TEACHING MATTERS: PEDAGOGICAL IDEOLOGIES AND SUCCESS IN THE BASIC WRITING CLASSROOM

This dissertation argues that teaching ideology plays a vital but overlooked role in the success of Basic Writing students. Student engagement and retention research recognizes that faculty belief, attitude and approach to students and curricula affect students ’ willingness to engage with course material, and engagement is the primary factor in determining whether students persist in college. I argue that these beliefs, attitudes and approaches—ideologies—have been represented over time in Basic Writing research but have not been overtly examined and connected to student success in Basic Writing courses. I outline the patterns of representations of ideologies found in Basic Writing research and separate the patterns into four ideological categories. Each of the categories is described in detail and linked to its effectiveness in encouraging student engagement and success. To support these categories, I provide three case studies of currently teaching Basic Writing instructors. I then apply my taxonomy of teaching ideologies to the administrative processes Basic Writing programs engage in that are related to teaching: recruiting and hiring, training, evaluation, promotion and tenure. Each of these processes can be reexamined and adapted to include attention to teaching ideology. In this way, I fill in gaps about teaching in Basic Writing research while providing a structure by which to assess program effectiveness and development