teach one course about C.S Lewis, and another titled "Favorite Teacher Films."  She chose to teach a class on these films to both inspire and educate her students about teaching. 

"What makes these films inspiring is that they all have a serious, significant content, when you actually have to overcome challenges and struggle that is something interesting to watch," said Rice.

During the course, she and several students had dinner at her house, and then went to the theater to see the recent release "Freedom Writers," which is about a teacher’s struggle to overcome education obstacles in with students and her school. Student dialogue in and out of the classroom also proved instrumental in her C.S. Lewis course. 

"Two students that really enjoyed the class are continuing our discussions as an independent study," said Rice. "At the end of the quarter we’re hoping to publish the article in a professional journal."

Though Rice uses texts from many different eras, class participation keeps each piece of literature current. 

"I think literature, the way I teach it, anyway, is so open to interpretation, and individualization, all those things that keep it alive, and current, and relevant," said Rice. 

Because each class member plays a part in the discussion, every section of students has different discussion about assigned literature.

"I really do see the class as a community of learners," said Rice.  "The centerpiece is the text, but it doesn’t come to life until we put our interpretations and our experiences into it, and then have it unfold in that context of lively discussion."

Rice uses the "Socratic seminar" teaching method, posing questions to the students and then having each student answer the question as they see fit.  She also has students to take make presentations to the class, allowing them to take charge of the information.   She sees herself not only as a teacher, but also as a peer within the classroom. 

"Certainly I’m an instructional leader, I also see myself as a learner with my students, and often through the discussion or through their presentations I see something new and that’s exciting," said Rice.

Rice says that approaching any situation as a learner can only have positive results.

"If you go in with the idea that you have to bring something to an experience in order to take something away, then you go with a sense of contribution, a sense of involvement, and by giving, you get back a whole lot more," said Rice.