Random Musings on my Dissertation (while doing other things)

A reminder for myself of the importance of explaining my project's significance:

As compositionists should know, research-writing (and therefore research) is not simply about assembling readymade information, but about changing the ways a topic can be looked at and about making new cross-connections between material. (Scott qtd. in Byard, 15)

There is a part of me that is still not prepared to give up on the idea that the data from my dissertation can be re-organized into a book that could help those who work with adult students...

A possible hypothesis: In composition, we have focused too much on the actual writing of adult students and not enough on their situatedness in communities of practice and the role of writing in those communities.

I'm thinking about using communities of practice and literacy practices as organized frameworks for talking about my participants.

1. What kinds of communities of practices are the participants engaged in (particularly workplace)?

2. What kinds of literacy practices does that involvement engender or demand of them?

3. What are the implications of simultaneous participation for these individuals, moving between home, work, and school.

Again, the idea that what makes these individuals distinctive is their commitment to and engagement in workplace communities of practice. I'm thinking about using, as a starting point for this new direction, the writing I did when I tried to situate Tony Vaccaro, using the communities of practice framework. This was really an illuminating moment and worth more thought. Here is a passage which helped me to get to the point of writing today's blog entry:

What are the units of analysis which Literacy Studies utilises? The notion of literacy practices has been central to this work and has been of value as an overarching concept. People use the term literacy practices to refer to the general cultural ways of utilising literacy which people draw upon in particular situa- tions (see discussion in Barton, 1994: 36–7; Baynham, 1995; Street, 2000). One needs to go further and examine what constitutes a practice. Originally Scribner and Cole (1981) referred to knowledge, skills and technologies as the compo- nents of practices in a framework which was still basically cognitive and which seemed to see the social as a separable influence on the cognitive. Contemporary work on communities of practice has developed from Scribner & Cole’s original work and in the research over the past two decades associated with Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger one can trace a progression from a psychological model with the social as a context developing into a model which is essentially socio-cultural. In particular, the notion of communities of practice provides a set of concepts which view learning as a form of participation in activities. This development can be clearly seen in the books which have been published in this period: Rogoff and Lave (1984); Lave (1988); Lave and Wenger (1991); Chaiklin and Lave (1993); Wenger (1998). Each of these books develops the concept of practices and the notion of communities of practices articulated most recently in Wenger (1998) can be of value and complement work in Literacy Studies in the ways in which it describes learning in certain sorts of groups. Understanding the strengths and limitations of this concept and its similarities to and distinctive- ness from notions of speech community (as in Holmes & Meyerhoff, 1999; Eckert, 2000) and, more crucially, discourse community should prove revealing. (Barton, 96)

from

David Barton (2001): Directions for Literacy Research: Analysing Language and Social Practices in a Textually Mediated World, Language and Education, 15:2-3, 92-104.

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The importance of viewing the school endeavor and literate practice within school as an extension of the communities to which one is already committed and engaged--this seems particularly important for these participants. Think of the two women, particularly Charlene, with education. Think of Tony. Think of John and Jennifer--neither of whom were so connected.

So, what would this look like, in terms of chapters.

Introduction (includes a discussion of existent research on adult students in composition)

Theoretical Frameworks: A Socio-Cultural Framework for the Study of Literacy (communities of practice and literacy practices)

Data Chapters:

Chapter 3: Describing Multimembership

Chapter 4: Multimembership and Literate Practice

Chapter 5: Implications for Teaching: Assuming Multimembership (implications for work with adult students and non-adults too)

A way in...statiscs which show that work is a part of the lives of most adult students...

A discussion of existent research on adult students in composition studies.

Key books:

Wenger, Communities of Practice (1998)

Barton, Literacy: An Ecology of the Written Word (2006)

Along these lines, there is a useful section in the Bazerman book Handbook of Research on Writing, in the chapter called "Form, Text Organization, Genre, Coherence" (p. 568). The whole section is useful, but two sub-sections may be particular useful for me for the project I am now envisioning: "Genre, Identity and Originality" (p. 571) and Genre Knowledge" (p. 572)

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I'm rereading Beaufort's Writing in the Real World and I note that she devotes an entire chapter to "Setting the Stage: The Cultural, Social, and Physical Terrain of Job Resource Center." While my project is a series of case studies and not ethnography (finally clear on that), I wonder if I might create a short chapter about GSC, the site of my research. Such a chapter my profile GSC itself and then situate the institution within the rise of "alternative" educational institutions during the late 20th and early 21st century. I can imagine such a chapter and I can imagine it being useful to understanding the participants experiences.

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Chapter 3: Descriptions of multimembership

Chapter 4: Implications of multimembership for literate practice (Tony, John, Jennifer; Charlene)

Argument: 1) What makes these students unique is the fact of their multimembership; 2) there are various implications of their multimembership for literacy instruction; 3) as college student populations diversify, we are likely to see more and more undergraduates negotiating multimembership and the demands that such affiliations make on literate practice.