WIDE would like to give a heads up to friends and colleagues that a key project for the Center this year will be to generate and discuss issues and concerns connected to what writing programs should look like in the future. There are a number of issues driving our interest in this project, particularly the dynamics of a “knowledge economy” and what it means for writing, culture, and creativity–and especially the new economics of universities and public education.
We anticipate generating conceptual documents and open conversations about topics such as these:
- What should writing programs look like given declining resources and growing responsibilities? Here we are interested, for example, in what a writing program should look like at particular types of institutions (like ours), in thinking strategically about strengths, focus, and new economic models.
- Will a recognition of the relevance of new and digital literacies ever have an impact on how we train teachers for K-12 education? On how we design graduate programs for teachers? For how we teach writing across the lifespan?
- What does it mean to take writing seriously as a lifelong learning need and to design educational programs to meet that need?
These are possible questions and topics that we will take up, and we hope to do so in ways that are interactive and provocative. It is time to think strategically and creatively about who we are, what we do, and why it matters.