Professor’s essay will appear in social textbook

MATT NEVALA

May 29, 2008 at 12:21PM AKST

A funny thing happened to Diane McEachern as she studied the textbook she’ll be teaching with during the summer’s Human Services Associate of Applied Science cohort program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

McEachern, an UAF assistant professor of human services who has been at Bethel’s Kuskokwim Campus since 2003, created a written path to the pages of said textbook.
A portion of an essay McEachern wrote about community work as social work will soon appear in a revised third edition of “Introduction to Social Work: Becoming an Agent of Change.”

“When I ordered the book, I realized one of the authors was a professor I knew from graduate school,” McEachern said. “She recommended I send an essay to some of the social work professors. They took it to a committee, did some revisions and told me they wanted to publish part of it.”

McEachern, 49, said her work should appear in the textbook about a year from now.
“It’s not something I would put into the sky with fireworks,” McEachern said. “I’m not queen of the world. But it’s an honor. I’m glad with the work I’ve done in the community and the western region (of Alaska).

“It has relevance, and I hope some of the work will be helpful, especially some of the cross-cultural work.”

McEachern’s textbook material is based on the community work she did while an itinerant social worker for the Lower Kuskokwim School District as well as some of the work she does with the UAF Rural Human Services and Human Services associate of applied science (AAS) cohorts.

Her students are working towards a college certificate or AAS degree and come from various villages throughout Western Alaska.

“I’ve been teaching four years, coordinating two programs that target Alaska Native adults,” McEachern said.

She said the programs she heads at the Kuskokwim Campus serve many purposes.

They offer educational programs designed to create counselors for villages, people who can help residents deal with things like grief and healing. The Rural Human Services program offers associate’s degrees in human services. McEachern said village elders almost always spend time in the classrooms to give perspective to the students.

“They are always the heart and soul,” McEachern said.

Besides the textbook publishing, McEachern is soon starting a Ph.D. program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass.

She will be combining her social work profession with a doctorate in education. The dissertation work will be centered on transformational learning theory and its relationship to social change and justice — all of which connects to her work as a social worker in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and as a UAF assistant professor.

Matt Nevala can be reached at (907) 348-2480 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 480.