Moving Toward a Group Identity: WPA Professionalization from the 1940s to the 1970s

Heckathorn, Amy. "Moving Toward a Group Identity: WPA Professionalization from the 1940s to the 1970s." In Historical Studies of Writing Program Administration: Individuals, Communities, and the Formation of a Discipline (Eds. Barbara L'Eplattenier and Lisa Mastrangelo). West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press. 191-219.

Two eras of WPA History

• Early Era (1940-63): when WPAs began to publicly identify the individual problems confronting professionalization as writing program administration surfaced in relation to discussions of teaching composition
• Transitional Era (1964-79): when WPAs gained more public responsibility and acknowledged and began to form a group identity to address the problems hindering professionalization (192)

Interesting Timeline Stuff (1970s)

• 1972: Freshman English News founded (first journal aimed at WPAs and FYW instructors)
• 1976-77, the majority of ads (sixteen of twenty) specified that WPAs should have composition as a primary area of study. Thus, although still rarely detailing the complexity of administrative duties, the actual job descriptions for WPAs reflected the growing professional identity of composition scholarship and writing program administration. (202)
• 1977/79: Writing Program Administrators Newsletter and then Journal founded
• 1977: The WPA Council founded (see p. 208-09)