Revealing Student Voices by Re-envisioning First Year Writing

FAIN: ASB-292239-23

Linfield University (McMinnville, OR 97128-6894)
Rachel Anne Norman (Project Director: November 2022 to October 2024)
Lindsey Mantoan (Project Director: October 2024 to present)
Lindsey Mantoan (Co Project Director: April 2023 to October 2024)

A two-year project to create and pilot an inquiry-based writing course incorporating student voices and linguistic diversity, as a key component in a revised first-year general education core

Linfield is an emerging Hispanic-serving, comprehensive university that serves over 1700 students. 64% are new majority students (1st Gen, Pell, BIPoC, or Transfer). As Linfield’s demographics shift, its faculty are revising the general education (GE) first-year requirements to focus on the key humanistic questions of "Who Am I" and "Who are We?" that allows each student to reveal their unique voice through inquiry-based writing/rhetoric. This GE revision will give first-year students a robust introduction to writing and inquiry within a framework of belonging that uses justice-based pedagogies, so that all students can explore the humanities as a platform for making their diverse voices heard. The NEH Spotlight grant will fund the creation and pilot of Inquiry Seminar (INQS) 101 as a newly required humanities course at the heart of the GE core. The new course embraces linguistic diversity by centering student voices in a profound way that will ground and inform all other coursework.