Summary: Heckathorn uses text documents (publications, conference proceedings, interviews, etc.) to track the professionalization of the WPA from the 1940s to 1970s. She identifies two periods--Early (1940-1963) and Transitional (1964-1979)--that lead to the modern era. The Early Era begins to identify the WPA and engage compensation; in the Transitional Era, the identity of the WPA is more firmly established (the MLA job list features postings for WPAs, for instance), and journals begin to feature articles focusing on WPA issues more prominently. Heckathorn uses the advent of the WPA journal to mark the end of the Transitional Era. She writes that understanding the history of the WPA position means that "current and future administrators do not have to begin the fight for professional recognition at ground zero" (211).
Response: Heckathorn's article was quite interesting, especially as it tracked the growing self-identification of WPAs as WPAs, rather than as composition instructors with some administrative duties tacked on. It's a history of a field, but also of people trying to gain legitimacy in the university setting. She writes that "a professionalized identity was a critical step toward achieving other goals" (192), enabling WPAs to operate within their institutions from a position of (more) power. (However, as is seen in other readings, many WPAs still struggle for legitimacy within their institutions.)
Uses: To understand the early history of the field. This might work well paired with the histories and overviews of composition.
As intimately as I feel I know the history of rhetoric/composition, I have been struck, as I've done this reading, by how little I considered the history of the plight of WPA. It's really important, I think that we have an understanding of what these Early and Transitional WPAs have done to lay groundwork for us!
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