Date Approved

7-1-2025

Embargo Period

7-1-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Educational Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

Cecile Sam, Ph.D.

Committee Member 1

Drew Kopp, Ph.D.

Committee Member 2

Kathyrn Luet, Ph.D.

Disciplines

Education | Educational Leadership

Abstract

Throughout colleges and universities across the country, First-Year Composition is known to be a general education course requirement that commonly works to set students up for academic success throughout their postsecondary educational journey and pursuits. This general education course works to focus on developing composition-based skill sets that help students in various academic areas and disciplines of study throughout their undergraduate degree completion (Kinnevay, 1971; The Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2014). While much scholarship in First-Year Composition has focused on student growth and development, there have been minimal practical considerations and examinations of a large stakeholder in this education setting: the educators themselves. This dissertation case study works to investigate First-Year Composition educators through providing them with the opportunity to engage in the “first condition” of the “rhetorical inquiry” process (Kopp, 2011; Kopelson 2003). Over the course of the Fall 2024 semester, four participants within Avenue University participated in this case study throughout qualitative interviewing methods and responsive interviewing (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). This case study aims to examine the idealized expectations, roles of authority, and positionality that first-year composition educators hold towards their courses, students, and even the pedagogical choices they make within the classroom environments they teach and lead within.

Download

Share

COinS