| This dissertation explores faculty discussions concerning the role of the first-year writing course within a particular general education structure known as learning communities. Learning communities consist of two to three introductory courses that are taught around a particular theme. Students co-enroll in courses, and instructors work together to unify the curriculum for the students. Because instructors in the learning community meet and discuss ways to provide a unified approach to the curriculum, they must confront assumptions about the role of their courses, and the content of their courses, and seek ways to work together.; This dissertation examines, through a case-study methodology, how the first-year writing course is discursively "situated" in the environment of an interdisciplinary learning community. It examines the transcripts from the meetings, interviews, and communications among instructors of writing, biology, and chemistry in the same learning community to understand how the role of the writing course becomes discursively positioned. It finds that all three instructors invoke the dichotomy between "skills" and "content" to define their courses in relation to each other. |
