Shauna Wight: Dissertation and Research Summary

Upward Bound is College Bound: Pre-college Outreach Programs Sponsorship of Writing

Value of
Research
Specialization
Dominant conversations on literacy instruction and college readiness, such
as the Common Core Standards, rarely include the perspectives of the most
significant stakeholdersthe students themselves. Even less is known aout
how culturally and linguistically diverse students e!perience the transition
from high school to college"level writing, a prolematic gap given the
gatekeeping role writing has often played among these populations. #y
research addresses this gap, documenting the e!periences of five potential
first"generation college students from diverse linguistic and cultural
ackgrounds as they used writing to prepare for and get into college during
their senior year of high school.
Argument of
Dissertation
#y dissertation argues that, in order to develop writing instruction that
promotes college access for underrepresented populations, we should e!amine
successful sponsors of their literacy. $re"college outreach programs have a
long history of success in offering innovative college"preparatory writing
instruction to these students. #y year"long, %ualitative study used interviews,
oservations and artifact collection to e!amine how participation in one pre"
college outreach program, &pward 'ound, impacted students( access to higher
education through academic writing. )indings showed that, within the &'
summer program, culturally inclusive instruction, high e!pectations among
staff, and desegregation policies improved students( access to writing.
*owever, once students left the program and returned to their high schools,
they faced cultural conflicts, segregation policies, and low e!pectations that
had a negative effect on their access to academic writing and college
admissions processes.
Research
Implications
+hese findings challenge autonomous perspectives on literacy that emphasi,e
the mastery of certain skills in order to prepare for college. -ather, this study
shows that, for all of these students, writing was deeply emedded in power,
culture, identity, and material constraints. .t shows that, in order to promote
college readiness for all students, teachers need to challenge the institutional
mechanisms that sort students into different courses of study. *owever, these
findings also suggest that writing can ecome a tool for critically interrogating
oth these institutional practices and the power academic writing holds to
e!clude students( cultural and linguistic ackgrounds. )inally, this study
suggests that college composition teachers need to e aware of the writing
e!periences their students ring from high school.
Relevance to
Future
Research
+his study opens up multiple lines of in%uiry for my research tra/ectory. 0part
from my dissertation, . am pursuing a longitudinal study with these
participants to determine how the preparation they received in high school and
&pward 'ound affected their writing in college courses. 0nother line of
in%uiry will e to uild on this study(s implications for teacher preparation,
and . would like to collaorate with high school and college writing teachers to
create and pilot a critical writing curriculum that helps students interrogate
institutional practices and lend discourses. )inally, . plan to e!amine how
national policies, like the Common Core Standards, influence
underrepresented students( access to academic writing.
Shauna Wight
Chapter 'reakdown
Upward Bound is College Bound: Pre-college Outreach Programs Sponsorship of Writing
Chapter : 'arriers and 1ateways2 )irst"1eneration College Students, 0cademic
3iteracy, and $re"college 4utreach $rograms situates my study within
composition scholarship on first"generation college students, showing how
writing often acts as a gatekeeping mechanism that locks their access to
higher education. 'ased on the limited scholarship availale on pre"college
outreach programs, . argue that they are a powerful sponsor of literacy that can
provide a model for disrupting this achievement gap. +his chapter also sets the
theoretical frame for the study, drawing on socially situated theories of literacy
and identity to link micro and macro"level influences on writing.
Chapter !: #ethodology and -esearch Design, e!plains the rationale ehind my
%ualitative in%uiry methods, including its case study design and participant
selection. . provide an in"depth discussion of my data collection 5interviews,
oservations, and artifacts6 and analysis. )inally, . present rief profiles of the
individual participants to provide a ackdrop for the more thematically"ased
chapters that follow.
Chapter ": -esistance and Compliance2 Self $resentation in College 0dmissions and
Scholarship Essays, focuses on two e!emplar cases to provide a detailed
e!amination of the tensions etween participants( primary and academic
discourses. Complicating difference"as"resource and social interaction theories,
. argue that the uni%ue rhetorical conte!ts surrounding college admissions and
scholarship essays e!clude or e!otici,e students( cultural ackground and
primary discourses. Specifically, . claim that writing to a dispersed audience
with power over material resources pressures students to construct disruptive
performances that stand out from the applicant pool while also lending in with
institutional values.
Chapter #: $eer 3iteracy Sponsorship2 +he .mpact of 5De6 segregation and Social +rust
draws upon Communities of $ractice and literacy sponsorship theories to argue
that peer group dynamics are shaped y institutional policies and can enale or
constrain academic writing. 7ithin participants( high schools, low
e!pectations and segregation policies 5tracking6 created an atmosphere of
disengagement and distrust that constrained writing instruction. 7ithin &pward
'ound high e!pectations and mi!ed aility grouping fostered an engaged and
supportive cohort that supported writing. Significantly, however, peer
dynamics could transfer across settings, with oth positive and negative effects
on student writing.
Chapter $: 8ew 0venues for 0ccess and Success2 Discussions and .mplications, wraps
up my in%uiry y arguing that teachers and researchers need to consider how
cultural ackground, peer interactions, identity, and educational policies
influence students( identifications with and access to academic literacy. .
e!plore the pedagogical implications of this study, showing how critical writing
can e used to interrogate and transform the institutional practices and
discourses that constrain access to academic writing and e!clude students
cultural ackgrounds.