Social Justice Efforts Amidst Developmental Education Reform: Evidence From Community College Writing Instruction

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Perspectives and Pedagogy (Table 4)

Abstract

Developmental education reform is gaining momentum in community colleges across the United States, repositioning these institutions’ role as gateways to a bachelor’s degree. College readiness in writing is a primary concern of these reforms, and many community colleges are transitioning away from remedial course sequences to accelerating students' placement into degree-credit English courses. This Comparative Case Study illuminates the telling case of a community college instructor who navigated the tension between her role as gatekeeper of college writing standards and her desire for equity-based pedagogy in the context of neoliberal higher education. Drawing from reproduction theory, social justice theory, and the field of raciolinguistics, I illustrate the challenging conditions in which reparation occurs in a public community college.

Author

• Antonella Pappolla, University of Wisconsin - Madison