ERIC Number: EJ1363043
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
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Abstractor: As Provided
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ISSN: ISSN-1522-7502
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Discourse-Based Interviews in Institutional Ethnography: Uncovering the Tacit Knowledge of Peer Tutors in the Writing Center
Crozier, Madeline; Workman, Erin
Composition Forum, v49 Sum 2022
This article illustrates how we incorporated discourse-based interviews (DBIs) into a mixed-methods research study informed by the heuristics of institutional ethnography (IE). As the first stage of a longitudinal study designed to understand what, where, and how "writing" means across our university, our research used DBIs in a writing center to uncover peer tutors' tacit personal knowledge about writing. In tandem with IE methodology, DBIs enabled us to understand how conceptions of writing shape peer tutors' written work and tutoring practice in relation and/or resistance to the programmatic goals of the center. The study demonstrates how the use of DBIs within IE projects facilitates dynamic exploration of the co-constitutive and socially constructed nature of tacit writing knowledge and institutionally coordinated work processes. Our research design and methodological considerations generate strategies and approaches for incorporating variations of DBIs into mixed-methods research.
Descriptors: Interviews, Writing (Composition), Laboratories, Peer Teaching, Tutoring, Writing Skills, Feedback (Response), Knowledge Level, Prior Learning, College Students, Student Attitudes
Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition. e-mail: cf@compositionforum.com; Web site: http://compositionforum.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
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Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Illinois (Chicago)
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