Curricular Inquiry: A Survey Of Writing Pedagogy Practicum Instructors

The practicum course, a required course for many new college writing instructors, is a vital site for identifying what are considered best practices in the teaching of college composition, but also for critiquing, revising, and reevaluating those practices. My dissertation contributes to the conversation about how Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) learn to teach college composition, and how what they learn in teaching practicum courses impacts graduate education in Rhetoric and Composition. My dissertation study focuses on the perspectives of instructors who design practica courses that prepare college writing instructors to teach first-year composition at their institutions. GTAs in Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition, and English Departments have already been the research subjects of numerous dissertations and publications, but the instructors themselves are not often the research focus