What began as a practical question for our large, interdisciplinary organization has taken on scholarly weight given active debate in the literature regarding professionalization of peer/student writing tutors -- as studies on beneficial tutoring outcomes turn away from difficult-to-assess outcomes for writers toward outcomes for tutors. What this literature says about professionalization, however, seemed troubling in that it is predicated on the assumption that tutors will necessarily go on to be educators -- patently untrue for this interdisciplinary group of student employees. Existing concepts of professionalism are also (troublingly) opposed to our center’s non-expert, collaborative approach to tutoring. Our team currently investigates two questions: (1) How might our tutors’ actual professional objectives/career paths differ from those imagined for them?  (2) How might tutors’ sense of appropriate professional practice diverge from other visions of professionalism in the context our non-directive center? Phase I of this investigation involved interviews with 50+ active tutors using a standard form we developed; tutors described both short-term goals for tutoring practice and longer-term career goals. Phase II will involve capstone interviews asking graduating tutors to report on specific experiences of professional development (transferable skills). In interviews to-date, tutors openly identified widely-varied short-term and long-term goals. Contradicting existing scholarship, we found that even tutors uninterested in writing-instruction-related careers articulated complex connections between their tutoring work and their future careers. Further challenging commonplace assumptions, interviewees articulated tutoring goals aligned in sophisticated ways with this writing center’s approach, suggesting that thoughtful tutor professionalization need not involve training in more expert, directive tutoring practice but instead can be flexibly self-directed in alignment with tutors’ own professional goals. Our methods and findings have important implications for those interested in: employee motivation and deep learning; grounded planning and programming that avoid administrative assumptions; richer professional development for students across fields.

Targeted Tutoring is a program designed by our writing center to support English language learners in reading- and writing-intensive courses. The program was first piloted in 2010-2011 in response to students’ requests and to provide a space to encourage peer conversation. Targeted Tutoring is currently offered for courses in departments including English, Philosophy, International Studies, and Political Science. In Targeted Tutoring, three to five students meet for weekly sessions in which the tutor facilitates peer discussion. Group tutoring sessions are qualitatively different from the Center’s usual one-to-one sessions and tutors need to learn and apply new skills. This project is designed to further develop training for tutors, investigate effective models of group tutoring strategies, and explore what the differences and similarities are in skills useful in one-to-one sessions vs. those useful in group discussions. This research will be conducted by observing group sessions, crafting transcripts of successful group interactions in these sessions, and interviewing tutors and students to discover which strategies are effective. The project will be presented in a poster format that will include the models, guides, and strategies found to be most useful for tutor training and group facilitation. These results have significance for all those interested in peer education models and more effective small-group, discussion-based learning.