As part of Literacies for Life and Career, the College of Arts & Sciences is seeking a second cohort of faculty early adopters to pilot pedagogical strategies that integrate a literacy-based approach into their 2024-2025 undergraduate courses.
What is Literacies for Life and Career?
- A comprehensive teaching and advising initiative that helps make the full value of a WashU Arts & Sciences education more tangible by providing students with a set of defined skills and fluencies that are essential for future careers, civic engagement, and personal well-being.
- Pedagogical innovation to identify, augment, and signpost literacies that exceed the subject matter or disciplinary content of a course.
- An integrated approach to teaching and advising that will better prepare students to understand the value of their liberal arts and sciences education.
Who are early adopters?
- A&S full-time faculty (tenure-track and teaching-track) at any level who:
- Will be teaching undergraduate courses during the 2024-2025 academic year
- Are interested in testing innovative pedagogical strategies in their courses and providing feedback on their experiences
- Represent a diverse set of disciplines and types of courses/teaching within the A&S curriculum
What will they do?
- Attend a series of workshops to build community, engage with evidence-based pedagogical strategies for implementing literacies in courses, and collaboratively draft teaching plans
- Implement plans to integrate literacies into their courses in 2024-2025 through pedagogical interventions, assignment redesign, and integrated reflective and metacognitive opportunities
- Reflect on their experiences and collect reflections from students in their courses
- Participate in literacies faculty learning communities, including reading some articles and contributing to cross-disciplinary discussions on teaching
- Commit to the initiative approximately 10 hours in the spring/summer 2024, 10 hours in fall 2024, and 10 hours in spring 2025
The Literacies approach is being piloted by 24 faculty across Arts & Sciences in 2023-2024. We are now inviting a second cohort of innovative educators to join the endeavor in 2024-2025. Building upon the foundation laid by our inaugural cohort, this second group of early adopters will incorporate a literacies-based approach within their undergraduate courses and play a pivotal role in shaping the future of this initiative.
Early adopters will contribute to shaping the initiative's framework by engaging with the current provisional list of literacies and definitions, identifying the literacies relevant to their courses, and integrating the literacies through their course content, assignments, and reflective work. Participants will become familiar with evidence-based teaching practices in order to explore creative ways to help students understand, articulate, and reflect on the value and breadth of their liberal arts and sciences education. Participation provides opportunities for cross-disciplinary discussions about teaching and learning outside of departmental boundaries.
Grant Amount: Chosen faculty will receive a $1,000 contribution to their research or professional development accounts.
Application Requirements: Please submit the online webform application, which includes a request for the following information:
- Personal information: department, title, undergraduate courses planned for the 2024-2025 academic year;
- Personal statement of no more than 500 words: Please describe your interest in integrating a literacies-based approach and explain:
- how this initiative resonates with your teaching;
- why you are interested in pedagogical development and participation in faculty learning communities;
- how the initiative supports your professional development goals.
Selection Criteria: Selection will be based on applicants' interest as well as the need for a diverse cohort of early adopters across the curriculum. The goal is to ensure a balance across disciplines, courses, and types of teaching.
The deadline for applications is February 2, 2024.