English Faculty Publication: Instructor and Librarian Collaboration – Kathy Rowley

Senior Lecturer Kathy Rowley co-published the article Flip This Class: Maximizing Student Learning in Information Literacy Skills in the Composition Classroom Through Instructor and Librarian Collaboration with Justin Otto and Qing Stellwagen in the Journal of Library Administration in August 2022.

The following is an abstract of the article:

“Library research instruction is most effective in First-Year Writing (FYW) when the instructor and participating librarians collaborate. In this case study from Eastern Washington University, an instructor-librarian collaborative partnership was taken to a deep, sophisticated level. The instructor and librarians utilized a flipped classroom model to introduce students to the academic research process within a writing context. The results of an assessment of student learning from this class (pre-survey versus post-survey) indicated that a collaborative flipped classroom maximized student learning in information literacy skills.”

What is your area of expertise?

Professor Rowley: I have two master’s degrees in English: teaching writing and technical communication. I was hired at EWU, however, to teach writing in ENGL 101 and 201. During my time at EWU, I have also taught courses in technical communication and due to my undergraduate degree in graphic design, upper division design courses in journalism.

What led you to writing this publication?

Professor Rowley: Lecturers are not required to publish, but I wanted to publish at least one article during my academic career. (And now I have a potential book waiting in the wings!) But during the past several years, two of my librarian colleagues and I developed a scaffolded process to help students in English 201 move systematically from topic identification to research question to scholarly, peer-reviewed research sources. I thought it would be beneficial to other composition instructors and librarians to share our collaborative findings through a publication.

What was your favorite part of the process?

Professor Rowley: Since our research gathering began before COVID but ended spring of 2020, my favorite part of the process was meeting on Zoom weekly with the two librarians to review each of our contributions in Google Docs for the article draft. We would meet, greet, work, and then chat. With the academic isolation that we were experiencing, it was a boon to our spirits to talk with each other not only about school but about current events and our families.

Where can someone go to read this publication? 

Professor Rowley: The article is available online.

Congratulation to the team and to Professor Rowley on this publication and we will keep an eye out for future publications! (Fingers crossed for that book)