[Teaching_Composition] Stepping Back: Framing the Problem

[Kristen Seas]

Thanks, Alexis, for fielding the questions this weekend. Along with your 
suggestions of topics concerning the feasibility of digital and online 
forums for other programs, I was wondering if we could also start a 
thread on how people are perceiving the need for such resources in the 
first place. Alexis and I acted on our own personal exigence, but I'm 
curious to know how others on this list have understood the need for 
pedagogical resources. How do you typically frame the problem of teacher 
preparation in composition programs? Is there a problem? From what many 
have said so far on TC this month, there are measures being taken to 
help instructors, which suggests that we can at least assume a problem 
is felt. But what exactly do instructors need help with? And how do we 
know this and respond?

Yes, some of this is explained in our own module with an eye to our 
local community, suggesting a definite disparity between the efforts of 
conventional mentoring (which is even fairly extensive at our 
institution) and instructors' sense of preparedness and ongoing 
professional development as teachers of writing. This is, of course, 
most pressing for new teachers, but implicates those who are more 
experienced as well. As composition theories change and curricula follow 
suit, and as new technologies are integrated, there seems a critical 
professional demand for innovation or at least comfort with the changing 
landscape of teaching composition.

But these are only a few of the ways we could frame the problem and thus 
our response to it. Indeed, if comfort with technology is an issue, is 
an online resource the best solution? Not to put too fine a point on our 
own efforts with COIN, since Purdue's program is fairly technologically 
savvy and thus an online resource doesn't seem too "out there," but such 
questions are important for defining the situation and thus the kinds of 
resources that instructors will be anxious to use. In other words, 
discussing what instructors crave in support, as far as we can judge it 
from beyond the walls of their quasi-private classrooms and offices, 
could then help us better understand how to respond to that need more 
effectively.

So how do we frame and name the problem of teacher preparation? How do 
we understand the pressing needs of instructors and their pedagogical 
development? And, therefore, how do we respond with resources they will 
actually use?

Thanks,
Kristen

P.S. I also wanted to thank Carol for her suggestions about looking at 
branding and the ethos of a site like SERC. I had no idea a possible 
model for what we're trying to develop was already operating in my very 
own hometown of Northfield. While I certainly think extensive offline 
credibility helps with SERC's success in the sciences, the notion of 
establishing some kind of distinct presence is worth considering. Ethos, 
after all, is so central to what we teach. As a peer-driven resource, 
however, the question of ethos is certainly more complicated. Thanks for 
the provocative suggestions, Carol.

Kristen Seas
PhD Candidate, English
Rhetoric & Composition
Purdue University
kseas@purdue.edu
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~kseas/