Education Commons^™

Mapping The Pathways To Campus Writing Sites: Implications For Writing Program Administrators, Meagon Clarkson-Guyll

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the extent to which the writing program administrator and their affiliated writing program are structurally, organizationally, and rhetorically visibly connected to other campus sites of writing. To complete this project data was collected across five benchmarked institutions from publicly accessible online texts. Rhetorical analysis, informed by rhetorical genre studies and institutional ethnography, was conducted to conclude how writing programs are rhetorically situated in their home campus and how the role of the writing program administrator is rhetorically shaped within institutional structures and texts. The analysis concludes with recommended authorial interventions for the writing program administrator to adapt …

Rewriting Web 2.0 Discourses Of The Local For Socio-Spatial Literacy Theory, Erin Daugherty

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to provide a framework for engaging with two spatial concepts that have been foundational to theorizing literacy across time but have often been taken for granted as passive backdrops to the social action of literacy practice: the notions of “the local” and “the global.” By interrogating the histories, both past and ongoing, of these two spatial concepts as they are interwoven into the sociocultural paradigm of literacy theory, research, and pedagogy, this project identifies new ways that literacy researchers and educators can attend to spatial concepts so as to promote and encourage literacy research and learning that …

The Role Of Writing Center Tutorials Of Esl Students: Exploring Tutors, Tutees, And Instructors’ Perceptions, Ibrahim Mostafa Hassan Mazen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the writing center tutorials. Based on the assumptions of the constructivist theory, this research tried to present a cognitive framework for better tutoring at the writing center and suggested better accommodations for ESL tutees. this exploratory study investigated the role of the writing center tutorials offered to ESL students through the perceptions of tutors, ESL tutees, and university instructors.

Methods. Eighty nine international /ESL students and 23 tutors were selected. They were given a survey to respond to. Afterwards ten out of the 89 students and ten out of …

Designing Place-Sensitive Professional Development: A Critical Ethnography Of Teaching And Learning Argumentative Writing, Sarah N. Holland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the experiences of teachers participating in a two-year professional development program designed by the National Writing Project and funded by a U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) grant. Informed by New Literacy Studies’ ideological model of literacy as a Social practice and rural literacies’ notion of pedagogies of sustainability, this study employs critical ethnography and discourse analysis to analyze the discourse of teachers participating in the College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP) in order to understand how professional development might be adjusted to re-empower teachers. Data sources included field notes, interviews, lesson …

Selling College: Student Recruitment And Education Reform Rhetoric In The Age Of Privatization, Paige Marie Hermansen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the success of for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs) as a socio-cultural phenomenon that hinges on distinct public discursive strains and neoliberal rhetorics. This project examines the role of language in creating and sustaining particular discourses of higher education and how those discourses are reinforced and reflected in channels of discourse like documentary films and advertisements.

In the context of shifting demands on and representations of higher education, this project critiques the evolving rhetoric of American education and the shift toward a wider acceptance of privatization efforts, as well as the effect this shift has had on prospective …

"We Can't Reclaim What We Don't Understand": Teachers' Perceptions Of Advocacy And Voice In A Rural Institute Of The National Writing Project, James Anthony Anderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines teachers' perceptions of advocacy and voice in a summer institute of the National Writing Project. The Rural Advocacy Institute, a first-time initiative through the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project, offered three weeks of professional development centered on rural education and teaching English language arts in rural public schools. The study is a grounded theory study; grounded theory forces the researcher to stay "close to the data," compare data sets, and use reflective writing to identify conceptual categories in the data. Data collection in the study included semi-structured interviews with six K-12 teachers participating in the Institute and twenty-seven …