Pedagogical Challenges (cont.)

Still, being receptive to technology use does not mean that adult learners in the writing methods course will unquestioningly accept its use in every aspect of writing instruction. On the contrary, most adult learners in the course were quite vocal about perceived and potential shortcomings of multimodal composing and wanted valid reasons for incorporating such composing tactics within their own writing classrooms. In fact, I found that in the case of Terry, she often raised questions about a variety of teaching technique, even when the traditional students in my blended undergraduate and graduate course were uninterested in continuing this discussion. Therefore it is no surprise that both Sally and Terry occasionally felt at odds with the traditional students to some extent, and several of my non-traditional students marked on evaluations that they felt traditional students saw them as being "out of touch" with computer mediated communication. Tarule (1998) found that younger students often resent the dedication and class contributions of older female students they view as excessive. This perception that second-career teachers "overachieve" has also caused occasional problems in field experiences as "administrators who want docile teachers who won't make waves may not be prepared for the assertive, resourceful, and vocal second-career teacher" (Resta, Huling, and Rainwater 61). This disconnect between adult and traditional learners may explain why Sally cites isolation as one drawback to returning to the classroom, and Post and Killian confirm "all of these factors lead to a final general characteristic experienced by so many adults when they return to college: isolation from their peers and the many aspects of college life that are geared to younger people" (10). Indeed in my own WMC, many second career teachers expressed frustration with occasional breaks in communication with traditional students over the issue of technology use within the writing classroom. In this case, the second career teachers were often quick to point out the drawbacks to texting and Facebook posting, two primary means of communication the traditional students often used leading to intense debates over the merits of these technologies as tools for teaching writing.

Second-career teachers also have unique needs in terms of writing methods instruction. As a result "teaching the teachers" to write effectively while simultaneously teaching them to teach their students to write effectively is a daunting challenge for the WMC instructor. Many second-career teachers are older, and therefore unfamiliar with processes movements within writing instruction and student-centered writing instruction. As a result, writing methods course instructors often must combat and seek to break down traditional views of writing and literacy practices as discrete skills to be taught to students as this perception continues persistent in government discourses of education (Doloughan, 2001). Modeling some of these techniques is often necessary for second-career teachers as references to "journals" or "prewriting" are sometimes unfamiliar. In the case of my own writing methods course, I found that non-traditional students were receptive to learning these new approaches once they saw them in action and were offered opportunities to try them out in field experiences such as tutoring a first-year writing student. In addition to being receptive to process methods and multimodal techniques of teaching writing, second career teachers   also seemed better equipped to weather some of the storms of teaching writing and the frustrations that many writing teachers experience when grappling with the age-old questions of how to assess writing, how to manage the paper load, and how to encourage authentic versus rote responses from students. Because these teachers hail from a variety of former careers, "they often bring authentic examples from past experience to enrich their teaching. They give real-world answers to the age-old student question, 'Why do we have to learn this?'" (Resta, Huling, and Rainwater 61) Clearly the presence of preservice second career teachers within the writing methods course can be used as a distinct advantage, as their knowledge can be used to enhance classroom discussion. In the case of the Facebook discussion described above, some of the drawbacks second career teachers pointed out often gave traditional students another, more critical lens to view the technologies they often accepted without question.

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