Lynn Reid Lecturer and Coordinator of Basic Writing Fairleigh Dickinson University

1. Computers and Writing as a Social Movement? Framing Activism in Computers and Composition: An International Journal Lynn Reid Lecturer and Coordinator of Basic Writing Fairleigh Dickinson University Ph.D. Candidate in Composition and TESOL Indiana University of Pennsylvania

2. Purpose of the Study • Research Questions • How has the published scholarship in JBW and C&C framed discussions about providing access to college-level communication to students from culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse backgrounds? How have these discussions changed over time? • How has the published scholarship in JBW and C&C framed discussions about institutional constraints as they relate to curriculum and program development? How have these discussions changed over time?

3. Shared Time Lines Basic Writing Computers and Writing Hugh Burns’ dissertation was completed in 1979 Computers and WritingConference began in 1983 Computers and Composition: An International Journal began as a newsletter in 1983 C&C Online began publication in 1996 • JBW began publication in 1975 • Errors and Expectations was published in 1977 • Council on Basic Writing began to meet annually at CCCC in 1980 • BW E-Journal began publication 1999

4. Shared Experiences: The Politics of the Local in Computers and Writing • Abstract: • New-media writing exerts pressure in ways that writing instruction typically has not. In this article, we map the infrastructural dynamics that support-or disrupt-new- media writing instruction, drawing from a multimedia writing course taught at our institution. An infrastructural framework provides a robust tool for writing teachers to navigate and negotiate the institutional complexities that shape new-media writing and offers composers a path through which to navigate the systems within and across which they work. Further, an infrastructural framework focused on the when of new- media composing creates space for reflection and change within institutional structures and networks. • DeVoss, D. N., Cushman, E, & Grabill, J. (2005). Infrastructure and composing: The when of new media writing. College Composition and Communication (57)1, 14-44.

5. Shared Experiences: The Politics of the Local in Basic Writing Abstract: Recounting the controversy surrounding a town hall meeting on "illegal" Latino immigration at a two-year college in North Georgia, this ethnographic narrative details the aftermath that ensued and its consequences for an ESL basic writing instructor. Fallout included the potential loss of her job, the rumored reallocation of a $5 million earmark for the college's student center, and a death threat phoned into the Dean's office. Theorizing the disciplinary insularity of contemporary activist basic writing scholarship, the article calls for an expansion of conceptualizations of political engagement in relation to Generation 1.5 and, specifically, Latino immigrants' physical access to higher education. Spencer, S. (2012). Steep houses in basic writing: Advocating for Latino immigrants in a north Georgia two-year college. Journal of Basic Writing (31)1, 80-98.

6. Common Themes? • Access • Advocacy • Curricular values • Institutional Constraints • How do these common themes—and the stories we tell about them—contribute to disciplinary culture?

7. Johanek (2000) argues that, owing to an aversion to the scientism inherent in qualitative and quantitative research, composition studies is in a state of disciplinary chaos. She attributes this chaos to an overreliance on narrative as a mode of delivery for scholarly articles that overemphasize local contexts. • Many, many other studies of disciplinarity focus on research methodologies and/or linguistic features of a research article to make claims about the values of a discipline. Reading Disciplinarityin Published Scholarship

8. Computers and Writing as Community? • “Reflecting on the Past, Sitting with the Present, and Charting our Future: Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe Discussing the Community of Computers and Composition” (Beck, 2014). • Inman (2004) “computers and writing is best described as a community because that definition foregrounds the individuals involved in its work, rather than the knowledge or other scholarship they present” (p.3). • Editor’s Introductions for Computers and Composition 2009-2013: 32% refer to a computers and writing community

9. Computers and Writing As Community? • Communities form around shared values (Wenger’s communities of practice) • Shared values are developed through the circulation of printed texts (Anderson’s imagined communities) Limitation: • Emphasis on community detracts from the strategic work that members of the community engage in locally in order to advocate for the work of Computers and Writing.

10. Can Computers and Composition be read as a social movement? • “Social movements involve a collective making of claims that, if realized, would conflict with someone else’s interests” (Tilly, 2004). • “David Snow (2004) argues that“movements can be conceived as ‘collective challenges to systems or structures of authority,’ including various types of organizations and institutions and also sets of cultural beliefs and understandings” (Staggenborg 2010, p. 8).

11. Selfe (1999) Technology and Literacy in the 21st Century: The Importance of Paying Attention • “In curriculum committees, standards documents, and assessment programs, teachers need to steadfastly resist projects and systems that serve to establish one narrow, official version of literacy practices or skills. Such projects and systems simply serve to reward the literacy practices of dominant groups and punish the practices of others. They serve to reproduce a continuing and oppressive cycle of illiteracy, racism, and poverty in this country and elsewhere.”

12. Creating a Corpus • 5 years of Editor’s Introductions for Computers and Composition: 2009-2013. Focusing on the Local: • Nothing outside of a US context (e.g. special issue from Oslo, Norway was eliminated) • Anything with a reference to students or pedagogy was counted • Of 109 of articles that were described in the editor’s introduction, 75 dealt with a pedagogy and implications for student-teacher (69%)

13. Coding • Identifying institutional positions and stakeholders: • Student, instructor, administrator, institution, writing center, program, government • 36% of the pedagogy articlesaddressed multiple positions and stakeholders

14. Coding • What’s the message about technology? • Challenges • Cautions • Benefits • Skill acquisition (rhetorical skills) • Empowerment or self-discovery • Collaboration • Streamlined process 27 articles claim to describe an effort that led students to empowerment or self-discovery (25%)

15. A model from another subdiscipline: • “Writing centers are comfortable, iconoclastic places where all students go to get one-to-one tutoring on their writing.” (McKinny, 2013) Towards a Metanarrative for C&C/C&W

16. Towards a Metanarrative for C&C/C&W • Computers and writing teacher-scholars work strategically to challenge traditional notions of literacy in order to teach rhetorical skills and empower students.

17. Implications? • Creating a disciplinary culture that explicitly focuses on strategies for negotiating institutional challenges • Creating a disciplinary culture that is focused on equitable educational opportunities for all students • Considering how this culture has been socially constructed through discourse • Theorizing computers and composition: political economy, resource mobilization, deliberate hierarchies

18. THANK YOU! • Lynn Reid • lynn.reid14@gmail.com