Tradition in the Twenty-First Century: Locating the Role of the Past in the Present

by Trevor J. Blank (Editor), Robert Glenn Howard (Editor)

 In Tradition in the Twenty-First Century , eight diverse contributors explore the role of tradition in contemporary folkloristics. For more than a century, folklorists have been interested in locating sources of tradition and accounting for the conceptual boundaries of tradition, but in the modern era, expanded means of communication, research, and travel, along with globalized cultural and economic interdependence, have complicated these pursuits. Tradition is thoroughly embedded in both modern life and at the center of folklore studies, and a modern understanding of tradition cannot be fully realized without a thoughtful consideration of the past’s role in shaping the present.

Emphasizing how tradition adapts, survives, thrives, and either mutates or remains stable in today’s modern world, the contributors pay specific attention to how traditions now resist or expedite dissemination and adoption by individuals and communities. This complex and intimate portrayal of tradition in the twenty-first century offers a comprehensive overview of the folkloristic and popular conceptualizations of tradition from the past to present and presents a thoughtful assessment and projection of how “tradition” will fare in years to come. The book will be useful to advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in folklore and will contribute significantly to the scholarly literature on tradition within the folklore discipline.

Additional Simon Bronner, Stephen Olbrys Gencarella, Merrill Kaplan, Lynne S. McNeill, Elliott Oring, Casey R. Schmitt, and Tok Thompson

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

My expectation when picking up this book was that it would lay out exactly how to do writing center assessment. It did, but not in the way I was imagining: instead of a step-by-step assessment plan, it walks you through the process of developing a mission and vision for your writing center that leads to determining appropriate assessable outcomes. There's also an excellent annotated bibliography and enough information on where to look for developing those specific assessment plans once you've established your foundational ideas about mission/vision and what needs to be assessed.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very valuable read for Writing Program Administrators. The best section was the Coda- don't skip it just because it's at the end.

[Stacy Charlesbois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent advice on how to think about, strategize for, and even look forward to, implementing assessment.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very friendly, approachable assessment text. A lot of big-picture here: what's your mission statement? What's the department/college's mission statement? How can you combine them? What would the outcomes look like? I especially like the first chapter and the interchapter for the students/tutors to read.



Notes: “if we can use our own knowledge and expertise to conduct assessment that is meaningful to our work, tha we know will bring understnaidng and valuing of the work by those to whom we are responsible, we will have changed the context for our centers and, thus, the work itself”(xvii)
From hout “writing assessment must be site-based, locally controlled, context-sensitive, rhetorically based, and accessible” (35).
Invite staff to meet and develop a set of goals” (39).
“It is essential to select indicators that can be as overt, as obvious as possible and to acknowledge their limitations as well” (42)
“assessment is not about getting it right every time … but about making progress every time” (43).
“Take your time, make good choices, get the right people involved, and be realistic about what you can accomplish/handle” (54).
“Mining instituional statements for priorities is akin to organizing and developing ideas into a workable and meaningful whole” (61). “The common ground of the big idea provides a context for exchange as well as a wonderful opportunity to show what the writing center does and what it can do for the institution” (65)
“assessment must begin with your values but still resonate with people who are not ‘insiders’ to writing center scholarship” (83)
You aren’t the only players in students’ literacy developments (86)

Principles of assessment
Good assessment is research
Assessment is rhetorical in both design and in report
Good assessment is collaborative.
Good assessment drives positive change.
“Good assessment is an open invitation to greater relevance” (xx-xxi)

steps
chose a small number of goals
develop direct/indirect measure of your success in meeting those goals
Assess your progress
Integrate what you learned into the program (31-32)

“we need to be willing to find points of agreement with professional organization and other campus units that support our values and work” (104).

Quantitative research is about “the belief that the world works in predictable patterns” (109) while “the goal of qualitative research is to understand significance and meaning from the participants’ perspectives and their social actions” (111).

if assessment is another layer of work we’re adding to our already jam-packed workloads, then it isn’t good assessment--you won’t learn much from it” (177).

Collect data regularly, routinely (eg intake information, tutor graduation exit surveys) as well as in focused spurts (eg. faculty surveys, focus groups) that may be more invasive (122-123).
“don’t do assessment alone. Find out what other units on campus are assessing and consider building on that” (125)

Reports have 3 goals: readable, useful, and “true to the story that needs to be told” (140).What is the story?
Be creative in results (eg a symphany gets more standing ovations as well as more ticket sales) (146)
“The right rhetorical strategy for your campus is whichever one helps you to be heard” (161)

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book offers good, clear advice on the "whys" of assessment, ultimately suggesting that there isn't a proper way to go about building assessments as much as there is a proper orientation to have toward the act of assessing. Specifically, one should build assessments that align well with institutional goals as well as personal missions. The book also has an excellent annotated bibliography that provides some more in-depth examples of prior assessment procedures, but I'd surmise that this book is the best place for anyone looking to build a writing center assessment (or strengthen a procedure that is already in place) to start.