Wagering Tenure by Signing on With Independent Writing Programs

Crow, Angela

doi:10.2307/j.ctt46nsc2.15

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“…These organizational decisions made within independent writing programs, which include everything from tenure and promotion guidelines and administrative reporting lines to curricular governance and budgetary authority, obviously have considerable consequences for both the students taught in the independent writing program as well as the professional careers of the program's tenure-track faculty and full-time administrators (Crow, 2002;Kearns & Turner, this volume;Little & Rose, 1994;. However, an independent writing program's administrative and curricular structures also significantly affect the professional careers and personal identities of its teachers, whether those instructors are non-tenure-track, part-time, full-time, or graduate teaching assistants.…”

Section: Chapter 10 Not Just Teachers: the Long-term Effects Of Placing Instructors In Administrative Roles In An Independent Writing Promentioning

confidence: 99%

Chapter 1. Coming into Being: The Writing Department at Grand Valley State University in its 13th Year

Royer

Schendel

2016

A Minefield of Dreams: Triumphs and Travails of Independent Writing Programs

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Maidthere is still time for the general public to wake up and stop the forces destroying the great public universities. Yet, while that battle is being waged at the national political macro-level, folks in Writing Studies can still work at their own local and disciplinary micro-levels. The title of this volume is apt. All of higher education, if not all of society, has become a minefield. Still, if we pay attention to the narratives related here, Writing Studies faculty, no matter where they are organizationally located, can continue to teach their students successfully. However, they must pay attention. It is imperative that they define themselves as Writing Studies, and carefully educate all their constituencies both inside and outside their institutions who they are and what they do. They should be defined positively as Writing Studies and not negatively as "not English." I also think, and again this is shown in the chapters in this collection, that Writing Studies faculty need to be both flexible and pragmatic.The reality is that higher education does need to change-though not in the ways that we seem to be moving. We, and all of society, would be better served if higher education were not seen as being separate from the rest of society but more fully integrated into it. Writing Studies, especially when it is independent and controls its own destiny, is positioned to help be a part of that change. As the authors in this collection have stated, we can't always get exactly what we want. However, we can, when we take chances and are willing to do some things differently, positively impact the perceptions which surround our field and even more importantly improve the education of our students.In this introduction we have considered the relatively brief history of the evolution of independent writing programs and departments, along with the issues that have been raised (primarily) in the literature on writing program administration. Our first observation is the dominance of the "separation narrative" in this literature, particularly after 1990 when most independent programs and departments began to separate from their home departments. (Of course, we recognize that a number of independent departments existed before this date. However, before this time, generally speaking, they were likely anomalies; following this they may be considered to be part of a disciplinary trend.) A second observation, drawn largely from the work of James Berlin, is that institutional and disciplinary issues that have led to separation have a long and complex history connected to the evolution of the American professional university. As the university continues to evolve there is not a single trend, but many. Liberal arts with former (usually English) departments. Thus, Jennifer Johnson examines how composition and literature TA training in an independent writing program matters significantly in mitigating disciplinary divides. A very different TA story comes from W. Brock MacDonald, Margaret Procter, and Andrea L. Williams, who describe ...

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Section: Chapter 10 Not Just Teachers: the Long-term Effects Of Placing Instructors In Administrative Roles In An Independent Writing Promentioning

confidence: 99%

Chapter 1. Coming into Being: The Writing Department at Grand Valley State University in its 13th Year

Royer

Schendel

2016

A Minefield of Dreams: Triumphs and Travails of Independent Writing Programs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Wagering Tenure by Signing on With Independent Writing Programs

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

Chapter 1. Coming into Being: The Writing Department at Grand Valley State University in its 13th Year

Chapter 1. Coming into Being: The Writing Department at Grand Valley State University in its 13th Year

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