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Looking Beyond One-to-One Tutoring: Investigating Collaboration and Authority in Multidisciplinary Writing Center-Sponsored Writing Groups

Wilder, Sara Franssen
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1494071206382779

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
Writing centers have long embraced collaborative learning as a foundational pedagogical principle, yet writing center studies’ understanding of how writers collaborate has been limited by its focus on collaboration in the form of one-to-one, peer tutoring. This dissertation reconsiders traditional notions of peer collaboration by investigating the negotiations of authority and difference that make up the collaboration of three writing center-sponsored writing groups. Although writing groups are a significant part of current writing center practices (Jackson and McKinney, 2012) and have a long history both inside and outside of the writing center (Gere, 1987; Spigelman, 2000; Moss, Highberg, and Nicolas, 2004), they are understudied and under-theorized in writing center scholarship. As writing centers and writing programs continue looking to practices like writing groups to support an ever more diverse group of writers, it is important that we understand the affordances and constraints of such practices and how to implement and assess them. My research is guided by two major questions. First, how do writing groups further the goals of group stakeholders, including group members, group facilitators, and the writing center? Second, how do writers in these groups collaborate, and more specifically, what is the role of dissensus and difference in collaborative writing group practices? I investigate these questions by studying three multidisciplinary writing center-sponsored writing groups: one group of second-year undergraduates enrolled in a program promoting student retention, one group of undergraduate researchers writing senior theses, and one group of dissertation writers. In this qualitative study, I use ethnographic research methods to investigate how writers and group facilitators understand and value the writing groups and how they engage in the collaborative work of the group. Data in my study consists of weekly group observations, interviews with group members and facilitators, and surveys of writing group participants. I took an inductive approach to data analysis, deriving codes from and identifying patterns in observational and interview data. I then interpreted these patterns using existing theories of social learning and authority. My analysis indicates that writing center-sponsored writing groups (WCWGs) engage in complex collaborative practices to support the writing and learning of student writers. In order to collaborate effectively, writers in WCWGs must negotiate authority in the form of disciplinary and writing expertise. Facilitators use strategies that encourage writers to build their own authority by developing a stronger understanding of writing and their writing processes. Further, writers learn to communicate effectively across disciplinary boundaries as they read and respond to one another’s writing. Through moments of disciplinary conflict, multidisciplinary writing groups provide writers and facilitators a productive space in which to develop writing knowledge both within and beyond their disciplinary communities.
Beverly J. Moss (Committee Chair)
Jonathan Buehl (Committee Member)
Kay Halasek (Committee Member)
Christa Teston (Committee Member)
267 p.
Composition; Literacy
writing groups; writing centers; collaboration; composition; writing studies

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wilder, S. F. (2017). Looking Beyond One-to-One Tutoring: Investigating Collaboration and Authority in Multidisciplinary Writing Center-Sponsored Writing Groups [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1494071206382779

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wilder, Sara. Looking Beyond One-to-One Tutoring: Investigating Collaboration and Authority in Multidisciplinary Writing Center-Sponsored Writing Groups. 2017. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1494071206382779.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wilder, Sara. "Looking Beyond One-to-One Tutoring: Investigating Collaboration and Authority in Multidisciplinary Writing Center-Sponsored Writing Groups." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1494071206382779

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1494071206382779
272
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.