Writing a Progressive Past

WRITING A PROGRESSIVE PAST: WOMEN TEACHING AND WRITING IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA traces the lineage of writing instruction during the Progressive Era, from the influences of John Dewey, to the graduate program designed and run by Fred Newton Scott. Finally, it explores two sites of writing instruction run by Scott's graduates: one at Wellesley College and one at Mount Holyoke College. Defying the myth that rhetorical education was in decline at this time, WRITING A PROGRESSIVE PAST uses a feminist framework to show a rich tradition of progressive teaching and writing practices. It emphasizes the work of early writing program administrators as they negotiated the boundaries of teaching and administering writing and offers historical models for those attempting to design their own feminist and progressive classrooms. | LISA MASTRANGELO is a Professor of English and Women's Studies at the College of St. Elizabeth, in Morristown, New Jersey, where she teaches courses in composition, creative non-fiction, and research writing. Her work on Progressive Era instruction and archival research has been published in Rhetoric Review, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, and College English and in several edited collections. With Barbara L'Eplattenier, she co-edited Historical Studies of Writing Program Administration: Individuals, Communities, and the Formation of a Discipline (Parlor Press, 2004), which received the Best Book Award from the Council of Writing Program Administrators.