Working with and against Shared Curricula: Perspectives from College Writing Teachers and Administrators(17 Studies in Composition and Rhetoric)

Working with and against Shared Curricula: Perspectives from College Writing Teachers and Administrators explores the complexities surrounding the expanding use of shared curricula—syllabi and assignments intended to work universally, for all teachers and all students within a given writing program. Chapters in this collection offer the experiential accounts and research-based arguments needed to prepare teachers and administrators to respond to calls to scale up writing programs for delivery by contingent instructors, in online courses, or at distant sites. Speaking from a variety of perspectives and institutional locations, these authors grapple with questions increasingly common in writing programs: In what ways do shared curricula forward noble goals, such as reducing workload for teachers or ensuring an equitable educational experience for all?; In what ways do shared curricula undermine teacher efficacy and student learning?; When syllabi and assignments are exported from one location to another, what contexts are gained, lost, or changed in the process? In the end, what emerges from this collection is not a clear or simplified argument either for or against shared curricula and pre-designed courses. Instead, readers gain a nuanced picture of both the affordances and limitations of these instructional models for writing programs, and their potential impacts for teachers and students. By exploring the lived experiences, material conditions, political economies, and ideological conflicts of shared curricula environments for multiple stakeholders, this collection serves as a thoughtful interrogation of scalability in writing instruction.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments – Samantha NeCamp and Connie Kendall Theado: Working with and against Shared Curricula: An Introduction – Jacqueline Amorim and Christine Martorana: Online Teaching, Linguistic Diversity, and a Standard of Care: Developing a Shared Curriculum at a Hispanic- Serving Institution – Catrina Mitchum and Rochelle Rodrigo: Administrative Policies and Pre- Designed Courses (PDCs): Negotiating Instructor and Student Agency – Megan Pindling, Emily Price, and Amy J. Wan: Three: Impossibilities of Scalability: Autonomy, Adjunctification, and Apprenticeship in the Age of the Austerity Crisis – Jonna Gilfus, Sean M. Conrey, and Melanie Nappa- Carroll: Rigorous Adaptability in the Concurrent Enrollment Writing Classroom – Hannah Thompson: From Skeptic to Believer to Advocate: How I Came to Understand the Benefits of Shared Curricula Writing Programs – Heather Johnson- Taylor: Humanizing Competency- Based Education in the Writing Classroom – Laurie B. Bauer, Ruth Benander, and Brenda Refaei: ePortfolios: A Constructive Loophole in the Shared Curricula Model – Lisa R. Arnold: Afterword: Toward Dynamic, Inclusive, and Equitable Shared Curricula 125 – Index.

About the Author :
Connie Kendall Theado is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Cincinnati. She received her Ph.D. in English from Miami University (Ohio). Her scholarship appears in JAC, Language and Literacy, Classroom Discourse, Open Words, and several edited collections. Samantha NeCamp is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. She is the author of two monographs: Adult Literacy and American Identity and Literacy in the Mountains. She received her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Louisville.

Review :
“The exigency and urgency of Working with and against Shared Curricula is clear as writing teachers and WPAs continue to negotiate neoliberal structures of modern higher education and increasing demand for online and dual-credit education programs. Connie Kendall Theado, Samantha NeCamp, and their contributors present a complex picture of the affordances, limitations, and challenges posed by shared curricula as a conceptual model and practice, including the risks to instructors, students, and their experiences as writers.” —Morris Young, The University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA “Working with and against Shared Curricula is a thoughtful, timely collection exploring the long-neglected issue of standardized syllabi and course designs. The voices in this book illustrate the inventive, ethical, and sometimes conflicted responses by teachers and writing program administrators to the rise of such pedagogical approaches. As institutions increasingly adopt neoliberal systems and ideologies that emphasize standardization and efficiency over creativity and autonomy, teachers and writing program administrators will find, in this book, important conversations about adaptation and resistance.” —Bronwyn T. Williams, University of Louisville, USA