Christie Toth
13 articles-
Abstract
We are now a decade into the call for comprehensive community college “redesign” known as Guided Pathways. This introduction provides an overview of the Guided Pathways model and its advocacy arm and reviews critiques of the model in education research and two-year college literacy studies. These reviews contextualize the contents of the special issue.
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Abstract
In this symposium, seven community college transfer students present their perspectives on Guided Pathways curricular reforms. Drawing on published scholarship and policy documents as well as their own lived experiences, they identify positive aspects of the Guided Pathways model as well as shortcomings in its conceptualization and local implementation.
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Feature: The Profession of Teaching English in the Two-Year College: Findings from the 2019 TYCA Workload Survey ↗
Abstract
In fall 2019, the Two-Year College English Association distributed a survey to two-year college English faculty across the United States through professional listservs, regional distribution lists, and social media platforms. This report summarizes the key data derived from 1,062 responses to close-ended questions about workload related to teaching, service, leadership, and professional development. The report discusses the demographic profile, employment status, and contractual obligations in course assignments of the two-year college English faculty who responded. It also summarizes Information about respondents’ overload teaching, their autonomy within their teaching responsibilities, and the kinds of service and professional development activities in which they engaged.
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Two-Year College Teacher-Scholar-Activism: Reconstructing the Disciplinary Matrix of Writing Studies ↗
Abstract
Two-year college faculty have begun articulating ateacher-scholar-activistprofessional identity. After tracing the emergence of this concept and calls for solidarity in two-year college writing studies, we draw on two case studies to advocate for cross-sector disciplinary alliances that expand educational opportunity, improve professional equity, and advance social justice.
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Symposium: Responses to the TYCA Guidelines for Preparing Teachers of English in the Two-Year College ↗
Abstract
Together, these four essays by Mark Reynolds, Emily Suh, Cheri Lemieux Spiegel and Mark Blaauw-Hara, and Jeff Andelora, offer additional insights and resources for graduate programs and two-year college English departments seeking to implement the “Guidelines” principles in their local contexts. We anticipate that this symposium will further a much-needed dialogue about how two-year college English teachers are prepared.
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Unknown Knowns: The Past, Present, and Future of Graduate Preparation for Two-Year College English Faculty ↗
Abstract
Intended to contextualize and elaborate on the Two-Year College English Association's 2016 Guidelines for Preparing Teachers of English in the Two-Year College, this article examines the history, current status, and possible futures of graduate preparation for two-year-college English professionals. It traces the five-decade history of efforts among two-year-college English faculty to articulate the distinct demands and opportunities of their profession and to hold university-based graduate programs accountable for providing meaningful preparation for future two-year- college teacher-scholars. Based on our survey of this history and the current landscape of graduate education in English studies, we argue that transforming graduate programs to meet the needs of the teaching majority will require embracing the four principles articulated in TYCA's 2016 Guidelines: develop curricula relevant to two-year-college teaching; collaborate with two-year-college colleagues; prepare future two-year-college faculty to be engaged professionals; and make two-year colleges visible to all graduate students.
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Abstract
Transfer student writers, who comprise more than one-third of all college students, are simultaneously experienced writers and first-year students at their new institutions. Despite their complicated positions, these students have received very little attention from composition specialists. This article responds to the paucity of attention to transfer student writers by reporting on a multiyear study that alternated between investigations of the experiences of these students and programmatic changes designed to address their expressed needs and concerns. The guiding principle of this work, and of the advice offered to colleagues interested in supporting transfer student writers on their own campuses, is a combination of institutional and student changes or mutual adjustments.
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Feature: A Dubious Method of Improving Educational Outcomes: Accountability and the Two-Year College ↗
Abstract
Responding to the Obama administration’s efforts to establish postsecondary performance based funding, the authors critique the neoliberal accountability movement’s misunderstandings of two-year colleges and their students, calling instead for a frame of mutual responsibility.
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Abstract
This column reviews four books that illustrate the idea that our locations shape our meaning-making processes. She notes how each author frames the social justice issue at the heart of her or his analysis, paying close attention to how visible the Indigenous presence is as well as the settler colonialism involved in each. The resulting readings are not so much as critique of these studies, but rather show how explicit attention to the settler colonial situation might inform understandings of the relationships between rhetoric, writing, and structures of oppression in the United States, whether or not one’s work focuses primarily on Native American issues.
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Feature: Toward Local Teacher-Scholar Communities of Practice: Findings from a National TYCA Survey ↗
Abstract
Drawing on findings from a national survey of TYCA members about how and why they access published scholarship, this article makes recommendations for fostering local teacher-scholar communities of practice within two-year college English departments.
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Feature: Unmeasured Engagement: Two-Year College English Faculty and Disciplinary Professional Organizations ↗
Abstract
Responding to the underrepresentation of two-year college English faculty in disciplinary professional organizations, this article examines faculty’s diverse and largely unmeasured ways of engaging with these associations to access and share disciplinary knowledge.