Results

Methodology
This survey
Limitations/Challenges
See the Survey

Courses & Workshops
Nature of Training
Faculty & Graduate Students
Assessment

Conclusion
Further Study
Appendix A
Works Cited

Before getting to the analysis, I want to explain the nature of my population in light of their demographics. Forty-one percent of respondents were male, while 60 percent were female. Of this group, 31 percent were tenured or tenure track faculty members, while 63 percent were graduate students. Five percent were adjunct or contract faculty members, and barely 2 percent were non-tenure-track assistant professors. In addition, 65 percent of respondents taught at a university with a Ph.D. program in rhetoric and composition. Twenty percent taught at a four-year college or university with no Ph.D. program in rhetoric and composition. Seven percent taught at a community college or technical school. Some (8 percent) indicated that they taught at two institutions or that they were not teaching currently. Moreover, 36 percent of respondents had been teaching for less than five years. Thirty-four percent had been teaching for five-ten years. Twenty-two percent had been teaching for ten-twenty years, and eight percent had been teaching for more than 20 years. These demographics illustrate the range of respondents who participated in the survey.

Throughout the results sections, I present the survey question, explain the quantitative results, address additional comments made in the subsequent text-boxes, and draw conclusions based on information collected from those responses. The qualitative information in the text-boxes proved to be extremely useful. The respondents contributed over 25 single-spaced pages of comments ranging in topic from clarifications of their responses to questions about the survey itself. Some respondents sent personal messages. All respondents were anonymous unless they identified themselves in the text-boxes.

Are graduate programs in rhetoric and composition offering preparation for teaching new literacies, especially with digital technology? If so, what is the nature of that training?

The following survey questions address specifically whether programs are "offering" and/or "requiring" courses and/or workshops to prepare new teachers for teaching with technology.

Table 1 indicates that 58 percent of respondents claimed that their program does not require courses that train graduate students to teach with technology. Thirty-two percent responded that they do require courses to train graduate students to teach with technology and 10 percent marked other.

TABLE 1

Requiring and/or Offering Courses and Workshops

The first question can only illustrate that programs are not requiring courses; however, this does not mean that programs are not offering them. For example, the next question asks if the respondent's program offers, but does not require courses to train graduate students to teach with technology. Sixty percent of respondents said that their programs offered courses to train graduate students to teach with technology. Thirty-two percent said no, and eight percent marked other. It is clear that many programs are not necessarily requiring courses to train graduate students to use technology in the classroom, but it is also clear that many programs are indeed offering these courses.

Additional responses provided by the text-boxes illustrate some differences of how teachers and graduate students perceive these courses. Those that marked "other" claimed a yes/no response. For example, those who marked "other" explained their responses by saying that their program does train graduate students, but that usually this training is more introductory and practically-based in that it pertains to computer and digital technology, not necessarily to any theoretical application. One respondent said:

Yes and No. We have teaching courses that address use of technology in classrooms but rather than having training-for-technology as a specific goal, technology use comes up as a subsidiary issue while talking about teaching strategies.

Another respondent echoed the same sentiment. He or she said:

We have a course that MA students in our Teaching of Writing program are required to take that addresses these issues but GAs aren't necessarily required to take it.

Some participants said that their programs required training with technology. However, this training seemed to be initiated by the teacher who desired to teach in a computer room or a computer lab. In other words, if a teacher or graduate student wanted to teach in a computer room, he/she was then required to attend some type of preparation. For example, one respondent said:

Teachers using the computer classrooms must attend a one-day pre-semester orientation (where experienced teachers give teaching workshops on topics relevant to teaching with technologies) and attend two teaching group meetings per month. This is a requirement to teach in the computer classrooms.

In short, training graduate students and new teachers to use technology in the classroom is occurring, but often on different levels. In other words, when teachers are placed in a computer classroom to teach, they are usually at least offered some type of preparation, although the program may not necessarily require it.

Many programs that do not offer or require courses do in fact offer and/or require workshops in preparation for teaching composition in the computer lab. Table 1 shows the breakdown of these responses. Thirty-four percent of respondents said that their program does require such workshops while 58 percent said that their program does not "require" workshops to prepare graduate students to teach with technology, and 8 percent marked other. Some respondents explained the kind and frequency of workshop that is required for their program. For example, one respondent wrote:

Our comp program requires 2-4 workshops every semester and while not all of them are focused on technology we always address it since our program is based on/around technology.

Another respondent said:

Before teaching in computer mediated classrooms graduate students (and other faculty too) were required to attend a three week workshop on teaching with technology.

Many of the respondents elaborated by saying that while workshops were not necessarily required, they were certainly offered. Evidence illustrated in Table 1 demonstrates that 73 percent of programs "offer" workshops to graduate students. Twenty percent responded that their program does not offer workshops while 7 percent marked other. Most programs recognize the need to offer some preparation to graduate students, especially if they plan to teach in a computer room or use some type of university supported computer program like "Blackboard" or "WebCT". One respondent said:

The director of tech in the humanities offers workshops as part of his/her job description each year. Mostly it involves electronic peer review or various web design aspects or using courseware such as WebCT etc.

Most of the respondents, who commented further in the text-boxes provided, pointed out that optional workshops were "practical" in nature, meaning that the workshops usually addressed some technical facet of a program. For example, here are three responses in that vein:

• [t]he department and university offer multiple workshops on various technological tasks soft/hardware etc.

• A few workshops have been offered -- mostly Composer and Blackboard.

• I just took one in fact on hybrid and online learning. It covered dreamweaver and photoshop as well.

Workshops typically focus on using a specific software program or some kind of new hardware. Importantly, no responses alluded to the idea of teaching the theory behind the use of such programs. For example, while responses explained the kinds of software programs featured in a given workshop, there was not any explication of a workshop that focuses on why a given program might help instructors teach writing better. This does not mean, however, that the workshop may not have been helpful; rather, it means that the department and/or program is not addressing the theoretical context within which digital technologies become meaningful for the composition classroom.  However, these specific survey questions do fully tease out any theoretical or ideological justifications for why either a workshop or course may be helpful, rather what these questions do is indicate simply whether programs are, indeed, offering or requiring workshops and courses.  Another question here may have been: How do courses and/or workshops on digital technologies advance an understanding of literacy and teaching? 

Nature of Training>>