Literacy Management

Edited by Mireille Bétrancourt, Giulia Ortoleva, Päivi Tynjälä and Stephen Billett
The volume Writing for Professional Development is projected to be published in the edited collection Studies in Writing. Series Editor Gert Rijlaarsdam.
Brill: Studies in Writing Series

This volume will present empirical research, instructional models, and educational practice exploring and illuminating how writing can be used as a tool for professional development. A multi-faceted approach to and conception of writing will be taken here in recognition of the different ways that it can be used as a pedagogy/training tool/learning tool to create new insights, develop further procedural capacities and enhance professional identity formation.
The volume will address, among others, the following questions: In what ways and to what extent can writing support professional development and training? Does writing promote procedural learning and the acquisition of professional skills? What theories can explain the impact of writing tasks on professional practice and identity formation? How can Information and Communication Technologies support the practice of writing for professional development?
The edited monograph will comprise three sections, contributions to each of the three sessions will be considered.

The first section – Writing for professional development: Conceptions and purposes – will offer some accounts of the purposes of writing as a professional development activity and conceptions of which that activity might, can and does progress. Explanatory accounts of how acts of writing can be generative of developing further professional capacities will also be elaborated here.

The second section – Writing for learning professional practices – will comprise a series of chapters that draw upon studies in which writing has been used to generate professional capacities. The contributions will comprise studies from a range of occupations (i.e. professional practices) that are organized through different kinds of educational institutions or settings where professional practice is enacted.

The third section – Writing in practice – will comprise contributions on how practitioners learn to write for their professional requirements and how the writing contributes to further foster their expertise. This development often is required to respond to changing work requirements and ways of working within occupations.

Different kinds of contributions are sought from a range of fields of professional practice, across sectors of education (e.g. vocational secondary and tertiary education, continuing
education and training) and, importantly, also from the circumstances of practice themselves, that is, different kinds of workplaces and other settings where occupations are practiced.

The language of the volume will be English; a broad, international group of contributors is sought.
Please submit an electronic 400 word proposal for your intended contribution by 30 April 2013, to: Giulia.Ortoleva@unige.ch
The editors will review and respond to proposals by June 15, 2013.
If your proposal is accepted, the final chapter is expected to be 8,000 words, including references and is due by Dec 15, 2013.

From the perspective of literacy management, this is maybe the most exciting conference. Students are being asked to reflect on their own experience of becoming a writing tutor and working in a learning environment as tutors. I am hoping this will bring together insights on the special potential of peer learning for the development of individual literacy management and for the shaping of an institution-wide culture of literacy.

Here comes the original call for proposals:

Call for Proposals

National Conference on Peer Tutors in Writing
Chicago, IL – November 2-4, 2012

Submission Deadline: April 1, 2012
Conference Website for Submissions

Theme: Understanding Tutor Identity
In their award-winning article, “What They Take with Them: Findings from the Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project,” Brad Hughes, Paula Gillespie, and Harvey Kail describe tutoring as a “developmental experience” (2010). We invite tutors to consider their own developmental experiences and share how their insights inform their work as tutors and leaders.
Guiding questions for presenters might include:
• How has your role as a tutor shaped your identity?
• What achievements have caused you to reflect on and grow as a tutor?
• How do your relationships with writers and fellow tutors manifest themselves in your notion of self?
• How does tutoring influence your identity as a student, writer, or professor?
• Has tutoring led you to understand your future professional goals differently?
We can all acknowledge that there are difficult moments, too. These experiences invite us to ask:
• How has your work with individual writers complicated, challenged, deepened, or otherwise shaped your understanding of what it means to be a tutor?
• How has the hierarchy of your respective institution shaped the development of your identity as a tutor?
• What role does conflict play in the formation of your identity as a tutor?
Our experiences can also shape the organizations where we work. These experiences ask of us:
• Does your understanding of your role as a tutor challenge the structure of your center?
• What is the impact you make on your center’s mission and work?
• How does your relationship with technology in your work as a tutor inform your understanding of your role?
We ask you to consider your own identity as a tutor and to share with us how understanding identity plays a part in your growth as a tutor and your role as a leader. Possible formats for proposals include, but are not limited to, whole session panel presentations, individual presentations, roundtable discussions, workshops, and poster presentations. Alternative formats will be considered. Submit proposals at the NCPTW Chicago 2012 website.
If you have any questions, please email us at ncptw.chicago2012@gmail.com

—
Andrew Jeter
Literacy Center Coordinator, Niles West HS
Chair, NCPTW Chicago 2012
President, COWLLC
Secondary School Rep, IWCA
847-626-2615

Overview:  For the third year, AAEEBL members and eportfolio practitioners from around the world will gather at the Seaport World Trade Center on stunning Boston Harbor for the AAEEBL Annual Conference (July 16-19). Once again, AAEEBL is co-locating with Campus Technology, and attendees will be welcome to attend either AAEEBL or CT sessions. Highlights include:

• This year we will hold our first AAEEBL members’ meeting.
• All keynote sessions will be interactive, not “just talks.”
• Concurrent session rooms will be set up in the round, not in ranks to encourage participation.
• In keeping with the participatory nature of this conference, featured will be approximately 30 poster sessions positioned with a special snack set-up to encourage interaction.
• By popular demand, “conversations with…” sessions will return presenting opportunities for informal discussion with keynote speakers and other eportfolio leaders.
• Keynoters will focus on fundamental issues related to learning and influencing policy-makers in education.
• Our local arrangements institution will be Tufts University.

Who should attend? 

CIOs, provosts, deans, educators, faculty leaders, eportfolio managers, technology directors, assessment leaders, faculty development staff, teaching and learning center staff, and librarians among others.

Featured Speakers

• Peter Elbow, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  “Technology, Writing and Spoken Language” — an interactive, experiential workshop looking at the way technology moves writing closer to spoken language and why that is a good thing — Monday workshop 8:30 a.m. to noon.
• Todd Zakrajsek, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Gillie Bolton,
• Barbara Cambridge, National Council of Teachers of English, Washington, DC

Call for Proposals Text

We invite you to help establish a new resource for everyone who is interested in writing research.

The Research Exchange Index, or REx, will be a digital compendium of contemporary writing research that features information collected, edited, and published every five years as a searchable database. Created for teachers, scholars, administrators, and others involved in writing education, REx invites contributions from researchers across grade-levels, institutions, and methodologies.

To learn more please join us at NCTE, where we will launch the REx data collection site during Session H. 11 in the Chicago Hilton/Grand Tradition Room (Lobby Level). You can also participate by

• spreading the word to members of your professional constituencies;
• visiting the site <http://researchexchange.colostate.edu/> and uploading information about your own research;
• becoming an Acquisitions Editor and helping build the REx database over the next 18 months, from November 2011 to May 1, 2013;
• becoming an Editorial Reviewer and, starting in May 2013, helping bring REx, Volume 1 to publication.

Data collection for the first volume of REx begins on November 19th, 2011 and continues through May 1st, 2013, and we hope you will contribute. We also hope you will contact us if you would like to become an Acquisitions Editor or an Editorial Reviewer or if you have any questions.

Best,

Jenn Fishman, Joan Mullin, and Mike Palmquist, the REx Editors

Authors are invited to address issues in relation to: development of lifelong learner / professional / citizen identity; integrative learning and holistic development; individual / community /organisational ePortfolios and identities development; distributed communities of practice: continuing professional development and sustainable employability; assessment, recognition and accreditation of learning (formal, informal, lifelong and life-wide).

Conference Tracks

• Initial Education —ePortfolio from kindergarten to further and higher education
• Employability, Organisational and Lifelong Learning —ePortfolio from employees to self-employed and entrepreneurs
• Healthcare Education and Practice —ePortfolio from patients to healthcare professionals (special track)
• Assessment, Accreditation and Recognition —knowledge, skills and attitudes
• ePortfolio and Identity Policies —ePortfolio implementation from a single institution to a whole country
• Technologies —ePortfolio platforms, system architectures and standards
• Identity — ePortfolio, social networks, web 2.0 and identity construction

International Journal of Clinical Skills
For the third year, a special track is dedicated to healthcare education and practice. Proceedings for the healthcare track (20 abstracts and the 5 best papers) will be published in the International Journal of Clinical Skills (IJOCS).

Submission and review process
The submission and review process is divided into 2 steps: abstracts are reviewed to select presentations for the conference, and papers are reviewed to select the contents of the proceedings. For more details, please visit http://www.epforum.eu/2012/call/submission-process

Accepted papers will be published in the ePIC 2012 proceedings under ISBN 978-2-9540144-1-8.
Previous conferences proceedings are accessible at http://www.epforum.eu/proceedings/

Important dates
5 March 2012 – Deadline for the submission of abstracts
26 March 2012 – Notification of acceptance of abstracts
7 May 2012 – Deadline for the submission of long/short papers
9-10-11 July 2012 – Conference
15 September 2012 – Publication of the conference proceedings

The full call for contributions is accessible at http://www.epforum.eu/2012/cal

Das Schreibzentrum der Ruhr-Universität Bochum lädt ein zum Open Space zu den Themen „Vernetzung und Qualitätskriterien in der Schreibdidaktik“ am 22./23.3.2012:
In den letzten Jahren haben wir, die Mitarbeiterinnen des Schreibzentrums an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum, im Gespräch mit Kolleginnen und Kollegen immer häufiger das Bedürfnis wahrgenommen, die mittlerweile sehr große SchreibdidaktikerInnen-Szene im deutschsprachigen Raum besser kennenzulernen, um sich über die unterschiedlichen Angebote und Arbeitsweisen auszutauschen und sich eventuell weiter zu vernetzen. Da wir dieses Bedürfnis teilen, würden wir gerne alle zu einem offenen Austausch an die RUB einladen, die im Bereich der Schreibdidaktik tätig sind – egal ob mit oder ohne institutionelle Anbindung, MitarbeiterInnen an Schreibzentren, FreiberuflerInnen, SchreibberaterInnen etc.
Diesem offenen Austausch wollen wir einen Rahmen geben: Wir bieten am 22. und 23. März 2012, jeweils von 10 bis 18 Uhr, eine Veranstaltung an, die sich an die Open-Space-Methode anlehnt. Jeder kann dort seine Anliegen zu den Themen „Vernetzung und Qualitätskriterien in der Schreibdidaktik“ vorschlagen und bearbeiten. Diese Veranstaltung kann natürlich nur dann erfolgreich sein, wenn sich möglichst viele in den verschiedenen Bereichen der Schreibdidaktik Tätige aktiv beteiligen. Jeder, der ein Anliegen einbringt, wird beim Open Space genügend Zeit und Raum haben, um mit einer Gruppe von Interessierten zu diskutieren und gegebenenfalls etwas zu erarbeiten.
Das bedeutet ganz konkret: Es gibt keine Workshops oder Vorträge, sondern prinzipiell offene Arbeitsgruppen zu verschiedenen Themen, die die Teilnehmenden entweder zu Beginn des Open Space oder – noch besser – im Vorfeld vorschlagen. Wir übernehmen also die organisatorische Vorbereitung, die inhaltliche Gestaltung liegt in den Händen aller Teilnehmenden.
Wir möchten den Veranstaltungsbeitrag so gering wie möglich halten und gehen davon aus, dass er sich auf ca. dreißig Euro belaufen wird, die für Essen und Getränke anfallen.
Wir bitten Sie spätestens bis zum 31. Dezember 2011 um Rückmeldung, ob Sie teilnehmen wollen. Und wenn Sie ein Thema bzw. Anliegen für das Open Space haben, wäre es schön, wenn wir ganz rasch von Ihnen hören! Auf unserer Homepage (www.sz.rub.de) stellen wir in den kommenden Wochen organisatorische Informationen z.B. zu Unterkunft, Anreise, Abendprogramm etc. bereit.
Wir freuen uns auf ein Kennenlernen/Wiedersehen in Bochum: schreibzentrum@rub.de

Writing Development in Higher Education 2012
Enacting thoughtful pedagogies and inclusive values in writing development
Faculty of Education, Liverpool Hope University (UK)

Conference keynotes:

• Gunther Kress, Professor of Semiotics and Education, Institute of Education, University of London, UK
• Joan Turner, Director, Centre for English Language and Academic Writing Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

Working with Academic literacies: Research, Theory, Design Panel, convened by Theresa Lillis, The Open University, UK; Kathy Harrington, London Metropolitan University; Mary Lea, The Open University, UK; and Sally Mitchell, Queen Mary, University of London, UK.

Call for papers
WDHE 2012 aims to offer a vital, educative space where researchers and practitioners can meet to consider the role of writing in higher education. This conference aims to maintain a clear and established commitment to sustaining an academic community for those concerned with teaching, researching, supporting and developing academic writing in its many forms.
Writing practices appear to be central to assessment systems in higher education yet underutilised in learning processes. Here we aim
to promote a thoughtful approach to interrogating writing development in order to resist implicit and potentially exclusive educational practices. We welcome papers which recognise the educative potential of writing as a powerful social practice for students and tutors. Of further consideration is the role that writing can play in promoting participation in and across formal and informal learning communities.
Inclusivity in writing practices may be interpreted as the ways in which written and spoken language, image and sound can work together to promote understanding. In considering an enactment of inclusive values in writing development participants may wish to consider the dominant role that language has played in learning and the ways in which we might encourage interaction with multimodal environments where the relationships between different texts can be recognised, encouraged and explored.

The following questions are offered as a starting point:

• How might an inclusive approach to ‘text’ enhance our design of writing environments?
• What forms might thoughtful pedagogies take in the development of writing practices?
• How can we create thoughtful spaces for learning through and with writing?
• To what extent do we enact inclusive values when writing within an international academic community?

Abstract submission:
Abstracts should be between 250 and 500 words including any references to key texts that may have informed your work. The deadline for submissions is 31st January 2012. Please email your abstract to wdhe@hope.ac.uk.

This workshop (November 18/19, 2011) brought together colleagues (in person and virtually) from Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. Involved were secondary schools, colleges for vocational training, research universities, private enterprises for literacy management, and companies focusing on the development of ePortfolio applications. This created a broad perspective on how ePortfolios can be used to facilitate livelong learning. The group of participants was also very heterogenous with regard to the participants’ prior knowledge and experience on portfolio work. This created a necessity to also ponder the very basic question of why using portfolios in general and ePortfolios in specific. As a result, strong arguments in favor of the use of ePortfolios as a means of “deep learning” surfaced. It also became clear that the quality of “deep learning” can’t be reached only through ePortfolios but rather requires fundamental changes in the cultures of learning and instruction that currently exist in many educational organizations throughout the world. An important part of that change seems to be a better understanding of the current (and future) demands of a knowledge-driven society in general and literacy management in specific. The latter may require a radical turnover of how people act and interact in the process of dealing with information and texts within their own individual learning environment, different communities of practice, and institutional frameworks. Please contact info@literacy-management.de for more results of the workshop.

Drawing on sources is a central task in academic writing, and one which often creates difficulty for novice writers. Yet despite a considerable body of literature addressing isolated pockets of this area (notably plagiarism/patchwriting and reporting verbs) student source use from a wider perspective remains an underinvestigated area. The Journal of English for Academic Purposes is soliciting abstracts for a special issue taking a broad perspective on the issues of source use which are especially relevant to second language academic writing in English. Possible topics include questions such as writers’ summarizing abilities, citation skills and the use of references to construct an argument.

Proposals of up to 500 words should be sent to the guest editors (Diane Pecorari and Philip Shaw) by 1 October 2011. Full manuscripts, for those who are invited to submit one, will be due by 1 April 2012. Proposals or questions should be sent to Diane Pecorari (diane.pecorari@mdh.se).

Another small group of participants of the International Literacy Management certificate program is starting its work today. After the first group of participants has been on its way since March/April, another three participants decided to form a team that will collaborate during the coming months in their work on literacy management. Two participants of the first group from Australia and Germany are going to share their experience during a skype session today.

If you are interested in the ILM certificate program, please check the ILM homepage for more information.