The Need for More Research 24

As previously mentioned, Jennifer Bay in her 2006 article in College English identifies a need for more research about internships for English majors. She writes, “Aside from

professional writing, I have seen little, if any, discussion of an internship course model in English departments, nor have I seen research on the training of English faculty to supervise experiential learning” (135–36). I faced similar findings during my search for secondary sources on this topic. A catalog search in the Georgia State University library on the topic “internships” brings forth guides for employers and managers, but there is nothing that is specifically geared to writing programs or English degrees. In addition, the literature about internships in academic journals is largely geared to the fields of business, nursing, computer science, and teaching. While there are many books available which generally address internship program design concerns or assert calls for more “relevant” work-based learning initiatives during the college years, there is a need for more publications and research on the topic of internships that serve the specific needs of English studies students and the faculty members.

My experiences with interns reveal that most English Department students want internships where they can explore editing, writing, and communication practices. Some also have a desire to explore the possibility of teaching at the secondary or college level before entering a teaching program or pursuing a graduate degree. These pursuits have distinctively different foci than internships in other degree programs. Consider these common internship pursuits: financial services internships focused on accounting practices, nursing internships focused on providing medical services and patient care, or science majors learning research

protocols and laboratory practices. These disciplines often have established programs and

students are expected to engage in these opportunities before graduation. In my experience, most writing and English majors often connect with community partners for unpaid internship

experiences; however, the Department of Labor guidelines (which will be discussed in more detail in Chapter Three), have strict requirements that keep those internships experiences “legal.” With limited resources available for faculty members regarding how to perform their roles as intern supervisors and mentors, this presents an important area for development. In addition, should students receive compensation for internships (thus creating an employer-employee relationship) and academic credit for their work, how does this impact the learning component? Also, if departments allow paid internships to qualify for credit hours, what requirements allow for an emphasis on learning vs. job performance? Katherine t. Durack addresses this specific absence in the literature regarding English and writing internships: “Although some programs require students to complete paid internships, academic internship guidelines are more typically silent on the subject of remuneration, or they simply do not differentiate between paid and unpaid internship opportunities with regard to earning internship credit” (248). Clearly, the lack of literature affirms the need for more secondary sources that discuss models of existing

internship programs, structures for course design, requirements of internship providers, and assessments of the programs. This project will add to the larger conversation about internships for English majors, in hopes of inviting others to join the conversation about programmatic development and course design considerations. As mentioned in Chapter One, this project also shares a substantive amount of the information learned from the archival research and interviews with faculty members and internship mentors in order to contribute more details about effective

programmatic structures and course elements to the scholarly work on internships and experienced-based learning in English studies.

Through the review of primary and secondary sources relied upon for the study and a discussion of the methods and methodologies I employed, other scholars can consider effective research models in the area of internships. As explained in Chapter One, the first focus of this project is to examine the opportunities for students, universities, and internship program

designers through internship initiatives. To set forth these opportunities, I will draw distinctions between internships and other work-based learning initiatives. I include references to secondary sources relating to other disciplines and experiential learning experiences that are useful for program designers as many of the approaches transfer to English internship program concerns and design. For example, while not specifically about internships, the literature about service learning and business-oriented programs provide excellent examples of how assignments such as reflective writings and portfolios can be effective for students engaged in experiential learning initiatives.

The second major focus of the project considers locations for internships. This chapter relies upon historical work about GSU’s founding and moves to an examination of the GSU English Department archives to ascertain the location of internships and what kinds of activities and assignments students were engaged with in those spaces. While the sources relied upon here are specific to GSU, in considering these sources, faculty members at other institutions may find similar sources of information for their own universities. In addition, through the examination of the GSU program archives, there is a discussion of recordkeeping by and programmatic focus of an established internship program.

Finally, the dissertation considers structures for internships. The third major focus relies primarily upon interviews with GSU faculty members and internship mentors to explore GSU’s practices in order to reveal considerations about pedagogical practices, partnerships, and learning outcomes. The conversations allow for an understanding of effective structures and add to the larger calls by scholars such as Jennifer Bay and Katherine T. Durack about the need for more internship models.

The methods and methodologies section of this chapter considers the research questions and methods that allowed for a historical approach to uncover the evolution of the GSU English Department internship program. Consideration of the methods and methodologies employed in this study also adds to the larger conversation about archival and primary research for historical work in the field of writing and rhetoric, particularly in the areas of internships and experiential learning. My approach to this project also provides a starting point for faculty members working to uncover what exists in their current program in order to refine or add to existing structures.