2019/Grants/CCCC Wikipedia Initiative 2020-21
Title:
CCCC Wikipedia Initiative 2020-21
Name:
Melanie Kill
Wikimedia username:
Drkill
E-mail address:
mkill
umd.edu
Resume:
Geographical impact:
Global impact for educational policy as well as the international community of scholars studying and teaching writing and rhetoric.
Type of project:
Event
What is your idea?
Established in 2019, the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Wikipedia Initiative proceeds from the conviction that it matters to edit Wikipedia, especially for academics committed to knowledge equity as a fundamental groundwork for social justice. We are developing skills, cultivating inclusive community, and building structures of support and recognition for scholars of writing, rhetoric, literacy, and language studies who want to engage with Wikipedia as a form of global public scholarship.
We propose to use this grant to develop a curriculum and materials for online editing workshops serving faculty members and PhD students who are current, past, and future members of the CCCC.
Why is it important?
It’s well-understood among the scholars, professors, and writing program administrators who make up CCCC membership that Wikipedia articles on key concepts like “writing,” “linguistic discrimination,” and “literacy” — to name a few — remain persistently underdeveloped. We also know that commonly held, but reductive notions of concepts like “literacy” inhibit our abilities to influence educational policy and implement progressive and empirically sound curricula at all educational levels; less commonly considered is that such reductive constructs lead people to devalue the significance and sophistication of their own diverse and rich literate lives. Without the ability to influence public understandings of the terms that define our work, we are sharply constrained in our educational mission and potential global impact.
Is your project already in progress?
Yes! Since the initiative launched in 2019, we have focused on building community. We partnered with the Wiki Education Foundation to include CCCC members in the Wiki Fellows Program; set up a campaign dashboard using Wikimedia’s Programs and Events tools; and created an initiative page on the National Council of Teachers of English’s website. In 2020-2021, we seek to build this community of academic editors by developing infrastructure to support the continued growth and sustained success of the initiative.
https://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/wikipedia-initiative/
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/cccc_wikipedia_initiative/overview
How is it relevant to credibility and Wikipedia? (max 500 words)
Our initiative focuses on training faculty members and PhD students to edit Wikipedia. Because CCCC members publish research (and edit academic journals and book series) in fields related to writing, rhetoric, literacy, and language studies--areas particularly impacted by educational policy--we are particularly well-equipped to develop high quality content that addresses content gaps and underlying citation imbalances (i.e., failure to cite significant scholarship from underrepresented groups and international communities) in these topic areas. We know and remain current with the literature of our fields as a matter of course. In these roles, we are exceptionally well-positioned to replicate our capacity building with generations of students and future teachers.
What is the ultimate impact of this project?
1) Establish an active and inclusive community of academic editors in writing, rhetoric, literacy, and language studies.
2) Improve articles related to writing, rhetoric, literacy, and language studies with particular attention to issues of knowledge equity.
3) Present the CCCC Wikipedia Initiative as a model for how academic professional associations might engage with Wikipedia, address content gaps and issues of knowledge equity, and recognize the value of public scholarship.
Could it scale?
Yes. The curriculum, materials, and research we produce out of these four initial editing workshops will be shared and iterated.
Moreover, CCCC members teach postsecondary courses and direct writing programs serving the vast majority of first-year college students attending U.S. colleges and universities. In these roles, we are exceptionally well-positioned to replicate our capacity building with generations of students and future teachers.
Why are you the people to do it?
CCCC Wikipedia Initiative leaders have been editing, researching, and teaching with Wikipedia for many years.
What is the impact of your idea on diversity and inclusiveness of the Wikimedia movement?
Our programs and events emphasize the importance of editing to address issues of knowledge equity in terms of both content gaps and citation imbalances. These online editing workshops will target high impact topics prioritized in collaboration with CCCC member groups (for example, the American Indian Caucus, Appalachian Rhetorics and Literacies Standing Group, Black Caucus, Feminist Caucus, Latinx Caucus, Standing Group for Disability Studies, and Transnational Composition Standing Group).
What are the challenges associated with this project and how you will overcome them?
While there is powerful alignment in the educational mission and knowledge equity goals of Wikimedia with those of CCCC, there remains significant misunderstanding of Wikipedia in the academic humanities. We need to develop targeted training and help resources that more fully support participation by content experts.
For these editing workshops, initiative leaders will develop curriculum that can be repurposed for future training. In addition to general instruction about how to edit Wikipedia, training at the workshops will emphasize the importance of editing to address issues of knowledge equity in terms of content gaps and citation imbalances. We will target high-impact topics prioritized in collaboration with CCCC member groups.
How much money are you requesting?
$4,480 USD
How will you spend the money?
Costs for four (4) online half-day editing workshops serving a total of 40-48 faculty members and PhD students, including materials and postage (4 x $120) - $480 Labor costs for workshop leaders to develop curriculum, design materials, and facilitate workshops (4 x $1,000) - $4,000
How long will your project take?
Planning, curriculum development, and design of materials will take place in the fall term of 2020. The four editing workshops will take place online during the spring term of 2021 (ideally in February).
Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?
We have gotten this initiative off the ground without funding.