Nicola Simmons – författare

Writing comprises a significant proportion of academic staff members’ roles. While academics have been acculturated to the notion of ‘publish or perish,’ they often struggle to find the time to accomplish writing papers and tend to work alone. The result can be a sense of significant stress and isolation around the writing process. Writing partnerships, groups, and retreats help mitigate these challenges and provide significant positive writing experiences for their members. Critical Collaborative Communities describes diverse examples of partnerships from writing regularly with one or two colleagues to larger groups that meet for a single day, regular writing meetings, or a retreat over several days. While these approaches bring mutual support for members, each is not without its respective challenges. Each chapter outlines an approach to writing partnerships and interrogates its strengths and limitations as well as proposes recommendations for others hoping to implement the practice. Authors in this volume describe how they have built significant trusting relationships that have helped avoid isolation and have led to their self-authorship as academic writers.

Writing comprises a significant proportion of academic staff members’ roles. While academics have been acculturated to the notion of ‘publish or perish,’ they often struggle to find the time to accomplish writing papers and tend to work alone. The result can be a sense of significant stress and isolation around the writing process. Writing partnerships, groups, and retreats help mitigate these challenges and provide significant positive writing experiences for their members. Critical Collaborative Communities describes diverse examples of partnerships from writing regularly with one or two colleagues to larger groups that meet for a single day, regular writing meetings, or a retreat over several days. While these approaches bring mutual support for members, each is not without its respective challenges. Each chapter outlines an approach to writing partnerships and interrogates its strengths and limitations as well as proposes recommendations for others hoping to implement the practice. Authors in this volume describe how they have built significant trusting relationships that have helped avoid isolation and have led to their self-authorship as academic writers.

This book examines themes from adult students in higher education: dispositional characteristics, situational barriers to academic success, and how institutional policy and procedures create obstacles for these non-traditional learners. While much has been written in the peer-reviewed literature about adult students, a commonly missing perspective is that of the students. In this book, adult learners write about their own conditions and contexts, bringing to light the gaps in institutional support for this growing community.The rich narratives, case studies, and comprehensive reviews within chapters highlight the unique implications faced by this student population, and provide first-hand accounts on which institutions can acknowledge, value, and facilitate change for an evolved, equitable, and elevated educational experience. Contributors are: Lucas Allen, Sandra Becker, Keith Burn, Adele Chadwick, Kathleen Clarke, Daniel Cleminson, Geremy Collom, Amy De Jaeger, Natalie Dewing, Lori Doan, Eli Duykers, Susan E. Elliott-Johns, Angelina Evans, Melanie Extance, Margaret Greenfields, Leahann Hendrickse, Troy Hill, Sophie Karanicolas, Rahul Kumar, Cobi Ladner, Beth Loveys, Dorothy Missingham, Barbara A.Nicolls, Katia Olsen, Sarah O'Shea, Julie Podrebarac, Carmen Rodríguez de France, Rebecca Rochon, Selina Sharma, Nicola Simmons, Matthew Slater, Sherrie Smith, Cathy Snelling, Cathy Stone, Ashleigh Taylor, Preeti Vayada, Monica Wice and Sinead Wright.