NEGOTIATING PEDAGOGICAL PERSPECTIVES: THRESHOLD CONCEPTS AS A SHARED LANGAUGE FOR WRITING INSTRUCTION

Abstract

Matthew Abraham (2016) argues that the field of rhetoric and composition can only be legitimized, and thus end labor issues within the field, via a national credentialing system based on threshold concepts of writing studies for first-year composition (FYC) instructors, as such a syste m both unifies the field around writing studies and addresses its labor issues head-on (94). Throughout his discussion, Abraham cites Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle’s field-defining text, Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies (2015), as their compilation of threshold concepts and support essays by leading scholars provides a current definition and demarcation of the field at present. I extend the conversation on the shared language of threshold concepts by examining a local, diverse general education writing program (Middle Tennessee State University’s General Education English program), as many instructors in this department have varying knowledge of writing studies theory and practice. I argue that writing program administrators (WPAs) of diverse departments need to take instructor prior knowledge into account when preparing faculty professional development workshops on threshold concepts.

In this ethnographic study, I examine how threshold concepts of writing studies can inform the teaching of writing and the development of a shared vision for writing instruction in a small, local context. Likely, the demographic makeup of MTSU’s General Education English faculty is similar to that found in many institutions, and thus it provides a strong starting point for examining the viability of a threshold concepts framework for faculty professional development. In order to establish how threshold concepts can inform the instruction of writing and a shared vision for writing, I examine instructors’ prior knowledge of writing studies theory, their current approaches and practices in the classroom, and how they see threshold concepts relating with their theories and approaches. I find that instructors struggle with attaining praxis, a struggle which stems both from the need for a foundational knowledge of RCWS theories and performance anxiety. I conclude with recommendations for incorporating threshold concepts into departmental student learning objectives (SLOs) and developing professional development workshops that stress a what/why/how approach, using threshold concepts as the bridging theory between what instructors and WPAs know about writing pedagogy.