'Learning Is How We Should Do Better': First-Year Writing Shared Curricula, Teacher Learning, and Agency

This dissertation aims to center the experiences of first-year writing educators in one program with a shared curriculum. Guided by social theories of learning and scholarship and practices in writing studies and writing program administration, I conducted qualitative surveys and interviews with teaching-focused faculty and graduate teaching assistants to ask how they connected their agency, learning, and goals with a shared curriculum. This led to conversations about how a shared curriculum both supplies and limits possibilities for learning and agency in a writing program, specifically involving program materials, professional development, and program revision. Resulting from what I learned with and from the educators participating in my research, I suggest that writing program administrators consider how to consistently learn from the expertise that teachers have and create more opportunities where teachers can influence the program's design. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]