In an effort to build community among secondary school writing centers and to provide more opportunities for directors to collaborate, SSWCA is pleased to announce our 2018-2019 Digital Roundtable Series. Each month, SSWC directors and tutor leaders are invited to join us for an informal discussion via GoogleHangouts. Each month’s topic and guiding questions will be announced in the month leading up to the roundtable.
On Tuesday, February 5, Amber Jensen (SSWCA Advisory Board Member) and (Heather Barton SSWCA Member At Large) hosted a Digital Roundtable focused on research in the writing center. Our conversation revolved round the purposes of research related to writing centers as well as the challenges of conducting sustained research. Amber Jensen of George Mason University (VA), Heather Barton of the East WING tutoring Center (GA), Jenny Goransson of West Springfield (VA), Joe Golimowski of Kettle Run (VA), and Stephanie Hansen of Annandale (VA) participated in this month’s roundtable.
The following notes were generated from our conversation.
What are your purposes for conducting writing research?
- Looking at the contexts of various members of writing centers: tutors, directors, and decision makers
- Examining ways in which to improve tutor skills
- Growing and developing writing centers across the country
- Building “legitimacy” and common knowledge of secondary writing centers
- Developing a body of researched literature about SSWCs and the unique needs, approaches, and roadblocks faced; lack of enough research at the secondary level
What are the challenges SSWC directors face for which research is needed?
- Shifting administration – in high schools, administrative teams change often which leaves the director responsible for keeping the institutional knowledge of what SSWCs do alive. By researching and developing literature in this are, SSWC directors have the ability to provide research to new administrative teams.
- Lack of professional allocation of time – many directors juggle several roles, so finding time to conduct research is often a constraint.
- Anecdotal vs. Data – administrative teams often prioritize data results that are measured against school goals (state testing, SAT, ACT, ect.) and often the data/results collected by SSWCs does not match this area.
What other voices should SSWC researchers consider to help in advocacy?
- Colleagues/coworkers
- County-level English Specialist?
- Parents
- Secondary English field at large (NCTE/NWP, etc.)
What kind of research products might we consider?
- Published paper
- Conference presentation
- Blogs
- Internal: to improve own center
- SSWCA/writing center field: to start a conversation/add to it
Let’s challenge the notion that peer-reviewed academic journals are the only valid place to publish. Where and how can we publish in places that will effect change?
- Textbook publisher series for professional development: “Hacking XYZ”
- Thinking about writing through other lenses, rather than just writing to other writing center professionals (ex: literacy)
- Educational Leadership (ASCD)
- Council Chronicle Policy Briefs (NCTE) – http://www2.ncte.org/resources/policy-briefs/
What kinds of writing center research (including SSWC writing center research) are you already familiar with? What other research would you like to know more about?
- SSWC Census – possible opportunity to draw on this data to establish a baseline of the current state of writing centers in secondary schools in the US
- Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project (PWTARP) – Harvey Kail and Paula Gillespie
- Using models from other research/theories (self-efficacy in writing scale, PWTARP, etc.) — what lens do you want/need to look through to begin your research?
What are some research questions you currently have?
- What is lost/gained when centers move from writing-focused to all-subjects (writing centers → learning commons)?
- Is the college writing center model useful/relevant at the high school level? What particular approaches to training tutors are similar/different?
- How do writing centers best support ESOL students/close the gap?
- What interactions are made possible by SSWCs? What are the implications of those kinds of social/interpersonal interactions?
- How can we train tutors who are motivated differently than they are? What strategies are most effective? (looking at profiles of tutors/profiles of tutees?)
What opportunities are there (or should there be) to collaborate and/or present research on SSWCs? What resources would be helpful to support SSWC researchers?
- Professional accountability – ongoing throughout the year before/after conference to keep momentum going/support group
- Directors collect a lot of data but don’t always know how or what to do with it; could bring data to sort through and explore with other WCDs
- Scheduled conversation time
- Build a research strand/community
- Google group/listserv
- Writing/research retreat for directors (Google Hangout or in person, national or regional – various models could work)
- Using March 2020 Conference as a structure
- “Directors’ Research Strand” of presentations at the conference – feedback from other WCDs –
- Google Hangouts/conversation opportunities leading up to the conference itself:
- do you have a research conversation you want to track throughout the year/data you want to collect?
- Work through it during the school year, then prepare to present initial findings at the March conference. Possibly pair up with another director — collaborate on research across two sites?