The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher

Download or read book The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher written by Shirley K. Rose and published by Heinemann Educational Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays discusses writing program administrators' (WPAs') research. The essays pose several questions to characterize WPAs' research practices: "What is WPA research? What characterizes WPA research and the sites of WPA inquiry?"; and "What values guide WPA research?" The 14 chapters are divided into 2 parts, "Writing Program Administrators' Inquiry in Action" and "Writing Program Administrators' Inquiry in Reflection." Part 1 exemplifies WPA research by describing and conceptualizing specific research projects conducted as part of WPA responsibilities, and thereby provides a detailed picture of administrative research. Part 2 then draws on the concrete experiences of particular WPAs and particular writing programs, raising and reflecting on issues about WPA research in general. Each chapter demonstrates that WPAs' inquiry is characterized by a recursive interplay between reflection and action. Some of the many topics addressed in the book include diverse research methodologies for diverse audiences, feminist methods, conflicts between teaching and assessing writing, outcomes assessment research as a teaching tool, the contributions of sociolinguistic profiling, assessing teacher preparation programs, reflective essays, local research and curriculum development, enabling research in the writing program archives, WPAs as historians, historical work on WPAs, the role of research in writing programs, and postmodern mapping. (RJM)