Next week, we will hear from two Purdue faculty about how they have learned as WPAs.
Tuesday: Professor Weiser, Department head and former Director of Composition, is guest instructor Please review the WPA "Intellectual Work Document."
Thursday: Professor Linda Bergman, Director of the Purdue Writing Lab, is Guest Lecturer.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Assignment for Feb 28
Full draft for second project is due
WPA as Theorist
Read the following:
McClintock, Charles. “Administrators as Applied Theorists.” Advances in Program Theory. New Directions for Program Evaluation #47, Fall 1990. 19-33. (coursepack)
Weiser, Irwin and Shirley K Rose. "Theorizing Writing Program Theorizing." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work. Eds. Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2002. 183-196. (on reserve)
Gunner, Jeanne. "Ideology, Theory, and the Genre of Writing Programs." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work. Eds. Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser. Portsmouth, NJ: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2002. 7-18. (on reserve)
Bishop, Karen. "On the Road to (Documentary) Reality: Capturing the Intellectual and Political Process of Writing Program Administration." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work. Eds. Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2002. 42-53. (on reserve)
Peeples, Tim. "Program Administrators as/and Postmodern Planners: Frameworks for Making Tomorrow's Writing Space." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work. Eds. Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2002. 116-128. (0n reserve)
Jablonski, Jeffrey. "Developing Practice Theories Through Collaborative Research: Implications for WPA Scholarship." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work. Eds. Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2002. 170-182. (on reserve)
Reflection: Three of these readings on WPAs as Theorists are by recent graduates of Purdue’s Ph.D program in Rhetoric and Composition (Bishop, Peeples, and Jablonski) and are based on their dissertation projects. Using these chapters as your primary evidence, briefly characterize the goals of Purdue’s Ph.D. Secondary Area in Writing Program Administration. Your characterization can be in any format or genre that seems appropriate—list, short essay, cartoon (with commentary), etc.
WPA as Theorist
Read the following:
McClintock, Charles. “Administrators as Applied Theorists.” Advances in Program Theory. New Directions for Program Evaluation #47, Fall 1990. 19-33. (coursepack)
Weiser, Irwin and Shirley K Rose. "Theorizing Writing Program Theorizing." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work. Eds. Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2002. 183-196. (on reserve)
Gunner, Jeanne. "Ideology, Theory, and the Genre of Writing Programs." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work. Eds. Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser. Portsmouth, NJ: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2002. 7-18. (on reserve)
Bishop, Karen. "On the Road to (Documentary) Reality: Capturing the Intellectual and Political Process of Writing Program Administration." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work. Eds. Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2002. 42-53. (on reserve)
Peeples, Tim. "Program Administrators as/and Postmodern Planners: Frameworks for Making Tomorrow's Writing Space." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work. Eds. Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2002. 116-128. (0n reserve)
Jablonski, Jeffrey. "Developing Practice Theories Through Collaborative Research: Implications for WPA Scholarship." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work. Eds. Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 2002. 170-182. (on reserve)
Reflection: Three of these readings on WPAs as Theorists are by recent graduates of Purdue’s Ph.D program in Rhetoric and Composition (Bishop, Peeples, and Jablonski) and are based on their dissertation projects. Using these chapters as your primary evidence, briefly characterize the goals of Purdue’s Ph.D. Secondary Area in Writing Program Administration. Your characterization can be in any format or genre that seems appropriate—list, short essay, cartoon (with commentary), etc.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Assignment for WPA SEminar Feb 26
WPA as Researcher
Read the following:
Popken, Randall. “The WPA as Publishing Scholar: Edwin Hopkins and The Labor and cost of the Teaching of English.” Historical Studies of Writing Program Administration: Individuals, Communities, and the Formation of a Discipline. Ed. Barbara L’Eplattenier and Lisa Mastrangelo. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2004. (in coursepack)
These chapters from
Rose, Shirley K and Irwin Weiser, eds. The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher: Inquiry in Action and Reflection. Portsmouth, NJ: Heinemann-Boynton/Cook, 1999 (on reserve at Hicks)
Rose, Shirley K and Irwin Weiser. "WPA Inquiry in Reflection and Action." (v-xi)
Bamberg, Betty. "Conflicts Between Teaching and Assessing Writing: Using Program-Based Research to Resolve Pedagogical and Ethical Dilemmas." (28-39).
Anson, Chris M. and Robert L. Brown, Jr. "Subject to Interpretation: The Role of Research in Writing Programs and its Relationship to the Politics of Administration in Higher Education." (141-152)
Weiser, Irwin. "Local Research and Curriculum Development: Using Surveys to Learn About Writing Assignments in the Disciplines." 95-116.
Writing Assignment:Drawing from the descriptions of and insights into WPA research provided by these selected readings, choose a particular writing program (such as ICaP or PW at Purdue) and identify 3 questions a WPA in that program might need to conduct research in order to answer. What areas of expertise would the WPA need to draw from? What inquiry methodologies would be appropriate? What would be the genres of documents in which the research outcomes might be reported?
Read the following:
Popken, Randall. “The WPA as Publishing Scholar: Edwin Hopkins and The Labor and cost of the Teaching of English.” Historical Studies of Writing Program Administration: Individuals, Communities, and the Formation of a Discipline. Ed. Barbara L’Eplattenier and Lisa Mastrangelo. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2004. (in coursepack)
These chapters from
Rose, Shirley K and Irwin Weiser, eds. The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher: Inquiry in Action and Reflection. Portsmouth, NJ: Heinemann-Boynton/Cook, 1999 (on reserve at Hicks)
Rose, Shirley K and Irwin Weiser. "WPA Inquiry in Reflection and Action." (v-xi)
Bamberg, Betty. "Conflicts Between Teaching and Assessing Writing: Using Program-Based Research to Resolve Pedagogical and Ethical Dilemmas." (28-39).
Anson, Chris M. and Robert L. Brown, Jr. "Subject to Interpretation: The Role of Research in Writing Programs and its Relationship to the Politics of Administration in Higher Education." (141-152)
Weiser, Irwin. "Local Research and Curriculum Development: Using Surveys to Learn About Writing Assignments in the Disciplines." 95-116.
Writing Assignment:Drawing from the descriptions of and insights into WPA research provided by these selected readings, choose a particular writing program (such as ICaP or PW at Purdue) and identify 3 questions a WPA in that program might need to conduct research in order to answer. What areas of expertise would the WPA need to draw from? What inquiry methodologies would be appropriate? What would be the genres of documents in which the research outcomes might be reported?
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Assignment for Feb 14
WPA Seminar Members--
In class Tuesday, I indicated that I'd ask each of you to investigate one of the early surveys mentioned by Heckathorn or McLeod. This will take longer than I initially expected, as some of the articles and books are hard-to-find, so this task will be postponed until and if we decide on a survey as a class project. I have put in some requests to Interlibary Loan already, in any case.
The following is the assignment for tomorrow, as distributed on the detailed calendar:
Professional Development and Community: WPAs’ Collective Knowledge-Making
How do WPAs learn from each other? How do they collectively develop disciplinary knowledge? What is the relationship between learning and knowledge-development for WPAs?
As a way to help you develop some ideas for a tentative response to these questions, look at one context for WPA learning/knowledge-making: the workshop reports from the first ten years of CCCC meetings.
These workshop reports were printed in the October issue of the CCC journal every year and are available through Purdue Libraries, using J-Stor. Many of the workshop topics were repeated year after year.
Scan the reports, then choose one workshop topic and closely examine the reports from those workshops for 5 to 10 years. If the workshop continues after 10 years, does it morph?What do these reports demonstrate about the ways WPAs learn from each other? Prepare a brief discussion of the results of your examination the reports--250-300 words, or the equivalent for a mixed media presentation.
In class Tuesday, I indicated that I'd ask each of you to investigate one of the early surveys mentioned by Heckathorn or McLeod. This will take longer than I initially expected, as some of the articles and books are hard-to-find, so this task will be postponed until and if we decide on a survey as a class project. I have put in some requests to Interlibary Loan already, in any case.
The following is the assignment for tomorrow, as distributed on the detailed calendar:
Professional Development and Community: WPAs’ Collective Knowledge-Making
How do WPAs learn from each other? How do they collectively develop disciplinary knowledge? What is the relationship between learning and knowledge-development for WPAs?
As a way to help you develop some ideas for a tentative response to these questions, look at one context for WPA learning/knowledge-making: the workshop reports from the first ten years of CCCC meetings.
These workshop reports were printed in the October issue of the CCC journal every year and are available through Purdue Libraries, using J-Stor. Many of the workshop topics were repeated year after year.
Scan the reports, then choose one workshop topic and closely examine the reports from those workshops for 5 to 10 years. If the workshop continues after 10 years, does it morph?What do these reports demonstrate about the ways WPAs learn from each other? Prepare a brief discussion of the results of your examination the reports--250-300 words, or the equivalent for a mixed media presentation.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
What does this history do for us?
My question for class is what exactly does historicizing writing program administration do for us?
I think Heckathorn and McLeod makes cases for why it should matter, and I don't think any of us would necessarily disagree. But when we discussed a WPAs "ways of knowing" I don't think that historical knowledge of the field was on the list. Was it? At the very least we (meaning us in this class) seem to be prioritizing other "ways of knowing" like curriculum development, placement testing, politics, and others above historical knowledge.
Maybe another way to state this is "where does historicizing writing program administration fall in terms of prioritizing WPA knowledge?" Is it essential? Is it a luxury?
TS
I think Heckathorn and McLeod makes cases for why it should matter, and I don't think any of us would necessarily disagree. But when we discussed a WPAs "ways of knowing" I don't think that historical knowledge of the field was on the list. Was it? At the very least we (meaning us in this class) seem to be prioritizing other "ways of knowing" like curriculum development, placement testing, politics, and others above historical knowledge.
Maybe another way to state this is "where does historicizing writing program administration fall in terms of prioritizing WPA knowledge?" Is it essential? Is it a luxury?
TS
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Assignment for Feb 12
Professional Histories: Creating a Knowledge-making Community
This week we will be looking at collective knowledge-making by WPAs. Please read:
Heckathorn, Amy “Moving Toward a Group Identity: WPA Professionalization from the 1940s to the 1970s.” Historical Studies of Writing Program Administration: Individuals, Communities, and the Formation of a Discipline. Ed. Barbara L’Eplattenier and Lisa Mastrangelo. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2004. 191-219
This week we will be looking at collective knowledge-making by WPAs. Please read:
Heckathorn, Amy “Moving Toward a Group Identity: WPA Professionalization from the 1940s to the 1970s.” Historical Studies of Writing Program Administration: Individuals, Communities, and the Formation of a Discipline. Ed. Barbara L’Eplattenier and Lisa Mastrangelo. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2004. 191-219
McLeod, Susan. “A History of Writing Program Admnistration.” Chapter 3 of Writing Program Administration. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2007.
Use the class blog http://680wsp08.blogspot.com/ to post a discussion question related to these readings for us to consider together in our meeting on Feb 12. Please use comment feature, replying to this post, for posting your question.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Tom will read McAllister
I will read McAllister and Selfe for Tuesday, but I'm willing to trade to a different one if someone really wants that one.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Megan's Reading
I'll read the Ferganchick piece. My only reason for this choice is that I like her name...
Friday, February 1, 2008
WPA Seminar Assignment for Feb 5
Pragmatic Learning: On the Job Experience
For general discussions of pragmatic learning of WPA knowledges, everybody read:
Recchio, Thomas and Lynn Z. Bloom. “Initiation Rites, Initiation Rights.” WPA 14.3:21-26. (on disk)
Hesse, Douglas D. “Politics and the WPA: Traveling through and Past Realms of Expertise.”The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 41-58.
For examples of ways WPAs have reflected on their pragmatic learning in specific areas of knowledge, look at the following articles and chapters. Please scan all of them, but choose one to read closely. Please post your choice to the blog so we get distributed coverage.
Gunner, Jeanne. “Collaborative Administration.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 253-262.
Anson, Chris M. “Figuring It Out: Writing Programs in the Context of University Budgets.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 233-252.
Brown, Stuart. “Applying Ethics: A Decision-Making Heuristic for Writing Program Administrators.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 155-164.
Schell, Eileen E. “Part-Time/Adjunct Issues: Working Toward Change.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 181-202.
Ferganchick, Julia K. “Contrapower Harassment in Program Administration: Establishing Teacher Authority.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 331-340.
McAllister, Ken S. and Cynthia L. Selfe. “Writing Program Administration and Instructional Computing.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 341-376.
All of the authors in this list draw from, perhaps even explicitly discuss, their on-the-job or pragmatic learning of one or more areas of WPA knowledge. Yet, their preparation of these chapters for this collection suggests that they believe this knowledge can be learned formally.
Choose one of the areas of knowledge that one or more of the authors are arguing that WPAs need, then do the following:
1) identify the scholarly discipline in which that kind of knowledge is formally developed;
2) find and bring to class an example of the scholarship of that discipline (a book or an article);
3) write a brief (no more than a page) discussion of what how you think a WPA might use the information or ideas in that publication; and
4) investigate whether Purdue offers coursework in the area.
For example, one of the authors might discuss the importance of time management. What discipline studies time management? A bit of investigation leads me to the tentative conclusion that the members of the scholarly discipline of decision sciences do research on time management. A sample of work coming out of that field of study is the article “Learning to Make Decisions in Dynamic Environments: Effects ofTime Constraints and Cognitive Abilities” in the journal Human Factors.
For general discussions of pragmatic learning of WPA knowledges, everybody read:
Recchio, Thomas and Lynn Z. Bloom. “Initiation Rites, Initiation Rights.” WPA 14.3:21-26. (on disk)
Hesse, Douglas D. “Politics and the WPA: Traveling through and Past Realms of Expertise.”The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 41-58.
For examples of ways WPAs have reflected on their pragmatic learning in specific areas of knowledge, look at the following articles and chapters. Please scan all of them, but choose one to read closely. Please post your choice to the blog so we get distributed coverage.
Gunner, Jeanne. “Collaborative Administration.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 253-262.
Anson, Chris M. “Figuring It Out: Writing Programs in the Context of University Budgets.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 233-252.
Brown, Stuart. “Applying Ethics: A Decision-Making Heuristic for Writing Program Administrators.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 155-164.
Schell, Eileen E. “Part-Time/Adjunct Issues: Working Toward Change.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 181-202.
Ferganchick, Julia K. “Contrapower Harassment in Program Administration: Establishing Teacher Authority.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 331-340.
McAllister, Ken S. and Cynthia L. Selfe. “Writing Program Administration and Instructional Computing.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 2002. 341-376.
All of the authors in this list draw from, perhaps even explicitly discuss, their on-the-job or pragmatic learning of one or more areas of WPA knowledge. Yet, their preparation of these chapters for this collection suggests that they believe this knowledge can be learned formally.
Choose one of the areas of knowledge that one or more of the authors are arguing that WPAs need, then do the following:
1) identify the scholarly discipline in which that kind of knowledge is formally developed;
2) find and bring to class an example of the scholarship of that discipline (a book or an article);
3) write a brief (no more than a page) discussion of what how you think a WPA might use the information or ideas in that publication; and
4) investigate whether Purdue offers coursework in the area.
For example, one of the authors might discuss the importance of time management. What discipline studies time management? A bit of investigation leads me to the tentative conclusion that the members of the scholarly discipline of decision sciences do research on time management. A sample of work coming out of that field of study is the article “Learning to Make Decisions in Dynamic Environments: Effects ofTime Constraints and Cognitive Abilities” in the journal Human Factors.
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