By Mark Wiley
California State University, Long Beach
Basic writing teachers face a particularly difficult dilemma when it comes to professional development. For one thing, since basic writing courses and programs tend to be perceived by the rest of the academy as marginal, so do those who teach these courses.
Secondly, being a professional in academia usually means someone who keeps abreast of relevant scholarship and research, who knows how to interpret it, and, in the case of basic writing teachers, it would also include the ability to translate relevant scholarship into local instructional contexts. One obvious question, however, is how relevant is the scholarship on basic writing to the teacher in the trenches?
Finally, we might want to reflect on the apparent irony that those who produce the scholarship in rhetoric and composition are able to do so because of the privilege they have as tenure-track faculty, a "privilege" supported through the labor of part-timers who spend all of their time and energy teaching multiple sections of writing-- often at more than one institution.
The Work of Basic Writing
I would like to consider the work of teaching basic writing as it relates to
points one and three above, and then return to the second point regarding scholarship.
Although the teaching of writing is valued within the discipline, such work
has a contradictory quality about it in the wider institution, and indeed within
the culture itself. A simple example, I think, can illustrate what I mean. This
example is somewhat fictionalized, but not by much. A few years ago, our composition
program faced a huge increase in the number of first-year students needing a
required writing course, my Department Chair and I were desperate to staff these
added courses with competent instructors. One of the deans responsible for the
budget in the college and who has always supported our writing program thought
that a viable solution to our problem was to 1) increase the number of TA's;
and 2) hire faculty who appeared on paper to have had some experience teaching
writing in another discipline or at another educational level (e.g. high school).
This contradiction is a familiar one: on the one hand, the teaching of writing is ostensibly touted on campus to be important; on the other, based on hiring practices, it seems that one needs little formal training to do this important work. A Master's degree in a related field and some on-the-job experience seems to be sufficient. But, of course, if we rely on TA's to staff basic writing courses, we are not even asking for these minimum requirements. If the local institution, whether the department, the college, or the wider university (or all three), conveys such a contradictory message, it makes it all the more difficult to encourage professional development among basic writing instructors.
Again, if the work is not valued, neither are the people doing that work. Up until a few months ago, I had for several years been coordinating a large composition program (3,000-3,500 students with 60-70 instructors). This is a writing program that included a two-semester basic writing course (a few years ago, I successfully managed to combine the two courses into a single-semester) and a university-level composition course. Yet, with the exception of one faculty member (me) all who teach in our basic writing program are lecturers, and most part-time. Some of these part-time instructors also teach at other institutions in order to make ends meet. In Southern California, as in other large metropolitan areas, these instructors are dubbed "freeway flyers." They have no real job security and function more as an itinerant labor force. There is precious little time in these instructors' lives to do other than prepare and teach their several courses and respond to students' writing. Professional development for these faculty would be a luxury only affordable through much more free time and adequate pay.
Changing the Value of the Work
In raising the value of the work of teaching basic writing, we must try to change
the "remedial" status often attached to it. There has been a good
deal of discussion in the scholarly literature of various attempts to change
the structure and status of basic writing. A recent useful volume where readers
can find references to earlier work is Gerri McNenny's and Sallyanne Fitzgerald's
edited collection of essays, Mainstreaming Basic Writers: Politics and Pedagogies
of Access. I recognize, though, that taking this political tack of either restructuring
or eliminating basic writing may be unrealistic in some contexts and completely
wrongheaded in others. Let me also suggest, then, some other possibilities.
Another way to raise the value of teaching basic writing is to exploit the one element common to all faculty throughout your institution, and that is the activity of teaching. I am currently involved in faculty development for my university and see even more clearly than I did as a WPA the need to make teaching more visible throughout the institution. Basic writing teachers can become experts on teaching by getting involved in campus-wide efforts focused on pedagogical concerns, and certainly the increasing reliance on technology offers another area in which faculty can develop expertise. It is also worth looking into the scholarship on teaching and learning as another opportunity to "professionalize." Composition and rhetoric have their roots in practice while the scholarship on teaching and learning offers further possibilities for not only advancing our theoretical understanding of our work as teachers but also for engaging in more systematic inquiry into our classroom practices. A new book that introduces readers to this scholarship across several disciplines is Mary Taylor Huber's and Sherwyn P. Morreale's edited collection of essays, Disciplinary Styles in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Professional development stands a better chance of succeeding when administrators and faculty understand that teaching basic writing requires as much expertise as it does teaching any other course. Often, though, the practices within English departments where many BW programs are housed send the opposite message. Here are some questions you might consider regarding your own department.
Who usually teaches basic writing and what qualifies one to teach? Who makes course staffing decisions, and how much time does an instructor have to prepare for teaching this course, especially if that instructor hasn't taught the course very recently or if the instructor is a new hire? Does the department provide training or instructional support for basic writing teachers? Are the hiring practices and faculty qualifications similar to those for hiring faculty who will teach literature courses? How many faculty who teach basic writing regularly are tenure-track? Are office space and resource allocations equitable throughout the department? What can be done to ensure job security, or at the least to provide extended lectureship positions that can provide some security and consistency of instruction in the basic writing program?
Another local professional development strategy is whenever possible to connect basic writing faculty with faculty in other disciplines, either to co-teach, or to link up course material in learning communities of some kind. I have recently published a pair of essays explaining how learning communities have functioned on our campus and have addressed the needs of basic writers. What I did not emphasize in those essays was the value for basic writing faculty in participating in such communities. When these learning communities are well run, composition teachers become equals with their colleagues teaching linked courses in other disciplines. Decision-making is shared, pedagogical wisdom is pooled, and teaching problems are deliberated among concerned peers. In such communities, there is no distinction between lecturers and tenure-track faculty. All are considered to be experts in their respective areas.
Certainly, labor issues play a crucial role in affecting the ability and willingness of faculty to continue professional development. Michael Murphy and Joseph Harris offer some insightful advice about how higher education and composition programs might improve the working conditions of its part-time faculty. Clearly, colleges and universities will continue to use part-time labor for the foreseeable future, and this is especially true in composition because of the huge number of courses and sections regularly offered. In improving working conditions, valuable support is available from faculty labor unions. For example, the California Faculty Association has been instrumental in negotiating salutary lecturer benefits and continues to fight for better working conditions throughout the California State University system. By improving working conditions, we send the important message to our basic writing instructors that we value and consider them professionals, and we can then expect them, in turn, to act like professionals in the traditional sense of knowing their field and its expert practices.
Scholarship
Earlier I noted that "professionals" keep up with the relevant scholarship
in their respective fields. This isn't news, but let me conclude this module
by considering the issue of relevance: Should the route to professional development
be through the
scholarship of rhetoric and composition? Or should we be paying more attention
to scholarly literature in such sub-fields as English as a second language,
student life and development, compensatory education, and learning disabilities?
What scholarship should define basic writing? I am sure you have other questions
and concerns related to professional development. Let's talk about them.
Works Consulted and Recommended
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