Computers and Composition Jun 2024 Open Access

Personalizing first-year writing course design and delivery: Navigating modality, shared curriculum, and contingent labor in a community of practice

Mary K. Stewart ; Andrew Kelly Stewart California State University, San Marcos

Abstract

This article describes five first-year writing instructors’ experiences with personalizing shared curriculum across three different course delivery formats (face-to-face, hybrid, online). The data is drawn from teaching journals that the co-authors, a non-tenure track, part-time Lecturer and a tenured Writing Program Administrator, and three Graduate Student Teaching Associates completed throughout Fall 2022. The findings illustrate both benefits and drawbacks related to shared curriculum: discussing and troubleshooting curriculum in a community of practice is highly valuable, but separating course delivery from course design is challenging. In our study, those challenges manifested as disconnects between course content and disciplinary identity, as well as personal feelings of failure. On the other hand, the need to personalize shared curriculum across multiple delivery formats proved productive, especially when instructors used asynchronous online materials as a starting point to develop hybrid and face-to-face lesson plans. Ultimately, we advocate for more conversations about how writing programs can support contingent faculty as they personalize shared curriculum through both course delivery and design, and we offer an example of a successful community of practice that revises shared curriculum in response to community members’ experiences with teaching in multiple modalities.

Journal
Computers and Composition
Published
2024-06-01
DOI
10.1016/j.compcom.2024.102847
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Open Access
OA PDF Hybrid
Topics
first-year composition writing pedagogy curriculum design graduate education teacher development writing program administration labor and working conditions online writing instruction editorial matter
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Deets (2026)
    A quantitative, computational investigation of Computers and Composition: Using…
    Computers and Composition

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CrossRef global citation count: 3 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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