All the Best-Laid Plans: A Content Analysis of Textbooks Driving Integrated Reading and Writing Courses in Community College Contexts

ABSTRACT

Recent calls for coursework acceleration, reforms efforts, and promising pedagogical practices have resulted in the reemergence of integrated reading and writing (IRW) courses in community colleges nationwide. To answer such calls, a number of IRW textbooks have been published and implemented rapidly, perhaps out of convenience. This study was a content analysis of the most current and popular textbooks on the market for integrated reading and writing (IRW) courses at the postsecondary level from 2002–2017. Findings suggest that there are tensions across theory and curricula as embodied in these textbooks. As a result of the findings of this study, we offer a set of specific principles that we posit should drive curriculum and instruction for postsecondary developmental integrated reading and writing in community college contexts. These principles are not intended to be interpreted as prescriptive, but rather as descriptive of the wealth of a great deal of existing scholarship regarding integrated reading and writing that is too often overlooked in curriculum-development, particularly with textbook curricula.