In Ideological Intersections: The Cultural Work and Practical Implications of American Literature and Composition Telecourses, I draw on both my own experience developing, producing, and teaching two composition telecourses and an analysis of three nationally-produced and distributed telecourses in order to explain the benefits and disadvantages of using one-way, non-interactive telecourses to teach English studies courses. The Introduction locates the use of educational technologies within the current academic labor crisis in the Humanities. Chapter 1 situates the telecourse within the theoretical and pedagogical issues that confront teachers of writing, Chapter 2 describes in detail the viewing experience and the logistics of three composition telecourses, and Chapter 3 focuses on two of the leading, nationally distributed literature telecourses. The first sections of Chapter 4 demonstrate that telecourses have proved to be an accessible educational opportunity for students who would otherwise not attend school, an opportunity for faculty to gain new skills, and an additional revenue source for institutions. However, there are three primary disadvantages: (1) students have little opportunity for interaction, (2) telecourses have a markedly high drop-out rate; and (3) the course material is markedly conservative. The latter sections of Chapter 4 present technological solutions to the problem of interactivity, with the warning that such computerized teaching methods may function as a repressive surveillance system that inappropriately regulates faculty members and students. Chapter 5 demonstrates that the telecourses function as an ideological apparatus that transmits American culture. As such, the televised material reifies the rhetoric of the American melting pot, perpetuating the myth of standardized Americans who are happily inculcated into the educational and occupational systems of mainstream America, without acknowledging the complications or difficulties faced by such characters in real life. Moreover, the televised material reproduces the rhetoric of American individualism, offering students a false vision of a future of unbound glories in order to train them in occupational and functional literacy at the expense of critical, oppositional thinking. The Epilogue returns to the disturbing implications for academic labor, and argues that classroom teachers may no longer be necessary if institutions can disseminate information with the help of new technologies and simply hire inexpensive teachers to be responsible for logistics and assessment.

Nationally, teacher preparation programs are calling for an increased level of diversity awareness, and therefore teacher preparation programs have answered with various courses and integrated attempts to prepare preservice teachers to work effectively with an increasingly diverse student population. Although there are certain agreed upon elements of successful teacher preparation for diverse settings, much is unknown about teaching across cultures. There is also a need to document the process of preparing teachers for cultural diversity. In this study, qualitative case study methodology was used to understand the experiences of one preservice teacher as she considered and enacted culturally relevant teaching. The study took place in culturally diverse middle school classrooms located in an urban area in the Southwest. The participant in the sample was a white, female, secondary language arts student enrolled in her final year of a post-baccalaureate teacher certification program. The participant was enrolled in a cohort program that places students in carefully selected classrooms for a year of observation and student teaching. Data were collected over a six-month period using academic work, interviews, collaborative conversations, teaching cases, reflective journals, and observations designed to help examine cultural issues in the classroom. Constant comparison and analytic induction were used to analyze data. Major emerging themes in the data include the areas of interaction, opportunity, accommodation, and ownership. These characteristics support the work of Ladson-Billings (1984) and Nieto (1999) in that they were identified and described as elements necessary for culturally responsive teaching. Also of interest were the "simplification strategies" the participant employed to enact her beliefs of culturally relevant teaching. Implications for teacher education can be found for initial teacher preparation program, teacher educators, and those interested in curriculum and pedagogy as this intensive study of an instructive case offers insights into challenges preservice teachers encounter in moving their philosophy into practice.

This qualitative study focuses on critical issues that surround English teaching in the two-year college. From the results of interviews with and observations of 24 two-year college English Instructors in five western states as well as a broader survey questionnaire, I examine the following issues: the reliance on part-time instructors in the two-year college; the continued hold of conventional grammar instruction; the lack of relevance of much of the graduate work that two-year college English instructors have undertaken; the "gap" between two-year college English instructors and the larger discipline of English studies; the weak academic culture of the two-year college; issues surrounding writing assessment; the critical attitudes of instructors toward the research and writing that appears in journals of rhetoric and composition; the lack of motivation for scholarship and writing among two-year college writing instructors; and the institutional constraints on two-year college English instructors. After presenting some history and commentary on the community college, I discuss the methodology of the research. In the dissertation I profile fourteen of the 24 teachers I interviewed, chosen partly because they are representative in terms of demographic factors, partly because they have distinctive, individual "voices." I present the study results as a narrative of my research, beginning with the interviews of part-time "freeway flyers" teaching at four colleges in Southern California. I then describe my interviews in Oregon, at two colleges in Idaho, at one college in Utah, and finally at two colleges in my home state, Arizona. Beginning with the perceived "gap" between writing instructors in two-year colleges and the broader scholarly discipline, the dissertation examines the institutional constraints that contribute to the isolation, alienation, and "burnout" felt by many community college instructors. In my final chapter I review the research and suggest ways in which college English departments can address the "gap" between them and the larger discipline and ways in which departments can work together as a team rather than as isolated individuals in order to create a more collegial and productive learning environment.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of collaborative computer-mediated projects on students' writing performance. The subjects of the study were 20 advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) composition students enrolled in an English 107 course at the University of Arizona in the Spring 1999 semester. The class met twice a week: once in a regular classroom, once in the College of Humanities Collaborative Learning Laboratory (COHlab). The study addressed three main research questions: (1) Does student participation in on-line synchronous discussions vary in different configurations of discussions and for different thinking styles? (2) Does writing performance vary between collaborative and independent tasks? (3) Is there a change in students' attitudes to collaborative assignments and to the use of computers in class from the beginning to the end of the semester? To answer the first question, the researcher analyzed the transcripts of on-line discussions and essays written collaboratively and independently. Discussions were conducted in different configurations (whole class vs. small group and anonymous vs. non-anonymous). To collect discussion data, an archive feature was used that provided complete transcripts of discussions, including students' names (or random numbers in anonymous discussions) and time when each comment was written. Repeated measures MANOVA and qualitative analyses were used to examine the data. The second question, investigating the difference in writing performance between independent and collaborative academic writing tasks, was addressed by (1) examining the results of textual analysis performed by the computer, and (2) examining the results of holistic evaluation conducted by ESL raters. Repeated measures MANOVA was used to analyze the data. To answer the third question, pre-semester and post-semester student surveys were used, as well as course evaluations. The students' thinking styles were measured using Sternberg's Thinking Styles Questionnaire. Qualitative analysis was used to examine the data. The results of the study indicated no difference in the discussion content, amount of communication, or interaction dynamics between the discussions of different configurations, or between the students with internal and external thinking styles. In terms of differences in writing performance between collaborative and independent essays, no difference was found by discrete-point computerized text analysis. However, ESL raters evaluated collaborative essays higher than independent ones. Finally, the results of the analysis of the students' attitudes indicated that, in general, the students' attitudes to the use of computers have improved over the course of the semester. This finding is important, as previous research has shown that positive attitudes lead to increased motivation, and increased motivation, in its turn, leads to more favorable learning outcomes in an L2 classroom.

Literacy as a critical tool for understanding the relationship among text, self, and world (Freire, 1987, p. 30) is vital in order for students to relate their own reality with that of the characters'; for students to read their world while they read the word, as Freire and Macedo (1987) would put it. For over three years, I have met with a group of women (Las Senoras1 to explore their views of themselves and how they relate to the school and society around them. Las Senoras are all Spanish-Speakers, some of them Spanish/English Bilinguals. The vehicle for our discussions was El Club de Literatura (the Literature Club) wherein we read such novels as Hasta no Verte Jesus Mio, Arrancame la Vida, Me Llamo Rigoberta Menchu, y asi me Nacio la Conciencia and short stories, for example, Detras de la Reja, Out of the Mirrored Garden) to explore our own lives as women, within our families, communities, and society at large. A goal of this phenomenological orientation is the rediscovery of self-knowledge through literature discussions infused with personal experience, through extensive dialogical conversations, interviews, letters, journals, and observations, facilitated by a researcher as "friend" role. These are among the methodological tools used to provide a panoramic of women's lives. This work analyzes the process of Las Senoras' personal transformation through the rediscovery of their own knowledge in El Club de Literatura. Why this focus on Las Senoras? Because as an educator of working-class, language minority students, I am aware of how mothers are generally the ones most intimately involved in the education of their children and how they serve as the primary connection to the schools, yet at the same time they are held at bay with respect to their rights as women, mothers and wives. Further, an important finding of this work has had to do with my own evolution from teacher to pedagogue. This evolution has encompassed my breaking from my earlier training as a teacher which strictly dictated the curriculum and prescribed my role as a teacher, to the joint creation of curriculum with my students and their families. The process has led me from reflecting upon my practice to understanding the implications of my actions in communion with my students. A communion where I am not always the teacher, but a lifelong learner. For those who ask, "Can I do this work?" The answer is, "If you are willing to learn and change, then you can be the teacher." Further, as commented by Patricia, one of Las Senoras, "It depends on what you are going to teach us." (1)Las Senoras: in Spanish one refers to a woman as a Senora as a gesture of respect, be it out of age, experiences, or legal status. In this study, Las Senoras, are women who are treated respectfully by me and others who know them through me. Age and legal status are not important in our group, life experiences are what give them the status of Senoras.

This study examines person pronoun use in the discourse of TAs teaching freshman composition. Specifically, it analyzes participant structures and construction of social groups/entities and identities in the classroom talk of four Chinese international TAs (ITAs) and four US TAs. Data are drawn from observation notes, audiotapes, and resulting transcriptions of sixteen class sessions, as well as interviews with each participant. The most common participant structure involves the teacher interacting with the whole class. Analysis of social constructions of you reveals preference for constructing you as the copresent students. I propose that we recognize two categories of you, Individuating and Distributive. These forms function outside the conscious awareness of the participants. Examination of we shows preference for constructing we as the inclusive group of teacher and students. Activities of this group function on a continuum with varying roles and levels of responsibility for teacher and students. Analysis reveals that in the composition classroom the semantic value of the verb write is broader than its core semantic value. Other inclusive wes include the teacher and students but are larger entities. The only common exclusive we is the group of 'experts in the field,' whose membership is in flux; students are invited to be members as they are socialized to the academy. In addition to canonical uses of pronouns, in moments of deictic shift TAs take other voices highlighting pedagogical points. Analysis of social identity through group membership maps illustrates the overlapping nature of group memberships. Some TAs disclose little about themselves in their classroom discourse. This style may be more damaging for ITAs. Analysis reveals that construction of identity as instructor of composition does not include the activity of writing. Statistical analysis of pronoun frequencies shows more consistency among participants as a group than differences between the groups of Chinese ITAs and USTAs. The participants use more yous than other pronouns. The single difference between the groups is the significantly higher frequency of second person plural pronouns for the Chinese TAs. This may reflect the cultural distance between the Chinese TAs and their US undergraduate students.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Turrentine/Bradley Literacy Testing Battery (TBLTB), a literacy test designed to parallel the type of texts and tasks commonly employed with undergraduates in a university class. The TBLTB has two forms, each consisting of multi-page reading passages selected from a widely used college-level psychology textbook. Form 1 of the TBLTB was a 2839-word passage about dreams. Form 2 consisted of a 2750-word passage about cognition. Each passage was accompanied by thirteen multiple choice and ten short answer test items. The TBLTB was administered to 138 undergraduate students attending nine classes at a southwestern university. The tests were given to the sample during two sessions typically separated by a one to three week hiatus. The standard directions and procedures were followed. Correlations across the two response types and between the two forms (Dreams and Cognition) were examined. Results of the study indicated that low to moderately low but positive correlations existed between the TBLTB and GPAs (college and high schools English) and the scores on the commonly used admissions tests (ACT, SAT, and SAT Recentered). The extent of agreement across the two response types and between the two forms (Dreams and Cognition) of the TBLTB produced very positive results although correlations between raw scores was marginal. The wide range of scores across the two response types and between the two forms of The TBLTB indicates the tests is a valid measure of reading and writing skills. The quantitative data provided in examining short answer responses provided valuable information in several areas: (1) the students ability to express information in written responses, (2) grammatical and spelling strengths and weaknesses, and (3) the possibility of the discovery of the presence of a learning disability. The conclusion of the study is that the Turrentine/Bradley Literacy Testing Battery (TBLTB) is a valid and reliable measure for screening students in terms of mastery/non-mastery of college-level literacy skills and for aiding in determining the nature and extent of literacy weaknesses.

This dissertation presents three case studies of collaborative interaction in a third-grade dual-language classroom during writing instruction over the course of a school year. The study addresses the notion of developing student voice, and how instruction can be seated so that students' narratives will assume central stage in the classroom, creating the opportunity for dialog between students' texts and the texts of the school. This study is situated between a progressive perspective that emphasizes growth through self reflection, organically driven texts, and above all individual meaning, and a post-progressive perspective that challenges educators to provide explicit instruction in the privileged discourses of the dominant ideology. A significant feature of the study is the evolution of the Writing Workshop into a Writer's Workshop, as the focus of activity became the students and their intentions for their texts. The Writer's Workshop was characterized by active and varied peer collaborations as students interacted in a community of writers. The study describes the varied expressions of critical literacy as the case study children interacted with peers to create texts that were shared daily. Critical literacy is defined as the ability to use print as a tool for developing critical consciousness. This was demonstrated in the increasingly sophisticated intentions students established for their texts, as they wrote to shock, entertain influence and reflect. The study underscores the damage to children whose language and literacy development is assessed to be deficient, particularly in the case of bilingual or bidialectic children, and how remedial instruction disrupts not only the child's own incremental progress, but their membership in a supportive learning community.

This study examines the discourse of second grade bilingual students participating in small group literature discussions over one academic year. The main research question is "What is the nature of the talk in which second-grade bilingual Spanish/English students engage as they discuss children's literature in small groups?" The study is based on a qualitative research design, using methods and techniques from ethnography and case study research, and was conducted in a collaboration with a teacher researcher. It describes the conversations of 21 Latino students, Mexican American children from working-class families, during 19 literature discussions. Each literature discussion consisted of four small groups of students for a total of 75 literature circles. Ten students were English dominant, and 11 were Spanish dominant. The students were sometimes grouped by language dominance, but most of the time they were heterogeneous groups where both English and Spanish dominant students talked with each other about the same self-selected book. Nine students and 11 literature circles were chosen as case studies to examine in depth the range of the students' responses to literature. Data gathering methods included field notes from participant observation, audiotapes, transcripts, videotapes of 75 literature circles, and samples of the students' written responses to literature. Through a detailed description and analysis of the children's responses to literature, this study documents how young bilingual children can have sophisticated literary responses and meaningful discussions of texts given opportunity and an appropriate context. Small group literature discussions, informed by Rosenblatt's reader-response theory, are proposed to be a crucial component of an intellectually challenging curriculum, especially in facilitating various forms of talk about text. This study shows that the small groups created a collective zone of proximal development for students' meaningful discussions. The findings of this research illustrate that there is no need for delaying children's development of critical thinking until they first learn to decode, emphasizing skills at the expense of content and thoughtfulness. A collaborative approach to research where the classroom teacher participates in the study is also proposed as an effective research model aimed toward educational change.

For English as a Second Language students, learning to write academically effective essays is an immense challenge because the students must obey linguistic conventions, write for an unfamiliar audience, and employ rhetorical strategies that the audience expects. In composition programs the special challenges that ESL students face are sometimes overlooked. In this dissertation I provide a rationale for developing ESL composition programs and concrete strategies for doing so. To account for, understand, and accommodate rhetorical expectations for American academic audiences, ESL students need information that acts as an interface between conventions in their countries and the conventions American academic readers expect. The study of popular culture allows ESL students to develop such information by helping them decipher aspects of the culture they are living in. Popular culture texts reflect everyday uses of language and commonly held views because they are produced for general American audiences. They reflect widely accepted rhetorical strategies because audiences demand that texts be written according to their expectations. The process of studying popular culture is liberating for ESL students because it integrates learning about academic essay writing with broader cultural concerns. I concentrate on three genres of popular culture texts: ads, because their use of rhetorical appeals is so clear and because their content suggests American values; formula fictions, because they portray popular role models and follow readers' expectations; and news articles, which show examples of discursive domains and structural conventions. I also make suggestions for using contrastive analyses to help students perceive differences and similarities in cultural expectations, and I demonstrate partial results through research and samples from student writing. By incorporating popular culture texts into the ESL composition curriculum, we help students learn to communicate their ideas in practical, accessible ways. It is by actively targeting American culture as a focus of study and helping students develop tools to analyze popular culture materials on their own that we can make effective changes in composition programs for ESL students.