WESCC is a co-organizational project group that has developed in response the increasingly visible need to create better means of support for those who do the work of teaching college writing and reading, and that has the goal of gathering and developing resources for the preparation and support of postsecondary literacy teachers. This group, the Writing and English Studies Co-Organizational Collaborative (WESSC), is a group that includes member-leaders from a range of professional organizations in the related fields of English and Writing studies (you can learn more about WESSC here). Our current efforts are toward collaboratively and systematically learning more about, and developing priorities for, supporting postsecondary writing and reading instructors.
To facilitate this work, we need a clear and evidence-based understanding of the goals and needs of early career English Studies educators.
We’re hoping you can help us collect some of that evidence. Specifically, we have created a survey that we invite you to complete. It should take 10-15 minutes of your time. The questions focus on finding out more about your motivations for graduate study, your career aspirations, and your resource needs as a teacher-scholar. Recognizing that many reports, articles, and other professional resources have been published about the state of the job market, WESCC is interested in a different perspective:
the experiences and aspirations of those pursuing English Studies graduate work and how they are experiencing the early career transition from graduate school to another workplace. English Studies includes fields such as writing studies, literary studies, creative writing, technical and professional communication, literacy studies, rhetoric, college reading, writing center studies, among others).
A bit of additional context: WESCC emerged from conversation among the CCCC officers about the state of affairs for those new to English studies. The Officers saw that the pandemic was casting into sharp relief the uncertain position in which many graduate students and early-career teachers were finding themselves. We know that English and Writing Studies is an expansive field with so much cross-pollination among the various specializations. We also know that, as a larger field, it has a history of underpreparing its graduate students in writing and reading instruction–particularly at two-year colleges and other institutions of access. It was clear to the WESCC founders that the allied fields of English studies needed to better understand these experiences—and also, that this must be a collaborative effort that includes diverse professional organizations within the larger field of English and Writing Studies:
- Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition,
- College Reading and Learning Association
- Conference on College Composition and Communication
- Council of Writing Program Administrators.
- Rhetoric Society of America
- National Council of Teachers of English
- Two-Year College English Association
- Modern Language Association
WESCC includes representatives from these organizations. They are currently all participants in our collaborative efforts.
If you are in graduate school, or if you have recently earned a graduate degree (within the last three years) in one of the many related fields of English Studies (writing, composition, and rhetoric; literary studies; creative writing; technical or professional communication; literacy studies; reading; writing center studies, etc), we invite you to take the survey we’ve created to learn more about your needs, interests, and goals:
New survey link:
https://ndstate.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bQ2TGB4I9MdsM8S