Working Lives of New Writing Center Directors

Caswell, Nicole I.; McKinney, Jackie Grutsch; Jackson, Rebecca

ISBN 10: 1607325365 / ISBN 13: 9781607325369

Published by Utah State University Press, 2016

About this Item

Gently read. May have name of previous ownership, or ex-library edition. Binding tight; spine straight and smooth, with no creasing; covers clean and crisp. Minimal signs of handling or shelving. 100% GUARANTEE! Shipped with delivery confirmation, if you're not satisfied with purchase please return item! Ships USPS Media Mail.

Seller Inventory # OTV.1607325365.VG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Working Lives of New Writing Center Directors
• Publisher: Utah State University Press
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1607325365
• ISBN 13: 9781607325369
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

The first book-length empirical investigation of writing center directors’ labor, The Working Lives of New Writing Center Directors presents a longitudinal qualitative study of the individual professional lives of nine new directors. Inspired by Kinkead and Harris’s Writing Centers in Context (1993), the authors adopt a case study approach to examine the labor these directors performed and the varied motivations for their labor, as well as the labor they ignored, deferred, or sidelined temporarily, whether or not they wanted to.

The study shows directors engaged in various types of labor—everyday, disciplinary, and emotional—and reveals that labor is never restricted to a list of job responsibilities, although those play a role. Instead, labor is motivated and shaped by complex and unique combinations of requirements, expectations, values, perceived strengths, interests and desires, identities, and knowledge. The cases collectively distill how different institutions define writing and appropriate resources to writing instruction and support, informing the ongoing wider cultural debates about skills (writing and otherwise), the preparation of educators, the renewal/tenuring of educators, and administrative “bloat” in academe.

The nine new directors discuss more than just their labor; they address their motivations, their sense of self, and their own thoughts about the work they do, facets of writing center director labor that other types of research or scholarship have up to now left invisible. The Working Lives of New Writing Center Directors strikes a new path in scholarship on writing center administration and is essential reading for present and future writing center administrators and those who mentor them.

About the Author

Nicole I. Caswell is the director of the University Writing Centers and assistant professor of rhetoric and composition at East Carolina University.

Jackie Grutsch McKinney is the director of the Writing Center and professor of rhetoric and composition at Ball State University.

Rebecca Jackson is associate professor and director of the MA major in rhetoric and composition at Texas State University.