Research
Learn More about Writing Center Partnerships
As secondary school writing centers become more prevalent and their collaboration with university and NWP partners grows, so do opportunities for research on effective writing center collaboration. This page highlights the growing body of research that explores approaches to and outcomes of partnerships with universities and NWP sites.
*Note: Sources on these lists are ordered in reverse chronological order, with most recent pieces in each category listed first. It will be updated as we become aware of new research published related to SSWCUPs. If you know of any research that is not included here, please email sswcupmail@gmail.com so we can add it to the site.
“Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost: Transformational Experiences Through Revolutionary Partnerships”
Allen Brizee, Secondary School Writing Centers Association Conference Keynote, March 10, 2022.
Thomas Deans, Community Literacy Journal, edited by Mark Latta et al., vol. 15, no. 1, Apr. 2021, pp. 92–96.
The Secondary School University Writing Center Partnership
Quinn Blackley, Rachel Cutler, Tyler Gardner, Amber Jensen, Braden Slater, SSWCA Annual Conference, March 18, 2023.
“Taking This Show on the Road”
Mulqueen, Kerri, Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, vol. 30, no. 1, 2020, pp. 5–15.
“How Developing a Network of Secondary School Writing Centers Can Enrich University Writing Programs”
Thomas Deans and Jason Courtmanche, WPA: Writing Program Administration, vol. 42, no. 2, 2019, pp. 58–79.
This article highlights the mutual benefits of university partnership with secondary schools as they work together to develop and establish secondary school writing centers. These benefits include “dual-enrollment initiatives, incoming student attitudes toward writing, preservice teacher education, graduate programs in writing studies, and recruitment of both writing tutors and adjunct faculty.”
Mike Haen and Brenna Swift, Another Word: From the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 26 Nov. 2018.
“High School-College Collaborations: Making Them Work”
Pamela Childers, Across the Disciplines, vol. 4, no. 1, 2007, pp. 1–2.
Childers suggests that for both schools and universities to benefit from partnership, directors should focus on common concerns such as senioritis, disengagement, etc. The article points to a range of programs that have already bolstered student writing through collaboration including the National Writing Project, Writing Across the Curriculum programs, writing center associations, AP English programs, and federally-funded programs like GEAR UP. This early article notes the potential of collaborations to support and expand SSWCs.
“Collaboratively Establishing High School Writing Centers in Flint, Michigan, to Support the Improvement of Students’ Writing Skills”
Robert Barnett, The Clearing House, vol. 80, no. 2, 2006, pp. 80–82.
“Creating Connections between Secondary and College Writing Centers”
Chad Eric Littleton, The Clearing House, vol. 80, no. 2, 2006, pp. 77–78.
This article describes the mutual benefits of forming WC collaborations for both secondary and postsecondary institutions. It explains that collaboration increases SSWCs’ awareness of collegiate writing expectations across the disciplines while simultaneously providing the university centers with experienced tutors who trained preliminarily at a high school center. It lists opportunities for making connections between schools at the local level, through state and regional organizations, and through the IWCA website.
Investing in Leadership: Student-Run Writing Centers
Tanya Baker (Host), National Writing Project BlogTalk Radio. February 28, 2013.
In this podcast, NWP’s Tanya Baker invites leaders, teachers, administrators, and students affiliated with the Northern Virginia Writing Project (NVWP) to explain the impact and potential of SSWCs to provide leadership development for teachers and students in the center. The podcast’s invited guests, include NVWP director Paul Rogers; SSWC directors Amber Jensen, Alison Hughes, and Beth Blankenship; high school principal Ellen Reilly; and tutors from several Northern Virginia public high schools share some of the specific actions NVWP has taken to centralize their efforts around building SSWCs in their region. These ideas can be useful models to other NWP sites interested in supporting teacher leadership and student writing development through SSWCs.
In this two-part podcast from NWP Radio NWP director Elyse Eidman-Aadahl invites tutors, student writers, and SSWC director guests to share their experiences with SSWCs. The first episode features Jennifer Wells from the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) and a few of her SSWC tutors as well as Cindy Dean from the Maine Writing Project. They discuss what an SSWC is, its impact on student learning and teacher development, and ideas for connecting local NWP sites to schools interested in SSWCs.
In the second episode, SSWC site leaders from the Oklahoma State (OSU) Writing Project (two university faculty, a university WC director, and a 5th grade teacher) and two teacher-leaders affiliated with the Connecticut Writing Project (CWP) at Storrs share ways that SSWCs can be a hub of professional development for both teacher and student writers.
“Mutual Benefits: Pre-service Teachers and Public School Students in the Writing Center”
Emily Isaacs & Ellen Kolba, The Writing Center Journal, vol. 29, no. 2, 2009, pp. 52–74.
In this article, a university professor in an English teaching program and an SSWC director explain how their programs built a collaborative, mutually-beneficial partnership. In this program, pre-service English teachers tutored at an SSWC as part of their teaching writing course. Through tutoring, pre-service teachers practiced teaching, reconciled the theory to practice deficit, and learned best practices in teaching writing—which are embodied in writing center pedagogy. The SSWC gained staff, credibility through university affiliation, and access to academic discourse communities.
Janet Alsup, Tammy Conard-Salvo, Scott J. Peters, Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, vol. 8, no. 2, 2008, pp. 327–47.
“Future Teachers as Real Teachers: English Education Students in the Writing Laboratory”
Rudolph Almasy and David England, English Education, vol. 10, no. 3, 1979, pp. 155–62.
Megan Hoffman, The Journal of Peer Tutoring in Secondary Schools, vol. 2, no. 2, 2022, pp. 90–92.
Alexandra Kirby, Albert DeCiccio, and Bill Coyla, The Journal of Peer Tutoring in Secondary Schools, vol. 2, no. 2, 2022, pp. 83–89.
Writing Center Conferences
Attending and presenting at writing center conferences is a valuable way to meet and learn from others in the field, both researchers and writing center practitioners alike, from secondary and postsecondary institutions. Conferences offer opportunities for new connections and partnerships. Learn more about each organization’s annual conferences-–including the conference themes, calls for proposals, and schedules of conference presentations–by clicking on the links below.
Remember that there are local and regional writing center organizations that often host conferences and meet-ups for writing center directors and tutors that are geographically near you; it’s a good idea to check those out as well. IWCA’s Affiliate page is a good place to start for connecting with regional writing center partners.
Research and Conference Travel Grants
One of the purposes of professional organizations is to support researchers and practitioners in conducting meaningful research both to publish and to present at professional conferences. The national and international writing center organizations – IWCA, NCPTW, and SSWCA – all generously provide funds for conference travel and research. If you are interested in learning more about these grants as a way to connect with other writing center scholars/practitioners or to fund a research project of your own, check out the links below.