The New Grass Roots: Faculty Responses to the Writing-Enriched Curriculum

Abstract

Although assessment is a crucial component of the WEC model, studies of how faculty respond to its implementation are needed, especially by outsiders who can impartially analyze its successful uptake. This chapter describes an interview-based study of eight faculty—four at a small liberal arts college and four at a large state-supported university—representing five departments all in the formative stages of WEC implementation. Analysis based on grounded theory surfaced five themes that interviewees consistently described, and that appear to be important considerations in the development of the WEC model and in the inductive learning of threshold concepts for WAC: the role of cross-curricular activities such as faculty workshops; the importance of departmental autonomy and self-directed innovation; the usefulness of lower-stakes, learning-based writing; the perception of improvement in student writing ability; and the transformative effects of WEC as a pedagogical and curricular initiative.