| This dissertation examines the experiences of career-technical students in first-year college composition courses. The first chapter outlines the theoretical basis for such an examination by demonstrating, first, that attending college as preparation for careers outside the traditional arts and sciences is a relatively recent phenomenon, and second, that many of the assumptions made by composition scholars and classroom teachers about the learning needs and objectives of their students do not necessarily apply to career-technical students.;The second and third chapters present the results of a two-part qualitative study of a large cadre of both career-technical and arts and science students enrolled in first-year composition courses at a small, rural community college. In the first phase of the study, presented in Chapter Two, I surveyed more than 130 students enrolled in basic writing and college composition courses during the fall semester of 2006. The survey included questions about family demographics, prior literacy experiences, experiences in college composition courses, and students' perceptions about the importance of literacy in their chosen careers. The responses were tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis to look for significant differences in the responses given by career-technical and arts and science students. In the second phase of the study, presented in Chapter Three, I interviewed a group of eleven students who had participated in phase one and asked a series of open-response questions to elicit further information about the trends I observed in phase one. In the fourth and final chapter, I discuss a series of recommendations for classroom practices based on the results of my study. The major theme of these recommendations is to make issues of socio-economic class and the literacy practices in a variety of career fields a primary focus of first-year composition courses, especially in institutions that serve a large number of career-technical students. |
