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Research Highlight: Serving Students through Meaningful Writing

Monday

 

Three women standing in front of a presentation slide titled "Serving Students: Meaningful Writing at Hispanic-Serving Institutions" at the CCCC 2026 conference in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) team recently presented our ongoing research at the 2026 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Cleveland, Ohio, March 7th, 2026. The presentation, titled "Serving Students: Meaningful Writing at Hispanic-Serving Institutions," explored how students define and experience "meaningful" writing.

The "Servingness" Mission


As a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) since 2018, the University of Arizona aims to practice the principle of "servingness" towards its Latinx and multicultural student population. We define this concept as engaging students through culturally enhancing and equitable approaches that offer transformative academic and non-academic experiences. By focusing on culturally sustaining pedagogies and drawing on previous research by the Meaningful Writing Project, we ground this project in linguistic and cultural pluralism at the U of A, hoping that writing practices in the classroom are flexible and responsive to the diverse "funds of knowledge" students bring to the classroom.

Three researchers sitting at a panel table with laptops and microphones, engaging with the audience during a CCCC 2026 presentation.

From left: Aimee Mapes, Emily Jo Schwaller, and Thais Rodrigues Cons presenting during CCCC 2026 in Cleveland, OH.

The Research Process and Participant Voice

Our research team, Dr. Aimee Mapes, Dr. Emily Jo Schwaller, Dr. Ahn Dang (Old Dominion University, former U of A Graduate Associate), and Thais Rodrigues Cons, is going through a multi-year, mixed-methods project funded by a Center for University Education Scholarship (CUES) grant. The research involves student surveys, ePortfolios, and instructor focus groups. 

A total of 499 students participated in the survey, representing a wide array of majors, including Applied and Professional Sciences, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and the Humanities. To analyze the open-ended survey responses, the researchers employed a rigorous coding process, moving from initial "in vivo" codes to more abstract thematic categories, to identify exactly what makes a writing experience significant for a student.

Core Themes

So far, the qualitative analysis revealed four primary dimensions that contribute to a meaningful writing experience:

  • Learning: This category was the most prominent, as students found writing meaningful because it allowed them to practice specific processes, conduct research, or acquire new knowledge. One student noted that writing about lecture topics helped them "further understand and review the material".
  • Personal Connection: Students valued assignments that allowed them to examine their own cultural and social identities. This was described by a sophomore who found meaning in writing about personal cultural experiences that previously felt insignificant.
  • Real-World Application: Meaning was often tied to authentic rhetorical situations or "place-based" experiences. For example, a student mentioned the significance of writing a proposal for the Parks and Recreation of Arizona because it had "community potential".
  • Affect: This theme covered emotional responses, including the joy of growth and the confusion and frustration of navigating institutional expectations. While some found joy in creative assignments such as a "playlist for our life," others felt inadequate when navigating new technologies.

Takeaways

The quantitative analysis highlighted several statistically significant trends within the student body:

  • Non-traditional students (aged 22+) were more likely to report "Affect" as a factor in their meaningful writing (p=.009);
  • Multicultural and multi-ethnic students reported a significantly stronger connection to "Real-World" writing compared to their white peers (p< .05).
  • Additionally, sophomores showed the highest engagement with "Reflection" (p=.006), likely due to their recent experiences in General Education and Foundations Writing courses in their trajectory. 

The WAC team concludes that meaningful writing is central to operationalizing servingness. By providing opportunities for students to bridge their cultural identities with academic expectations, instructors can better serve our diverse student body across all disciplines.

Stay tuned to learn more about the next stages of our research! 

We appreciate the support of the Center for University Education Scholarship (CUES) for their grant funding.

 

Want to learn more? View the full presentation materials here.