Adult undergraduate students (age 25 or older) now make up 28% of the undergraduate student population at four-year public institutions. Using a sociocultural perspective of literacy, which posits that literacy and language are inextricably tied to identity, this qualitative multiple case study explores the adult undergraduate student experience with academic literacies: the specific languages of the university, both of its culture as a whole and the academic disciplines. Additionally, this study examines how the out-of-school literacies that adult undergraduate students acquire throughout their lives compete with, complement, or challenge their experiences with academic literacies. Eight diverse cases were studied, and data collection included interviews, classroom observation, and analysis of student writing. The study found that collisions between academic and out-of-school literacies were sources of both discovery and anxiety, and that anxiety was primarily associated with writing. The study also found that the adults displayed a desire for deep learning, and benefited in many ways from a lack of social relationships on campus. Relationships with professors could classify professors as teachers, colleagues, or supervisors and that high levels of social competence helped adult undergraduate students navigate these relationships and other academic challenges. As the undergraduate student body changes, and more “traditional” students begin to share the characteristics of adults, if faculty and administrators can better understand how AUS learn and engage with the language of the university, they will be able to develop pedagogical and institutional practices that can better support all students. / Educational Administration

Riley Armstrong [2084]; Brian Baker [Heretica Malleus]; Matthew J. Brown [A Functional Use of Space]; Patrick Burke [Soda Fired Vase]; Carmen Burroughs [Honeysuckle]; Danielle Byington [Calamine Typewriter; Conception; Words, with You in Mind]; Gabe Cameron [Juxtaposition]; Catherine Pritchard Childress [The Cinnamon Peeler’s Wife; Bathsheba’s Bath; Blossoming Indigo]; Joshua Cole [Four Seasons]; Brooke Day [Ornament]; Nancy Jane Eanest [Scraps of a Life]; Olivia Ellis [Grumpy Livie]; Matthew Gilbert [Contingency]; Jonathan Hill [Chiaksan; Buried in the Mountain]; Hunter Hilton [A List of Things Someone]; Janice Hornburg [How to Become a Fossil]; Alisa Johnson [Flower]; Lindsey King [Sparking]; Katie Lea [Meta Moments]; Rachel Maynard [Triggered: Reading with a Raw Heart]; Beth Miller [At What Cost]; Shalam Minter [Fracture 1 & 11]; Amanda Musick [Mother Is My Light]; Andrew Norris [This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman]; Elizabeth Saulsbury [Deserted]; Kelsey A. Solomon [A Song for My Mooresburg Springs Mothers; Because they told me to write my own history; Interview with Catherine Pritchard Childress]; Adonica Supertramp [A Shift in Perspective]; Linda Tipton [Albatross]; Laura Traister [Alcedo Atthis; Beach Seining; Circumventing the Street Preacher; Indian Morning; The Interruption]; Kathryn Haaland [I Am Something New]; Whitney Parkinson [Flow]; C.J. Wehr [Unwanted Changes]; Haley White [Untitled Owl] / https://dc.etsu.edu/mockingbird/1000/thumbnail.jpg

Devon Koren Asdell [Natural Bridge]; Jessica Brice [The Furrowed Field]; Amy Chartier [Through the Road and of My Heart]; Victoria Cunningham [Concealment July 2001]; Carie Dutro [A Friend of Mine Once Told Me]; Nancy Jane Earnest [Summer Ritual]; Franci Doyle [Jackass]; Mike Garrett [Game]; Spicey Gould [Passage]; Megan Jewell Kern [On Three]; Jessica Hodges [Just 2]; Gregory Marlow [Charlie’s Wife]; Shanda Miller [Affirmations]; Neli Jennifer Minthorn [Untitled]; Ouzounova [Stairway to a Sense of Place]; Alison Pack [Accessories]; James Sharp [Boones Creek]; Deborah Smith [The Game]; Kevin Stephenson [A Tale of Two Tales]; Pam Tabor [Letting Go]; Chris Vaughn [Foretold]; Rachel Williamson [Retired Barber]; / https://dc.etsu.edu/mockingbird/1001/thumbnail.jpg

Blaine Boles [My Father]; Kevin Brown [Heterophemize (from A Lexicon of Lost Words], Latibulate (from A Lexicon of Lost Words]]; Dayna Bruell [Black and Blue]; Danielle Byington [About a Cheerleader I Used to Know, The Shining, Thunder and Nursery Rhymes, On The Lady and the Unicorn]; Raleigh Cody [Broken Handle, Digging Trench in Unicoi, TN]; Rima Day [Untitled]; V. Kelsey Ellis [Doomed Beauty]; Tucker Foster [Excerpts from “Driving Like an Idiot”]; Lauren Fowler [The Cut]; Trish Gibson [On Jack and the Dead Old Lady in the Bathtub from Brantner: Annalee 16, Taylor 24, Mariah 18, Catlett: Anna 16, Jackson 12]; Matthew L. Gilbert [Counting Thunder on Edgewater Drive, After a Summer Rain, The Makeup Box ]; Lyn Govette [Meditations on a Storm]; Kathryn Haaland [Untitled (Ring]]; Michael Hale [Three Wise Men, Atrocities]; Hannah Harper [Jill]; Cory Howell [Hospital Meadows, Drive after Rain]; Becca Irvin [Tapered]; Megan King [Katrina]; Freddie Lyle [Contraption]; Emily Matney [Balance]; Beth Miller [Autumn Road, Interview with Kevin Brown]; Priyanka Modi [Tenfold’s Light Hide]; Daniel Isaac Ratliff [Walking the Right Way: Coming to Terms with My Pentecostal Holiness Upbringing]; Tyler Ridgeway [Time Capsules and With & Without]; Kelsey A. Solomon [My first cup of coffee, After Reading Hélène Cixous on a Windy October Evening, the Female Poet Writes for Herself]; Dana T. Speight [The Sunflower Room];Mary Emily Vatt [Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2]; Susan Voorhees [Rise and Fall]; Chantel Wehr [Speak with Me (The Seeds)] / https://dc.etsu.edu/mockingbird/1002/thumbnail.jpg

Andrew Barnes [Good Stock]; Josh Blevins [Firebird]; Joseph Bowman [Epilogue]; Nikki Buckner-McCoy [Bargaining]; Andrew Butler [Octet and Sestet from an Asheville Balcony, Convalescent Haiku, Alchemy, Coming of Age Again and The Graduate]; Danielle Byington [Children until We Die]; Disconnected Rima Day [Quilt]; Ashley Fox [Baptism, Interview with Jane Hicks, His Girl]; Hannah Harper [Selkie]; Hunter Hines [Inward Spiral]; Mary Hunter [Learning Norn Iron]; Becca Irvin [Altered Vessel]; Storm Ketron [Origin: Johnson City, TN]; Derek Laurendeau [Pop-Up Book I , Metamorphosis]; Kimberly Leland [Empty Nest]; Caroline Lowery [Stella]; Freddie Lyle [Untitled II]; Kelly Meadows [Seek]; Andrea Menendez [Radio Children]; Shalam Minter [Mirror, Mirror]; Jerianne Paul [Go Singing into Zion, Rafters]; Tyler Ridgeway [The Void]; Lauren Roberts [Yellow House with Sign]; Jared Sand [The Mouthpiece]; Joseph Sloan [Goddess of the Harvest:How I Met My Wife]; Cate Strain [For Piper on My 46th Birthday]; Daniel Taylor [Astray]; Adam Timbs [The Older City]; Jacob Vines [The Canyon Black]; Kaci Wells [Untitled] / https://dc.etsu.edu/mockingbird/1003/thumbnail.jpg

Matthew Allen [Decline]; Maria Bledsoe [Gentility of Steel for Jack Higgs]; Joseph Bowman [All That’s Left]; Keith Brake [Walk-Off]; Madison Brown [Blue Plums]; DeVan Burton [Lemons on the Avenue]; Sam Campbell [Fading]; Luke Champouillon [Cold steel infinity]; Maggie Colvett [Seasonal, Postdiluvians, Voie ]; Rima Day [Rococo Head]; Emily Eversgerd [Spring Frost]; Nancy Fischman [Bottle I]; Jane Hicks [Mistress Mine]; John Hodgson [Jormungandr]; Jake Ingram [Marie]; Heather Justice [Tortoise Man]; Laura Higgs Kappel [An Interview with Dr. Jack Higgs by His Daughter,Laura Higgs Kappel]; Robert Kottage [Bonnaroo 2007: A “Coming of Middle Age” Story]; Adam Lambert [Picture of My Father as a Young Man, April 18th , Words I wish we had]; Derek Laurendeau [Desire]; Jake Lawson [A Great Collapse]; Kim McCoy [Turtle Truck]; Nell McGrady [Painting in First Person]; Jody Mitchell [Plato’s Chair]; Daniel Morefield [When I Die]; Melanie Norris [Frank]; Jerianne Paul [Utah Territory, 1861]; Charles Anthony Perkins [Station 13: Atonement]; Rita Quillen [October Dusk]; Janet Leigh Robinson [Laura]; Laura Simpson [The Rabbit Pot]; Nicholas Smith [Flute, A Poem for the Palm of Your Hand]; Natasha Snyder [Garden Party]; Alyssa Spooner [This Shed Had a Tree Fall on It, Dragon]; Greta Talton [Photograph from an Old Album]; Sara West [Silver Spoon, Have You Heard the One about the Methodist Who Walks into the Southern Baptist Convention?] / https://dc.etsu.edu/mockingbird/1004/thumbnail.jpg

Rachel Bates [Traps]; Kyle Blauw [Body No. 1: I Simply Wanted the Physique of a Swimmer and Didn’t Really Care for Swimming]; Frances A. Borgers [Rappacini’s Goblet]; Spenser Brenner [Uncle Sam]; Sam Campbell [Interview with Rita Sims Quillen]; Therese L.Castaneda [A Belizean Folktale: The Misery of Margarita]; Catherine Pritchard Childress [Housewife’s Howl]; Maggie Colvett [To a friend, who yawned in fall]; Alex Dykes [City Wind]; Ashley Fox [Our Own]; Ashley Hagy [Sunset]; Charles Hagy [A Dance of Cultures: Working with Desert Flowers at the Shakespeare and Friends Renaissance Faire]; Josh Holley [Bob and Carson on a Couch]; Mollie Horney [Fearless]; Chris Witkowski, Kesha Miller & Hannah Irvin [Bartonian Wormhole]; Becca Irvin [Stoneware Ash Bowl]; Storm Ketron [Hang Me, Oh Hang Me]; Robert Kottage [The Red Skylark]; Kimberley Leland [Waterway]; Jody Mitchell [Juggling]; Mary Molony [What Are You Serving For]; Joseph Riner [Untitled (Series]]; Stephanie Streeter [Fever Dream, Or Carrying the Twins]; Victoria L. Vanderveer [Order Up]; Sara Sutterfield Winn [Visual Flight Rules, siren]; Katherine D. Zimmerman [Bobbi Rai’s Concrete Sculptures] / https://dc.etsu.edu/mockingbird/1005/thumbnail.jpg

Jessica Augier [Step]; Ani Bolkan [She’s Long Gone, Snapshot 1]; Joshua Burd [Marle Bowl]; Caron Castle [Denial, Enspenserian Stanza]; Rebecca Catron [Desert Whispers]; Luke Champouillon [Done Playing]; Anthony Cole [In the Search of Thebes]; Lanora Davis [Corset]; Andrew Frost [Ben & David]; Sterlin Hammond [Floundering]; Bradley Hartsel [By and by, Vinyl]; Leona Holman [The Ojibawa Dictionary of Phrases: Gii-ayaa (Ge-a-ya] , V. 1. He Became My Hero]; Greg Houser [Adam Stanifer]; Robert Kottage [September]; Justin Kyle [March of the Dead]; Adam Lambert [The Pub and Roy Harper]; Tina Michael [Mother’s Postcards]; Ethan Palmer [Love Song , The Collapse]; Audrey Peters [Words Matter]; Juliet Ramirez [Balloon Fruit]; Andrew M. Scott [Untitled #3]; Brittany Shope [Losing It]; Derek Slagle [Oil Spill]; Sam Smith [Skulk Tale , Man’s Man]; Natasha Snyder [Woman’s Home Companion]; Daia Stager [Here]; Sherry Tucciarone [Inland]; Victoria Vanderveer [That’s the Way It Should Be: A Single Woman’s Questions On True Love , Anonymous]; Jacob Vines [Whisper Whisper , Mission Statement, Epilogues]; Evan Walker [7:17]; Brittany Willis [Untitled]; Issac Wilson [Their Daily Bread, A Trip to the Farm] / https://dc.etsu.edu/mockingbird/1006/thumbnail.jpg

Maja Savic [Yuko, No. 2]; Brian Bowman[Circadian]; Tina "Kitty" Michael [Comperhension]; Kellye Evans [The Seven Crows]; Whitney L. Ellison [Deej]; Robert Kottage [Attention Deflicit Dingo]; David Mazure [Door]; Samantha Gregory [Education???]; Matthew Israel Byrge [Reading Beckett: A Fragment]; Reese Chamness [Lines in Space IA]; Meara Bridges [Your Words are like the Ocean]; Amanda Kate Rigell [Crossing Over]; Seth Arnall [HIV Baby Rattle]; Kimberly Foli [Oburoni Reflections]; Nicole Osborne [Starting Resist]; Jasen Bacon [The Office of Tipton, Hersch, and Long, Plastic Surgeons, No Smoking]; Shanon Kelley [Round Trip on the Rainbow Tail]; Isaac Wilson [Converstion Sur la Terrasse]; Hailey Eaton [Untitled] / https://dc.etsu.edu/mockingbird/1007/thumbnail.jpg

David Mazure [Questionable Moral Action 261 & Sacred Geometry (Face #1] ]; Reese Chamness [Object #11]; Christine Buchanan [Figure No. 1]; Daniel Marinelli [And the Birds of Appetite ]; Jennifer Osborne [ The Azores]; John Simmons [Tall Bottles]; Jessica Augier[ Pushed Over, Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.]; T. M. Williams [A Diner]; Marshall Parrent [The Corpse of Anthony Edlemeyer]; Amber Nixon [Desert Sand Blows Away Army Wife's Dreams of Marriage, A Cat's Eye ]; Jeri Allison [Ganesha]; K. Hawkins [Beyond the Gate]; Fletcher Dyer [Health Care (Kinetic]]; Fletcher Dyer[ Tree of Life]; Mary Tapp [Brickston Mill]; Karen Ankabrandt [Morning Prayer]; Stephanie Sarten [Color Recreation]; Jerome Edward Arnold [Ritual]; T. M. Williams [Pine Mountain Road]; Ellie Rinehart [Mule Day: A Little Homespun Fun for the Good Ol' Boys and Girls of Columbia, Tennessee.]; Jason Burns [ Please Do Not Touch]; Jamie Merriman-Pacton [The Cruise Will Go On: Cuban Refugees and My Vacation in Wonderland] / https://dc.etsu.edu/mockingbird/1008/thumbnail.jpg