This essay presents the trajectory of a syllabus statement on linguistic and cultural pluralism and its role in the articulation and revision of a pedagogical approach that foregrounds students’ linguistic diversity and partnerships with local communities. In recounting the steps and stakeholders involved in crafting the statement, the author argues that this statement functions as… Continue reading Linguistic Pluralism: A Statement and a Call to Advocacy by Ligia Mihut

Community writing partnerships between university and incarcerated students typically focus on developing critical reading and writing skills through shared assignments, peer review exchanges, and group discussion. This article examines a prison-university writing partnership between two semester-long yoga classes, one at a maximum-security women’s prison and one at a competitive university, that privileges building community over… Continue reading Contemplative Methods for University-Prison Writing Partnerships: Building Sangha through ‘The Om Exchange by Sarah Moseley

In the five years of a newspaper project involving high school and university students that publishes an annual special edition exploring a diversity issue within the local community, several key pedagogical, political, and economic revisions have been made. Nevertheless, the bedrock principles of service-learning and civic journalism have remained constant. The project history shows that… Continue reading Get Me Rewrite! Five Years of the Student Newspaper Diversity Project by Sue Ellen Christian

Writing assignments carry political ramifications even when they attempt neutrality; students should learn that all writing occurs within larger contexts of power. To accomplish this goal, I advocate instruction derived from practices of critical rhetoric, critical revision, and critical discourse analysis. Rhetoric education, based on Donald Lazere’s Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy, trains students… Continue reading Window Washing or War and Peace: Critical Rhetoric, Critical Revision, and Critical Analysis in Student Writing by Gae Lyn Henderson

This essay explores the pedagogical lessons of student-inmate peer reviews conducted during a prison outreach project in a first-year composition class. Collaborative writing between inmates and students reveals the positive outcomes that can result from strong mutuality in community-based learning relationships. Through a qualitative analysis of student reflection papers and prisoner oral reflections, this essay… Continue reading Prison Collaborative Writing: Building Strong Mutuality in Community-Based Learning by Grace Wetzel with a response by “Wes”