Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

January 2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

English

First Advisor

Jeff Pruchnic

Abstract

Community Writing has emerged as a relatively new subdiscipline that spans elements of larger fields such as Rhetoric and Writing Studies, Technical and Professional Communication, and Composition Pedagogy. Despite this recent emergence, teacher-scholars are still grappling with three major problematics traditionally associated with Community Engaged Learning (CEL) writ large: (1) this work frequently fails to address the real needs and basic material realities of community partners in favor of (2) a repetitive cycle of short-lived educational “experiences” for students, often without tangible and/or sustainable results, which is further exacerbated by (3) a shortage of useful data-driven assessment conducted on curriculum, pedagogy, and other community-oriented work within the discipline. To address these problematics, this dissertation proposes a methodological approach to teaching and assessing CEL courses based in assembly, remix, space, place, story, and practices from the Detroit Geographical Expedition and Institute. A pedagogical heuristic is described and then tested in an experimental course against a control. Student outcomes are assessed using mixed methods and discussed in relation to the heuristic's efficacy and future directions for research.

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