Why Partner?

Whether you come from a university or a secondary school, partnering with teachers, administrators, researchers, and students who share a commitment to writing can benefit you in many ways. Just as tutoring is grounded in peer-to-peer collaboration, so too are the larger professional networks, joint partnerships, and mentoring opportunities that enable peer writing tutoring at the secondary level to thrive. Successful SSWCUPs are rooted in common missions, goals, and shared contributions (Austin & Modey, 2018; Brown, 2023, “Partnerships”). 

After years of nurturing a partnership, the Connecticut Secondary School Writing Center Network describes its collaboration in terms of “network ecology” (Deans & Courtmanche, 2019). Moving beyond a binary relationship where one institution is dependent on another, they emphasize how their network strengthens all participant institutions. At their best, these partnerships—regardless of how they get started or what they look like—are rooted in reciprocity rather than charity (Brizee, 2022).

The sections below describe what participants can gain and contribute when joining or creating a SSWCUP.

University Writing Centers

As educational spaces, university writing centers are committed to the development of both the student writers they support and the student tutors who provide that support. In the spirit of community-based learning, SSWCUPs give tutors a chance to meaningfully engage with partners beyond the university and develop habits of reciprocal learning and reflection. The opportunity to transfer their learning from one context to another not only serves tutors as writers, learners, leaders, and professionals, but also enhances the everyday work they do in the writing center.

Beyond creating additional professionalization opportunities that contribute to the staff education and development, SSWCUPs may also:

  • connect the university with the broader community, which can engender goodwill and generate interest among local qualified applicants 
  • familiarize more people with the benefits of collaborative learning and potentially raise the profile of the center on campus for incoming students and community members
  • enhance tutor recruitment by creating a potential pipeline of students who have peer tutoring experience

Secondary Schools

Secondary schools benefit from collaboration with universities in building and growing writing support programs, including peer writing centers. Because writing centers are a newer phenomenon in secondary schools, their directors and tutors often benefit from mentoring from experienced secondary and/or university colleagues who can direct them to useful resources, troubleshoot challenges, and offer programmatic support. 

In addition to facilitating professional mentoring relationships, SSWCUPs may also help secondary school directors and students:

  • make connections with other local secondary schools with writing centers
  • access resources of established writing centers (e.g., field trips, tutor training materials, grant funding, etc.)
  • develop professional competencies and opportunities for further learning, research, publication, and presentation
  • increase exposure to a university campus for college-bound students
  • prepare students to access learning resources at their own campus and at university campuses

Teacher Preparation Programs

Partnerships between universities and schools are a crucial aspect of teacher education programs, where university faculty and school-based teacher mentors work together to align university-based learning and school-based clinical experiences to prepare new teachers to be successful in the classroom. SSWCUPs extend existing partnerships by offering additional opportunities for preservice and inservice teachers to collaborate in supporting student writers through peer writing centers. 

In addition to providing their preservice teachers meaningful clinical experiences working with secondary tutors and teachers, teacher preparation programs can benefit from SSWCUPs in the following ways: 

  • deepening positive collaborative relationships with teachers and administrators from local districts and schools
  • extending the network for clinical placement of preservice teachers 
  • distinguishing program graduates who have worked on SSWCUP initiatives
  • recruiting teaching majors from the university writing center when tutors develop an interest in the teaching profession
  • fostering opportunities for faculty and students to publish and present on service-learning initiatives

National Writing Project Sites

National Writing Project (NWP) sites, housed in institutions of higher learning, are already invested in supporting student writers — and their teachers — at all educational levels. They are uniquely positioned as SSWCUP partners because of their focus on teacher development and their established connections with secondary schools with programming designed for educators K-16. SSWCUPs can benefit NWP sites by:

  • recruiting secondary and university writing teachers to participate in site-led professional development programs
  • supporting the site’s Teacher Consultants in their professional growth as potential writing center founders and/or directors
  • reinforcing principles of the National Writing Project in local schools and districts 
  • offering research, publication, and presentation opportunities for Teacher Consultants and NWP site leaders

Professional Organizations

Professional organizations are natural SSWCUP partners due to the role they play in connecting professionals, generating and disseminating research, and ensuring that members have resources and support. Through conferences, special interest groups, grants, and research publications (see the resources page of this website), these kinds of organizations can generate energy, ideas, and support to sustain the work of SSWCUPs. In turn, professional organizations benefit from a broadened network of practitioners and scholars and the ideas that emerge from their shared learning. 

National and international organizations with shared interests in peer writing tutoring at the secondary level include:

Regional and local chapters of these organizations may also be a useful way to find SSWCUP partners.

What Do SSWCUPs Look Like in Practice?

For examples of existing SSWCUPs, visit the partnerships page, where you can learn more about various approaches to partnership and find contact information for practitioners already engaged in this work.