{"id":279,"date":"2018-01-19T13:20:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T18:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/wordpress\/autisticme\/?p=279"},"modified":"2023-11-26T16:31:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T22:31:36","slug":"tara-wood-disabilities-and-time-management-in-writing-classes-dec-2017-ccc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/2018\/01\/19\/tara-wood-disabilities-and-time-management-in-writing-classes-dec-2017-ccc\/","title":{"rendered":"Tara Wood: Disabilities and Time Management in Writing Classes. Dec. 2017 CCC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Autistic students and their parents contact me all-too-often about writing courses at colleges and universities. For some reason,\u00a0writing pedagogies<\/a><\/strong> (the theories and methods instructors embrace) prove particularly problematic for students with disabilities. Writing courses are tailored for the \u201cnormal\u201d students, those without any physical, cognitive, or mental health challenges.<\/p>\n

Much of what we do that is poorly designed for the disabled is the result of good intentions for the average student. The most discriminatory of activities and lessons is often justified by a lot of research and theory\u2026 grounded in the needs of students perceived as representative of average and normal. Teachers seldom intend to create barriers or to discriminate, yet that is the end result of poor activity and assignment choices.<\/p>\n

Time-based activities and assignment are serious problems for the disabled<\/strong>. We know this, yet many teachers resist adapting their classes to reduce the discriminatory nature of time-based work.<\/p>\n

Wood, Tara. Disabilities and Time Management in Writing Classes. Dec. CCC. Posted 01\/18\/2018. | College Composition Weekly: Summaries of research for college writing professionals<\/a>:<\/p>\n

(The following summary by\u00a0Virginia Anderson):<\/p>\n

Reviewing scholarship in composition on \u201cthe intersection of disability studies (DS) and composition studies\u201d (261), Wood notes that writing theorists have long been concerned about access but, in some cases, may have assumed that the process- and discussion-oriented pedagogies common to most writing classes do not pose the same problems as do lecture-based classes with heavy test-taking components<\/strong> (261). Wood contends that such assumptions elide the myriad ways that time affects students with disabilities in composition classes (261). Wood\u2019s premise is that \u201ctime\u201d as structured in writing classrooms reflects largely unexamined ideologies of normativity and ableism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pedagogies emerge from experience and the inherited wisdom of the past. New research emerges, yet we are slow to integrate suggestions that are too radical into our courses. Writing is taught much as it was in the 1980s, protestations from within the field aside. Writing courses are often taught by non-tenure track instructors, graduate assistants, and adjuncts with little time (or authority) to improve instructional practices. Writing is taught by a community short on time, resources, and security.\u00a0Whatever works well enough is what remains in writing courses<\/strong>. We teach to the middle and hope for the best.<\/p>\n

Over thirty or forty years, and largely since WWII in the United States, writing has adopted a process-based approach. Define your topic, develop questions, conduct research, refine the topic some more, outline, reorganize, draft, revise\u2026 and eventually there is a final paper following an artificial process that is intended to naturalize and internalize whatever a good writing process must be.<\/p>\n

I despise many of our activities because I understood their limitations through personal experience<\/strong>. Firsthand recognition of problems should not be discounted as anecdotal, which is why qualitative research should inform later quantitative research. Examples of writing process issues my firsthand experiences foreground:<\/p>\n