Creative writing pedagogies in basic writing classrooms: faculty approaches and perceptions at the City University of New York

The purposes and effects of using creative writing pedagogies in composition classrooms are compelling subjects that have been explored over the last several decades by composition scholars, but less often discussed is the use of creative writing pedagogies in basic writing classrooms. Focusing on the site of the basic writing classroom at the City University of New York (CUNY) from the late 1960s to the present, this study interrogates the intersections between basic and creative writing pedagogies through interviews with fifteen CUNY basic writing instructors. In the interviews, both founding and current instructors of basic writing at CUNY discuss how they define creative writing pedagogies, how they have used these pedagogies in their basic writing courses, and what they have observed when their students engage with creative writing in an analytical writing framework. A literature review of scholarship exploring the intersections between academic and creative writing, and the intersections between basic and creative writing, contextualizes the interviews. An overview of CUNY’s basic writing policies from the open admissions era to the present frames the interviews. Through an analysis of themes that arise in both the founding and current instructors’ interviews, this study shows that creative writing pedagogies, as defined by the instructors, have been vital tools for both groups of instructors. These pedagogies have had myriad uses, such as helping students to generate material, offering students a route to reducing anxiety about writing, and encouraging students to explore their writing voices outside and alongside the bounds of academic writing. This study demonstrates that creative writing has been a key part of basic writing instruction at CUNY since basic writing’s roots. Creative writing pedagogies have filled needs not always met by composition pedagogies, reaching decades of students in their basic writing courses. At the conclusion of this project, I give an account of my use of creative writing pedagogies in my basic writing courses as a Lecturer in the English Department at Borough of Manhattan Community College, a branch of CUNY. I describe how engaging in my dissertation research, and examining the pedagogies offered by instructors interviewed in this dissertation, caused me to revise and strengthen my approaches to teaching basic writing.