Compositionists (and academics in general) like to theorize about collaboration, yet how often do we collaborate? Are the curriculums of university writing programs collaboratively constructed by the faculty who teach in them or imposed by writing program administrators? Are writing programs using writing tools to faciliate collaboration about pedgagogy, program polices or desired program outcomes? Are writing programs engaging "the wisdom of crowds," the creative energy and decision-making power of groups of individuals to create content and arrive at pedagogical practices?

Back in the early 1980s, Kenneth Bruffee, echoing the sentiment other theorists who had challenged standard models of knowledge construction, called on composition instructors to value collaborative learning. Creating a learning environment steeped in a strong sense of community could, he theorized, help students develop intellectually and inspire them to join what Michael Oakeshott called the "Conversation of Mankind," a phrase Bruffee borrowed which evokes imagery similar to that of Kenneth Burke's parlor metaphor (Bruffee,1984, p. 638)

For decades compositionists have faulted our overreliance on a solitary, Platonic, Romantic view of the isolated writer in the garret. Compositionists no longer see knowledge as a god-given gift but rather as the culmination of a multitude of social forces that push on individuals, that define who we are, what we think is possible, and who we want to be. Thanks to the "social turn" in composition, we literally have a tsunami of books and articles articulating the interplay of language, culture, and the social construction of knowledge.

Yet what really goes on in our classrooms and writing programs?