A colleague and good friend once remarked to me that as a child, no-one ever plans to grow up to be a Learning Adviser. Indeed, our careers are often haphazard and ad hoc, but it is often easier to impose some semblance of order on them part-way through. A professional vision often has 20/20 hindsight, as well.University Writing Cente

Habel, Chad

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Praxis: A Writing Center Journal (2003-2011)SectionsFocusColumns and ReviewsConsultingTrainingNews & AnnouncementsArchivesBrowse past issues of PraxisAbout UsAbout UsSubmissionsSubmit an article to PraxisHome » Archives » Spring 2010 (Volume 7 Issue 2) -Professionalization and the Writing Center, Part IIFrom Learning Adviser to Coordinator: A ProfessionalCareer ArcSpring 2010 / Focusby Chad Habel, University of Adelaide, AustraliaA professional arc to the writing centerChad HabelA colleague and good friend once remarked to me that as a child, no-one everplans to grow up to be a Learning Adviser. Indeed, our careers are oftenhaphazard and ad hoc, but it is often easier to impose some semblance of orderon them part-way through. A professional vision often has 20/20 hindsight, aswell.My progression from student to academic was gradual and unmarked by anyarchetypal rites of passage. A couple of years into my PhD in English Literature,I was offered some casual tutoring within the department which ended at aboutthe time I completed my PhD. I was then fortunate enough to have amassedenough teaching experience to be appointed as an Academic Adviser at theStudent Learning Centre at Flinders University, and I am now theCoordinator of the Student Development Program at the University ofAdelaide. A core business at both universities is operating a writing center.[H]igher education in Australia is undergoing unprecedentedchanges at the moment, changes which are (refreshingly) drivenby non-economic considerations.Before continuing with this narrative and the associated issues ofprofessionalization, it is probably necessary to outline some of the mainfeatures of Australian writing centers. In most Australian universities studentdevelopment activities are undertaken by staff who are employed precisely forthat purpose. Writing center activities delivered by students are the exceptionrather than the rule, and they would more usually be called Peer-Assisted orPeer Mentor programs. In addition, very few Australian universities havecomposition topics or anything like them in first year, so students are oftenunderprepared for academic writing tasks.Furthermore, writing centers are often just one strategy within a university’sholistic approach to student development. For instance, at the Centre forLearning and Professional Development at the University of Adelaide, theAcademic Learning and Language team also runs seminars, orientationactivities, and, crucially, faculty-based sessions which are collaborative anddiscipline-specific. We work closely with other teams in the Centre who runacademic development activities, including online learning activities. Thereforethe Writing Centre is our core business, but not the only offering we have.Within this general context, Academic Language and Learning practitioners areconstantly undergoing a process of professionalization: it is becoming more andmore common for us to refer to ourselves as a profession, or at least acommunity of practice. This process has been underway for quite some time,and a watershed moment in this process was the formation of the Associationfor Academic Language and Learning (AALL) in November 2005. This is aprofessional organization devoted precisely to the professionalization ofAcademic Language and Learning activities.AALL is crucial to how we see ourselves as professionals, and how we presentourselves to our universities and the wider public. With a total membership ofaround 300, AALL runs biennial conferences, which usually attract around 250members. This may seem small but given Australia’s population (around 22million), it is not insignificant. AALL also has a newsletter, online discussionforum, and a peer-reviewed journal for the dissemination of research findings.AALL also has a small grant scheme to support members in undertaking thisresearch. Some time ago, members produced a “Position Statement” whichasserted the role of AALL professionals in the context of higher education in thiscountry, and a rearticulation of this professional statement is currentlyunderway.This wider context is essential to the organisation: higher education in Australiais undergoing unprecedented changes at the moment, changes which are(refreshingly) driven by non-economic considerations. The Rudd Government isundertaking a substantial reform agenda designed to change almost everythingabout how universities operate, from lifting caps on enrolments, to fundingstructures, to quality assurance, to research activity. Crucially for us, part of thereform agenda revolves around student participation (including access andequity), and student achievement in terms of completion, retention, andacademic success. Further details can be found here.These changes to higher education have a bearing on our activities (forexample in writing centers) in many different ways. This goes further than theincreased internationalization of the student body which has affected us in thepast few decades. To begin with, the government is heavily promoting widerparticipation in higher education, especially participation of those with lowsocio-economic status. This means that demand for our services will probablyincrease with further increased diversity of the student population.It seems that one minute I was reading lots of books and writingessays (and then theses) about them, and suddenly I find myselfin a minor leadership role, running a writing center and otherstudent development activities.More significantly for the professionalization of our activities, an environmentwith a stronger insistence on quality assurance means that we have to adopt amore professional approach to our practice. Training and professionaldevelopment will need to be made more explicit and formal, as compliance withpolicies such as Occupational Health and Safety becomes essential.Documentation and recording will become more important as reportingstructures become more defined and detailed evidence of demand andeffectiveness becomes crucial to survival and growth.This increased transparency and accountability means an increase inadministrative activities associated with operating a writing center. For instance,it is necessary for us to record each student who visits the Writing Centre ona sign-in sheet; this allows us to both demonstrate demand and to adjust ourofferings and organization in response to student needs. It is also essential toconduct full student evaluations of the Writing Centre, both for continualimprovement as well as individual professional development of LearningAdvisors. This mirrors the increase in the administrative duties associated withacademic work more generally, but is just one example of theprofessionalization of writing center work.One part of these administrative requirements is to encourage reflectivepractice in education in order to promote continual improvement. Anotheraspect of reflective practice is research, which is becoming more and more of apriority in Australia with the introduction of the Excellence in Research forAustralia (ERA) initiative. The ERA is essentially a new method of assessingresearch output by individuals and institutions, and it aims to usher in a focuson research quality (as assessed via metrics) rather than just quantity. As withprevious systems, the new system is designed to link research funding directlyto outputs, as identified in the ERA.Despite the problems with such systems, there is no doubt that the ERA willfurther increase the pressure on academic staff to conduct and publish qualityresearch. This pressure is lessened for Learning Advisers who are appointed toprofessional or general staff positions, since research is not a requirement builtinto the job description. However, I believe that quality teaching is led byresearch, and so doing research is part of professionalizing the activities aroundwriting centers and student development generally.The Foundation Course enabled me to focus on the transitionissues that I was already interested in, as this student cohort waseven less familiar with academic discourse. Although I didn’tknow it at the time, it was also excellent preparation for myfuture career.This understanding of the current environment and the profession was theresult of a somewhat haphazard career journey. It seems that one minute I wasreading lots of books and writing essays (and then theses) about them, andsuddenly I find myself in a minor leadership role, running a writing center andother student development activities. This unexpected career arc was reallyimpelled by an intrinsic love for learning and personal development in its ownright. As a student I had to weather all the “Would you like fries with that?”jokes about Arts graduates, and I pursued my studies simply because I enjoyedthem. So when I was offered my first gig as a tutor in the English department Irelished the opportunity to facilitate the type of deeply fulfilling learning Ienjoyed during my own undergraduate studies.I have always taught with a lot of passion and enthusiasm, but I quicklybecame aware that the main focus of teaching within a discipline such asEnglish was on content rather than learning processes. Curriculum was alwaysdriven by the need to cover a certain amount of material (“Oh, we must havesome Shakespeare!”), but unfortunately many students were left behindbecause there was little focus on the processes of learning, such as criticalreading, argumentation, essay writing and such. In my own way I began torectify this need by drawing attention to process while still attending to content.A lot of my early teaching was in Professional English, which focussed oncommunication and other skills to prepare students for the workforce, so thissuited my passion for learning.Economic necessity inevitably drove me to take whatever teaching I could, andso to supplement my income from casual tutoring I began teaching in theFlinders Foundation Course, a pre-entry program for people who had not hadthe opportunity to study at university before. The Foundation Course enabledme to focus on the transition issues that I was already interested in, as thisstudent cohort was even less familiar with academic discourse. Although Ididn’t know it at the time, it was also excellent preparation for my futurecareer.When I completed my PhD I was fortunate to secure a position as AssociateLecturer/Academic Skills Adviser in the Student Learning Centre at FlindersUniversity. This meant being involved with the Centre’s entire range ofactivities, and this is where I became familiar with the operations of the WritingCentre. At the same time, I taught in the Foundation Course, and waseventually given the role of Coordinator of the Foundation Course. This was myfirst major coordination role which really prepared me for where I am now.Being Foundation Course Coordinator meant that I had to become much moreprofessional in what I did and how I did it. Of course, it meant being highlyorganized and managing my time effectively; it also meant putting forth aprofessional demeanour as I was now the “face” of the course; and it meantdeveloping professional networks with other staff (including administrativestaff) involved with the Course. During my time as Coordinator, the Courseunderwent a major external review which certainly helped to professionalize myperspective.Moreover, my role meant taking an explicitly reflective stance on everything Idid: for instance, when it was time to rewrite the curriculum for the first topic, Iread a lot about curriculum design and the best way to achieve intendedlearning outcomes. I wanted to test the assumption that the course increasedstudents’ confidence in their ability to study, so I developed a research projectto look at student’s academic self-efficacy through the course. In this way mywhole attitude to the work I was doing took on a more professional tone.What I found through moving into leadership roles is that the effect I used tohave on a class of, say, fifteen students, I can now have on entire courses and‹ Featured Center: NoelStudio for AcademicCreativityup From Writing Center toClassroom and Back Again:Pursuing the Unknowns ofTutoring and Teaching ›larger groups of students, for instance, cohorts of students coming through theWriting Center. By having an overall viewpoint on the Writing Center and how itoperates it is possible to improve outcomes for a much larger number ofstudents. This both requires and promotes professionalism in all its aspects.Works CitedClerehan, Rosemary. “‘Language staff lose academic ranking’: What’s newmanagerialism got to do with it?” Journal of Academic Language and Learning.1: 1 (2007): n. pag. Web. 25 January, 2009.O'Regan, Kerry. “Theorising what we do: Defamiliarising the university.” In S.Milnes, G. Craswell, V. Rao, & A. Bartlett (Eds.), Critiquing and reflecting: LASprofession and practice: Proceedings of the 2005 Australian Language andAcademic Skills Conference. Canberra: Australian National University. Web.February 21, 2007.Steven, Marie & Kokkin, Beverley. “Pinned to the margins? The contextualshaping of academic learning and language practice.” Journal of AcademicLanguage and Learning. 1:1 (2007): n. pag. Web. 25 January, 2009.Yucel, Robyn, A broad-based, grassroots community of practice achievingcurriculum reform in first year biology, Journal of Academic Language andLearning. 3:2 (2009): n. pag. Web. 25 January, 2009.____________________Chad Habel is currently the Coordinator of the Student Development Program atthe Centre for Learning and Professional Development at the University ofAdelaide. For further information, please visit here.    Praxis is a project of the Undergraduate Writing Center at the University of Texas at Austin     Editor login

From Learning Adviser to Coordinator: A Professional Career Arc

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From Learning Adviser to Coordinator: A Professional Career Arc

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