Congratulations to Prof Jeff Galin!
Wednesday, Sep 08, 2021
Congratulations to Professor Jeff Galin on this chapter in a new edited collection!
Jeff's chapter, "Chapter 8. Theorizing the WEC Model with the Whole Systems Approach to WAC Program Sustainability," is an extension and expansion of a facet of the whole systems approach that he worked on in his most recent book.
His chapter appears in Writing-Enriched Curricula: Models of Faculty-Driven and Departmental Transformation, edited by Chris M. Anson and Pamela Flash. The edited collection is available as an open educational resource at Colorado State University's WAC Clearinghouse. [DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2021.1299.2.08]
Abstract:
When administration of WAC programs is discussed in WAC literature, program description and advice are typically emphasized rather than building a theory of administering and building WAC programs. Such a framework with roots in multiple disciplines that overlap en-ables WAC administrators and oversight committees to examine WAC programs systematically, even when they have developed organically over time. This chapter highlights ways that a WEC model can address threats to WAC programs’ sustainability, i.e., the complexities of higher education programs as they relate to administrative structures and leadership. The story of developing the WEC component of FAU’s twelve-year old WAC program is one of slow development, broad stakeholder participation, manageable growth, and limited scope. But it is also the story of an institution working through a systematic process of program building that is grounded in what Cox et al. (2018) call the whole systems approach to WAC program sustainability. This chapter traces FAU’s process as the first WAC program in the country to implement sustainability indicators as the basis for its formative self-assessment to track all facets of its WAC program. It also demonstrates how other such programs can draw on the whole systems approach for WEC program implementation.
