A Life of Learning, A Career of Teaching: Celebrating Dr. Margaret Perrow
By Nylah Winchester, senior English major
December 12, 2025
Pictured above: Dr. Margaret Perrow in Turkey
Dr. Margaret Perrow’s path into education did not begin with a fixed plan or a straight line. She earned her undergraduate degree in French Language and Literature, with a minor in Linguistics, but graduated unsure of what might come next. Rather than mapping out a single destination, Margaret describes herself as someone open to possibilities, as she is “not a good strategic think-ahead person.” This openness would become a defining feature of her career.
In 1986, Margaret became a microcomputer support specialist at Yale, a position that unexpectedly revealed her affinity for teaching. Margaret explains that IBM had just launched their desktop PC version, so people were getting laptops in their offices for the first time. Faculty would call needing help with the machines, and Margaret found satisfaction guiding others through the unfamiliar: “I liked being able to learn things and help people through what I knew. So it was kind of a hint that maybe I liked teaching.”
“There’s nothing regular or ascending about my career. It’s been kind of a weird zigzaggy river.”
– Margaret Perrow
Soon after, a bike trip down the West Coast led Margaret to the Institute of Reading Development in California, where she managed the office and trained educators. Margaret and the teachers ran reading programs for students in K-12, adults, and developmental readers. She claims the job was “super, super fun,” but there was a point when Margaret felt she didn’t know enough about the struggles many of her younger students experienced with reading, which led her to graduate school.
In 1992, Margaret began doctoral study at UC Berkeley, where she shifted away from narrow cognitive models of learning and focused on language, literacy, culture, and education. During this time, Margaret taught extensively; she led GED courses in San Francisco and first-year writing classes at Berkeley—often learning through what she describes as “trial by fire.” Even then, she was not pursuing academia with a particular title in mind: “I wasn’t aiming to be a professor. I was just like, open the doors and see what comes walking through.” That philosophy carried Margaret through the years that eventually led her to Southern Oregon.
Pictured Above: Margaret at Wizard Island Crater Lake
Margaret went through several personal and professional transitions, including marriage, relocation, and commuting between California and Oregon while pregnant (and after her son was born). Margaret also worked as a researcher for the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools after completing her doctorate in Education in 2000. As Margaret’s career unfolded, she found herself working with future educators. In 2006, Margaret became a part-time instructor in SOU’s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, where she worked closely with adult students who often balanced coursework and professional lives. Despite Margaret’s extensive experience, she recalls feeling like an “imposter,” particularly because she did not yet hold a formal teaching license. That realization prompted her to return to the classroom herself: “So I went back, and I did my student teaching at South Medford High School and Ruch K-8 School, where my son was in kindergarten. It was fun; I did sixth grade at Ruch and 10th grade at South Medford High School.” All of these commitments guided Margaret’s transition into SOU’s English Program.
As a professor at SOU, Margaret’s scholarly work took her outside of the United States. Her doctoral research focused on youth development in South Africa; she conducted research in the late 1990s and then completed her dissertation in 2000. A decade later, Margaret returned for a retrospective study, where she revisited the communities and questions that had guided her initial research. She then took another trip in 2018 while working on her book, A Hidden History of Youth Development in South Africa: Learning in Transition, which was published in 2021.
When a position in English opened at SOU, one that included leading the Oregon Writing Project, it felt like a natural convergence for Margaret. Although Margaret does not hold an academic degree in English, her career had always centered on writing, literacy, and teaching writers. She notes that she “had been teaching all the time,” across disciplines and institutions. So, the role of “English Professor” brought together everything she valued: writing as practice, teachers as writers, and education. Thus, SOU’s English Program became Margaret’s academic home!
Pictured Above: English Program faculty: Dr. Alma Rosa Alvarez (left), Dr. Diana Maltz and Dr. Merrilyne Lundahl (middle), Dr. Margaret Perrow (right)
Margaret describes teaching as a dynamic triangle between professor, students, and material; each relationship shapes the others. She insists that “passion for content matters, but it is not enough on its own.” What matters is helping students form meaningful connections to the material by first forming connections with the students—and, of course, by encouraging relationships among students themselves. Teaching, in this framework, is never finished. Margaret continues to refine her practices; she believes that “if something is worth doing, it is worth getting better at.” About teaching, she exclaims with characteristic humility, “ I may just be getting the hang of it!”
“I learn something from every single paper. It might be something about the student. It might be something about a way of reading. It might be something about a book that I didn’t know. And I just am constantly learning things.”
– Margaret Perrow
Margaret’s commitment to learning is not new. She traces it back to her earliest teaching experiences (e.g., the GED classes in San Francisco), where she first realized that teaching is about self-discovery: “I first started realizing this teaching thing is about me learning about myself, it’s about me learning about other people, it’s about learning who I am in the world with other people, it’s about learning other people’s realities and respecting and being curious—all of those things, right? And if you have that, then you’re lucky because every class is interesting.”
Recently, Margaret has especially loved teaching life writing, a class that brings together reading, writing, theory, and personal experience. The class allows students to see themselves in the material, and Margaret gets to write and learn alongside the class. “For me, teaching is always about learning,” she explains, “and so I’m learning all the time from my students and with my students as well.”
Additionally, Margaret enjoys teaching “grammar in context,” particularly for teachers. Rather than treating grammar as a set of rigid rules to enforce, Margaret reframes it as a practice of “making choices.” Margaret exclaims, “Teachers have this whole thing about grammar that’s like, ‘oh, I’m not very good at it,’ or ‘I know the rules and my job is to enforce the rules.’ It’s a whole different mindset and a real emotional shift to be like, okay, grammar is about making choices. And so it’s not about enforcing rules and making corrections. It’s about support. And that’s, I think, a very weighty thing for teachers who have, themselves, come through an education system that often does not take this approach.”
When I asked Margaret about her favorite part of teaching, her answer was immediate. “You guys,” she said simply, referring to her students. Margaret loves witnessing her students become professionals: “I’ve had all this time to see incoming English majors graduate, go into the MAT program, take graduate classes with me, and become teachers, and then come back to take a workshop with the Oregon Writing Project.” Margaret explains that “it is gratifying” when she reconnects with former students who are “spectacular teachers.” Growth is not always visible in the moment, which is why Margaret considers seeing her students transform “a privilege.”
Margaret has received dozens of appreciation awards, but she notes that awards often imply hierarchy and elevate certain individuals while overlooking the collective nature of teaching. In 2022, she was honored with the Oregon Council of Teachers of English award for excellence in teaching English Language Arts. She has also received the SOU Distinguished Service Award, primarily for her leadership and sustained commitment to the Oregon Writing Project, and in the spring of 2025, she received the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Margaret admits that while recognition feels meaningful, it has never been the source of her motivation. Teaching, learning, and building community matter more than formal acknowledgment.
Pictured Above: Dr. Margaret Perrow with her ENG 295 class
Despite a long daily commute from her home in the Applegate Valley, she values simply being at SOU and reveling in the opportunities to be creative: “The university gives people opportunities to do their own thing, to be autonomous, to develop things that are going to help the university. So it’s this reciprocal relationship. And I will miss being able to design classes that I hope will be cool and interesting and fun.” Once Margaret retires in January 2026, she will miss her colleagues, students, and the sense of belonging that comes with being part of a campus community.
In true Margaret fashion, she approaches retirement by resisting the expectation of a neatly defined plan. Instead, she expresses excitement about not knowing what comes next, which is what she really looks forward to. Margaret often returns to a metaphor that has shaped her understanding of her life and career: the bend in a river. At these bends, she explains, what is heavy settles while everything else is carried away: “At every bend, some things wash away, and something remains.” For Margaret, retirement is another bend—an opportunity to notice what stays and to remain open to what might form next.
Pictured Above: Margaret and her husband, Bryan, in Alaska
Margaret encourages her students and future educators to remain curious. She maintains that, “You never know what door is going to open.” This is why she urges us to pause, follow unexpected interests, and remain attentive to what draws us in: “I think staying curious and open is the best advice I can offer.”
On behalf of the English Program and Southern Oregon University, thank you, Dr. Margaret Perrow; your commitment to being a stellar teacher has left a lasting mark on our community. You have influenced so many writers, teachers, and educators—myself included—and while your retirement is well-deserved, I am selfishly hoping you change your mind! No matter what comes next, your work and example will continue to guide those of us fortunate enough to have learned from you. Congratulations on retiring, Margaret!
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Interested in being featured on the English Program blog? Or know someone who is interested? Contact English Program blogger Nylah Winchester-Robinson at winchesterrobinsonn@sou.edu.
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