Last weekend, many SSWCA board members had the opportunity to attend their IWCA regional affiliates’ annual conferences. This week’s blog post features five SSWCA board members’ reflections on their biggest takeaways from the East Central Writing Center Association (ECWCA) and the Northeast Writing Center Association (NEWCA) conferences.
Challenge Your Status Quo
There is no question that talking to writers is at the core of everything we do in the writing center. It is our life force. This doesn’t mean, however, that our work with writers should be limited to one-to-one tutoring, nor does it mean we shouldn’t think critically about where, how, and with whom that conversation occurs. NEWCA 2018 made this clear to me.
Harry Denny, Director of the Writing Lab at Purdue University and the conference’s keynote, encouraged us to look beyond our anecdotes and to use data in order to get a clearer picture of what goes on in our centers–who we’re serving, who we’re not, and to what end. A roundtable conducted by the tutors and writing fellows at Keene State University Writing Center explored both tutors’ and tutees’ expectations and how they measured up to post-session reflections.
The data showed that many writers entered the center thinking they would be harshly criticized but left feeling encouraged about their work. Finally, a joint workshop led by tutors at Concordia College and Rockland Community College made the case that the cozy home-like space isn’t enough for 21st century writers. Instead, modern writing centers need to be spaces which foster creativity, stress flexibility, and provide learning through experience.
I left NEWCA excited and overwhelmed by the possibility of moving our writing center beyond what we’re comfortable doing. On the face of it, our tutors are doing a good job. Writers leave happy and provide us with positive feedback. But if NEWCA taught me anything, good feelings are not enough. As Stephen North says, the new writing center defines itself in terms of the writers it serves. As directors, we need to think deeply and creatively about what more we can do to better serve the 21st century writer.
Seth Czarnecki, SSWCA Northeast Regional Representative and Director of the Algonquin Writing Center
Intentional Reflection is a Writing Center Best Practice
A common theme in many of the sessions I attended was the importance of intentional reflective practices for directors and tutors.
In one roundtable led by professional tutors at University of Cincinnati- Blue Ash, directors and tutors had the opportunity to share how they incorporate reflective practices into a session. In our center, where sessions occur during 25-minute lunch blocks, I’ve observed that tutors often save intentional reflections in their tutoring logs for later in the class period- and sometimes, they put them off until well after the session has ended. I realized that tutors and clients alike need guidance about how and why reflection is important as part of both the writing process and the tutoring process. Traditionally, tutoring logs have served as a way for me to see my tutors’ thinking about their work; however, I’m wondering how tutors’ approaches to reflection in their tutoring logs might change if their tutoring logs were reframed as session logs that would be sent to a client’s teacher after a session.
In another session about imposter syndrome led by peer tutors at the University of Findlay, I was reminded of a common concern expressed by many newer tutors: what if they don’t know how to help a writer or they give a writer bad advice? It became apparent that providing tutors with the opportunity to reflect on their tutoring practices and their tutor identities independently and in small groups can help to alleviate feelings of inadequacy or ineffectiveness that are often associated with imposter syndrome. By reflecting on their experiences in their mentor groups (which we refer to as “tutoring families”), tutors have the opportunity to, as one of my tutors has observed, tutor one another in their tutoring practices.
Kate Hutton, SSWCA President and Director of the Herndon Writing Center
Making Room for the “small h” histories of SSWCs
This past November, I spoke about documenting the fleeting, ephemeral labor of secondary school writing center directors in an effort to begin a dialogue about how to best support, retain, and recognize those whose labor is often invisible and, more broadly, to ensure that our individual and collective small “h” histories were documented and signposted in broader writing center lore and scholarship. Indeed, the results of the SSWC census that I worked on with a team of folks revealed that most entrants into secondary school writing center work are new, self-trained, and often working for free, which signals the need for collective advocacy to ensure that the work of those in secondary schools is seen, legitimized, and valued within individual institutions and the big “H” history of writing centers.
Despite the challenges of building and sustaining a secondary school `writing center, it has been exciting to see more programs come online every year, including several here in Michigan that I’ve been fortunate enough to watch grow. It has also been invigorating to see secondary school writing centers have an increasingly prominent place at regional, national, and international conferences. Our last two ECWCA conferences have featured secondary school keynote speakers (Kyle Boswell and Betsy Woods, respectively), and there has been a rise in the number of sessions about SSWCs from both practitioners and partners, which means that secondary directors are sharing their amazing research with the community and that our post-secondary colleagues are joining the robust discussion with insight and engagement. Indeed, this year, Indiana University Southeast and Saginaw Valley State both had presentations that were secondary-focused. These presentations were an exceptional step forward for SSWCs in ECWCA.
As new entrants join the conversations around SSWCs in our Burkean Parlors, it is important for all participants to remember that the conversation is and has been ongoing. When figuring out where to “put in your oar,” as Burke has it, it’s worth getting a sense of the large corpus of small “h” history that has been lived, recorded, and generated by those who have been or are currently in the field. Indeed, our small “h” histories can provide those new to the field important context about the particular interests, issues, and needs of SSWCs, and these small “h” histories can remind those currently in the field to look up, look out, and continue to engage in critical dialogue about key issues relevant to our work. Without the important context of small “h” histories, meaningful conversations around issues relevant to our emotional and administrative labor, working conditions and compensation issues, and documented best practices will be incomplete at best, and, perhaps more pressingly, the work of SSWCs will remain a fleeting whisper in the larger conversations about the big “H” History of writing centers.
Jeffrey Austin, SSWCA Midwest Regional Representative and Director of the Skyline Writing Center
Connection and Scholarship are at the Heart of WC Sustainability
The ECWCA conference, like many conferences, sparked a revival of purpose and drive in my focus for the secondary schools writing center field. Since implementing my center in 2015, I have continually been thinking of how to sustain the center should I move onto a new school or project, and after this conference, the fog of ideas has started to dissipate. Although the focus of the conference was primarily on emotional labor, I found the concepts of connection and scholarship repeated throughout my conference notes.
Helen Raica-Klotz and Jordan Hessbrook from Saginaw Valley State University presented “Developing a Culture of Mentorship: Models for High School / University Writing Center Partnerships” and ignited thoughts of connection, as they detailed the value of a mutually benefiting partnership between their college writing center and nearby high schools. They also detailed the relationship their college writing center has developed in the community. I left the session excited to start composing my list of possible stakeholders, and moving forward, I plan on talking in depth with both my writing center tutors and other nearby writing center directors to generate realistic timelines and roles to create and sustain connections similar to Saginaw Valley State University.
After the conference, my time quickly opened up into our spring break, and my curiosity got the best of me. I considered the secondary school writing center presentations and noticed very quickly that the citations reveal something interesting about our research. We rely heavily on older texts based off of a college contexts like Stephen North’s “Idea of a Writing Center” to support our research. I dove head first into several articles on writing center connections and research, and I realized the need, especially in secondary schools, for our current research and practice to be published. This endeavor shouldn’t be one that is isolating, as we fall too easily into that trap already. Our scholarship should be representative of writing center work and be collaborative in nature, so I challenge SSWCs to forge those connections with colleges, libraries, other high schools, school organizations, etc. and then begin the process of research to share the wealth of knowledge developed in our centers.
Trisha Callihan, SSWCA Vice President and Director of the Eagle Writing Center
Cultivate Your PLN to Help to Cultivate Others
Reconnecting with my Professional Learning Network (PLN) was one of the most vital things I did at the ECWCA conference this year. Connecting with colleagues, developing connections with new friends, and learning collaboratively with the field create fertile ground for cultivating my own PLN. However, helping others create their own is equally important.
I saw the growing importance of helping others cultivate their own PLNs as directors and tutors of centers talked with each other about the practices and were able to gain so much from these discussions. In these moments, the collaborative learning that takes place is powerful and should continue outside of the conference setting. New practices and programs can be applied between centers, and better yet, they can be improved upon through collaboration outside of the conference. Using the conference as a stepping stone to build strong connections beyond that weekend are the resources that we gain the most from.
I had the opportunity to strengthen my PLN during the conference. I met with my #wcbesties and added to the crew of people that I consistently bounce ideas off of and rely on for support. The conference gave me the opportunity to grow my network, but also demonstrate for others how that might be done. My intern, who was once a tutor in my own writing center and worked in his university writing center all through college, attended the conference with me; I watched him grow his own network and collaborate with others in powerful ways. In these moments, I see the power of a growing network and a hint at the future of our field.
Kyle Boswell, SSWCA Social Media Manager and Director of the South Haven Writing Center